Seven author discoveries from seven years of blogging

My blog is now seven years old!  I have written 2240 posts, and reviewed around 1300 books (by the time the blog turns eight, I might have finished indexing and actually know for sure...).  My introductory post is here; I had no clue what I was doing, and little thought for the future...this has changed only somewhat!

It has been wonderful to make new friends through blogging, and especially at this point in my life I am grateful to my Candy Crush friends, most of whom I know from blogging (thanks for the lives!).  

It has also been wonderful to make the acquaintance of  books that I would not have known about if it hadn't been for blogging.  Lots of authors I love lots and lots I would probably have found in bookstores or in the library even if I hadn't blogged, but some I really don't think I would have, because of their books not being on the shelves in those places, or because of me not knowing how much I would love their books.

So, here are seven favorite authors for seven years of blogging!  (Presented in no particular order, with quotes from some of my reviews, and with no pictures because I just realized it was my blog birthday and I don't have time to fool with pictures....)

1.  Rachel Neumeier

City in the Lake-- I got a review copy of this the first year I read sci fi/fantasy for the Cybils.  I am so glad it got nominated!  "...one of the things that I personally really liked about the book is that the main characters are all people I would enjoy knowing in real life. This could be a sign of my own mental weakness, but I so much prefer to read about people I can care deeply about. So in a nutshell, here you have lovely world-making, people I like, and a satisfying plot."

The Floating Islands -- "For those who enjoyed Neumeier's first book, The City in the Lake, rest assured that the same beautiful writing is here; for those who were uncertain about that one, be assured that here the story swings along much more swingingly, following a much more straightforward arc of adventure and self-discovery."
House of Shadows -- "Books like this almost make me regret that I have a blog--back in the day before my tbr pile/list became so extreme, I would have had the leisure to start House of Shadows right from the beginning again."

And there's also Black Dog, which I reviewed yesterday, and so won't quote from my review.

2.  Sherwood Smith

Another author I found via Cybils review copies--the same year City in the Lake was nominated (2009), two of Smith's books were as well--A Posse of Princesses, and Stranger to Command.

About Posse I said "... this is a truly fun book about girls from very different backgrounds coming together to form friendships, learning to take the responsibilities of their lives seriously, and learning a bit about luv as well." Stranger to Command I never reviewed with the detailed love I felt about it; if you are looking for an utterly character-driven magical military school/growing up story look no further.

And then I went on to sink a lot of birthday present requests and money of my own into acquiring, and enjoying, lots more of her books. 

Including Once a Princess, which  "has everything I love about Sherwood Smith--smart, strong, kickass girls, and intelligent people who obviously know things that I, and the narrator, don't know, and a beautiful balance between drowning the reader in too much information about it all and creating a very nicely detailed world, and fictional characters who are really hot." (Hot? shakes head at past self for bad writing).

3.  Caro King

Another Cybils discovery!  I love  Seven Sorcerers -- "...the only thing I didn't like about the book was that it stopped too abruptly" and its sequel, Shadow Spell -- "I really truly recommend these two books to grown-ups who read middle grade fantasy for their own reading pleasure."  (and when I say "really truly" I am being as sincere as I am capable of being).

I also liked Kill Fish Jones very much indeed- "... this fascinating tension in Grimshaw's character makes this an even more gripping, memorable book than the ordinary grippingness of Fish's danger would alone.   The reader is challenged to empathise with a demon who has killed innocent people...and King makes it possible to do so.  Grimshaw is now my second favorite demon."  (Though "hot" is not a word I want to use again unless no other word would do, "grippingness" is a fine word.)

4.  Terry Pratchett

I had, of course, heard of Discworld, but didn't think it would be to my taste.  But because of my blog, I was invited to organize a panel for last summer's North American Discworld convention, and read the whole series, and wow!!!!!   Night Watch, in particular, is a book that I love with my whole heart --"oh my gosh, I love books so much where the hero is a truly decent, good person, who knows that things are hopeless, but does the best he or she can because that is the only thing do to.   And I love books where that hero not only clings to a dogged, hard-won refusal to give up, but also is smart enough to see chances where none exist."   Is teary just remembering it.

5.  Sarah Reese Brennan

I am not at all sure I would ever have read SRB's demon trilogy if it had not been for fellow bloggers--they don't Look, exactly, like they are books for me,  and my reading life would have been a lot poorer for the loss of them.  Alan! Nick!  Mae! Jamie!  I love you guys.  I will not even bother to quote from my review of the third book, The Demon's Surrender.  It embarrasses me.

6.  Leah Cypess

I blush to remember my reaction to the ARC of Mistwood I was offered the very first BEA I ever went to (which of course I wouldn't have been at had I not started blogging)--the title and blurb made me think "Celtic twilight" done-to-death-ness, and if the publishing rep. hadn't raved about it, I would have said no, and missed out on an lovely story and great feelings of fanishness toward all the books Leah Cypess has yet to write!  My review of Mistwood was not my finest blogging hour (food metaphors should probably be avoided), but I did a better job, I think, with Nightspell (especially since I just now edited out an infelicity)--  "This is one for fans of twisty, political fantasy.... this is one also for fans of books in which the relationship between sisters is front and center .... this is one for those who like complex magics, tangling past and present, that dictate the shape of a whole society!"

7.  Laini Taylor

With Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Laini Taylor made it onto the bookshelves, and I would have seen it, but probably not been compelled to read it.  But long before that book was written, I was a fan-- happily for me, I read this review at Fuse #8 for Blackbringer, and then this review from Jen Robinson, and this one from Liz, and was sold.  I love it, and it's sequel, Silksinger, and am so glad my fantasy reading boy does too!  From my review of Silksinger: "I enjoyed Blackbringer very much, and happily cheered Magpie on, confident that she would prevail... Silksinger, with its underdog characters, and its message that even the small and seemingly helpless can save the world, I enjoyed even more. "

These are all authors whose books get to live on my bedroom shelves because I love them, except for Terry Pratchett because I don't have room for him (and not because he is the only guy...eeks.  Now am anxious about gender bias).

And just as a postscript--the books my boys have loved most that we wouldn't have gotten if it hadn't been for blogging are  Escape From Hat, by Adam Kline and Brian Taylor, which they both loved, and  Psychiatric Tales, by Darryl Cunningham, which is just about my 13 year old's favorite book.  When I wrote my review of Escape From Hat, I did not realize how much kid appeal it had (both boys have read it multiple times and can rave about it at great length), or I would have been more positive about it.  Sorry, Adam and Brian; I will try to make it up to you by including a picture of your book:

Black Dog, by Rachel Neumeier

Nothing makes a snow day better than a really good book, and happily, I had one on hand yesterday--Black Dog, by Rachel Neumeier (Strange Chemistry, February 4, 2014).

