The Runaway King, by Jennifer Nielsen

So last night I re-read The False Prince, by Jennifer Nielsen, and enjoyed it as much, if not more, this time around.  And then this morning I started its sequel, The Runaway King.  I wanted to like it just as much, but was anxious--the first book depended on a plot twist that couldn't carry over into this one, a twist that tugged on my maternal heart something fierce, and I loved the quasi-school setting, and the fact that the plot was mostly small happenings woven into something bigger than the sum of the parts.

None of those things were in The Runaway King, a book whose plot goes galloping madly from one danger and excitement to the next, with bandits, pirates, assassins, daring escapes, twisted loyalties, friendships sorely tested, and improbable sword duels..... And in the end, it was a book I enjoyed, but didn't love.

In this book, Sage is now King Jaron, king of a country on the brink of war, with a piratical empire of the sea allied with a hostile neighboring country.  But the kingdom's council don't agree, don't thing Jaron is ready to be king in anything but name, and refuse to take his perception of the threat seriously.   So rather than becoming a puppet, protected for his own safety, he decides to meet the threat head on.

Step number one--bring down the pirates.

Cunning, well-thought out plan with which to do so--non-existent.

Jaron is used to relying on his wits, instincts, and abilities as a thief and a swordsman.   But can one boy (for he is still young) really have any hope of destroying a ruthless pirate king and his powerful piratical conglomerate of murderers?  Or even escaping alive once he's reached them?

There were many, many times when I had to suspend disbelief in this story.   Many things just seemed too improbable, both physically and in terms of character reactions (and, more specifically, the whole pirate society set up, which seemed as unlikely and impractical as all get out), and as these piled up, my ability to peacefully accept and enjoy the story diminished.    And then once that happened, I started to read the words qua words more critically, and noticed a few places where the writing kind of disappointed me.  Sigh.

I do still care a lot about Jaron, and the cast of supporting characters (with specific reference to Mott, who is totally awesome and who isn't implicated in any way shape or form with any of the improbable stuff that grated on me), and I'll be anxiously awaiting book III.  But this book just felt a messier, and not as fully thought out, as the first, and I just couldn't quite warm to it.

But then again, I almost never like any book that has pirates in it, so it might be just me! 

Here are two reviews from people who did like it lots--Random Musings of a Bibliophile, and The Book Smugglers, and another review at Ms. Yingling Reads

disclaimer:  review copy received from the publisher

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy, and yes science fiction too!

Welcome to the 168th round-up of what I found in my blog reading/hunting this week of interest to readers of middle grade fantasy and science fiction.  I hunted harder than usual, because early on I had book title for some of the harder letters (Q, I'm looking at you) and I thought that maybe this would be the week where I had a full alphabet of mg sff goodness! (I even got a trial subscription to Booklist to find more titles to search for).  Alas, it was not to be.

And it was a little depressing to find so few reviews of mg sff books after so much looking.  Conclusion:  mg sff doesn't get reviewed all that much.  Or else bloggers are really good at disguising their mg sff book reviews as something else.

In any event, let me know if I missed your post!

(And perhaps think about reviewing books that begin with difficult letters of the alphabet next week--it would make me so happy to have a complete set all in one week.)

The Reviews

Bliss, by Kathryn Littlewood, at Barbara Ann Watson

The Cats of Tanglewood Forest, by Charles de Lint, at Bibliophilic Monologues

The Colossus Rises (Seven Wonders, Book 1) by Peter Lerangis, at Mr. Ripley's Enchanted Books and I Have Lived a Thousand Lives

Cosmic, by Frank Cottrell Boyce, at Mister K Reads

Dark Days, by Derek Landy, at Original Content

Doll Bones, by Holly Black, at Fuse #8

Dragon Run, by Patrick Matthews, at Whatchamacallit Reviews and Charlotte's Library

The Fellowship For Alien Detection, by Kevin Emerson, at Ms. Yingling Reads
and A Foodie Bibliophile in Wanderlust

Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities, by Mike Jung, at alibrarymama

Icefall, by Matthew Kirby, at Middle Grade Mafioso

Jump Boys: SOS, by Alex Banks, at Heather McCorkle

My Very UnFairy Tale Life, by Anna Staniszewski, at Akossiwa Ketoglo 

The Princess Curse, by Merrie Haskell, at The Book Smugglers

The Queen at War, by K.A.S. Quinn,  at Nayu's Reading Corner

The Runaway King, by Jennifer Nielsen, at Nerdy Book Club, Justin's Book Blog, Random Musings of a Bibliophile, Book Sake, Bookishness, and The Book Smugglers

The School For Good and Evil, by Soman Chianani, at Books and Writers JNR

A Tale of Two Castles, by Gail Carson Levine, at 300 Pages

A Tangle of Knots, by Lisa Graff, at Candace's Book Blog, Bookends, Becky's Book Reviews, and For Those About to Mock, and as an audio book at Good Books and Good Wine

Tuesdays at the Castle, by Jessica Day George, at alibrarymama 

Whatever After: Fairest of All, by Sarah Mlynowski, at Kid Lit Geek

You Only Die Twice (The Genius Files), by Dan Gutman, at The Write Path

Zombie Kid (Case File 13), by J. Scott Savage, at Geo Librarian


Authors and Interviews

Kevin Emerson (The Fellowship For Alien Detection) at From the Mixed Up Files

K.A.S. Quinn (The Queen at War)  at Nayu's Reading Corner

Ally Malineko (Lizzy Speare and the Cursed Tomb) at A Thousand Wrongs  (giveaway)

Greg Fishbone (Galaxy Games) at Authors for Earth Day

Anna Staniszewski (My Epic Fairy Tale Fail) at Ghenet Myrthil

Patrick Matthews (Dragon Run) at Left-handed Spoons


Other Good Stuff

Tunnels, by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams, is to become a movie 

The second annual DWJ March has begun at We Be Reading

And, finally, these cool socks! Which I like mostly because of the name.  Like sporks, but better.

