Someone’s Read it Already

[Sherwood Smith's Twice a Prince is released today. Hopefully review tomorrow!]

Apparently Tobias Druitt is the pseudonym of Diane Purkiss and Michael Dowling; they’re mother and son. She’s an Oxford tutor (professor-type); he’s thirteen (probably fifteen by now) and supposedly a Child Genius. They have published a trilogy (of the which this is the first book) and are working on a next book that involves Tarot cards. This volume was released in 2005; the following volumes came out in 2006 and 2007. Diane Purkiss apparently enjoys baking bread, and Michael Dowling’s favorite colors are dark red and black, because they’re macabre.

Corydon is, so he thinks, a normal shepherd boy, but he has one goat leg, and his city threw him out as a scapegoat because of this. He gets captured by pirates shortly after that — pirates who are putting together a freak show full of monsters. There end up being about ten monsters on the island, including Medusa, the sphinx, and Lady Nagaina (who has five heads). Eventually Corydon helps them escape, but the leader of the pirates finds Perseus and convinces him that there’s a good reason to go kill all the monsters. Thus begins a war. At the same time, Corydon is trying to figure out who he is, since he’d never really considered it very much before then. Why does he have a goat-leg, and why do so many people feel that he’s the prophesied one? (more…)

This is another entry in Donna Jo Napoli’s collection of retold fairy tales; I reviewed another (actually a Greek myth) here. Ms. Napoli (most like Dr. Napoli) is a professor of linguistics at Swarthmore College. She has written a good deal of novels for children and young adults; none for adults, but that’s certainly not a problem. Her novels have been translated into languages as diverse as Farsi and Thai; she has won many awards, but none of the biggest ones (yet). She owns a tuxedo cat named Taxi, which definitely improves my opinion of her.

Prince Orasmyn is the son of the Shah of Persia; he is symbolically a religious leader as well. He has chosen to help with a ritual sacrifice, and when, at the last minute, they discover that the animal has a scar, he decides it’s okay. It’s not okay, though; it’s against the rules of Islam, and a spirit (a djinn in Arabic, but a pari in Farsi) rebukes him for harming the poor animal (who had already been harmed) and turns him into a lion. He will not be returned to human form until he can find a human woman who loves him. How will he ever make that happen? He cannot speak — he’s a beast! (more…)

[Happy birthday, Dad!]

I honestly thought I hadn’t read this book before; it was still in my head as ‘a book I need to read’, so when I found an inexpensive paperback copy, I grabbed it PDQ. Then, of course, I read the first twenty pages and thought, “This sounds awfully familiar.” I guess I did read it, or at least the first part of it, at one point a few years ago, but luckily I didn’t remember every single part of it. Edith Pattou is American; an Ohioan, to be precise (like me!); she has written two other YA books and one picture book. I don’t see that the third book in the YA trilogy ever got published, which is unfortunate.

(Ebba) Rose is the last of eight children; her mother is superstitious about birth direction, so all eight children were born facing different points on the compass rose. Rose, however, was not the east-born child they told her she was; she was actually a north-born, but her mother does not want to believe it because of a prophecy. The prophecy said that a north-born child of hers would die covered in ice and snow after a long journey. When Rose was old enough to make her own decisions, the family had a good deal of misfortune. Their (rented) farm was sold out from under them; an older daughter, Sara, became ill as well. However, a white bear (polar bear) comes and says that if Rose comes to live with him, their troubles will be ended. Rose’s mother is certain this will lead to her death, but the bear promises her safety. So Rose goes. Will she be safe? And why does the bear want her to live with him? (more…)

Tanith Lee has written something like fifty books, primarily for adults, but in the last ten years or so, she’s been writing quite a few for young adults. I first encountered her YA books with the early ones, which were titled Black Unicorn, Gold Unicorn, and Red Unicorn. A good deal of what she writes for adults is in the dark fantasy or borderline horror realm, and there were some odd things about those books (although they were very pretty). She is British, and not the daughter of Bernard Lee (”M”, from the first fifteen or so James Bond movies), although Wikipedia insists that’s a persistent rumor. (Not one I’ve heard.)

Miss Artemisia Faith (or Fitz-Willoughby Weatherhouse) is a student in a girls’ school in an alternate England, around the turn of the nineteenth century. She was not terribly miserable there, until one day when she hits her head and it jogs all her memories loose: memories of her mother, Molly Faith, called Piratica — the greatest female pirate of her day. Now, of course, she’s miserable in a place that makes her powder over the streak in her hair; that makes her walk around with a book on her head in a dress when she should be taking over her mother’s position (Molly passed away, which was how she got stuck in that school). She escapes pretty easily, and now her goal is to get the band (the pirate troupe) back together. (more…)

This was another book I picked up on the recommendation of The Ben (my fiance, for those not caught up). Gerald Morris is a born-Californian who now lives in Wisconsin, which may explain some of the appeal to Ben. He has written a series of perhaps a dozen books for middle-grade readers about Sir Gawain, mostly through the eyes of Sir Gawain’s squire, Terence. He’s just recently started a second series for even younger readers (according to Wikipedia).

Terence is living with a hermit with memories of the future when a young man of great knightly skill stops by. After a very bizarre fight involving a frying pan, the young man — Gawain of Orkney, shortly to become Sir Gawain of the Round Table — agrees to take Terence on as his squire. They travel to Camelot and, after Gawain is knighted, receive a quest from King Arthur. They leave, and go around the countryside having adventures that range from the truly dangerous to the truly bizarre to the truly fantastic. (more…)

Alice Hoffman has written a good deal of books, including one that was made into a movie (Practical Magic) and another (Here on Earth) that was an Oprah’s Book Club selection. Apparently two of her other books were made into movies as well, and she wrote the script for a movie called Independence Day from 1983 (obviously not the one starring Will Smith). She lives in Boston; apparently five or six of her novels are for young adults, and she has even written a few for children.

