Previous SFF Author: John Wyndham
Fantasy Literature for Young Adults (over the age of 12).
The Woman Who Rides Like a Man by Tamora Pierce
The Woman Who Rides Like a Man is the third volume of the SONG OF THE LIONESS quartet and the weakest volume of the series. Tamora Pierce makes a good effort of exposing Alanna (and thus, the reader) to some of the varying peoples and customs within the Tortallan kingdom and its neighboring countries, but relies too much on the White Savior trope, and the entire book suffers as a result. As I’ve said before,
September 9th, 2019. Jana Nyman and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3.5, 4 | Tamora Pierce | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Court of Fives by Kate Elliott
Kate Elliott has a well-deserved reputation for writing excellent science-fiction and fantasy for adults. Her characters, world-building, and societies are not only entertaining but well-crafted. It seems only natural that, at some point in her career, she would try her hand at Young Adult fiction. The result is Court of Fives, the first in a planned fantasy trilogy which is sure to appeal to younger readers as well as Elliott’s established fan base. While I’ve seen the novel described as “YA meets Game of Thrones,” Elliott herself has said,
September 4th, 2019. Jana Nyman, Tadiana Jones and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4.5 | Kate Elliott | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
In the Hand of the Goddess by Tamora Pierce
In the Hand of the Goddess is the second installment of Tamora Pierce’s SONG OF THE LIONESS quartet, and while Pierce does provide a fair amount of backstory and repetition of key details from the previous book, Alanna, I recommend reading the books in sequence. By starting at the beginning, readers will have a better appreciation for the trials and challenges Alanna experiences in her quest to become a knight,
September 3rd, 2019. Jana Nyman and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4 | Tamora Pierce | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
The Unbound by Victoria Schwab
The Unbound is the sequel to Victoria Schwab’s The Archived, which you should read before starting this book. There will be some spoilers for The Archived in this review, so beware.
Summer is over for Mackenzie Bishop, the Keeper whose secret job is to escort the “Histories” of dead people back to their resting place in the Archive. When we met Mac in The Archived,
September 2nd, 2019. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Victoria (V.E.) Schwab | Audio, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Archived by Victoria Schwab
Mackenzie (Mac) Bishop, a high-school student, has just moved to a new town with her mom and dad. They’re living in an apartment in a renovated old hotel. Her mom is excited about restoring and reopening a once-popular coffee shop in the hotel, but Mac knows that her mom is really just trying to stay focused and busy after the recent death of Mac’s younger brother.
What Mackenzie’s parents don’t know is that Mac is a Keeper, a job she inherited from her now-deceased grandfather.
August 28th, 2019. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Victoria (V.E.) Schwab | Audio, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater
Here it is, The Raven King (2016), the fourth and final book in Maggie Stiefvater‘s THE RAVEN CYCLE, which began with The Raven Boys and continued with The Dream Thieves and Blue Lily, Lily Blue. And … it’s hard to know what to say. I’ve had mixed feelings throughout all four of the books, liking certain ideas and characters, but often getting a little fed up with the prose and dialogue,
August 28th, 2019. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Maggie Stiefvater | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater
I’ll admit that the last book in this four-part series, The Dream Thieves, was difficult for me to get through — it wasn’t that I disliked the characters or the storyline, but the pacing was glacially slow and Maggie Stiefvater‘s prose is definitely an acquired taste. However, Blue Lily, Lily Blue (2014) was an improvement; I could tell because after each reading session I was surprised by just how many chapters I’d churned through.
August 27th, 2019. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Maggie Stiefvater | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater
The second in Maggie Stiefvater‘s THE RAVEN CYCLE, and a direct sequel to The Raven Boys, The Dream Thieves (2013) focuses on the character of Ronan Lynch, a teenage boy who — in the last sentence of the previous book’s final chapter — reveals to his friends that he can pull real objects out of his dreams.
But that’s getting ahead of myself. The gist of this four-part series is that four students of the prestigious Aglionby Academy are on a quest to find the resting place of Welsh king Owen Glendower.
August 26th, 2019. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Maggie Stiefvater | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Blue is the only non-psychic in a large extended family of psychics in Henrietta, Virginia. Her only unusual ability is that her presence amplifies the psychic powers of others around her, but she herself cannot use these abilities. So it’s a shock when, while sitting vigil in a graveyard with her aunt Neeve, Blue sees the spirit of a boy about her age who is destined to die in the next year. She learns that there are only two possible reasons she was able to see him: either he’s her true love,
August 21st, 2019. Kelly Lasiter and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4 | Maggie Stiefvater | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Temple of Fire by Francis Henry Atkins (Frank Aubrey/Fred Ashley)
As I mentioned in my review of English author Francis Henry Atkins’ third novel, The King of the Dead (1903), this was a writer who chose to hide behind a number of sobriquets, all of which featured the initials “F.A.” Those pen names were Frank Aubrey (which he used for that 1903 novel), Frank Atkins, Fenton Ash and Fred Ashley. I had hugely enjoyed the third novel by this seldom-discussed author,
August 21st, 2019. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 3.5 | Frank Aubrey | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Previous SFF Author: John Wyndham
What a fascinating exploration of Edwige Fenech's contributions to the giallo genre! I love how the post highlights her unique…
Pretty challenging book. Cut by half, speed up the cadence. Trying to figure out the plot, the main point of…
Thanks for the kind words, Marion! Coming as they are from a professional writer, they are much appreciated!
Wonderful review, Sandy.
The "body count" bothered me a bit less because being dead seemed more like an inconvenience than anything else... unlike…