Going into Black Dog, I knew three important things:  1.  It is about shapeshifters--humans with shadow black dogs. 2. Many of my blogging friends (such as Brandy, Maureen, Liviania) liked it very much indeed.  3.  It is written by Rachel Neumeier, which means I could trust the writing to be pleasing.

And the snow fell, and then the "pellets" fell (when I was a child, I don't think we had "pellets;" plain ice was good enough for us and pellets makes me think of rabbit food) and the pages turned happily.

Short synopsis:  humans coexist with supernatural creatures.  The vampires were just pretty much wiped out in a vicious battle; now the Black Dogs are struggling to recoup their losses and rebuild some sort of stability.   Three teenaged siblings from Mexico have journeyed to Vermont to find one of the last strongholds of civilized Black Dogs, the Dimilioc clan.   Manuel is an ordinary boy.  Alejandro, the oldest, is a Black Dog.  And Natividad is Pure--one of the rare women blessed with the power to bring peace and protection to those around her, able to calm the rage of Black Dogs and help them find control.   It was not a journey they wanted to make, but they were forced to when their parents were slaughtered by enemy Black Dogs....who have followed them to Vermont.

The Dimilioc take the siblings in, in large part because Natividad is a prize beyond measure--she is their hope for a new, civilized, generation.   It is a somewhat desperate hope, as their numbers have been greatly reduced (by the war against vampires and its aftermath).  And now that danger has come to Vermont, Dimilioc is faced with a new struggle to survive.  Alejandro's struggle to maintain control over his Black Dog Shadow while being the fierce protector of his younger siblings, Manuel's clear-thinking logic, and Natividad's magic and goodness are about to be put to a test with hellish consequences should they fail.

Me being me, I enjoyed the first half of the book, the set-up, the most.  In some ways it felt like a paranormal house party story--the three newcomers arrive and find eccentric inhabitants with short tempers, back-stories, and agendas, and every one starts getting to know each other.  There's lots of nice ambiguity and tons of tension--Black Dogs, being dogs, are very much in to the (somewhat brutal) nuances of pack hierarchy.  For Natividad, the getting to know each other part is somewhat fraught by the assumption that she'll be paired off with one of the Dimilioc men just as soon as she's a bit older--which is squicky, and she knows it, but which is at least not as bad as her being passed around, which is what I was afraid of.  At least she has some choice, and at least, though it's clearly indicated who she'll pair up with, it's not insta-swoon Luv, but a more nuanced build up of tension!

Even better than the whole house party set up is the sibling relationship that is at the heart of the story, and it was very nicely done--lots of little flashbacks of memory, lots of genuine concern for each other.  Each of the siblings brought their own strengths to bear on their situation--and it was especially gratifying to see Natividad really truly steps up to the plate with her magic; she is one of the bravest heroines in YA I can think of, not because she is "kick-ass" but because she sees what she alone can do, and does it regardless of how scary it is because she is a good person.

The paranormal world building is kind of dropped in here and there, which worked for me--I'm still not clear on every last detail, but we are given enough to go on with, and information keeps coming.   A refreshing touch to the worldbuilding is that Christianity isn't shunted off to the side--the Pure, for instance, came about through the intervention of a centuries-old saint, and Natividad's magic is strengthened by Christianity.

My only reservation is that I grew a tad weary of the rather frequent mention of Black Dog social issues--the proper submissive posture to adopt toward the pack leader, and that sort of thing.  But that did not stop me from enjoying this one immensely!

Black Dog stands alone well, but I just this sec saw this tweet from Rachel that made me happy bounce:  "And, done! Completely done! With the BLACK DOG sequel."  Yay!

Disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher at the request of the author

Project X-Calibur, by Greg Pace

Project X-Calibur, by Greg Pace (Putnam, Middle Grade, Oct. 2013) is a fun adventure that mixes science fiction with a dash of fantasy.

13-year old Ben is having a thin time of it after his father's death; he might be a whizz at car repair, but he's not so great at earning social respect, money is tight, and though Ben dreams of epic adventure, small town Texas has yet to deliver any.  But when a creepy kid turns up and introduces himself as Merlin, adventure is delivered in spades.

Ben is recruited to be one of a select group of five teens to join together, like modern Knights of the Round-Table, to face the worst threat humanity has ever known--an alien invasion.  In a top secret base in England, an alien space craft, dubbed X-Calibur, and four human-made copies wait for the kids to fly them off into space to protect earth.  X-Calibur's alien magical technology only responds to kids, and one of the five will be chosen to pilot it in the battle to come.  Ben doesn't think he has a chance of being that one; he still must prove that Merlin didn't make a mistake by choosing him, since he is so very much the most ordinary of all the kids.   And then a sixth kid, who just so happens to be the immortal King Pellinore's daughter, joins in the competition...

It looks like Ben doesn't stand a chance, but he keeps trying, and even has the decency to help his rivals overcome their own problems.    And, unsurprisingly, it is up to Ben in the end to pull the sword from the stone, as it were, and put X-Calibur's stunning secrets to the test.

Greg Pace has taken a somewhat generic plot--ordinary kid with extraordinary destiny, tested against a passel of rival kids (some hostile, some friendly)--and made it fresh and fun with the whole Arthurian fantasy meets Alien Invasion premise.  It's kind of odd to have Merlin and Pellinore side by side with alien technology, and there's no particularly informative explanation given, but that doesn't interfere with the story--what is one more suspension of disbelief among so many.

The focus of the story is on the training and the testing, with the suspense of Ben keeping his place in the program the driving plot issue.  The actual fight against the aliens comes rather far along in the book, and seemed to me to be over with in the blink of an eye; it was almost an anti-climax, and I would have enjoyed a bit more build up of tension

That being said, I am pretty sure that the target audience (kids of ten or so) will have no trouble identifying with Ben, and cheering him on as he struggles to get his chance to help save humanity.  Give this one to a reader who enjoys stories of kids being trained for great things, especially the reader who likes to cheer for the underdog!

disclaimer: review copy received from the author

Singing the Dogstar Blues, by Alison Goodman, for Timeslip Tuesday

Singing the Dogstar Blues, by Alison Goodman (1998) is a YA sci-fi book that won Australia's Aurealis Award in 1998, and it is easy to see why it did.

Some time in the future, a smart-aleck seventeen-year old girl, Joss, is in danger of being kicked out of the prestigious Centre for Neo-Historical Studies, the one place on Earth where time travel is possible.   The director of the program seems to hate her guts, and no-one could accuse Joss of trying to curry favor--she is a girl with attitude.  But then a new student joins her coterie of first year would-be time travelers--an alien from a species that's only recently made contact with Earth.   Mavkel's people are born in telepathically-linked pairs, but Mavkel's twin has died, leaving him in need of a partner with a sympathetic mind.  And it turns out that Joss is a perfect match...

