Kai Meyer
(1969- )
Kai Meyer is the author of many highly acclaimed and popular books for adults and young adults in his native Germany. Pirate Curse, the first book in the Wave Walkers trilogy, was praised by Booklist as “a fast-paced fantasy featuring plenty of action and suspense.” The Water Mirror, the first book in the Dark Reflections Trilogy, was named a School Library Journal Best Book, a Locus Magazine Recommended Read, a Book Sense Children’s Pick, and a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age. It received starred reviews in both School Library Journal and Publishers Weekly. School Library Journal has called Meyer “an expert at creating fantastical worlds filled with unusual and exotic elements.” Meyer also writes screenplays and is a co-creator of the role-playing game ENGEL. Find out more at
Kai Meyer’s website.
The Water Mirror by Kai Meyer
The Water Mirror is a strong start to a series that gives a small sense of resolution at the end but really ends mid-adventure. Before it ends though it has introduced enough characters, plots, and teasing hints that the reader is left wanting much more. It's certainly one of the better beginnings out there. The setting is an alternate Venice whose canals are filled with sharp- teethed mermaids, whose streets are patrolled by stone lions (a few of which can fly), and whose people are protected by the mysterious Flowing Queen, who has kept them safe for 30 years while they are besieged by the Egyptian empire and its mummy armies that have seemingly conquered nearly all of the world save Venice and Hell.
Yes, it turns out Hell is a real place, discovered some years ago, and its ruler is offering Venice aid against the Egyptians (merely a pinprick of blood for all Venetians is t... Read More
The Stone Light by Kai Meyer
Fleeing from a fictitious Renaissance Venice on the back of the flying lion Vermithrax, the orphaned Merle is persuaded by the Flowing Queen, the mysterious entity that had for so long protected Venice from the besieging Egyptian armies but now inhabits Merle’s body, to seek help from Lord Light, the ruler of Hell. Back in Venice, a small rebel army is gathering under the guidance of another mysterious power who is determined to protect the city against the Egyptian army whatever the cost. The pharaoh is also beset by treachery from within his own forces. How will all these competing forces be resolved?
The answer is they won’t. The Stone Light is the second book in the Dark Reflections trilogy by Kai Meyer. The first book set up an intriguing and mysterious Venice, and just when the action s... Read More
More books by Kai Meyer
Wave Walkers — (2006-2007) Young adult. Pirate Wars was also published as The Water Weavers. Publisher: The pirates of the Caribbean have a name for kids who can walk on water — they call them polliwogs. As far as 14-year-old Jolly knows, she’s the last polliwog still alive. She is valuable to the pirate captain who raised her, for she can sneak up on an enemy ship by walking over the waves. When someone sets a trap for Jolly’s ship, Jolly alone escapes. She is washed up on a tiny island inhabited by a farming family—and the ghosts who labor for them. The farmers have a son, Munk, who has been raised almost in hiding. Munk longs to go to sea, but his parents say that they are afraid of pirates, and they have forbidden Munk to reveal his true identity — he, too, is a polliwog. But pirates are not the only threat in the Caribbean. Evil forces are stirring, and a demon from the sea attacks and murders Munk’s parents. Was the demon really after Munk? And Jolly, too? Why are the polliwogs so valuable, and who wants them enough to kill for them? Jolly and Munk must sail with a strange crew of outcasts, led by the mysterious Ghost Trader, to avenge their loved ones and try to stop an ancient, malevolent force known as the Maelstrom. What it will cost both teens, no one can tell — in this thrilling, swashbuckling fantasy from the extraordinary Kai Meyer.
Arcadia Wakens — (2012-2014) Young adult. To New Yorker Rosa Alcantara, the exotic world of Sicily, with its network of Mafia families and its reputation for murder and intrigue, is just that — exotic, and wholly unknown. But when tragedy strikes, she must travel there, to her family’s ancestral home, where her sister and aunt have built their lives and where centuries of family secrets await her. Once there, Rosa wastes no time falling head over heels for Alessandro Carnevare, the son of a Sicilian Mafia family, whose handsome looks and savage grace both intrigue and unsettle her. But their families are sworn enemies, and her aunt and sister believe Alessandro is only using Rosa to infiltrate the Alcantara clan. And when Rosa encounters a tiger one night — a tiger with very familiar eyes — she can no longer deny that neither the Carnevares nor the Alcantaras are what they seem. Ancient myths brought to life in the Sicilian countryside, dangerous beasts roaming the hills, and a long history of familial bloodlust prove to Rosa that she can’t trust anyone — not even her own family. Torn between loyalty to her aunt and love for her family’s mortal enemy, Rosa must make the hardest decision of her life: stay in Sicily with her new love… or run as far and as fast as she can.
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