Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Series: Children

Fantasy Literature for Children ages 9-12.

Lady Friday: Plot is getting formulaic, but it’s still enjoyable

Lady Friday by Garth Nix

At the epicenter of the universe is the House, a sort of celestial bureaucracy that is responsible for recording everything that happens in the Secondary Realms (the world as we know it). It is the Architect who is responsible for creating all this, with a range of guidelines and rules in place for keeping order in each world.

Named after the days of the week and personifying the seven deadly sins, the trustees took over the House when the Architect disappeared, disregarding the instructions she left behind in the form of the Will.

The Iron Ring: Morals, magic, and mythology

The Iron Ring by Lloyd Alexander

The trademark feature of Lloyd Alexander’s storytelling is to choose a cultural background and weave his own story into the already existing mythology; his most famous example of this is of course The Chronicles of Prydain, in which his own story and characters were melded with the myths and legends of Wales (as found in The Mabinogian). The Iron Ring gets a similar treatment, as worked into the story are elements of The Mahabharata and The Ramayana,

The Lost Colony: Artemis has a nemesis

The Last Colony by Eoin Colfer

The Artemis Fowl series has always been superbly written and brilliantly conceived, with an astonishing array of humor, techno-gadgets, mind-bending plots, daredevil escapes and rescues… frankly, they have a tendency to leave one dizzy — but enchanted.

And The Last Colony is better than the previous installments.

There are many reasons for this. First, there were at least three places where Colfer could have stopped writing, wrapped the book up, given it a different title, and shipped it off to his publisher and wait to collect his generous royalty checks.

The Forestwife Trilogy: Underdeveloped

THE FORESTWIFE TRILOGY by Theresa Tomlinson

Theresa Tomlinson’s Forestwife is a good kids’ book. For the most part, it kept me interested, but there were many “cheesy” sections that ended way too “neatly” for me. There was also no recognizable “bad guy” which makes a plotline sort of boring and unrecognizable.

The nice thing about The Forestwife was that it was not your typical Robbin Hood/Maid Marian novel. Marian was more of a hero herself in this version, making it an empowering book for young girls,

The Wizard in the Tree: Not up to usual quality

The Wizard in the Tree by Lloyd Alexander

All the wizards have long since departed this land for Vale Innis — but one has been left behind. When Mallory’s favorite oak tree is felled, she finds a surprising discovery inside: an old wizard named Arbican who’s desperate to follow his fellow wizards across the sea. The orphaned Mallory has grown up with stories of magic and enchantment, and couldn’t be more delighted with the discovery — especially if there’s a chance that she can go with him. Mallory does not have the most wonderful life as scullery maid to the nasty Mrs Parsel,

Slathbog’s Gold: Adventurers Wanted

Slathbog’s Gold by M.L. Forman

Alex Taylor is not having a good day. He didn’t mean to drop all the glasses and break them. Besides it was his cousin’s fault. Thinking that a brisk walk would clear his head, Alex wanders down a street and happens to see a sign in the window of a bookshop: Adventurers Wanted, apply within.

Curious, Alex enters the store and before he knows it he is signing a contract to go on an adventure with an Elf and a Dwarf. With the rest of his company Alex goes on the adventure of a lifetime searching for the evil dragon Slathbog and pursuing his legendary treasure.

Foundling: Rich characterization, excellent world-building

Foundling by D.M. Cornish

Contrary to its daunting size, Foundling is a fun story about a boy with a girl’s name. Rossamund is a Bookchild, meaning he was raised as an orphan, and the only record of his existence is recorded in the book of names at the orphanage. Rossamund is an older child at the orphanage, as he has not yet been chosen to go out into the world and work for whoever chooses him. When he is finally called upon, he is a little downhearted to hear that he is to be a lamplighter.

Heroes of the Valley: A quick, enjoyable, often funny YA read

Heroes of the Valley by Jonathan Stroud

In the long ago history of Jonathan Stroud’s YA fantasy Heroes of the Valley, the great hero Svein gathered the other 11 heroes of the Valley to fight the Battle of the Rock against the ravening inhuman Trows who had long terrorized the Valley residents, snatching babies and killing women and children at night — the only time the Trow came out. At the end of the battle, the heroes were all dead but the Trow were driven utterly out of the valley and into the heights.

The 13th Reality: A rousing adventure

The 13th Reality by James Dashner

The 13th Reality, the first volume of The Journey of Curious Letters by James Dashner, was a complete delight.

Tick (short for Atticus) is your ultimate unlikely hero. He has a birthmark on his neck that he hates so much that he wears a scarf year-round. The school bullies call it the “barf scarf” and when we meet him, he is in the midst of being bullied. That very day, he receives the first in a series of curious letters,

A Glory of Unicorns: Not quite what the introduction promises

A Glory of Unicorns by Bruce Coville

Bruce Coville (the compiler and editor of this anthology) promised in his introduction no sappy unicorns, tells us that unicorn love is hard and demanding, and unicorns themselves neither safe nor sweet. However, four stories into this book I found that was exactly what the book was delivering — sweet, dreamy, dear little unicorns. Contradicting his own words Coville brings us the story of ‘The Guardian of Memory’ in which unicorns have names such as ‘Arabella Skydancer’ and ‘Manda Seafoam’ and are entirely domesticated,

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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