Except that Joss, though she grows fond of her rather endearing alien partner, can't mind-meld with him enough to keeping him from sinking deeper toward fatal depression.  The only hope they have is finding a possible catalyst (this is me being intentionally vague)  that was destroyed a generation ago.   But when you are students of time travel, that is not an insoluble problem...

And in the meantime, there's an assassin on the loose at the Centre...

So I was doubtful at first, because Joss felt a tad gritty--kind of tough and obnoxious, and with more street-smarts than I will ever have.   But as I read, I realized that instead of the urban noir I was afraid I was going to get,  I was actually  reading a sci-fi character study involving both Joss as an individual (who plays blues harmonica) as well as human-alien interspecies communication, set within an interesting mystery, and at turns piquant and amusing.   So I was happy.

There isn't actually much in the way of time travel--as first year students, Joss and Mevkel aren't spending their days zipping back to the past (now that I think about it, I am having trouble remembering them actually attending any classes...).   So the time travel was a sneaky operation, just going back thirty or so years to get the answer to a particular question, and coming fairly late in the book.  The encounters that Joss has back in the past, though, add nuance to the situation in her present, which I appreciated.

In any event, if you are in the mood for entertaining YA sci fi starring a tough girl heroine who's kind of sad inside, whose best friend is an appealing alien, do give this a try!  Though it is now 16 years old, the only thing that felt a tad dated was the lack of instantaneous search-engine gratification...In any event, a new paperback edition was published in 2012 with a bonus Joss and Mav story (originally published in Firebirds Rising), and so you should get that edition (which is the one I linked to above) because you will almost certainly want more after you finish the original! 

Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, with special guest post by George O'Connor and giveaway!

For the last few years, George O'Connor has been bringing the Olympians to beautiful graphic-novel life courtesy of First Second Books.  Today I'm pleased to celebrate the newest addition to the series:  Aphrodite, Goddess of Love!

The Three Graces, attendants to Aphrodite, tell of her strange birth and hasty marriage to Hephestus.  They tell of the love (or more accurately, lust) she brought to Olympus, building up to the story of the Apple of Discord and the beauty contest between Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena that lead the Trojan War.  Though I'm pretty familiar with Aphrodite's story, George O'Connor has has breathed new life into it, adding bits of story I hadn't heard before, and managing to make Aphrodite (my least favorite goddess!) a not un-sympathetic character.   My reaction ranged from simple appreciation to actual chuckling out loud.  (Best Eris ever!)

It's not for younger kids--Aphrodite, after all, is the goddess of sexy times (though there is a tasteful veil drawn over the specifics).  But this is a spot on retelling for the older middle grade reader (10 or 11 or so) or teens (I know for a fact my own member of the target audience, my 13-year-old son, loves this series, and I just had the pleasure of watching my 10-year-old enjoying it very much), and I highly recommend the series as a whole to anyone with an interest in Greek mythology, as well as to fans of storytelling in graphic novel form.  There's lots of good back matter, adding educational value to the series.  And though it doesn't show as clearly as it might on the cover, Aphrodite, dark of skin and hair, adds diversity to the pantheon.

So it's an honor today to be taking part in George O'Connor's blog tour for Aphrodite, and I hope you enjoy his thoughts on myth and fantasy as much as I did!

Over to George:

Hello, patrons of Charlotte’s Library, this is George O’Connor. The lovely Charlotte has very kindly allowed me to guest star here as the third stop on the blogcrawl promoting my new book, Aphrodite: Goddess of Love, the sixth volume of Olympians, my graphic novel series retelling Greek myth.

But I don’t belong here. Seriously.

Charlotte’s Library is a blog celebrating sci-fi and fantasy books for young readers. But Olympians is shelved in non-fiction. I know it because Dewey Decimal told me so.

Oh, I know that there is a section of the blog that’s all about retellings of fairy tales, legends and myths, but that’s a mistake, surely. Somehow that section just accidentally appeared on her site. I know there’s a very flattering review of my book Poseidon up there as well (“an extraordinarily kid-friendly introduction to the Greek pantheon”) but I’m certain that’s just a series of typos, or maybe the blogger equivalent of infinite monkeys randomly typing out Hamlet.

Myths aren’t fantasy. Myths really happened, in the sense that they are stories that are told to convey truths bigger than reality. We know from myths that thunderstorms are Zeus, King of the Gods, raining his displeasure down upon hubristic mortals who defied the order of the universe. An earthquake is Poseidon throwing a tantrum because some cursed sailor escaped from his island prison. A volcano is the vented vapors of an entombed giant, fuming and furious after an eternity of imprisonment beneath a mountain. Because really, that makes more sense than excited electrons and shifting tectonic plates and magma and stuff, right?

Myths are more than that, too. One of my favorite things about mythology, beside the action and monsters and sexy stuff, is the window it provides on another way of life, another culture, a lost time when the idea that the physical embodiment of the generative power of the cosmos could create a perfect female body for herself out of the ocean foam and come ashore and make the whole world fall in love. A time when the changing of the seasons was brought on because the daughter of the goddess of grain was kidnapped by the lord of the dead to be his dread bride. There are tantalizing little hints of these vanished worldviews that created and promulgated these stories that explained the world around them. Myths are not fantasy. Myths are REAL.

But in a sense, maybe, it is fair to say that myths are born of fantasy. I’m pretty sure that were I to dig down deep into Mt Aetna in Sicily that, no matter how deeply I delved, I would never pull back a core sample with a slice of Typhon preserved inside. I believe in tectonic plates even though I can’t see them. I’m reasonably sure that were I to walk out under a blue sky and taunt Zeus the Cloud Gatherer that I would not be smote with his lightning bolt (not that I would ever try, just to be on the safe side). At some point, all these ideas must have been born out of a fantasy, some unknown storyteller’s attempt to make sense of the world. And somehow that fantastic idea took root in a culture and grew and blossomed and became religion, and grew and blossomed beyond that and became truth, and kept growing and spreading and becoming more REAL in the unreal sense that only stories can and became MYTH. The apex, the ultimate, the fantasy that explains truth more fully than any ‘real’ thing ever could.

Hmm, maybe I do belong on this site.


Thank you so much, George!  You are welcome back any time!

Courtesy of First Second, I'm happy to be able to offer a copy of Aphrodite--simply leave a comment before midnight next Sunday, February 10.

And here are the other stops on the Aphrodite blog tour o' love (so seasonally appropriate for Valentine's Day!)

This week's round-up of Middle Grade Sci Fi and Fantasy from around the blogs (2/2/14)

Welcome to another week of middle grade speculative fiction gleaned from around the blogs!