The Demon Catchers of Milan, by Kat Beyer

I enjoyed The Demon Catchers of Milan, by Kat Beyer (Egmont, August 2012, YA) lots.  I don't remember why I decided to request it from the library, and when I saw the cover, and began reading, I was afraid I was in familiar paranormal romance territory--beautiful girl threatened by demonic possession thinks she isn't pretty and admires the prettiness of the boy she's just met.

But I kept going, and was rewarded by a really entertaining story--Mia, now in Milan, is being protected from the demon who had possessed her by her demon-hunting Italian family (demon hunters of Milan since Milan got going).   And the story is mostly:

--lots of Italian food
--a generous cast of Italian family members, with Histories
--some interesting family interactions with demons, etc.
--a bit of conflict between church and demon hunters

with considerable elements of Mia (who seems like she might be kind of special, but who, at this point, isn't all Special in the reader's face) trying to figure out how to:

a. speak Italian
b. go outside without the demon pouncing on her
c. find out more about demon hunting (her family isn't telling her much, because, you know, the demon might succeed in possessing her again and then learn all their secrets).

and a small element of Mia thinking about boys, but not getting entangled in any real romance (she isn't the sultry vixen shown on the cover)

Bonus reference to ancient history (Greeks vs. Persians) which will probably be important in the next book.

So there isn't all that much Action, Adventure, or Excitement (apart from a few possessions of Mia and a few other people), and it's not a Romance, but there is a most enjoyable sense of place and people and family history with enough of the supernatural to keep things very interesting indeed.

And the food is great.  Lots of wine is drunk too.  I want to go stay with Mia's grandparents and eat and drink.

Short answer:  I truly liked it, read in a single sitting (it's only 288 pages, which I appreciated), and am looking forward to the sequel (and though this stops at a good stopping point, many many many things are unresolved, because, you know, five months isn't really enough time to learn how to vanquish a real bad-ass demon once and for all).

The Lost Girl, by Sangu Mandanna

The Lost Girl, by Sangu Mandanna (Balzer + Bray; August, 2012, YA, 432 pages)

Eva has lived in cozy cottage in northern England all the sixteen years of her life, with her beloved foster mother, and caring guardians dropping in to visit lots.  She looks on the outside like a normal, attractive, Anglo-Indian girl.

Eva has been in danger all her life.  There are people who think she is an abomination, a monster who must be killed.

Because Eva doesn't just look like an Indian girl--she is a direct copy of one.   She was made by a sinister organization of genetic tinkerers to be the exact echo of a girl named Amarra,  a girl growing up in far-away Bangalore.  If Amarra should die, Eva will be sent to take her place, and perhaps, even to serve as a vessel for Amarra's very essence.  Every week the letters from Amarra, full of the details of her life, arrive.  When Amarra gets a tattoo, Eva must get one also, so their bodies match.

Eva doesn't want to be an echo.  She wants to be "Eva," a name she chose for herself.  But those that created her will kill her if she tries to live a life of her own.

Then Amarra dies.

Eva does her best to be Amarra....but there are things that Amarra never told her.  And even the best echo cannot truly take the place of a lost child, and Eva is much more than a good little shadow....

At which point, things surge from being a fascinating speculative fiction character study to a life or death drama with stakes just as high as they can get! (with bonus  forbidden romance).

Yes, this is one for the lover of character (me).    And the lover of Themes being Explored (identity, and the rights we have to our own lives, and whether the created life is inherently monstrous (with many references in the book to Frankenstein) and how grief and love plays out for different people).  There was action, too, especially toward the end (our girl Eva and her love fighting the Powerful Bad Guys).

And it was a really darn good read.   An all in one evening, great gulping glass of water on a hot day read.   Three and a half hours of all absorbing prose.  Oh yeah.

It wasn't all rainbows and happy reading, though.  For instance, I would have liked more richness to the Indian part of the setting, when Eva is living Amarra's life--I never felt as though I was there. 

More critically, the actual premise--that echoes can take the place of a real person--is rather ridiculous; I can't imagine an echo ever successfully filling the void of the dead person.  Nor does the whole set-up of the echo creators seem reasonable (even for speculative fiction).  Much salt is required to swallow the central point of the story.  If that's the sort of thing that bothers you, this might not be the right book for you.

(thanks to Margo Berendsen, whose review of the book inspired me to get a hold of it!)

Waiting on Wednesday--Hammer of Witches, by Shana Mlawski

I didn't think I had a particular book for this week's edition of Waiting on Wednesday, but doing a quick blog browse before supper I came across this post at Lee and Low's blog on the cover of one of their forthcoming Tu titles, Hammer of Witches, by Shana Mlawski.  And wham, onto my tbr list it sprang.

Via Amazon:

"Baltasar Infante can weasel out of any problem with a good story.

But when he encounters a monster straight out of stories one night, Baltasar faces trouble even he can't talk his way out of. Captured by the Malleus Maleficarum, a mysterious witch-hunting arm of the Spanish Inquisition, Baltasar is put to the question. The Inquisitor demands he reveal the whereabouts of Amir al-Katib, a legendary Moorish sorcerer who can bring myths and the creatures within them to life.

