Speculative Fiction

Thursdays with the Crown

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by Jessica Day George
First sentence: “‘You are not leaving me behind,’ Celie repeated.
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Others in the series: Tuesdays at the Castle, Wednesdays in the Tower
Content: There’s nothing objectionable, really. It’s a good book for both readers who love fantasy, and for struggling readers — lots of white space, and short chapters — who need action. It’s in the middle grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore.

When we last left Celie, Rolf, and Lila, they had just disappeared from Slene (along with Lulath and Pogue). No one knew where they went or why the castle sent them away.

As the book opens, Celie and her intrepid siblings and friends are stuck in a place they didn’t know existed. And they need to find the Glorious Arkower, the head magician, to go back to Slene. Except, things aren’t that simple. They discover that Rufus (Celie’s griffin) isn’t the only one; he’s got parents. Who happen to be the king and queen of the Royal Griffins. The motley crew manages to find and hatch a couple more griffin eggs (one for everyone!) and discover that the Glorious Arkower is… not so glorious. And things aren’t as simple. The question is: can Celie figure out a way to return back (and wake up!) the castle she loves?

This is such an adorable series, though I think it might be one that’s better read in one sitting. Sure, I fell pretty fast into the world (I haven’t read the other two in a while). But, I think I would have liked it more had I read them all in quick succession. Even so, Celie’s delightful, Lulath’s still my favorite, and I’ll happily spend time in Slene with them for as long as George wants to write about them

Minion

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by John David Anderson
First sentence: “I want you to know, right from the start, that I’m not evil.”
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Others in the series: Sidekicked
Content: There’s really nothing objectionable, and I ended up putting these in the Middle Grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore. It still feels slightly older than that, however. I just can’t place why.

Michael Morn is a villain. His adoptive father is one of those mad scientist types, who invents boxes that do… well, stuff. Like scrambling all the cameras, or maybe blowing up. And so the duo have committed crimes. Nothing extravagant, mostly just bank robberies when they needed the money.

But Michael also has a secret: he has unusual powers of persuasion. When he looks someone in the eye, he can compel them to do something. Sure, it has to be within the realm of possibility, but he can do it. So far, he and his dad have kept that power under wraps, only using it when they really have to. But with the arrival of The Dictator — a true super-villain — and his nemesis, the Comet, Michael’s life is about to change. And not necessarily for the better.

I remember liking the companion book to this, Sidekicked, but even so, when I picked this up, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. On the one hand, it’s a very clever take on superheroes and super powers. I like the world that Anderson has created, where being super isn’t necessarily an unusual thing and superheroes aren’t necessarily saviors of the world. And where villains are just people trying to scrape by.

That said, I felt that this one was missing something: A concrete ending, for starters. I won’t give anything away, but it left more questions than answers by the end. And it didn’t feel like a real middle grade (or even YA) novel, either. Michael did stuff, sure, but mostly he was reacting to the adults around him, and spent more time being their pawn (from this father, to the crime boss his father worked for, to The Dictator, in the end) and didn’t actually do anything. It felt like an elaborate set-up without much of a pay-off.

That said, it wasn’t bad either. Or, at least, not bad enough to put down. But it wasn’t satisfying in the end.

Blue Lily, Lily Blue

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by Maggie Stiefvater
First sentence: “Persephone stood on the bare mountaintop, her ruffled ivory dress whipping around her legs, her masses of white-blond curls streaming behind her.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: October 21, 2014
Others in the series: The Raven Boys, The Dream Thieves
Content: There’s swearing, lots of it, including f-bombs, but nothing felt gratuitous. There’s also violence and some adult drinking. Plus, it’s a complicated story arc that may prove confusing for younger readers. It will be in the Teen section (grades 9+) of the bookstore.

I’m always at a bit of a loss when dealing with this series. I just want to throw it at everyone (especially people who come in the store. WHY WON’T THEY BUY THIS BOOK?) and say “READ THIS! THIS IS WHAT STORYTELLING AND WRITING IS.” It really doesn’t matter that I love the characters (“What [Orla] didn’t realize about Blue and her boys was that they were all in love with one another.” Count me in on that.), and I am intrigued and fascinated by the people they meet. In this book, most especially, it was Jesse Dittley, the man who took care of the cave in the hills, who talked in ALL CAPS and called Blue an ANT. He was wonderful.