The Reviews:

The 13th Sign, by Kristin O'Donnell  Tubb, at A Backwards Story

The Age of Akra (Starchild Book 1), by Vacen Taylor, at Mother Daughter Book Reviews

Building Blocks, by Cynthia Voigt, at Charlotte's Library

The City of Death, by Sarwat Chadda, at Charlotte's Library

A Dash of Magic, by Kathryn Littlewood, at A Reader of Fictions

Double Vision: Agent 711, by F.T. Bradley, at Charlotte's Library

Dragon Defender, by J.A. Blackburn, at When I Grow Up I Wanna Write a Kid's Book

Fairest of All, and If the Shoe Fits, by Sarah Mlynowski, at Michelle I. Mason

Flora and Ulysses, by Kate DiCamillo, at The Book Monsters and Semicolon

The High Skies Adventures of Blue Jay the Pirate, by Scott Nash, at Puss Reboots

Hive Mind, by Timothy J. Bradley, at Views From the Tesseract

Jinx's Magic. by Sage Blackwood, at By Singing Light

Jupiter Pirates: Hunt for the Hydra, by Jason Fry, at Charlotte's Library

The Lonely Lake Monster, by Suzanne Selfors, at The Book Monsters

Magicalamity, by Kate Saunders, at Jean Little Library

Moonkind, by Sarah Prineas, at In Bed With Books

The Mostly True Story of Jack, by Kelly Barnhill, at Project Mayhem

Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy, by Karen Foxlee, at The Book Smugglers

Parched, by Melanie Crowder, at That's Another Story

The Path of Names, by Ari Goelman, at Jen Robinson's Book Page

The Real Boy, by Anne Ursu, at Great Books for Kids and Teens

The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen, by Lloyd Alexander, at Tor

Renegade Magic, by Stephanie Burgis, at alibrarymama

Rootless, by Chris Howard, at The Musings of a Book Addict

The Sasquatch Escape, by Suzanne Selfors, at The Book Monsters

Seven Stories Up, by Laurel Snyder, at Becky's Book Reviews

Spell Robbers (Quantum League Book 1), by Matthew J. Kirby, at Ms. Yingling Reads and Random Musings of a Bibliophile

Under Plum Lake, by Lionel Davidson,  at Views From the Tesseract

Westley the Zombie Book 1: Rrrrrrggggle!, by Monsieur J and Mister F, at This Kid Reviews Books

The Whizz Pop Chocolate Shop, by Kate Saunders, at Jean Little Library

Zoe and Zak and the Tiger Temple, by Lars Guignard, at Carpiello's Writing Pages

Three books linked by trains--  The Glass Sentence, by S.E. Grove, The Mark of the Dragonfly, by Jaleigh Johnson, and The Boundless, by Kenneth Oppel,  at Views From the Tesseract


Authors and Interviews:

Rachel Searles (The Lost Planet) at The Book Monsters, Literary Rambles, and Maria's Melange

Lemony Snicket interviews Kate DiCamillo at Buzzfead


Other Good Stuff:

The 2014 Amelia Bloomer Project list has been announced, and includes two MG fantasies--
Magic Marks the Spot, by Caroline  Carlson, and Garden Princess, by Kristin Kladstrup.  My mind is now running over the other MG sci fi/fantasy books of 2013, assessing them for feminist content....I'm thinking Handbook For Dragonslayers, by Merrie Haskell,  might count.   I always forget to send in recommendations by the time September comes around, but will try to do better this year.

The Fifth Annual Boys Read Pink Month is here at Ms. Yingling Reads -- as the mother of boys, I think it is so so so important to make it clear to boys that reading a book that's pink or has a girl on the cover doesn't make you any more or less any particular gender!  From Karen's post: "Interestingly enough, when I tell the boys that they are encouraged to do this, they have a look of relief on their faces, and check out all manner of books with great gusto."

Inscription Magazine, an online magazine of speculative fiction for teens that actively seeks diversity, is up and running.

If you are looking for a gripping-as-all-get-out YA (but good for upper MG readers too) speculative fiction read, this might be a good time to buy Variant, by Robison Wells, or its sequel, Feedback, to help an author going through a pretty bad rough spot.

I assume you all have heard about  J.K. Rowling's stunning (?) revelation about Hermione and Ron, and Flora and Ulysses winning the Newbery but how could I not mention them?  My main regret viz the ALA awards was that I had hoped that the novel version of My Neighbor Totoro would get some Batchelder love, but alas, it was not to be.


Please let me know if I missed your post!  I'm always happy to put more links in...

The Phoenix Files, Book 1: Arrival, by Chris Morphew

The Phoenix Files, Book 1: Arrival, by Chris Morphew, is the first in an Australian sci-fi thriller series that Kane Miller is in the process of publishing in the US (this first book came out here in June of 2013).

Luke's mother is exited about her new job in the town of Phoenix, Australia--it will be a chance for the two of them to make a fresh life after the divorce.  Luke, however, doesn't want to start afresh, and has no interest in moving to a corporate town in the middle of nowhere.   It is a brand-spanking new town, all shinny and happy....but all is not as pleasant as it appears.

It quickly becomes clear to both Luke and the reader that there are things seriously wrong with Phoenix.   The first clue is that there is no communication with the outside world...but that is just the tip of the ice-burg.  A memory stick pressed into Luke's hand by the town's resident madman (the only discordant note in its gloss) kicks things into high gear.  With the help of two classmates, a girl named Jordan and a guy name Peter, the message on the stick is decoded.   All of the human race, with the exception of Phoenix, will be destroyed in 100 days (and this is not a spoiler--the first two paragraphs of the book warn us that this is what's going to happen).

And so the race is on, as the three kids struggle to crack into the secrets of their town before it is too late....

It's a fairly familiar sci-fi thriller type plot, and it's not exactly subtle.  But what makes this series opener stand out is that it's one I'd recommend to upper middle-grade/tween kids (11-13 year olds) rather than true teenaged readers.    The characters read a bit younger than your average sci-fi thriller teen, and the story is told in a straightforward, linear way.  Yes, there are mysteries, but they aren't densely snarled in ambiguity; yes, there's tension and the pages turn quickly, but thing never quite reached a fever-pitch.  Older readers, well versed in the end of the world genre, might find it all a bit simple (give them (give them Sylo, by D.J. MacHale); younger readers, coming to it for the first time, should find it thrilling.

That being said, it is quite possible that as the series progress, things will become more complicated...and actually I know they are going to because the Wikipedia page for the series has a nasty spoiler snarl snarl.   But in any event, Arrival is very much a first book in a series--it doesn't stand alone particularly well, and you will want to have at least the next book on hand.  All six books in the series are out in Australia...

Here's the Kirkus review.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

Jupiter Pirates: Hunt For the Hydra, by Jason Fry- top notch middle grade si fi

Jupiter Pirates: Hunt For the Hydra, by Jason Fry (HarperCollins, Dec. 2013), is the best "kid pirates in space book" I have ever read.  Granted, the kids in question would be the first to point out that they are actually privateers, and also granted, I have never before read a book about space piracy/privateering told from the kids' point of view.  And I was a tad uncertain, because piracy isn't my favorite fictional thing in the world.   But it turns out that the piracy is part of a  fun, exciting space adventure that is really solid sci fi, with engaging characters concerned with more than the adventure at hand, and in the end I liked it Lots and recommend it with Conviction.