Now Baltasar must escape, find al-Katib, and defeat a dreadful power that may destroy the world.

As Baltasar's journey takes him into uncharted lands on Columbus's voyage westward, he learns that stories are more powerful than he once believed them to be--and much more dangerous."

What the blurb doesn't say is that one of Baltasar's primary companions is a girl who's half genie....

Coming April, 2013.

The Hero of Little Street, by Gregory Rogers, for Timeslip Tuesday

Did you ever read The Boy, the Bear, the Baron, The Bard, by Gregory Rogers?  It's a  wonderful wordless picture book, involving time travel back to the age of Shakespeare, that I really must review as a Timeslip Tuesday book someday, because it is truly excellent.   In any event, the titular Boy returns in The Hero of Little Street (Roaring Brook Press, March, 2012).  This time around, the boy inadvertently provokes a gang of boys, and must flee.   A handy art museum offers a refugee,  and there magic again enters his life when the little dog from this famous painting --

 -- comes out to play with him.

The little dog jumps into another picture, the boy follows... and finds himself, via Vermeer--

 --back in 17th century Holland.   More than a little mayhem ensues, as boy and dog hurtle through Delft, until at last the boy saves a pack of caged dogs from become sausage meat.  He then heads home to the present, with the grateful dogs close at hand to save him from the bullies.

Told with no words whatsoever, it's a story to savour with a child at hand, enjoying the details, and laughing at the humor of the various situations in which the boy finds himself.   And as well as being utterly engaging as a graphic story, it's a nice introduction to the world of 17th-century Holland!

I myself can't help but prefer The Boy, the Bear, the Baron, the Bard, because I do like the bear awfully much, but dog lovers and Vermeer lovers might like this one more!

Dragon Run, by Patrick Matthews

Dragon Run, by Patrick Matthews (Scholastic, March 1, 2013, but on shelves now, middle grade) is a just fine fantasy adventure for the 9-11 year-old set.  It's an "if they like the cover they'll like the book" book -- boy, sword, dragon, with a title that promises action.

In an alternate, quasi-medieval world, all twelve year-olds are tested to determine their rank in life.  Al dreams of getting the highest rank mark--a seven--tattooed on his neck...but instead, he is found wanting.  All his ambitions go up in smoke when he is pronounced a zero, something virtually unheard of.   Ones are beyond the pale, but absolutely no-one wants anything to do with a zero...except the Cullers, who want to kill them for eugenics purposes. 

Fortunately Al gets some help escaping from the castle keep where he's been tested...but how will he survive, despised and alone, pursued by the ruthless killers who want to cull him?

But there is more to his story than that.   For Al's world is one ruled by dragons, though they pay little attention to the humans crawling beneath them.   As Al flees from the Cullers, he begins to learn that his world is a much more complex and scary place than he had imagined.   The dragons are much more than they seem...and Al is forced to confront their power, head on, to save not only himself, but his people...

It's a great story, with a great premise--I give it very high marks for Plot.  Seeing how the whole eugenics bit played out was particularly interesting.   Though Al and his two good friends (boy and girl) don't rise to memorable heights of characterization, they're just fine, and it's nice to read about a hero who's special because he has nothing going for him but his own pluck and stubborn-ness.  Interest is added by several not-quite-human races that co-exist with regular people.  The writing isn't exceptional, being your standard, occasionally stilted, quasi-medieval fantasy writing, but I'm so used to that that it didn't bother me.

However, world-builidng-wise this fell short for me.  It's not till around page 194 that the reader learns what the whole point of the cast system is, how magic is important to this world, and why the dragons care, and it's not till page 223 that I realized that "Lord Archovar," who had been mentioned several times, was in fact a dragon.  It seems to me that if you are going to have overlord dragons and a world with magic, you should make it patently obvious from the beginning.

Just to show that it wasn't (at least, not entirely, my dimness as a reader), here's where we hear of Lord Archovar for the first time:

"A tall man stood in the opening.  His black hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and his tabard bore the purple and yellow flower of Lord Archovar.  He raised a long brass horn to his lips and blew three short bursts.  A hush rippled through the crowed, and the man dropped gracefully to one knee, bowing his head.  On either side of him, the men at the gates echoed his gesture, as did the guards on the wall above.

The people in the field dropped to their knees as fast as they could, bowing their heads and closing  their eyes.  Al went to one knee, but kept his eyes open, staring at the dead leaves on the ground.

Glancing sideways , he noticed that Wisp also had his eyes open.  The boys shared a look, then watched the dragon's shadow soar across the field and disappear behind the castle." (page 5)

It totally went over my head that Lord Archovar and the dragon were one and the same; when I got to page 233, and his dragon-ness was made clear, I flipped back through to see if I had missed anything, and didn't find any statements of obvious dragon-ness I had overlooked.  (However, on page 9 it's clear that another lord is a dragon, so perhaps I should have made the connection....).

And I think that if you have a variety of not quite human races, you shouldn't keep introducing them abruptly, but mention early on that they might be expected.  It's less jarring that way, when suddenly you meet people with webbed hands, or white fur.

So though I did appreciate the story, the book as a whole didn't quite work for me because the world wasn't solidly built enough for me, and the characterization and writing weren't quite enough to compensate.   It's not one I'd urge grown-up readers to seek out, but kids in the market for a rather exciting "boy becomes hero" story, for whom plot is most important, may well enjoy it lots.