The basic plot that Stiefvater weaves is that Blue, Gansey, Adam, and Ronan are getting closer to waking their unknown king, Glendower. Blue’s mom, Maura is missing, gone off on a quest of her own. And Mr. Gray’s employer, Greenmantle (“Greenmantle had always liked the idea of being a mysterious hit man, but that career goal invariably paled in comparison with his enjoyment of going out in the town and having people admire his reputation and driving his Audi with its custom plate (GRNMNTL) and going on cheese holidays in countries that put little hats over their vowels like so: ê.”), has shown up in town, furious at Mr. Gray for defying him, determined to make him pay.

But, things don’t necessarily go right. (There is one more book, after all.) And Blue and the boys are possibly in deeper than they can handle.

What I love most (as evidenced by the frequency of quotes already), however, is the writing. It’s so drop-dead gorgeous. Stiefvater is a poet here, capturing so much — mood, character, events — with so little (even her use of swearing has Meaning.), it’s breathtaking.

If you haven’t picked these up yet, the series is almost done. Now is a good time to start. You won’t regret it.

Chasing Power

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by Sarah Beth Durst
First sentence: “Razor blade.”
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Review e-copy sent to me by the author.
Release date: October 14, 2014
Content: It says it’s for 14 and up, and maybe they did that because most of Sarah Beth Durst’s books lately have been aimed toward that crowd. That said, there’s really nothing that I think a 7th- or 8th-grader couldn’t handle (mild swearing, some pretty bad parenting, etc.). It’ll be in the YA section (grades 6-8) of the bookstore.

Kayla and her mother — Moonbeam — are on the run. They have been for eight years now, moving frequently, changing their names, trying to keep a low profile. Why? Because Kayla’s dad killed Kayla’s sister, Amanda. Why? Because Kayla — and her sister, presumably — have magical powers.

Kayla’s powers aren’t that big, and mostly she uses them to steal little things — cash, jewelry — to help keep her and her mother afloat. Thing is: her mother doesn’t want Kayla to use her powers. She says it’ll help her dad find them. And then, one day, someone does find her. His name is Daniel, and he knows about her and her powers. And he needs her help to rescue his mom.

What Daniel starts is an epic quest to find not only Daniel’s mother, but Kayla’s past. And not everything is as it

I adore Sarah Beth Durst (and I’m not just saying this because she offered me this e-book (and an interview!), I really do enjoy her writing and world-building. I loved Kayla for her strength and for her insecurities. I was often annoyed with Moonbeam and her “I know better, trust me, it’s for your protection” routine, but in the end, she was someone worth cheering for as well. And I love the way Durst used the magic — both Kayla’s telekinesis and Daniels transporting — to forward the story; the quest couldn’t have happened without their powers, rather than them just being incidental to the whole story.

A fantastic read.

The Infinite Sea

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by Rick Yancey
First sentence: “There would be no harvest.”
Support the local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: The 5th Wave
Content: It’s violent and intense; Yancey pulls no punches. There’s also a lot of (understandable) swearing, including f-bombs. It’s in the Teen section (grades 9+) of the bookstore, but I’m thinking I might need to put a couple in our science fiction/fantasy section.

Spoilers for 5th Wave ahead. You’ve been warned.

I don’t even know where to begin with this. The first four waves of the alien invasion have happened, and the fifth wave is coming. Cassie and the rag-tag group of kids (including her little brother) believe they know what that is and with the help of the alien/human hybrid Evan Walker, they believe they can fight it.

And they are wrong.

I won’t go into the plot much here; it’s better if you just read it. I didn’t re-read 5th Wave first, and thankfully, Yancey dropped enough reminders throughout that I basically remembered what was going on. (I love it when authors do that, as opposed to a blanket summary up front.) What really impressed me, though was that Yancey spares nothing and no one. Everyone is suspect, everyone is vulnerable. Nothing is safe.

It’s intense, I can tell you that. I devoured it in one sitting because I HAD to know what was going to happen, what everything meant. And it’s deliciously complex: you peel back one layer and there are three more waiting for you. Just when you think you know someone — even Vosch, the Big Bad Guy — things are revealed that make you realize you know nothing. And in the best way. Yancy’s writing compelled me onward, made me want to know more. It’s the best of post-apocalyptic fiction: things are going completely, utterly wrong, and yet you can’t help but hope for the best. He does balance some positive things with the horrors; he hasn’t killed off Cassie’s younger brother (yet) and there is some humor along the way. But mostly, it’s an intense emotional roller coaster.