(Privateering, by the way, is when you do piracy that's sanctioned by your government--you can still attack and pillage ships, but only if they are under enemy flag.)

So in any event, centuries off in the future humanity has sprawled through the solar system, but not amicably--the Jovian Union and Earth, thought not exactly at war at the time of the story, have been in the past.   The Hashoone family are privateers of the Jovian Union, capturing Earth ships in true 18th-century piratic fashion, complete with salty nautical terminology.  Young Tycho, his twin sister Yana, and their older brother Carlo have spent most of their lives on board the Shadow Comet, learning the family business, and competing with each other--only one of them can inherit the captaincy.

But when an old and clunky earth freighter claims diplomatic immunity from the attentions of the Shadow Comet, Tycho finds himself faced with a problem that's much bigger.  And quickly things lead onward through an inter-planetary adventure of great danger and excitement as mystery is added to mystery and then solved with space battling.

Rather than build a future space-faring society from scratch, Fry uses the familiar trappings of pirate ships to good advantage--the world of the Shadow Comet is a familiar place right from the get go, without the need for explanations.   Because there's this easy familiarity, with not much overt info dumping, the strange difference of life lived far from earth--like never seeing a blue sky-- spring from the story very vividly.

The characters are great too--though there's sibling rivalry, it's not malicious; though the siblings are smart, they aren't all that brilliant.   And it's fun to see a whole family working together--Diocletia, the mother, makes a strong and formidable captain and parent, the father has his own competencies and identity, and Diocletia's father, still a true pirate at heart though he's passed on the captaincy, is a colorful character indeed.

It's easy to imagine this one being very popular with middle grade kids. Here's who I would recommend it too in particular:  young readers who in about five  years are going to become rabid fans of The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold.  I realize this is not as helpful as it might be, but if you've read those books it might give you an idea which kids would like these.

Short answer:  Excellent.

Slightly longer answer:  it passed the "will this book make the reader forget they are on a bus ride home" test with flying colors.  Sigh.  Fortunately I live near the end of the line, and the bus turns around and goes back again.....

Here's another review at Views From the Tessearct

Double Vision: Code Name 711, by F.T. Bradley

If you have a kid who loves heist stories, and the daring goings-on of spy kids and their cool gadgets, present them with F.T. Bradley's Double Vision books.   Code Name 711 (HarperCollins, October 2013) is the second of the series about an ordinary skate-boarding guy named Linc who just happens to be a dead ringer for a spy kid, Ben, who works for a top secret government agency, Pandora.   And the folks at Pandora hope this likeness will come in useful, as it did in Linc's first adventure, and so they whisk Linc off to DC to help foil a plot to assassinate the President. 

It's not your ordinary assassination attempt.  The would-be assailant is plotting to use one of the Dangerous Doubles that are a chief concern of Pandora's--a magical coat that once belonged to George Washington, that protects its wearer from any bodily harm.  Linc and Ben are both charged with finding the Dangerous Double before the bad guy does, and a chase around Washington ensues, with the President's daughter, Amy, enthusiastically getting in on the action.

It's fast paced and fun, and though it does strain credulity early and often (not the coat--I can accept magical doubles easily than I can some of the "real" elements, and not Linc, who is a pretty believable kid turned amateur agent), it never does so enough to spoil things.   There are lots of little bits of history, along with clues and dead ends and quirky characters and cool technology sprinkled along the way to make the mystery fun.

Short answer:  I see no reason why this shouldn't be a great hit with its 4th and 5th grade target audience, and there's enough slightly dry wit to the writing to make it fun for older readers too.

Here's another review, at Ms. Yingling Reads, that goes into more detail about the plot.

Disclaimer: review copy received from the author

Building Blocks, by Cynthia Voigt, for Timeslip Tuesday

It was another one of those Tuesdays when the book I was busily reading turned out not to have any time travel in it, and so I quickly read a book from my (shrinking) pile of "short time travel books I can read in less than an hour."  To whit:  Building Blocks, by Cynthia Voigt (1984).

Brann's parents are at odds with each other. His dad has just inherited a run-down farm in Pennsylvania, and wants to move out to it, his mom wants to start law school in New York.   It is the 1970s, after all--and a woman should be able to make something of her own life....And Brann feels battered by their fight about it, so he retreats to the basement, and begins to build with the blocks that were his father's back when he was a kid.

And Brann travels through time, and arrives back in the Great Depression, in his father's house, and there is his own father, Kevin, a kid a little younger than Brann.  Spending the day with Kevin, and Kevin's family (dictatorial, scary father, worn-down mother, and bratty siblings) gives Brann a new respect for his father's hard-won, quiet courage, and when he comes back to his own time, he's able to come up with a solution that keeps his own family together.

It's a simple story, and I remember when I first read it, back many years ago, being somewhat disappointed that more magical-ness doesn't happen.  The things Kevin and Brann do together are prosaic--they eat breakfast, look after the bratty younger siblings, explore a cave, and trespass to go swimming.   Brann does not run into any time-traveller difficulties; he is accepted as a contemporary kid. 

But reading it a second time, I have more appreciation for the quite character study that is the book's strength.   Poor Kevin really does have a thin time of it, and Brann comes home from his experience a wiser, more understanding person, which puts this one squarely in my "time travel as opportunity for emotional growth" category.   Unfortunately I think it edges into "book as an opportunity to push emotional growth on reader" territory, and though it is a just fine book, I don't think I ever need to re-read it again (having grown as much as I'm going to from it).

Interestingly, this was a1984 School Library Journal Best YA Book, which I think says a lot about how YA was thought of then and now.  It is just utterly Middle Grade by today's standards--absolutely no hint of an adolescent, let alone teenaged, thoughts, but I guess because Brann is 12, that made it a book for older readers.  Plus it is only 121 pages, which is ridiculously short by today's standards (when did books start getting so long? Was it Harry Potter?).  Though the 1980s cover (above) looks YAish, Brann gets progressively more childlike in later editions (although he gets to wear the same clothes).

(Is there an online archive of SLJ best books of past years?  I'd love to browse through it, and a quick search came up empty).

The City of Death, by Sarwat Chadda

The City of Death, by Sarwat Chadda (Scholastic 2013, ages 11ish to 14ish) is the sequel to last year's The Savage Fortress (my review), and it could be said, and almost certainly has been said, that this series is "Percy Jackson with Hindu Dieties," in as much both star boys involved in the doings (mostly violent) of mythological beings.

