Next SFF Author: Rick Yancey

Previous SFF Author: John Wyndham

Series: Young Adult

Fantasy Literature for Young Adults (over the age of 12).

The Great God Pan: A little forgettable

The Great God Pan by Donna Jo Napoli

Donna Jo Napoli is famous for her retellings of fairytales; from Rapunzel (Zel), Rumplestiltskin (Spinners) and Hansel and Gretel (The Magic Circle), but she’s also done a couple of Greek myths as well: Sirena, and this, The Great God Pan. Taking inspiration from two mythological mysteries: the fate of Iphigenia (the king’s daughter sacrificed in order to ensure safe passage to Troy) and the goat-legged god Pan (of whom Plutarch wrote: “the great god Pan is dead!”),

Lament: Excellent YA fantasy

Lament: The Faerie Queen’s Deception by Maggie Stiefvater

First love: it’s scary and confusing enough even when there aren’t homicidal faeries involved. Add in the homicidal faeries, and a girl can get in over her head before she can say “cold iron.”

Maggie Stiefvater‘s Lament: The Faerie Queen’s Deception is an excellent YA fantasy that will appeal to anyone who likes stories of the fae as they appear in the oldest legends: dangerous, seductive, and sometimes deadly. Let me say right up front: Lament is downright frightening in places.

The Sterkarm Handshake: Dense, immensely complicated

The Sterkarm Handshake by Susan Price

In the 21st century an invention has finally been perfected: The Time Tube, which allows contemporary scientists, researches and corporate moneymakers to travel back into the 16th century and mingle with the locals there. Think of the possibilities! Plentiful supplies of oil, gold and coal, an extraordinary opportunity to study ancient life, and a pollution-free resort for those wealthy enough to make the trip. The corporation FUP has already purchased the troublesome borderlands between 16th century Scotland and England in order to begin development.

But there’s just one problem: the Sterkarms.

The Son of Summer Stars: Unicorns get back their dignity

The Son of Summer Stars by Meredith Ann Pierce

In the last book in the Firebringer trilogy, we finally come to the event that the two previous books have been steadily building toward: the retaking of the unicorns’ ancestral home from the treacherous wyverns. As the prophesied ‘Firebringer’, Prince Alijan is looked to as the means of regaining their Hallow Hills and Jan is certainly up to the challenge. Having finally made peace with the marauding gryphons, and finding happiness in his beloved Tek and their twin children, Jan has readied his tribe to march out to their homelands and do battle.

Across the Wall: A Tale of the Abhorsen and Other Stories

Across the Wall: A Tale of the Abhorsen and Other Stories by Garth Nix

Most fans will find that the most exciting feature of this Garth Nix collection is undoubtedly the short story “Nicholas Sayre and the Creature in the Case,” set in the world of the Old Kingdom (the setting of the Old Kingdom trilogy; Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen) and acting as a type of coda for the character of Nicolas Sayre, left damaged and traumatized in the last book.

The Water Mirror: A rich read

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,

Wolf Queen: Complicated

Wolf Queen by Tanith Lee

Wolf Queen (or Queen of Wolves in some publications) is the third of four books in the Claidi quartet, a series of books that are told in diary-form by the young heroine Claidi and her travels throughout a fantasy land. In the previous installments, Wolf Tower and Wolf Star, she has escaped slavery, destroyed a corrupt system, found her true love, been kept prisoner in a moving castle and escaped once more in a controllable star.

The Magic Circle: Poignant and thought-provoking

The Magic Circle by Donna Jo Napoli

Donna Jo Napoli’s trademark technique of fleshing out a fairytale is in fine display in The Magic Circle, her retelling of Hansel and Gretel. Napoli’s stories often reveal motivations behind some of the action that takes place in the traditional fairytales, reasoning out some of the fantastic elements and explaining the behaviour of the familiar characters; which usually results in the villain becoming more sympathetic and understandable. Such is certainly the case in The Magic Circle,

Wolf Star: Muddled but interesting story

Wolf Star by Tanith Lee

Wolf Star (also published as Wolf Star Rising) is the second of four books known as the Claidi Journals, stories told in the format of a diary by the young escaped-slave Claidi and her travels throughout a fantasy world in search of her origins and a home of her own. In the first installment, Wolf Tower, which you really must read if you want to understand what’s going on in this story, Claidi escaped the confines of the House with the handsome Nemian,

The Witch Queen: Weakest in the trilogy

The Witch Queen by Jan Siegel

The three-part story of Fernanda “Fern” Capel that began in Prospero’s Children and continued in The Dragon Charmer comes to its conclusion in The Witch Queen. A young woman now, Fern has resigned herself to the presence of magic in her life and accepted (however reluctantly) that her Gift means that the life of a witch is the only one she can lead. In Prospero’s Children Fern time-traveled back to the City of Atlantis,

Next SFF Author: Rick Yancey

Previous SFF Author: John Wyndham

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