Here's the Kirkus review, which provides details I didn't.   I do not agree the ending was predictable, as the Kirkus reviewer opined--I liked the ending, and found it very interesting and surprising (maybe because the Kirkus reader figured out long, long before me who was a dragon, and what the dragons were up to....).  I do agree, however, that it "went down pretty easy."

(disclaimer:  review copy received from the publisher)

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and sci fi (2/24/2013)

Welcome to this week's (wet and cold) round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction book reviews, author interviews, and interesting (d.v.) miscellanea from around the blogs!

In case you wonder how I find the links, here's how.   I follow about 500 blogs on google reader (which doesn't mean I read them.  Just the post titles, mostly.  So it doesn't actually take too long).  On Sunday morning, I do a blog search on "middle grade fantasy."  I have been known to go through the books recently reviewed on Kirkus, so I can do some specific title searches, and I search for books I myself know about.  Occasionally people send me links.

Which leads gracefully to my next point--more people are welcome to send links directly! (charlotteslibrary at gmail dot com). This includes authors and publicists.  That being said, I do reserve the right to decline to link to posts I don't find valuable.  People are also welcome to leave links in the comments. 

Onward.

The Reviews:

The Alchemyst, by Michael Scott, at books4yourkids

The Book of Doom, by Barry Hutchison, at The Book Zone

Case File 13: Zombie Kid, by J. Scott Savage, at Book Nut 

The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls, by Claire Legrand, at Lust for Stories

Demonkeeper, by Royce Buckingham, at Known to Read

Down the Mysterly River, by Bill Willingham, at BooksYALove 

Drizzle, by Kathleen Van Cleve, at GreenBeanTeenQueen 

Emily Windsnap and the Land of the Midnight Sun, by Liz Kessler, at theawseomeadventuresoflulu

The False Prince, by Jennifer Nielsen, at Kristen Evey

The Fellowship for Alien Detection, by Kevin Emerson, at Charlotte's Library

Freaks, by Kieran Larwood, at Finding Wonderland

Herbert's Wormhole, by Peter Nelson, at Maria's Melange

In a Glass Grimmly, by Adam Gidwitz, at Karissa's Reading Review 

The Lost Heir (Wings of Fire) by Tui T. Sutherland, at Ms. Yingling Reads 

On the Day I Died: Stories from the Grave, by Candace Fleming, at Log Cabin Books

The Runnaway King, by Jennifer Nielsen, at Stacked and Bookshelvers Anonymous

The Shadows (The Books of Elsewhere), by Jacqueline West, at Middle Grade Ninja

The Space Between, by Kiki Thorpe, at Sharon the Librarian

Spirit's Princess, by Esther Friesner, at Charlotte's Library

The Strangers (Books of Elsewhere 4), by Jacqueline West, at Log Cabin Library 

A Tangle of Knots, by Lisa Graff, at Bookalicious and Literacious, and as an audiobook, at The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia

The Time Paradox, by Eoin Colfer, at Fyrefly's Book Blog

The Time-Travelling Fashionista, by Bianca Turetsky, at Time Travel Times Two

Authors and Interviews

Jennifer Nielsen (The Runaway King) at The Enchanted Inkpot

Mike Yung (Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities) at The Enchanted Inkpot

Anna Staniszewski (My Very UnFairy Tale Life) at Readatouille

Jasmine Richards (The Book of Wonders) at The Brown Bookshelf (as part of the wonderful 28 Days Later series)

The middle grade members of the Lucky 13s (debut authors of 2013), many of whom have written sff books, share their thoughts on why they write middle grade fiction.

Other Good Stuff

Shortlists!  The Andre Norton Award, the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, and the Diagram Prize (for quirkiest book title).  Here are this year's contestants for that one:

Goblinproofing One's Chicken Coop by Reginald Bakeley
God's Doodle: The Life and Times of the Penis by Tom Hickman
How Tea Cosies Changed the World by Loani Prior
How to Sharpen Pencils by David Rees
Lofts of North America: Pigeon Lofts by Jerry Gagne
Was Hitler Ill? by Hans-Joachim Neumann and Henrik Eberle

I think I like the peaceful simplicity of "How to Sharpen Pencils" the best.  What I'd really like, though, is a book on how to keep pencil erasers fresh, or at least, how to restore them to eraserability.

Children's Book Week (May 13-19, 2013) is on its way, and this year's bookmark is nicely mg sff!  Plus it has a hidden letters challenge.

The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap, by Wendy Welch

...was perfect Friday night in front of the fire comfort reading.  Anyone who loves used bookstores and/or stories of people leaving their ordinary jobs to follow idiosyncratic dreams will probably also enjoy it.

In a nutshell:  a couple stakes all their economic hopes on turning an old house in a small town into a used book store.  After initial tension (will they find enough stock to make all the new shelves look less pathetically empty?) it works out for them.  They make friends.   There are cats.   Tea and coffee are served.  Homemade gifts are exchanged.  Books are sold.  Customers are interesting--humorous, moving, difficult.

As one who is collecting stock (antiquarian and out of print children's books) for her own bookstore, I appreciated the practical side of things very much.  As a lover of bookstores, I appreciated it even more.

Quibble:  I wish Wendy Welch had put in a map, showing how to get to her store! 

The Fellowship for Alien Detection, by Kevin Emerson

Oh yay, it's a middle grade science fiction book, oh yay....sorry.  It's just that there are so very few solidly middle grade sci fi books, and every time I do a Sunday round-up of "middle grade sci fi/fantasy" I want to apologize for not actually having any sci fi in it, so there you go.