In any event, Ash Mistry is an ordinary 14-year-old Anglo-Indian boy who, on his first trip to India, became a living avatar of Kali, goddess of death, destruction, chaos, and a bit more death, and took down a major demon lord.  This did not solve his problems.  Rather, it did the opposite.

Back in England, his most pressing problem is that Gemma, the girl he rather liked gets killed by his enemies.  Other problems (his relationship with Parvati, half snake-demon warrior, half teenage-girl warrior, a diamond that's full of ancient nasty magic, the powers of Kali writhing around inside him, and flashbacks to all the past lives of Kali's other embodiments) are also troubling. 

Going back to India wasn't high on Ash's list of things to do, but there's not much choice....only once there, Ash makes some very bad choices indeed (mostly because he is consumed with guilt about the girl who died, but some because he is a fourteen-year-old boy), and I, at least, wanted to shake him at times. 

And though I found his journeys and adventures and mythological encounters not uninteresting, the desire to shake Ash was a bit too strong for me to truly enjoy the book. Because obviously, Ash, Parvati is the coolest character in the whole series and you should just accept that and stop with the guilt over Gemma (the US cover shows a bit of the tension between Parvati and Ash, which makes me like it more than the UK cover at right).  I will trust that he will continue realize this in book 3.  (I think that one of the strong points of the Percy Jackson series is the number of different viewpoint characters who all, at some point, want to shake each other, saving the reader the trouble). 

Shaking aside, I did appreciate that Ash clearly recognizes that his is an unevible position, and that being the "good guy" is not something that's going to come with a nice set of instructions.   His relationship with Parvati is also charged with tension--she is half-demon, he, as the embodiment of Kali's power, is the mythical slayer of demons.   So there's depths here that make this a lot more than just the sum of the adventures.

The titular City of Death is pretty cool too. 

Short answer: facile though the comparison might be, I really do think this would be a good series to give the Percy Jackson fans who enjoy demonic violence in their fiction.  It would also be a good series to give to the kid who has no interest in Greek mythology who enjoys mayhem mixed with a splash of moral tension. 

disclaimer:  review copy received from the publisher

Will a fantasy book win the Newbery tomorrow? (and if so, which one?)

Some fantasy/science fiction books have had quite a Newbery buzz this year--Doll Bones, by Holly Black, The Water Castle, by Megan Frazer Blakemore, Jinx, by Sage Blackwood, The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp, by Kathi Appelt, and The Real Boy, by Anne Ursu.    I think Jinx has more kid-appeal than Newbery appeal, but I wouldn't be too terribly surprised to see any of the other three get mentioned tomorrow

But what would be fun if a  Dark Horse middle grade sci fi/fantasy book emerged triumphant!
Here there are two that I think are viable surprises--Parched, and How I Became a Ghost.  Either would make me happy!

Just for the heck of it, I went through Elizabeth's list of the stars of 2013 (as of November) at ShelfTalker (I couldn't find a final star list for the whole year), pulling out the mg sff books.  I've excluded the books that aren't eligible to the best of my ability.

Doll Bones was the only mg sff that got five stars.  It is my favorite to win tomorrow, although in part that is because I have two first editions squirreled away which will help pay for the boys' college education if it wins.  EDITED TO ADD:  It won an honor, which pleases me because I did like it.

Flora and Ulysses, by Kate DiCamillo got four stars, but it didn't feel Newberyish to me.  EDITED TO ADD:  Clearlly I was wrong, since it won!  Jinx and True Blue Scouts were also four stars.

In the three star category are:

 Listening for Lucca, by Suzanne LaFleur and The Mouse with the Question Mark Tail, by Richard Peck; I'd be surprised to see either of these recognized.

Two stars went to:

Adventures of a South Pole Pig, by Chris Kurtz
Fallout, by Todd Strasser
Ghost Hawk, by Susan Cooper
The Girl Who Soared Above Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two, by Catherynne M. Valente
Hokey Pokey, by Jerry Spinelli,
Lara's Gift, by Annemarie O’Brien
A Tangle of Knots, by Lisa Graff
The Watcher in the Shadows, by Chris Moriarty

I'm not putting money on any of these; Hokey Pokey and Tangle of Knots both were published early in the year, and had a bit of buzz to them, but then they kind of drifted off people's lists. The one I like best myself is The Watcher in the Shadows, but I doubt the committee would agree with me.

One stars:

The Apprentices,  Maile Meloy
A Box of Gargoyles,  Anne Nesbet
The Cats of Tanglewood Forest,  Charles de Lint
A Dash of Magic,  Kathryn Littlewood
The Grimm Conclusion, Adam Gidwitz
The Hero’s Guide to Storming the Castle, Christopher Healy
How I Became a Ghost: A Choctaw Trail of Tears Story. Tim Tingle
Magic Marks the Spot. Caroline Carlson
Parched. Melanie Crowder
Pi in the Sky. Wendy Mass
The Princess of Cortova,  Diane Stanley
Rise of a Legend (Guardians of Ga’Hoole). Kathryn Lasky
Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin. Liesl Shurtliff
Texting the Underworld. Ellen Booraem
The Time Fetch,  Amy Herrick
The Water Castle,  Megan Frazer
The Wells Bequest, Polly Shulman
The Whatnot,  Stefan Bachmann

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (1/26/14)

Welcome to another week of middle grade sci fi/fantasy blog post rounding-up; please let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews:

Bigger Than a Bread Box, by Laurel Snyder, at Jen Robinson's Book Page

Dead City, by James Ponti, at Charlotte's Library

Diego's Dragon Book 1: Spirits of the Sun, by Kevin Gerard, at Sharon the Librarian

Dragon Defender, by J.A. Blackburn, at When I Grow Up, I Wanna Write a Kid's Book

The Escape of Princess Madeline, by Kristin Pulioff, at When I Grow Up, I Wanna Write a Kid's Book

Fallout, by Todd Strasser, at Next Best Book

The False Prince, by Jennifer Nielsen, at Laurisa White Reyes

Fireborn, by Toby Forward, at Charlotte's Library

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, by Catherynne M. Valente, at Fantasy Literature

How To Make Friends and Monsters, by Ron Bates, at The Book Monsters

Hunted (Spirit Animals 2), by Maggie Stiefvater, at Akossiwa Ketoglo

Jordan and the Dreadful Golem, by Karen Goldman, at This Kid Reviews Books

Joshua Dread, by Lee Bacon, at Ms.Yingling Reads

The Last Present, by Wendy Mass, at Book Nut

Nightingale's Nest, by Nikki Loftin, at Views From the Tesseract

Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy, by Karen Foxlee, at Librarian of Snark, Ex Libris,  Wondrous Reads, and Random Musings of a Bibliophile

The Quantum League 1: Spell Robbers, by Matthew J.  Kirby, at Jen Robinson's Book Page

