People like to put labels on China Miéville. Sometimes the slightly pretentious label “New Weird” is applied, sometimes “steampunk” (whatever that means). All I know is that he’s moving fantasy in another direction and I like it. This novel stands apart from his Bas-Lag novels (but theoretically it could be in the same universe) and… Read more Railsea by China Miéville
I’ve been fascinated by the generation ship idea in science fiction for a long time now. The idea of a group of humans isolated for hundreds, even thousands, of years, makes for fascinating possibilities. One of the classics is Orphans of the Sky by Robert Heinlein, where the ship’s inhabitants no longer even understand that… Read more Starglass by Phoebe North
Really enjoyed Uprooted and its fresh take on magic, not usually my favorite sort of fantasy. Magic in this book is an isolating, exhausting endeavor. It’s also a fresh take on a the now-classic “ceremony’ in YA lit, where a person is Chosen for a special destiny. Agnieszka, our awkward, unlikely heroine, is an interesting, appealing… Read more Uprooted by Naomi Novik
I’m an audiobook fan, for driving and just for something to help me keep going through tedious housework and chores. My family listened to the first book of his young adult Shattered Sea trilogy, Half a King, and I really enjoyed it. My husband is a long-time Joe Abercrombie fan and tells me this trilogy… Read more Half the World by Joe Abercrombie
A boy growing up in a rigid dystopia who turns out to be Special. A ritual sorting ceremony that leads the boy to a new life. It seems like a familiar enough premise for YA science fiction, but then something interesting happens: the book turns into a time travel/alternate history story, and a pretty compelling… Read more Rewinder by Brett Battles
Maybe the title of this blog should “Better Late than Never.” Part of my impetus for writing it is catching up on some of the great YA lit I’ve missed in the past few years, as well as my bad habit of reading the first book of trilogies and not the rest. I’ve got to… Read more The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Fantasy sety I will begin with a very unusual book: The Oddfits by Tiffany Tsao. The word “quirky” keeps coming to mind. I read this for free through the Kindle First program, so that’s a pretty swell way to get read as a new writer. How can I describe this story? Think of the very first… Read more The Oddfits by Tiffany Tsao