So in any event, The Fellowship For Alien Detection, by Kevin Emerson (Walden Pond Press, Feb 26, 2013) is true blue sci fi, one to which I can comfortably apply the shopworn, but sincere, adjectives "exciting" and "fun."  Albeit with a slight reservation.

Haley thinks aliens have been kidnapping people.   Dodger hears a radio station in his head, broadcasting from a town that doesn't exist.    When Haley and Dodger both get summer grants from the mysterious Fellowship for Alien Detection, they're off on two separate road trips to find out the truth.  Haley and her dad head south and west from Connecticut, and Dodger and his go east and south from Washington.  And when their paths converge, they find that the truth is even stranger, and much scarier, than they had ever dreamed.

Each kid's journey to that convergence point is told as a distinct story.  I was not expecting this--there I was,  happily following Haley (smart girl, would-be reporter) on the track of her interesting mystery (involving missing time and missing persons),  and things were getting excitingly tense....then suddenly Haley is left on a metaphorical cliff and the story jumps to  Dodger's journey.   Haley's story and Dodger's are rather different in mood (Dodger's being darker), and this added to my uncertainty about narrative coherence.   And then there were small extracts from the very mysterious life of a third character, another kid....I enjoyed them, and they added suspense, but I was confused.

However, everything does fit together, and very nicely too.   All three narrative strands conjoin, and everything becomes very exciting indeed.  

My only reservation is that the author spends considerable time making sure that the reader really Knows the characters, which is fine, except that it throws the balance off a tad--there's a lot of character development before Haley's true adventure starts, and then we go back and have lots of character development before Dodger's gets going.   I found this made the book less of an all-absorbing read than it might otherwise have been (perhaps because it also made the book longer).  And so I'd recommend it to kids who already are strong readers, rather than annoyingly picky ones like some children I live with.

My only other slight reservation about the book is that the cover makes it look a tad younger than is accurate--I think it's one for eleven-year olds, rather than nine-year olds.

That being said, it was great fun to see all the different little mysteries and clues that had filled the first three hundred pages converging into a whole, and I think this one has as much appeal to the mystery loving kid as it does to the reader of speculative fiction.  Although if you have a kid on hand who is fascinated by Roswell, you should definitely offer them this book.

Here are two other review (both glowing) from  Maria's Melange and This Kid Reviews Books

And for those in the Seattle area--there's a launch party on March 5 at Mockingbird Books...

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

Two awesome shortlists--the Andre Norton Award, and the Waterstones Children's Book Prize

The list of the books in the running for the 2013 Andre Norton Award have been announced-- here's what's in the running:

Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy
Iron Hearted Violet, Kelly Barnhill (Little, Brown)
Black Heart, Holly Black (S&S/McElderry; Gollancz)
Above, Leah Bobet (Levine)
The Diviners, Libba Bray (Little, Brown; Atom)
Vessel, Sarah Beth Durst (S&S/McElderry)
Seraphina, Rachel Hartman (Random House; Doubleday UK)
Enchanted, Alethea Kontis (Harcourt)
Every Day, David Levithan (Alice A. Knopf Books for Young Readers)
Summer of the Mariposas, Guadalupe Garcia McCall (Tu Books)
Railsea, China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan)
Fair Coin, E.C. Myers (Pyr)
Above World, Jenn Reese (Candlewick)


A lovely, lovely list!  I've read all but three, and even though I didn't myself like every single one of the books, there's a nicely diverse tasty-ness to the ensemble.

Here's the full list of Nebula shortlists.


I take a keen interest in the shortlist for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, given over across the pond to new and emerging talent in three categories--picture books, fiction for ages 5-12, and teen books.   I like to have new UK authors to track down.  So I was a tad disappointed that the sci fi/fantasy side of this year's short list is a tad heavy on books I already knew...but I am rather intrigued by The Wolf Princess....

I figured the Norton books didn't need much introducing, but I copied the pictures and links for this list from the Waterstones site, because of some of them being ones I'd never heard of.

For Ages 5-12:

The Secret Hen House Theatre by Helen Peters

The Wolf Princess by Cathryn Constable

Chronicles of Egg: Deadweather and Sunrise by Geoff Rodkey

Wonder by R. J. Palacio

Barry Loser: I am Not a Loser by Barry Loser

Atticus Claw Breaks the Law by Jennifer Gray

 

Teen Books:

Insignia by S. J. Kincaid, et al.

Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

Skin Deep by Laura Jarratt

Geekhood: Close Encounters of the Girl Kind... by Andy Robb

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Spirit's Princess, by Esther Friesner

Spirit's Princess, by Esther Friesner (Random House, April, 2012, middle grade/YA) tells of the childhood of Himiko, daughter of the chieftain of the small Matsu clan.  By around 238 AD, Himiko was a queen, but before she reaches that point (which will presumably happen in the sequel to this book), she has lots of growing up to do....and so this is a book for the reader who has patience, one who is interested in the small things of life, and who doesn't demand happenings (in this, the cover is misleading--Himiko looks like an Action-Oriented princess, but that part of her life is yet to come).  It's also a good one for the reader who likes historical fiction that explores the lives of little known women--the author's note at the end explains that Himiko's story is based on fact, which pleased me very much.