Rain is the daughter of the queen of a tribe of women that may or may not be the Amazons. However, since she was a child born of rape, her mother pays very little attention to her. Their world is a nomadic one; they move around during the summer and, very often, have to fight. The land they control involves a river, and quite often male-dominated groups see the women as easy prey. Rain, though, has been preparing herself to be queen, which is difficult, as her mother doesn’t seem to want her to be around. Will she be able to succeed? (more…)

[Jenny Davidson's The Explosionist was released yesterday. Sorry for forgetting it!]

I’d been looking for a good copy of this for a while; someone else had reviewed it (I’ve forgotten whom, unfortunately), and it piqued my interest. Ms. Ibbotson was born in Germany in 1925, but moved to England shortly thereafter. She published her first novel in 1965, and has gone on to publish quite a few since. I’m rather confused that I’d never manged to read anything by her before this, considering that she writes YA and children’s fantasy and other kinds of novels. Her books have even been mentioned as similar to J. K. Rowling’s, in that way where she was writing English children’s fantasy many years before JKR and just got the boost recently from having, “If you like Harry Potter, try these!” put near her books. (Rather like Diana Wynne Jones, that way.)

Anna was the oldest child of Count Grazinsky in St. Petersburg, but then the Russian Revolution came, and they moved, penniless (an old maid had disappeared with all their jewels), to England. Eventually their small stock of money runs out, and Anna decides she must get a job to support her mother and brother. The only jobs available (this being just after the war ends) are as maids, so she accepts a job as a temporary housemaid to the Earl of Westerholme. The earl is coming home from the hospital he had been in (he’d flown planes in the war), and he is engaged to be married shortly. Anna has tried to hide the fact that she is a countess; she’s not conventionally attractive, but she has endeared herself to the entire staff and all the neighbors. And, perhaps unfortunately, the Earl of Westerholme . . . (more…)

The recently-deceased Lloyd Alexander, of the Chronicles of Prydain fame, was actually an American author. I’d always assumed he was British, but he was from Pennsylvania and was born just before the Great Depression. He wrote dozens of books, mostly children’s and YA fantasy. The Chronicles of Prydain were vaguely based on Welsh mythology; many of his books contain elements of mythology from the British Isles, which is probably what led me to believe he was English. In any case, he published novels until his death (two weeks after his wife passed away); this novel was from 2002.

Lidi is a magician, of the stage and sleight-of-hand variety. Her father was, too; he taught her the majority of what she knows. However, he told her she would never be a real magician until she knew the Rope Trick, and there was only one man in the world who could teach it to her: Ferramondo. While she is searching for him, though, Lidi has been traveling as a show; her stage manager is a man named Jericho, and they travel in a wagon. After an aborted show in an inn, a small girl follows Lidi home. Her name is Daniella, and she wants to join Lidi and get away from the abusive innkeeper. Shortly after Daniella (who proves to be a savant about numbers and even mild future-telling) joins the troop, a man on the run named Julian joins as well. Can Lidi find Ferramondo and keep Daniella and Julian safe? (more…)

Kate Thompson, of recently-reviewed The New Policeman fame, has, as I noted in the other review, written quite a few other books. Switchers is, obviously, one of them. Like The New Policeman, it’s got fantasy elements, and it’s set in Ireland. Unlike The New Policeman, though, it’s set in Dublin, and has a more urban and cosmopolitan feel to it. I didn’t think the specific Irish identity of the book was quite as necessary. Nevertheless, it’s set there. Ms. Thompson is of course Irish herself, and has a strong interest in the preservation of the language and the culture of Ireland.

Tess is a thirteen-year-old student in Dublin; her family moves a lot, due to her father’s (unnamed) job, but they have a good amount of money. She doesn’t really have any friends, and that’s mostly OK with her, because she has a secret: she can shapeshift into animals, and has been able to do so since she was seven or eight. One day, after school, a boy follows her around, asks her name, and is generally annoying — mostly because he intimates that he knows her secret. Does he? At the same time, the UN has been noticing that the weather is getting much colder — blizzards and freezing temperatures are moving into temperate regions at much earlier times in the year. What’s causing this? (more…)

This is Book 3 in my “Hilari Bell Is Not A Teeny-Bopper” Penance. Hilari Bell is still a librarian and certainly not a teenybopper. I’ve reviewed two of her books prior to this, The Goblin Wood and The Prophecy. Apparently in the near future, she’s writing sequels to The Goblin Wood, and she has also started a duet of books about a shapeshifter, in a near-future YA SF setting. I’m excited about both, although we won’t be seeing them for quite a while.

Dayven is a Guardian-in-training; he’s almost fourteen, and on one’s fourteenth birthday, in his world, one is given one’s destiny. Dayven has always known that he wanted to be a Guardian, but his supervisor suspects he has magical talent. He goes to the wizard school to be tested, and it turns out that yes, he does have the ability. Of course, this makes him incredibly angry. Wizards, as everyone knows, are treasonous, honorless jerks. Dayven’s grandmother was a wizard, and she betrayed her country! However, the lord (of whose Guardians he wanted to join) asks him to at least pretend to be a wizard apprentice to make sure the wizards are loyal. If he does this, and with honor, he will win his Guardianship. Can he? (more…)