The Passage for Kids: The Fifth Wave Review

Those of you who have heard me say ‘I don’t really read much sci-fi or fantasy’ probably have a hard time believing me given the number of speculative books I’ve reviewed recently. The truth is I LOVE a well told fantasy or sci-fi novel, I’m just EXTREMELY picky about what I read. The Fifth Wave is is one of better ones. If you’re looking for a fast-paced survival story with a touch of sci-fi, this should be your go-to summer read (in addition to Summer Days, Starry Nights of course).

Despite being a standalone book, The Fifth Wave has the scope, range of characters, and the same taught tension as Justin Cronin’s best-selling The Passage. We are introduced to Cassie, sixteen, paranoid and alone, hiding from an unknown alien foe in the woods. Cassie tells us about the previous waves of invasion and how quickly earth’s population has been decimated in a matter of months. Next we meet Ben, a schoolmate of Cassie’s who has been recruited by a covert military operation who are training children to become ultimate alien-killing machines, a la Ender’s Game.

The teens in this novel are up against some pretty serious odds. Parts of the book are vivid and brutal, including Cassie coming upon a dying soldier in an abandoned convenience store, and scenes of cruelty involving a rather sadistic commander and his child soldiers. It’s not gratuitous and helps build up the characters of Ben and Cassie, but it may be hard for some younger readers to stomach.

The strongest part of the novel is how plausible it all felt. I like my sci-fi near-fetched, as opposed to far-fetched. Rick Yancey‘s ‘waves’ of invasion feel frighteningly possible: power outage, natural disasters, viral outbreak, etc. I don’t want to give too much away because the joy of reading this novel is having it unravel as you get deeper into the story. There is a moment when Cassie, who is the character we spend the most time with and grow the closes too, mentions her few possessions, one of which is a box of tampons. YES. Even when on the run from unseen alien invaders, a girl needs tampons. I wish more survival novels acknowledged the necessities of life.

At times The Fifth Wave dips into melodrama in the form of some teen angst and relationships, but I appreciated how Yancey acknowledges that even in the middle of an apocalypse, teens are going to have feelings, much like the teen angst that rears its head in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Overall I could not get enough of this well-paced, suspenseful read. Yancey is an accomplished storyteller who reels you in from the very beginning. This book feels tailor-made for adaptation, perhaps as a miniseries. This is one of those rare books that appeals to both male and female readers, and fans of The Passage, Ender’s Game, The Hunger Games and well-told survival narratives with eat this one up.

The Fifth Wave will be available from Penguin Canada on May 7th.

Out of This World: Maggot Moon Review

The always fabulous Sally Gardner has outdone herself with a chilling speculative vision of a fascist 1950s regime in her Costa award-winning novel, Maggot Moon.

Standish lives in Zone 7, a forgotten slum of The Motherland where every day is bleak and violent. Without Gramps and his friend Hector, life would be unbearable. But when Hector and his family disappear in the dead of night and the day of the much-anticipated first moon landing draws nearer, Standish decides that something must be done. Despite his challenges (Standish has difficulty reading), he could be the person who throws the rock that takes down the giant.

The novel takes place in what feels like 1950s England, should the Nazi’s have won WWII. The Motherland is racing towards the first moon landing to prove their supremacy to the rest of the world. The author has been a bit mum on the exact setting but gives an eloquent explanation of it here.   In this lovely piece Gardner also talks about dyslexia, something her character Standish (and she herself) struggles with. Standish’s narration is full of unique observations, something the author contributes to his dyslexia, which allows him to see the world differently. This makes for some memorable and fresh descriptions.

The narrative is steeped in metaphor and told in jagged, non-sequential sections. There is a lot left to the imagination in terms of the setting, the details of The Motherland’s rise to power and regime, and what exists in the outside world. Despite some graphically depicted scenes, there are moments of tenderness and hope, such as Standish’s dreams of a world in technicolour, with ice-cream coloured Cadillacs and Croca-colas, his friendship with Hector, and his loving, supportive Gramps, an ex-scene painter who is part of the resistance (if you can call it that). One of my favourite moments is when a relentless bully sides with Standish and sticks up for a child who is brutally beaten by a cruel teacher.