Himiko is the only daughter of her father, and so is the "princess" of her village.  It is a narrow life, as her father distrusts all outsiders, and Himiko is not permitted to follow her dream of become a great hunter like her older brother (and even if she had been encouraged to follow this path, a fall in childhood leaves with a permanently lame leg).   Slowly she realizes that her path lies elsewhere, as a shaman for her people.   And so, interspersed with various family dynamics, we are told of her apprenticeship to the village shaman, which is kept secret from her dictatorial, xenophobic father, who simply wants to see her nicely married off.

There are shadows of a danger to come, which finally does arrive right at the end of the book.  But until then, there's lots of family dynamics, with nicely drawn secondary characters, some interesting descriptions of Himiko's rather restricted life, some magical encounters with spirit world (although not quite enough for my taste--just barely enough to make this fantasy), and hints of more story to come.

I myself rather enjoyed it, though at first I was doubtful--- I felt that it wasn't quite necessary to spend so much time with five-year old Himiko (adolescent Himiko becomes more interesting).   But even though I did read it avidly, appreciating the different culture, appreciating Himiko's various dilemmas and her growing familiarity with the spirit world, and hoping that it would all work out, I couldn't help but feel that this story is simply the prologue to a more exciting one to come.

And indeed, this is a good time to have read the book, because I am very much looking forward to its sequel, Spirit's Chosen, which comes out this April, and will not have as long to wait!

note on age: I'd be most likely to give this one to a ten or eleven year old girl, although it is described as being for ages 12 and up.  There is nothing in the book that would give your typical middle grade pause, and I think older readers are more likely to be put off by the fact that Himiko is a little kid!

Growing Disenchantments, by K.D. Berry, for Timeslip Tuesday

Anyone in the market for an entertaining fantasy read, one that's lightly fun and amusingly inventive, should consider Growing Disenchantments, by K.D. Berry (2012, Bluewood Publishing, labeled YA, but suitable for adults).  It's not, you know, a World Altering reading experience of Emotional Power, but it is a fine way to spend a snowy day.

It was on such a day that I entered the world of Ragonnard, the new wizard in town, just as the young thief Ganfrey (a girl, and no unskilled) was about to break into his house.  Unfortunately for Ganfrey (although it all worked out in the end), Ragonnard's home proved hard to burgle, and she ended up being caught.  But he made a deal with her--steal a particular portrait from the king's castle, and all would be forgiven. 

That particular portrait, a prison painted to hold a long gone evil wizard, was one Ragonnard had been searching for with a particular passion.  Painted along with with the wizard is an amulet of particular power, and Ragonnard's plan is to extract the amulet, bringing it back to real world while leaving the wizard in painted place.

Things don't work out according to plan, and the evil magician is freed.  Ganfrey finds herself caught up in chaos as his magic take over the castle, sending the optimistically incompetent king out on to the streets, and freeing the stone gargoyles and animating the statues of long dead kings.

But there are things more serious afoot than the deposing of kings and the philosophical conversations of gargoyles.  The magician is bent on revenge on those who imprisoned him 500 years ago, and he won't let time stand in his way.  Unless Ganfry and Ragonnard, with the help of a time travelling agent from the future, the court illusionist, Dewdop, and the head of castle security (who spends his free time reading mysteries, and trying to apply them in real life), can stop him, all of time's coherence will be shattered!

Entertaining stuff.   I found the characters amusing, although not desperately three dimensional, and the more I read, the faster the pages turned as the excitement of the story grew.  The reader has to have a certain tolerance for a bit of slapstick, almost cartoonish in places, and some awful puns (the sentient broom, for instance, is described at one point as a "heaving besom"), and a certain tolerance for plot elements that don't necessarily seem as tidily integrated into the whole as they might have been (time travelling agent from the future, popping up naked every now and then, and not actually doing much that's helpful, I'm looking at you).   But if you just sit back and relax and enjoy the ride, it's lots of fun.  Not quite up to the level of the Discworld books, which are my current gold standard of amusing fantasy, but a good time nonetheless.

The book is the second in a series (the first being Dragons Away), but is perfectly fine as a stand alone.  It's published in New Zealand, but it's available from Amazon as both a book and a kindle edition.  Disclaimer:  I received a copy courtesy of the author (or at least, courtesy of half the author, since this was a team effort).

The Crystal Tree, by Jennie D. Lindquist

Sometimes the thought of trying to write a serious post about a book received for review makes one feel tired...like right now.   So instead I offer a quick look at a book that required no effort to read, and little to write about--The Crystal Tree, by Jennie D. Lindquist  (Harper & Row, 1966), a lovely comfort read.

This is the third book about a girl named Nancy who goes off to live with her grandparents in New Hampshire when her mother falls ill.   Almost a year has passed, her mother is now better, and soon Nancy and her parents will move into a little old house in the country...and Nancy and her friends and cousins are all tremendously excited about it, and try to find out as much as possible about the family who first lived in it.

The Crystal Tree has many excitements--Nancy and her friend pick out wall paper and curtains!  Nancy orders seeds from a catalogue!  A cat has kittens!  Some cakes are made!  An attic is explored, and something found in it!   And of course they find all sorts of historical clues about the family who built the little house, including the mysterious crystal tree of the title.

I am one hundred percent sincerely interested in reading about such simple happenings.  It was just the right sort of thing to read during a busy weekend.  And sure, I didn't have much clue about who all the kids were (there are lots of them, and though I read the first book in the series, The Golden Name Day, I'd forgotten who they all were, and more apparently appeared in book 2, The Little Silver House, which I think I have to get a hold of), but I didn't try to keep everyone sorted out in my head, which made it much more peaceful.