And I say that with all the love in my heart.

SO good.

The Iron Trial

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by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare
First sentence: “From a distance, the man struggling up the white face of the glacier might have looked like an ant crawling slowly up the side of a dinner plate.”
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Content: There’s some intense violence at the start, but nothing worse than, say, Harry Potter. It’s in the middle grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore. We’ll see how the series goes; it might change.

Callum has grown up believing that magic is bad, that the mages at the Magisterium only put their interests in front of the students, that his leg which was injured as a baby and never healed right was the fault of the mages. His father — once a mage himself — has told Call this among other things. So when Call gets summoned for the Iron Trial — the selection process for the Magesterium — his father tells him to throw the entry. And, because Call is only 12 years old, he tries. And fails. He gets into the Magesterium and is exposed not only to the dreaded magic, but also the story of his past that his father never told.

I’m just going to come out and say it: it’s Harry Potter. The similarities are really numerous — a boy raised as an outsider finds out he’s magic, he has a special calling, he was at the death/disappearance of the Enemy and has a connection to him (um… bit of a spoiler, there. Sorry.), the story takes place over a school year, he has two friends (a boy and a girl), there’s a rich snob bully boy, and on and on.

Except, for all the similarities, it works. I’ve been looking for a (good) Harry Potter read-alike for years, and this one — Black and Clare are superb writers in their own right — fills the bill. The world building is solid, the magic interesting. And there’s a bit of a twist that caught me off guard. So, even though there’s solid Harry Potter similarities, it’s definitely worth reading.

The Witch’s Boy

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by Kelly Barnhill
First sentence: “Once upon a time there were two brothers, as alike to one another as you are to your own reflection.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy snagged from the ARC shelves at my place of employment.
Content: There really isn’t anything objectionable. The pacing is slow, however, which is something that might turn more reluctant readers off. It’s in the middle grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore.

Ned has been “the wrong boy” since the fateful day when he and his twin brother, Tam, tried to sail to the sea and ended up drowning in the river. Or nearly drowning, in Ned’s case. See: his mother is the witch of the village, and she has been the keeper of the magic — dangerous, unruly magic which Ned is never to touch — for most of Ned’s life. And although she couldn’t save Tam, she saved Ned… by sewing Tam’s soul inside of Ned.

Fast forward a few years — ones in which Ned doesn’t have much strength, where he has a stutter, and where he can’t read — to when the Bandit King comes into their lives with the intention to steal the magic for his own. This is where Ned does something remarkable: he takes the magic into himself, and sets off on an adventure. One in which he’ll meet a friend — his first since his brother died — and change the course of the world.

It’s a slow, quiet book; one that reminded me strongly of Anne Ursu’s books. That’s a good thing, except it’s not one for people who are expecting Grand Action and Adventure. Much of the book is spent inside Ned’s head (mostly because he can’t talk, though I did like Barnhill’s methods for portraying Ned’s stutter), which doesn’t lend itself to fast reading. That said, given time, this book is really a fantastic read. I loved how Barnhill portrayed the magic; it had its own personality, one that can be controlled by it’s “owner”, provided the person is strong enough. And I really enjoyed seeing Ned come into his own. Yes, he was pushed around by (some of) the adults in his life (I loved his mother; she’s fantastic), but it’s a true middle grade novel in that Ned (and his new friend, Áine) face the conflict on their own, without adult help.

Speaking of Áine: she’s a remarkable character, too. Self-sufficient, yes, and strong, but she also finds it in her heart to be a friend and a true companion.

I think this is one that will stay with me for a while.

The Whispering Skull

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by Jonathan Stroud
First sentence: “‘Don’t look now,’ Lockwood said.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: September 16, 2014
Review copy snagged out of the box sent by our Hachette rep.
Others in the series: The Screaming Staircase
Content: There’s lots of ghosts, obviously, and some scary situations. Also a couple of deaths and a couple of instances of mild swearing. It’s in the middle grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore, but I’d be wary about giving it to an overly sensitive child.

It’s not very often, I think, that the second book in a series is as good (if not better) than the first one. This is one of those rare instances.

