Love in the Time of Global Warming by Francesca Lia Block YP FIC BLOCK

Pen has a story to tell.  Stories have power and hers may just save the world. At least what's rest of it.  The Earth Shaker ripped the world apart and the sea reclaimed the land.  all Pen wanted was to find her family, a home, but she'll have to make a journey first. An odyssey.  She'll make a new family, face down giants, and fight the man that destroyed the world. 

This is the best posy-apocalyptic reimagining of the Odyssey I've ever read! Sure, it's the ONLY one I've ever read, but that's just another point in it's favor.  Francesca Lia Block always writes beautiful stories with amazing descriptive prose that can pull you into any world or person she imagines, so it is no surprise she can make something as odd as a post-apocalypse Odyssey come to life. Like the Odyssey before it this book is really about the power of stories and storytellers.  It also goes deeper into what gives the stories power.  Things like hope, faith, loyalty, love, hate, death, and more.  It is also about how we make our own family's but are also tied forever by the family that made us.  If this all sounds pretty philosophical and heady, well, yes it is.  It's also beautiful and magical and filled with an unashamed wonder of words and magic.  It's a love letter to the power of belief and fantasy.  It's also a look at what happens when the good things in life are betrayed and twisted.  This won't be a story for everyone. It tosses and turns and gets twisted inside and out before it all comes back together.  For me that was a frustrating, but ultimately rewarding experience.  I realized I was taken on a journey, too.  Like Pen it was not the one I wanted, but it was the right journey.  If you want a very strange trip, I can't recommend this book enough.

You can find Love in the Time of Global Warming in our catalog here.

Dust City by Robert Paul Weston YP FIC WESTON

Who's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?  Unfortunately, everyone in Dust City is, which means Henry Whelp is one marked canid.  His dad is doing hard time for the double murder of Little Red Riding Hood and her Granny, and everyone assumes murder is just in his blood.  When there's a murder at the St. Remus for Wayward Youth, Henry is the first and only suspect. He hightails it away to the dark alleys of Dust City, a place where fairy dust is real and addictive.  He'll have to find the real killer, find out the truth about what happened to Little Red, and solve the mystery of the missing fairies before he gets the axe.  

Fresh off our Fractured Fairy Tales display, Dust City is a supremely clever mix of magic, gritty hard boiled mystery, and fairy tale.  Henry like most the inhabitants of dust city is an evolved animal.  Wolves, foxes, ravens, and all the animals of Dust City have evolved to walk upright, have hands,and  talk, but they're still second class citizens to hominids. everyone in Dust City uses synthesized fairy dust called Dust that can heal wounds and alter minds. So this is a story about drug addicted animals and murder!  If you've ever read the Non-Disneyfied version of fairy tales, you'd know they're filled with plenty of grisly murder, so a hardboiled fairy tale is actually a perfect fit. A big part of the fun is finding the cleverly re-imagined characters from famous fairy tales. Weston does a great job of laying down a thick level of atmosphere.  He brings the wholly improbable to life and grounds it in a grimy and corrupt city.  Like the teller of tales of old, this book has dark morals, a wicked sense of humor, and is a way to use the fantastic to look at everyday life.  It did take me a couple of chapters to get the hang of how the world worked, but I ended up being glad that Weston revealed things a bit of a time.  It made the story feel more 'real' somehow to not spell out how the animals and magic worked as one big info-dump in the first few pages.  Dust City feels like a real place filled with fascinating, dangerous, and offbeat characters.  Anyone that enjoys fairy tales or new twists on fairy tales will find a lot to love in Dust City.

You can find Dust City in our catalog here.

The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson YP FIC SANDERSON

Joel has always wanted to be a Rithmatist, but Rithmatists are born and not made.  Joel, undaumnted, pured his life into knowing everything about Rithmatics he could and won a coveted scholarship to Armedius Academy.  there he secretly sneaks into classes and learns as much as he can about the magical skill he can never use.  When a new professor shows up and upsets the order of the academy, Joel learns there is more at stake than academic standing. Now he and a young Rithmatist named Melody are on the case and must find the secrets that will change their world forever.

FINALLY!!! A fantasy book that avoids the C.O.D. (Child of Destiny, foretold since the before times that will come to save the world from darkness and blah blah blah) trap.  Joel gets where he is from intelligence and extremely hard work, not birthright!  Also the magic in  this world is super well thought out, excellently described, and very exciting.  Rithmatists draw specific chalk lines that protect or attack the two dimensional monsters known as chalklings. There are excellent schematics explaining the magic at the start of each chapter and they really give the reader something to look forward to.  I really loved how driven Joel is.  It not only makes him someone you want to root for, but also keeps the plot moving very well. I liked Melody a lot and felt she really complemented Joel, but she wasn't given a lot of time to expand as a character.  Fortunately this is a series, so there is time for expansion on all fronts.  For instance, the world is very different with America a series of islands under various nation's control, but a lot of this is background and not fully explored.  However, it is very interesting background and givers the reader something to look forward to seeing more of in the sequels.  This is a unique new series with a wonderful magic system and a sparking plot.  If you are a fantasy fan then you just might have a new favorite series!