This is a powerful book with scenes of graphic violence and horrifying abuses of power. It reminded me in parts of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and Janne Teller’s Nothing, a book that chilled me to the bone. Though it may be too strong for some readers, it provides an excellent basis for discussion on power, rebellion, hope, humanity, and change. Sometimes a piece of well-written speculative fiction is the perfect mirror in which to reflect what’s happening in the world today. The central metaphor of David taking down Goliath is well drawn and moving. There is just enough distance that readers can disassociate from the truly terrifying situations, but there are lots of opportunities for them to make comparisons to our own world. Very powerful stuff.

Maggot Moon is available now in hard cover from Penguin Canada.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun: Friday Society Review

I was in desperate need for something fun and fresh, and this cheeky YA novel from Canadian Adrienne Kress fit the bill.

You know I love a good girl power (ugh how I wish I could find a cooler term) novel. Case in point, my love of Kiki Strike, The Red Blazer Girls, and The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks. When I first heard of the concept- three girls who are apprentices to powerful men join forces to create a sort of secret superhero society in Victorian (or is Edwardian?) London- it felt so perfect I couldn’t believe no one had attempted it before. Kress’  love of all things steampunk combined with a sassy attitude make her the perfect writer for this story.

This book is a fine balancing act. It is at times silly, inspiring, fun, feminist, but it never feels like too much of one thing. It’s easy to visualize and would make an excellent movie, a sort of Charlie’s Angels meets Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes. I appreciated the inclusion of Michiko, a young Japanese woman trained in the samurai arts. So often ‘Victorian’ translates to ‘British,’ and  diversity in YA is always welcome.

There is some romance here, but thankfully Kress avoids making the story revolve about boys, which is a nice change of pace in the often romance-saturated YA. Instead, the girls are discovering that they, too can be proactive and make a difference, much aided by their new-found friendships. Kress includes a few conversations about women’s rights but she never feels preachy nor does she stray too far from her fun, adventure-seeking plot. Fans of Y.S. Lee’s Mary Quinn mysteries, Kiki Strike, Lesley Livingston, or anyone looking for a fun, empowering book for teens will love The Friday Society. Let’s hope Kress has more under her steampunk belt!

The Friday Society is available now in hard cover from Dial, and distributed in Canada by Razorbill Canada

YA Trends: Victorian Vicissitude & Steampunk Sass

As a subgenre, steampunk is not new, but it has remained a fairly niche market in YA. However, there are a number of steampunk-ish novels featuring feisty females coming down the road, which makes me think that this speculative genre is poised to take over mainstream YA in a big way.

The Mary Quinn mysteries by Y.S. Lee seem to be the first to really popularize the Victorian female heroine. These are historical mysteries and there is nothing really steampunk about them in the traditional sense, unless you consider the very premise (young female orphans trained to be elite spies) speculative. These witty, well-written mysteries are drenched in historical details and feature an engaging and capable heroine. A good gateway drug to more potent steampunk fare.

Masque of The Red Death (Bethany Griffin)  is more traditional steampunk. A lush and addictive retelling of an Edgar Allan Poe story of the same name, Griffin creates a crumbling city reminscent of New Orleans that is divided into the masked elite and the decrepit poor. Araby, the daughter of a valuable scientist and member of the elite, is drawn to the dark, seedy debauchery clubs, seeking to forget the pain of her twin brother’s loss.  These midnight trips lead her to two very different men, from different sides of the tracks, who open her eyes to both the reality of the poor and a dangerous rebellion. This is a world of plague, masked balls, airships, and glamour. I am DYING to read the sequel, Dance of the Red Death.

The Friday Society (Adrienne Kress) is due out this fall from and promises to capture the smart-alecky, butt-kicking spirit of the author’s middle grade novels Alex and the Ironic Gentleman and Timothy and the Dragon’s Gate but Kress has graduated to a YA audience. This novel features three very different heroines who are assistants to powerful men (a magician, a member of parliament, and a martial arts guru) and band together to solve a mystery after a murder at a ball.