The Sandman and the War of Dreams, by William Joyce, at Back to Books

The School For Good and Evil, by Soman Chainani, guest review by a young reviewer at Teen Librarian's Toolbox

The Serpent's Ring, by H.B. Bolton, at The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia

Seven Stories Up, by Laurel Snyder, at Slatebrakers and Rosanne Parry

Song of the Mountain, by Michelle Isenhoff, at The Book Monsters

A Snicker of Magic, by Natalie Lloyd, at School Library Journal

The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp, by Kathi Appelt, at Reads for Keeps

Tuesdays at the Castle, by Jessica Day George, at Ciao Bella

The Water Castle, by Megan Frazer Blakemore, at The Write Path

Winterling, and its sequel Summerkin, by Sarah Prineas, at alibrarymama

Three Space Adventures at Views From the Tesseract -- Starbounders by Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson, The Planet Thieves by Dan Krokos, and The Lost Planet by Rachel Searles


Authors and Interviews

Anna Staniszewski (My Very Unfairy Tale Life) at Mother Daughter  Book Reviews


Other Good Stuff:

Ten African American characters in middle grade fantasy and science fiction at Views From the Tesseract

How to Build a Fictional World, a video by Kate Messner (Wake Up Missing), found at Bookshelves of Doom

At Book Nut, Melissa shares ten really good books that didn't make the EMG SF Cybils Shortlist

And finally, a beautiful, though somewhat troubling, installation of fairies from the Royal Shakespeare Company (found at Once Upon a Blog):

Commissioned by and developed for the Royal Shakespeare Company and later adapted for the Enchanted Parks, Sprite Symphony is a magical installation using projections and sound to create a beautiful yet dark display of fairies that have been trapped in jam jars and are trying to escape their glass cages. 

The fairies knock and tap on their jars and thereby create a polyphonic musical composition.





The sprites are currently exhibited in a Victorian display cabinet in the RSC theatre foyer in Stratford upon Avon

Dead City, by James Ponti

Dead City, by James Ponti (Aladdin, 2012)  is by far my favorite middle grade zombie adventure book.  The premise--that zombies live deep in the bowls of Manhattan, some still human enough to come up for sun and live relatively normal (un-dead) lives, others depraved killers--is not outstandingly fresh.  Nor is the twist--kids trained to be elite zombie trackers, though that is entertaining in its own right.  What makes the book so much fun to read is the particular zombie-hunting kids the reader gets to accompany, and the very nice indeed attention to the world-building of the zombie-tracking cabal and those they track.

Molly is not an ordinary junior high school student, in as much as she spends a lot of her free time in the morgue at the medical examiners office (where her mom worked, before she died of cancer).   Cadavers have no ick factor for her anymore.   Zombies, on the other hand, take a bit of getting used, as Molly discovers when she is invited to join three older kids who are operatives in the secret organization known as Omega.  Omega not only keeps ordinary people safe from the depraved killer zombies, but helps out the more human otherly living folk.

Molly's life in Omega, though, turns out not to follow the proscribed routines and procedures.   Turns out there's an undead plot to take over the city....and Molly and her friends find the clues that send them on an intercept course with the evil zombie mastermind behind it.

I utterly enjoyed hanging out with Molly and her smart, science-appreciative companions, perhaps in part because I enjoy books in which kids get training in esoteric pursuits (ballet, ice-skating, zombie-hunting, etc.).  There's nice nuance here too--it's not a question of zombies being universally bad, or smart kids vs. attractive kids.    And any fan of New York city will get  huge kick out of the zombiefied version of its geography!

I shall now hunt down the sequel, Blue Moon, because there is a Shocking Twist at the end of this one, and I am very anxious to find out what happens next!

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

The ABC of Fabulous Princesses, by Willy Puchner

Looking at surreal, beautiful painted, whimsically detailed pictures of bird princesses of many lands makes me very happy and strangely peaceful.  Therefore, I love The ABC of Fabulous Princesses, by Willy Puchner (NorthSouth Books), truly, deeply, and sincerely.

The ABC part (each princesses' name, country of origin, interests, etc. all start with the same letter) was a perfectly acceptable framing device for the lovely bird princesses of many lands.  It was reviewed at Kirkus and Publishers Weekly by people who paid a lot more attention to the words than I did.

This book would make a lovely present for the right sort of person.  I bought it as a present for me, because I knew the moment I saw the cover (at Kirkus) that I would be the right sort of person. 

Many of you (though I'm not sure how many) would probably like it very much too.  I want to scan all the pictures so that you could see them in all their lovely detail and we could talk about which one was our favorite, and which ones we would like to be friends with and which secondary creature is cutest and so on, but of course I won't.   But here is the procession of princesses from the endpapers, which you can see in bigger form at NorthSouth's facebook page.

My least favorite is Princess Zenobia (the only one in pink, but I think it is coincidence), but I do not know which is my favorite.

I will probably be drawing bird princesses on and off for the next several days, which will be nice for me.  It would also be very fun to make bird princess paper dolls.  One could, of course, also make bird princes.

Waiting on Wednesday--Dragon on Trial, by Tui T. Sutherland and Kari Sutherland

The Menagerie, by Tui T. Sutherland, is a really good, solid book to offer the nine or ten year old lover of fantasy creatures (and its baby griffins will warm even cold adult hearts).  As an added bonus, it's main boy protagonist is bi-racial, without this making a whit of difference to the plot. 

So I am pleased as all get out to see here at Stephanie's blog that the sequel, Dragon on Trial (HarperCollins) will be out  March 11, and my ten year old is even more so.  He started pining for the sequel the moment he finished the first book...

"The mysteries and adventure are back and bigger than ever in the second book in the Menagerie trilogy! With the magic of Brandon Mull’s Fablehaven and the charm and humor of Carl Hiaasen, The Menagerie #2: Dragon on Trial is perfect for young readers who love myths, fairy tales, and magical creatures.

Someone or something has murdered the goose who laid the golden eggs, and the evidence points to a dragon named Scratch. But this mystery won’t be that easy to solve. . . . Zoe and Logan are back on the case in another exciting fantasy adventure from authors—and sisters—Tui T. Sutherland (Wings of Fire) and Kari Sutherland."

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

The Blossoming Universe of Violet Diamond, by Brenda Woods

The Blossoming Universe of Violet Diamond, by Brenda Woods (Nancy Paulsen Books, January 2014)

Isn't that a lovely cover (despite the missig mouth)!  And it fits the book perfectly--if you think that girl looks like someone you'd like to be friends with, you will probably like the book lots.

Sometimes I feel I can't sum up a book much better than the publisher's blurb does, so today I'm borrowing a bit:

"Violet is a smart, funny, brown-eyed, brown-haired girl in a family of blonds. Her mom is white, and her dad, who died before she was born, was black. She attends a mostly white school where she sometimes feels like a brown leaf on a pile of snow. She’s tired of people asking if she’s adopted. Now that Violet’s eleven, she decides it’s time to learn about her African American heritage. And despite getting off to a rocky start trying to reclaim her dad’s side of the family, she can feel her confidence growing as the puzzle pieces of her life finally start coming together."