First off, it was wonderful to be back with Lockwood, George, and Lucy. Lockwood was as reckless and charming as ever; Lucy was still the glue that held the company together. But George was really the focus of this story. He got his moment in the spotlight, and was something more than the bookish, slightly overweight Other Guy.

The mystery this time is centered around a body Lockwood, Lucy, and George are hired to help secure.  A couple of grave excavators have found a grave site that wasn’t supposed to be there, the body of one Edmund Bickerstaff, who was a leading paranormal and psychic experimenter in Victorian times. It turns out that he was experimenting with things he shouldn’t have been, creating a Bone Glass which was supposed to give you a view into the afterlife, but instead kills anyone who looks at it.

Soon after the excavation, however, the Bone Glass is stolen, and Lockwood & Co are in a fierce competition with their rivals at Fittes to solve the mystery.

Oh, and yes, the whispering skull of the title (and the cover; love it!) does play a fairly major role.

There are so many brilliant things about this book. From the pacing (I couldn’t put it down!) to the hilarious asides, to the action-adventure feel.  It’s wonderful that you don’t really have to read The Screaming Staircase to enjoy this one. There are a few references to the previous book, but nothing happened in it that you Have to know before picking this one up. Additionally, even though there are teasers for the next book (which can’t come out soon enough) the story in this one wraps completely up. I love it when series books are like this.

I can’t wait for the next one.

Life of Zarf: The Trouble with Weasels

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by Rob Harrell
First sentence: “Zarf.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy downloaded from Edelweiss.
Release date: September 2, 2014
Content: It’s pretty basic, and there are a lot of pictures. I’ll probably shelve it in the Middle Grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore, though it’d work for an advanced 1st or second grader. There’s nothing objectionable.

Zarf is a troll. That means, at this middle school of his, that he is the bottom of the bottom on the social ladder. Even his friends Kevin (of Littlepig fame) and Chester (the Jester) are higher up the social ladder than he is. But then, what do you expect when your the kid and grandkid of the trolls who bugged the billy goats?

Zarf’s pretty okay with his social nothingness. That is, until King Cheznott goes missing, presumably dead, killed (or kidnapped) by huge Snuffweasels. And his bully son (at least bully to Zarf), Roquefort, takes over. And throws Zarf  in the dungeon. Where he (somewhat inadvertently) finds himself on a rescue mission. And, of course, hilarity ensues.

Actually the plot is really secondary in this book. It’s mostly just about silliness. Serious silliness. Like:

“How can I explain that voice? It was so deep, it sounded like a cross between Darth Vader’s voice and someone farting through a tuba.”

or odd creatures, like attack pears!

Or Chester’s really jokes (“How many wobble gnomes does it take to massage a swampfrog?” We never do find out the punchline to that one.)

Or the clever asides:

As you can tell, this slim book is liberally scattered with pictures. Making it perfect for the reluctant reader. And it’s hilarious, which makes the appeal that much greater. At any rate, I laughed quite a bit and read it all in one sitting. Perfect, silly, stupid fun.

Ruin and Rising

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by Leigh Bardugo
First sentence: “The monster’s name was Izmrud, the great worm, and there were those who claimed had had made the tunnels that ran beneath Ravka.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm
Content: There’s some violence and lots of kissing and some off-screen sex (implied). It’s in the YA (grades 6-8) section off the bookstore.

Alina is in a bit of a predicament. She has two of the amplifiers and that enabled her to temporarily set back the Darkling. However, it cost her most of her power, turned her hair white, and has forced her underground and into the protection of the Apparate, whom she despises.

Her goal: fend of the zealots who consider her a saint, get out of the White Cathedral, hope that Nikolai is still alive (and in some sort of condition to be king), find the firebird and the third amplifier, and defeat the Darkling, once and for all.

And manage to come out of all of it alive.

My only complaint is that I didn’t reread the other two books beforehand; I really do think that this series is best read one right after another. Even so, it didn’t take me long to remind myself of the big, broad points. There’s a lot of action, and Alina is a major player in all of the decisions, including the final, heart-rendering one. There were a lot of small moments I loved, but I adored the big ones: the battles with the Darkling, the confrontation with the former king. Nikolai was fantastic, and even Mal (and the True Love between Mal and Alina) grew on me over the pages.

A fantastic way to end a series.