Spoiler--Nancy's wallpaper has yellow roses.  Sigrid finds a white paper, with little sprays of bluebells, that would have been too expensive, except there wasn't enough for a grown-up size room, so the clerk lets them have it at half price! 

Simple pleasures for simple minds, as my mother is fond of saying.

Oh my gosh, I just looked at the prices on Amazon--used copies are at almost $100! (except for two ex-library copies which are cheaper).   There are, however, two copies still in the Rhode Island library system....I found my copy in a bin of discards the school librarian was going to trash.  She thought I was, perhaps, a odd.  I dove into the bin and started rescuing book after book; it was a happy day.  But I wish there had been a copy of book two as well.

I found it amusing that the cheapest copy on Amazon is described as "fully functioning."  I guess the seller is more used to e-readers than real books!

me reading grown up fantasy

I am still busily doing this thing of reading fantasy books written for grown-ups, although the nice little run I had of actually writing review of them every Sunday night has hit a snag.  Last week's book is going to show up on Tuesday, because it involves time travel, and this week's book, Wyrd Sisters, by Terry Pratchett, has only now been finished and it was great fun to read but I feel unable to comment any more cogently than that at the present time.

And just by way of note--I've changed my comment setting, because I was getting inundated with anon. spam junk, so it's now set to "registered user", and though I will probably lose the comments from kids doing book reports (things like "can you tell me the point of this book?"), I hope I don't lose anything more than that....

This week's round-up of middle grade sci fi/fantasy (17 Feb, 2013 edition)

Yoiks--for the first time ever, I think, I myself didn't review any mg sff this week.   Fortunately other people did.  And, as always, sorry if I missed your review and please let me know about it!

The Reviews

The Cat Kin, and its sequels, by Nick Green, at Seven  Miles of Steel Thistles

The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls, by Claire Legrand, at Books and Other Thoughts

Fairy Lies, by E.D. Baker, at Nayu's Reading Corner

Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities, by Mike Jung, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile

Goblin Secrets, by William Alexander, at Sonderbooks

The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, by Christopher Healy, at Kid Lit Geek

The Magician's Tower, by Shawn Thomas Odyssey, at The Write Path

 Mothstorm: The Horror from Beyond Uranus Georgium Sidus!, by Philip Reeve, at Madigan Reads

No Passengers Beyond This Point, by Gennifer Choldenko, at Jean Little Library

Princess for Hire, by Lindsey Leavitt, at Sonderbooks

The Seven Tales of Trinket, by Shelley Moore Thomas, at Bookends

Tales from Lovecraft Middle School (books 1 and 2), by Charles Gilman, at The Book Zone

A Tangle of Knots, by Lisa Graff, at In Bed With Books and Waking Brain Cells

The Terrible Thing that Happened to Barnaby Brocket, by John Boyne, at Book Nut


Authors and Illustrators

Jennifer Nielsen (The Runaway King) at From the Mixed Up Files

Anna Staniszewski (My Epic Fairy Tale Fail) at The Enchanted Inkpot

Kazu Kibuishi (talking about the new Harry Potter covers) at ABC News

Other Good Stuff

Congratulations to The False Prince, by Jennifer Nielsen, which is this year's Cybils winner in MG SFF!

A look at why Sirius Black is awesome (which he really is) in The Prisoner of Azkaban at Jenny's Books

Cressida Cowell's top ten mythical creatures, at The Guardian 

and the really exciting thing--this just in from the report of a  chat with Megan Whalen Turner (at the fan site, Sounis)-- "No elephants in the next book. They're in the book AFTER the next one. Also, the one AFTER the next one will be from the POV of someone completely new. SOMEONE COMPLETELY NEW."

The Shadow Society, by Marie Rutkoski

The Shadow Society, by Marie Rutkoski (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, YA, Oct., 2012) is the most gripping book I've read in 2013.   The pages turned quickly--my 40 minute bus ride home yesterday took me to page 167, and I almost missed my stop, and my poor children were sent to bed late (my husband being out for the evening) as I finished the last 200 or so pages....(and poor youngest child thought it was Friday, and no one reminded him to do his homework...)

The story, summarized briefly up to the point where the spoilers would be too spoilery:

Darcy was found on the streets of Chicago when she was five years old, with no memory of how she got there or who she is.  After being shunted from one foster home to another, she's now a junior, with a foster mother who is keeping her for a second year (a first).   But her expectations of a happy year in the company of her three best friends are shattered when an enigmatic, and beautifully handsome, new boy, Conn, arrives....

(ok--I would have liked it better if Conn hadn't been so beautiful.  I have never, myself, met anyone with chiseled lips.  And it's rather cliched that of course Darcy is going to be strangely attracted to him, and he's going to be all strange to her, in a "what does this beautiful boy want from me way" and I think this part of the book could have been just a tad more subtle.   But, on the other hand, the way Darcy's small cabal of friends react is rather nice.   Darcy's friends are great.  As is the fact that Darcy and Conn spend much time discussing The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. I liked this).

Back to the story.

So there are hints that Conn is odd, it's quite clear that Darcy is different (I'll go so far as to say Special), and even clearer that something is going to happen.

It does.   It involves an alternate Chicago, where the Great Fire never happened, and where humans are locked in a war against beings known as Shades, who can disincorporate themselves.  It's a war of terrorist attacks, torture of captives, and bitter memories....and Darcy finds herself right in the middle of it.

Things get very interesting indeed.  Loyalty, memory, and guilt.  Past death and present danger.  Questions about whether peace is possible after so much bloody history.  And on the lighter side, a new Jane Austin book, discovered after her death in the alternate universe, and a trip to the alternate Chicago's art museum...