You can check our catalog for The Rithmatist here.

The Earthsea Trilogy by Ursula K. Le Guin YP FIC LEGUIN

Welcome to Earthsea, where words have power and magic lives.  

A Wizard of Earthsea: A young boy is born with a special affinity for magic and dangerous ambition. Ged could change the balance of magic forever when his arrogance awakens a darkness from beyond.  

The Tombs of Atun: Tenar serves the nameless ones, ancient gods that require sacrifices of the living.  When she captures a powerful wizards with stories of the world outside will she be a faithful servant or risk everything to taste freedom?

The Farthest Shore: Magic is dying in Earthsea and there is only one wizard that can restore the balance, but it will be at a great price.

This is among the best fantasy writing I have ever read and I am literally kicking myself (ow!) for not reading it waaaaaaay (ow!) sooner! Le Guin has a deceptively simple prose style.  I say deceptive, because she squeezes so much out of her short almost stark sentences.  It reads like an oral history passed down through generations and then finally put to paper.  This makes it feel like a document discovered about an ancient world and feel timeless.  Also, the simple style allows for her to leave a lot between the lines.  Words and knowledge are the keys to magic in Earthsea and also in art.  Le Guin uses these masterfully to weave her own spells. So these books work as rousing adventures filled with larger than life characters at the same time as being examinations of much deeper themes. She looks at the nature of power, faith, honor, duty, and most of all the idea of balance.  She does this without ever having to use long diatribes or give explicit answers.  You'll just read wonderful adventures and find yourself asking the questions almost unconsciously.  This is a series that should be read and reread over a lifetime, so like the wizard Ged you change along with the story and find new wonders as you grow.  If and when you love these tales, continue with Tehanu also Tales from Earthsea also found in YP FIC LEGUIN.

You can check our catalog for The Earthsea Trilogy here.

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor YP FIC OKORAFOR

Sunny was born and raised in New York, but lives in Nigeria.  They call her “Akata,” an insulting term for Americans.  The fact that she is an albino makes her even more of an outsider.  When she sees a vision of Armageddon in the flame of a candle she knows she is truly different.  Soon she finds friends that are different too and discovers she is part of a secret world.  The good news is that she has magic powers, the bad news is she’ll need them to hunt down a black-hatted child killer, creatively named Black Hat.

This is my kind of fantasy.  Set firmly in the real world, with characters you believe in, Akata Witch makes you believe in magic.  Okorafor lets you really get to know Sunny and explores her life in Nigeria before the magic really starts moving the plot forward.  This means, that the book has a slow start, but I really didn’t mind.  It also has a super fast ending, but I was able to forgive some plotting problems because so much about the book is really good. It was as interesting to me to see life in modern Nigeria as it was to learn about a secret group of magic users. That’s what makes this book pretty special, you care about the world beyond just the cool powers AND the cool powers are really super cool! It’s also has a super evil and genuinely menacing villain. I’m always looking for paranormal that isn’t so normal and Akata Witch is way better than normal. 

Red Glove by Holly Black YP FIC BLACK

Cassel Sharpe thought he was the only normal one in a family of curseworking con artists, but that was the biggest con of all.  He has the most powerful curse of all: transformation. Anything he touches changes into whatever he wants.  Now that the love of his life is transformed back into herself she’s also been cursed to love him. So now her love is as phony as his old life.  when the Sharpe family loses one of its own, Cassell is recruited by the Feds to catch the killer all while dodging the mob and keeping two steps ahead of the feds and out of their cuffs. Cassel is finding out that love is the biggest con of all, but can he pull it off?

Holly Black writes fantasy that almost anyone can enjoy.  Her world seems real even when it deals with the unreal.  She does this by thinking about all the details that would exist in a world where magic is commonplace and also understanding how to bring a criminal lifestyle to the page.  She has vibrant characters with real motivations and depth and she knows how to pace a novel as well as the best thriller authors.  This is the sequel to White Cat, so definitely read it first (which works out nicely because it is also excellent!).  What makes these novels so enjoyable is the mix of danger, intrigue, and the satisfaction of a well pulled off con (which both novels end with a doozy of a big twist con). Last but not least, I really love that Black always includes loads of characters from a multicultural background that don’t exist to represent an ethnicity (tokenism!) and are in n way stereotypes.  It helps to see people of color in fantasy.  all in all this is a compelling series that could appeal to book lovers of many stripes.