Like Masque of the Red Death, Megan Shepherd’s twisted and fascinating The Mad Man’s Daughter (HarperCollins 2013) is a re-telling, this time of the creepy Island of Doctor Moreau. Juliet is the daughter of disgraced Dr. Moreau, who disappeared and was presumed dead, leaving her destitute after his mysterious work was brought into question. When she discovers that her father is still alive, conducting his strange experiments on a remote island in the pacific, she sets across the ocean to be with him, never expecting the horrors that await her. Victorian London? Check. Damsel in distress who must learn to defend herself? Check. Supernatural or speculative element? Check. Odd science/clockwork? Check.

So why all the interest in feisty Victorian ladies? I suspect this is a response to all the dystopian fiction out there. Kick-ass female heroines are definitely en vogue and rather than imagine dystopian futures, these authors have re-invented the past. Class and hierarchy are major issues in both dystopian fiction and in this particular flavour of steampunk. The Victorian era was a rather bleak period for women, and there is something satisfying and exhilarating to revisit this period and give voice and action to the women who were so downtrodden by the era. I’m not anti-Austen, but even her most proactive and formidable female characters are undone (or saved) by a man.

I for one am enjoying this Ladies of Steampunk trend. I love a good costume drama, and a costume drama in which the female lead kicks ass in petticoats? Even better.

Hungry for More Dystopia? Prepare for Divergent Nation

Say good bye to tributes and hello to factions!

If you are at all interested in YA you should have heard of The Divergent Trilogy by Veronica Roth by now. This series is taking over the blogosphere like nothing else in recent memory. Check out the #DivergentNation tweets on twitter or the Divergent series page on facebook to get a taste of the fervor.  Divergent is being named the sucessor to The Hunger Games and things are certainly lining up that way. Summit Entertainment has bought the rights and a script for the first film is in the works, stores across Canada (and in the US) have been preparing for release day parties and events, and the books have been hitting bestseller lists.

So what’s the big deal? Why Divergent and not one of the other dystopian trilogies? Firstly, timing. Divergent was released nine months after the release of Mockingjay, just after The Hunger Games movie was cast and the spotlight on YA fiction was heating up. Dystopia to the general public (though not diehard YA fans) was still fresh and the market was not saturated. Secondly, a catchy concept. In Veronica Roth’s world, people choose one of five factions to train with and live in. Soon readers were aligning themselves with certain factions (I’m Amity with a healthy Erudite streak, in case anyone was wondering). People (particularly teenage girls) love identifying with a particular group (think of all those Seventeen, Teen People, or Cosmo quizzes you took and you’ll know what I’m talking about). Thirdly, a great plot with strong writing. Young as she is, Veronica Roth knows how to evoke time and place and writes with urgency. She is a born storyteller and one to watch.

The series takes place in a speculative Chicago, in which society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). When citizens turn sixteen, they publicly select which faction to devote their lives to. In the first book, Divergent, Beatrice Prior shocks everyone by giving up peacekeeping Abnegation for rowdy Dauntless. What follows is a competitive, violent and dangerous initiation. Not everyone makes it through, but Beatrice-who renames herself Tris- proves to be  worthy contender. There is a boy (of course), and trouble is brewing in the seemingly perfect Chicago, trouble that has something to do with the secret Tris has been hiding.

Divergent was all about Dauntless- what it stood for, how it had been corrupted, what it was like to seek and obtain membership to a very exclusive community. Divergent is violent; in some ways the violence felt more graphic than the violence in The Hunger Games. But like The Hunger Games, Roth is careful to point out that extreme violence (violence for violence’s sake) is in fact a perversion of what it means to be Dauntless (brave, fearless, protective). In Insurgent, Tris’ world becomes much bigger. She learns about the other factions, gets insight into Four and his family issues, and deals with major insurrection and social breakdown. You know, just your regular day in a dystopian YA novel.

Like Katniss, Tris is fearless, a little moody, and an anti-hero. She is far more aware of her feelings than Katniss is and there is a genuine romance between her and Four with no third party distraction. In Insurgent we get to see the growing pains stage of their relationship; how it stands up to challenges, perceived betrayals, and of course,  incredible danger. Brava to Roth for exploring the ups and downs of a single relationship instead of creating the all too familiar (but completely unrealistic) love triangle scenario.

There were a few too many pure action scenes for me, which started to blend into one another after awhile, and I would have liked more development in the downtime between action scenes. This being said, I read the entire book in about three and a half hours and I truly love and admire Roth’s ability to twist the plot and keep the momentum up for almost 500 pages. This is a worthy contender for the status of Next Big Thing and don’t expect it to go away anytime soon. Now the question is what will the title of the final installment be? First Divergent, then Insurgent…perhaps Convergent? Resurgent?Any guesses?