And in the meantime, Conn and Darcy, two people almost broken by past atrocity, must negotiate their relationship under terrible pressure.........(there's me reading reading reading all big-eyed and totally engrossed)......

So yes, I liked it very much!

(Here's a quibble--young people today are so selfish.  If my sons ever found themselves spending a couple of weeks in an alternate Chicago, knowing that it was quite easy to come and go between the two worlds, but Never Bothering to let me know they were all right, I'd be really cross.)

Congratulations to this year's Cybils winners! and other good stuff including a favorite sff romantic scene for V. D.

The Cybils winners have been announced!  Congratulations to The False Prince, one of my favorite books of last year, for winning in the middle grade sci fi/fantasy category! Congratulations to Giants Beware! my nominee for graphic novels for kids (I think it's the first time a book I've nominated has won!).  Congratulations to Seraphina, for winning in YA sci fi/fantasy!  And of course to all the other fine books and app that won in the other categories.

If you want a chance to show more love to your favorite YA sci fi/fantasy book, voting for this year's Locus Awards has begun, and it's a fabulous list. (You have until April  15th to vote).

And because it's Valentine's Day, and because Patricia McKillip seems to be getting more love these days in the blogs, here is my favorite romantic scene from one of her books.  It is also the fictional romance that frustrates me most, because I can't stand that there isn't any more of it, so this is a book I want everyone to go out and buy so that the possibility of another book in the series increases.

From page 218 of The Cygnet and the Firebird; the first speaker is a prince caught by an enchantment that transforms him each day into a firebird. The second speaker is the heir to her own holding, a young woman with the most insatiably curious mind for magic of any heroine I know, who is determined to break the spell.

"You used to look like a mage."

"What does a mage look like?"

"Like a closed book full of strange and marvellous things. Like the closed door to a room full of peculiar noises, lights that seep out under the door. Like a beautiful jar made of thick, colored glass that holds something glowing inside that you can't quite see, no matter how you turn the jar."

"And now?" she whispered. He came close; the light at their feet cast hollows of shadow across his eyes, drew the precise lines of his mouth clear.

"Now," he said softly, "you aren't closed. You're letting me see."

He slid his hand beneath her hair, around her neck. She watched light tremble in a drop of water near the corner of his mouth. He bent his head. The light leaped from star to star across his face, and then vanished. She closed her eyes and he was gone..."

The Cygnet and the Firebird is the sequel to The Sorcerer and the Cygnet, a fine book in its own right, in that twisty, magical McKillip way. They were recently republished in an omnibus edition.

And finally, the winner of my giveaway of The Madness Underneath is Maureen!

Waiting on Wednesday--Fearless, by Cornelia Funke

 I just found out, to my great excitement, that Fearless, the sequel to Reckless, by Cornelia Funke, is coming out this April from Little Brown!  Reckless is the story of a boy who travels to a mirror-world of fractured fairy tale magic, and it is extremely memorable and moving.  As I said in my review of Reckless,  "my only real complaint is with the ending; as the jacket flap says: "If you've come for happily ever after, you've come to the wrong place." But I wouldn't have minded just a bit more reason to think that Jacob is finally going to grow up....(oh, Fox, I feel for you so)......"  And so I am so utterly full of anticipation about what will happen to Jacob and Fox next....

"Jacob Reckless returns once again to the Mirrorworld--filled with profound characters, extraordinary creatures, and epic life-or-death treasure hunts that could only come from the mind of the master storyteller of our generation, Cornelia Funke.

Jacob Reckless has only a few months left to live. He's tried everything to shake the Fairy curse that traded his life for his brother's--legends such as the All-Healing Apple, the Well of Eternal Youth, the blood of a northern Djinn. And yet hope after hope is extinguished. After months of fruitless searching, Jacob journeys through his father's mirror one final time to deliver the bad news to Fox.

But there they hear of one last possibility--an item so legendary that not even Mirrorworlders believe it exists: a crossbow that can kill thousands, or heal one, when shot through the heart. But a Goyl treasure hunter is also searching for the prized crossbow. Jacob must find it first--and somehow convince Fox to do whatever it takes to save him."

Waiting on Wednesday is a meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Dragonbreath: Nightmare of the Iguana

I have raved many times before about the Dragonbreath books by Ursula Vernon.  They are my default recommendation for books to give the child who is betwixt and between easy readers and longer books--generous font size, heavy on graphic panels that advance the story (although less so as the series progresses), both girl and boy friendly, and funny as heck.   And they are also perfect for giving to your picky 12 year old reader, because they aren't at all patronizing/condescending, so older readers can enjoy them too, and it is so nice to see said picky reader reading a book cover to cover grinning his head off. 

So book 8, Nightmare of the Iguana, is out now, and we get to meet Suki, the smart and sarcastic ex-Ninja gecko, again!  Yay!  It is especially nice for Wendell, the geeky young iguana, because they kind of fancy each other.  Except that Wendell is being plagued by horrible nightmares, with potentially disastrous consequences...and to save him, Danny Dragonbreath and Suki must venture into his unconscious mind...a strange and terrible place....

I probably grinned as much reading it as my twelve year old.  I think Curse of the Were-Wiener is still my favorite, but this one was lots of fun. 

And the next book is on its way, in which Danny, Wendell, and their friend-who-is-a girl [sic] must hunt down mutant thieves, in The Case of the Toxic Mutants, coming Sept. 1..... I hope we get to meet the potato salad again (it's my favorite living potato salad of all time).