Tall Story by Candy Gourlay YP FIC GOURLAY

Everything about Bernardo is tall. Not only is he eight feet at 16, but also he is seen as a Folk Hero that protects form earthquakes in his small village in the Philippines. Everything about Andi’s life is coming up short. She’s considered too short for basketball and when she FINALLY gets to join a team her parents move her. Then when her GIANT half-brother Bernardo moves to London to live with them nothing is the same. But Bernardo is more than he seems, and after he comes miracles begin to happen.

What works so well about this book is that each chapter is told from the perspective of either Bernardo or his sister Andi, each taking turns. This helps to highlight how different they are and makes the times that Bernardo causes Andi trouble all the funnier, because we see it through both their eyes. A lot of the comedy comes from Bernardo being such and outsider to modern society and the rest comes from how spunky and quick witted Andi is. This is a funny, lighthearted read that will definitely grab sports fans. Andi’s basketball storyline provides some of the funniest and most exciting moments of the book. When the more magical (although the author never makes clear if it is magic or chance) elements appear they seem natural, because Bernardo has been talking about magic for so long. This is a kind of fun, quirky hidden gem that is filled with true to life but larger than life characters and lots of genuine heart.

Hexed by Michael Alan Nelson YP FIC NELSON Art by Emma Rios

Luci Jennifer Inacio Das Neves, Lucifer for short, is a good thief. She steals magical items for her employer and only friend, but when a former employer she ripped off finds her and forces her to pull a job she unwittingly starts a war of the magic using underworld.

this is great new hero that uses intelligence more than raw power. She’s troubled, feisty, and cool. The book is a mix of fantasy and crime fiction, which has been done to DEATH, but Hexed makes it fun and fresh. A lot of the praise goes to Emma Rios. The art has a manga inspired look but with a European flair. This first adventure is fast paced and has loads of good twists. It introduces a lot of interesting characters and ideas that we don’t get to learn about, but that’s what future volumes are for. If you like Anita Blake, Buffy, or other chicas that kick monster butt check Hexed out.

Fire: Tales of Elemental Spirits by Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson YP FIC MCKINLEY

Fire is five stories about magical creatures born of fire and the people that encounter them. There is Phoenix, a story of an old man that finds the legendary fire bird in a small English forest and is changed in an extraordinary way. In Hellhound a fiery eyed dog from the pound is more than it seems. Fireworm tells of a prehistoric young man that must become one with the spirit world to fight his clan’s ultimate enemy. In Salamander Man a slave must become more than human to fight an invasion of evil wizards. The final tale is First Flight, the story of Ern, a boy that must guide a dragon home.

This is a great collection of stories for almost any fantasy fan. It has very realistic and modern settings in Phoenix and Hellhound and three very different magical settings in the other three tales. It was great to have such variety and I think it will appeal to a large range of fantasy readers. Dickinsion wrote Phoenix, Fireworm, and Salamander Man and of these I would say Fireworm is the best. The ancient world of primitive man is an excellent setting for fantasy because in that time what we see as myth and make believe was reality to people. My favorite of the collection however is McKinley’s Hell Hound. The main character Miri is an animal lover that has a creative mind and finds that her imagination is dead right when she calls her dog Flame a hell hound. The realistic setting and characters make the magical elements really believable and effective. Also check out Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits by the same authors in YP FIC MCKINLEY.

The Dark Hunters Volume 1: Story by Sherrilyn Kenyon; Art by Claudia Campos

Author Sherrilyn Kenyon is known for the romantic fiction series The Dark Hunters, which is the basis for this new manga series. Set in New Orleans, The Dark Hunters Volume One sets the story about Amanda Devereaux, an accounting student, who is in denial of her super powers. All of her sisters have embraced their special abilities, but she longs for normalcy and does everything possible to make it happen. She even dates boring men, including Cliff, with whom she was engaged until her magical family freaked him out and he broke things off.

One day when she reluctantly visited her twin sister’s house to let out her dog, Amanda is hit over the head and abducted. She awakes to find herself handcuffed to a gorgeous, blonde hunk of a man, who introduces himself as Hunter. He’s a vampire- kind-of. Really he is a Dark Hunter, who are the good guys in the world of vampires. Dark Hunters fight daimons, who are the bad guys and suck out people’s souls. Amanda and Hunter find themselves united together beyond the hand cuffs they share when one of the deadliest vampires comes after them. Together they must save themselves and the rest of humanity. Along the journey they discover things about themselves and fall for one another.

The story is loosely based on ancient mythology with a vampire twist. There are gods, tough warriors, spells, psychic dreams, and visits from the undead. Volume One of The Dark Hunters acts as an introduction to Kenyon’s story and characters. At times the pages are text heavy, but this seems necessary in order to fit in the weighty story line. Claudia Campos’s illustrations capture the manga style, but unfortunately are forced to compete with the text throughout the story. Kenyon leaves the reader wanting more, but Volume 2 won’t be published until March 2010. In the mean time, if you enjoy this book, check out the original Dark Hunters series. Readers who love romance and vampires are sure to be satisfied while waiting for the release of the next book in the manga series.