Violet has never had any contact with her dad's mom, and now that's she's elven, she's starting to think, and wonder....and so when her grandma, a famous artist, has an exhibit in Seattle, Violet's mom takes her.   And the result is that Violet is invited for a week in Los Angeles, to get to know her dad's family.

It is a lovely story of bonding with a grandparent--Violet's grandma is so happy to be able to put the sadness of the past behind her, and she showers her granddaughter with love.   And in general, the family love that's at the heart of the story is truly heartwarming.  It's not just the grandparent/child relationship, but many others.  For instance, although it wasn't a major plot point, there was a nice sister relationship, which I appreciated--it was good to see an older sister being loving and supportive!  And all in all, it is a book full of good people.

More prosaically, I also liked the fact that Violet's grandma has an interesting house, and although cooking isn't my thing, it's one of Violet's interests, and I appreciated all the foody details!  (It bothers me when someone has an interest, and then we never hear much about it).

The characters deal openly with issues of race, belonging, and religion (Violet's grandma is Christian, and a tad anxious about Violet's beliefs); this part of the book felt candidly refreshing, and I imagine the book would be reassuring for a multiracial child, and thought-provoking for a child who's never questioned racial identity.

Violet was perhaps just a bit too good to be true (there's a whole day she happily spends researching Africa), and perhaps all the reconciliation and healing were a bit too easy, but for those who like books on the soothing side, this is not a problem.

Kirkus gave Violet a starred review, which you can find here.

Disclaimer:  review copy received from the publisher

Still She Wished For Company, by Margaret Irwin, for Timeslip Tuesday

The problem with having your heroine hypnotized and in the psychic thrall of another character for most of the book is that said heroine never gets a chance to really grow as a person, or show any gumption or initiative.   It's kind of boring.   This was what kept me from enjoying Still She Wished For Company, by Margaret Irwin (1924).

But it is not terrible, and if  you like tortured romance stretched across a century of psychic connection, with most of the action taking place in a Jane Austin-ish country house, and lots and lots of growing dread and even horror, and don't mind a heroine who is being used as a tool, you might enjoy it. Just to emphasize that others have enjoyed it lots, here is a positive review at Vulpes Libris.

Juliana is the youngest daughter of a wealthy family, living a boring, sheltered life of late 18th-century placidity.  Into her world comes her long-gone oldest brother, Lucian, who has been dissipating himself all around the world, and he brings Interest to things with a vengeance.   Lucian is haunted by a girl he has never met....and it turns out that this girl, Jan, is haunted by him as well--though she lives in the mid-20th century...and it is this that drives him to make Bad Choices.

Lucian makes a pet of Juliana, and she finds him a charming alternative to boredom....and their relationship is oh so warm and friendly and one wonders is it getting too friendly (there is an ickiness to his endearments) and then Lucian draws her into mystic goings on of a disquieting sort and Juliana starts slipping into Jan's present time and Lucian gets creepier and in the end...What will become of poor hypnotized Juliana?  Is Lucian demon or tormented romantic?  Will Jan find happiness, and if so, with whom? The book actually starts from Jan's perspective, which is a bit of a red-herring--she does a bit of timeslipping herself, but primarily exists in the story to be Lucian's dream girl, and this made me sad, because I rather liked her and we see very little of her.

We see lots and lots of Juliana, but like I said above, I tend to find girls with little character to begin with who end up as hypnotized tools rather boring.     The 18th-century country house bits kind of felt like not-Austin-at-her-best; there was no humor anywhere in the book.   I liked the time slip parts best--the were genuinely powerful and moving, and the book had more of them, I would have been much happier!

In any event, this is the earliest tortured paranormal romance involving time slippage that I know of, and as such it is interesting and well worth reading (I guess).  If there are earlier ones, please let me know!

Fireborn, by Toby Forward

Two things about Fireborn, by Toby Forward (Bloomsbury, 2013, upper Middle Grade/YA): it was very good, and I'm glad to have read it.  It was a struggle to read it, and I had to keep putting it down.

It is the story of three kids--Beatrice and Cabbage, who both have magical abilities, and Perry, who is a roffle--a not-exactly-human denizen of a mysterious underworld.   When magic goes terrible wrong due to the schemings of a truly nasty, second-rate magician, these three kids have to face the vicious consequences of the eruption of  power that follows.  And it is truly vicious--the magician and his companion are transformed into creatures of horror who kill, rather terribly, scores of people, and worse than that (in my maternal mind), Beatrice is left horribly, horribly, burned and disfigured.   The adults looking after these kids do their best to handle things, but they are not able to defeat the enemy.  Since Beatrice was there at the beginning of the wild magic, and caught in its birthfire, it is, in the end, up to her to find her way out of her pain into a place where she can use her birthright.

(If you want a somewhat more detailed, lyrical description, this would be a good point at which to read Kirkus' starred review).

Though much of the story distressed me (causing me to put the book down for little breaks), it is not all dolorous.  Cabbage and Perry have a lovely friendship and are both tremendously endearing, and the adults (who aren't the bad guys) are actually good, kind, wise people, which is rather a rare thing, and which I enjoyed.   I have decided that I like books in which the characters Talk to each other, and treat each other as people, and there is lots of good talking here, that both advances the story without tedious explication, and advances the reader's appreciation of the characters.  The worldbuilding is solid, without bending over backward to explain every single detail--the reader has to take some things on trust, and it works (for instance, I still don't know what exactly the roffles are, but no one who isn't a roffle really does, so that's fine). 

Fireborn is the prequel to Dragonborn (2012 in the US), and you should most definitely read this one first.   In my review of Dragonborn, my main complaint was the absence of backstory--and that is what Fireborn delivers.

I also complained about the misleading US cover of Dragonborn, and I make the same complaint again--the US cover art makes these books look like they are great for younger middle grade readers of nine or so, and this is misleading.   I would not give this book to anyone younger than eleven, because it really does have the stuff of nightmares in it, and I think the original UK cover (shown at right) is a more accurate reflection of this.   The nasty, death-bringing beetles aside, the fate of one young character (which I'm not saying anything else about) was Awful, and I am cross that the other characters didn't seem more upset. Jerks.

Bonus challenging of gender stereotypes regarding pink:

Young Cabbage is visiting the college of magic, and is waiting around in the office of the head of the school ( a woman).  "I'll have a room like this one day, he decided.  The light swam in through one of the high, broad windows.  The walls were painted a delicate pink.  It was a good pink, with a blush of rose.  He liked pink.  He wouldn't change the bookcases either."  (page 195).

The school of magic, incidentally, has a lovely library.