If you’re not already hyped up, check out this awesome ad created by a HarperCollinsCanada colleague of mine (gotta love those drums!):

Insurgent is available in hard cover on May 1st from HarperCollins Canada.

For those of you who are already a part of #DivergentNation, check out this fun links:

Faction Reading Lists from The Savvy Reader

Veronica Roth talks about the process of her book being turned into a movie at Divergentmovie.net

Take this faction quiz to find out your true faction!

Infectious Reading: The Way We Fall Review

Although it often gets mentioned with dystopian or paranormal fiction, there is nothing speculative or sci-fi about this book other than the fact that the source of the disease is mysterious and there are 2 more books to come which may prove to be more dystopian. This is a “what if” story set firmly in reality.

Kaelyn lives on a small island off the coast of Nova Scotia where a strange virus seems to have taken hold of the human population. Soon the entire island is under quarantine, communication with the mainland is down, and people start dying at an alarming rate. Kaelyn’s father, a microbiologist, spends every waking hour at the hospital, her brother is obsessed with finding a way off the island, and Kaelyn is left feeling helpless. Not one to sit around and wait, Kaelyn connects with Tessa, the aloof new girlfriend of her best friend, Leo, and Gav, a cute guy from school dedicated to delivering food safely to the residents. Among chaos and death, Kaelyn finds friendship, hope, maybe even love, but how long can it last?

Kaelyn is an excellent narrator, and I appreciated the glimpses into her past when  life was ‘normal’ which helped to shape my perception of her character and her relationships. My favourite character is Tessa, mostly because at the moment she is a bit of a closed book who just happens to have won the heart of Kaelyn’s best friend and crush Leo, who seems to be a stand-up guy (we haven’t met him…yet).

It seems like every book is part of a series (usually a trilogy) these days and there is nothing more frustrating than a first book that does nothing but set the scene and builds up to the real action which takes place in book two. Crewe avoids this nicely and yet leaves the reader with a very effective cliff hanger. The plot, like the virus, moves quickly and while there isn’t a culminating climactic moment there is a series of events- some plausible, some surprising- that make the reader feel like the events in the book COULD happen, which is almost more satisfying than a completely over-the-top fabricated storyline.

The diary/letter format works well. I never really believed that Kaelyn would end up sending the letter to Leo, but by imagining a particular listener it does focus the narrative nicely. Crewe has an intimate, breezy style that compelled me to finish the book in two sittings. Teens, especially slightly more grown-up fans of Susan Beth Pfeffer’s Moon Crash/The Last Survivors series, will eat this one up and clamor for The Lives We Lost, the next book in The Fallen World trilogy, due out next January.

The Way We Fall is available in hard cover from Disney Hyperion.

Plague is the New Dystopia: Trends in YA

Trend tracking is a delicate and tricky thing. The minute you stumble upon one, the trend seems to have passed. But I can’t ignore the number of YA plague novels that seem to be on the horizon. It can be argued (successfully) that plague books fall under the larger umbrella of dystopian fiction, but I find that in most cases, a plague is mentioned as the cause of the society’s current dystopian state, but the main action of the book takes place in the aftermath, not during the outbreak itself. There are also an awful lot of zombie novels that begin as plague novels, in which the zombies function as the plague, infecting the living.

I find outbreak stories genuinely terrifying, moreso than traditional dystopian novels. Plague books have an element of “this could really happen” because it HAS already happened, a number of times in history. Nothing is more leveling than disease.  I love scary books and I love trying to imagine what I would do if I was- god forbid- running around a plague-stricken city (currently knocking on all sorts of wood). Here are two of the most promising looking plague books on the market.

First up, Megan Crewe’s hotly anticipated THE WAY WE FALL (Disney/Hyperion), the first in a new trilogy. There’s been lots of pre-publication buzz for this book and I couldn’t be more thrilled for this young Canadian author. When a deadly virus begins to sweep through sixteen-year-old Kaelyn’s community, the government quarantines her island—no one can leave, and no one can come back. Those still healthy must fight for dwindling supplies, or lose all chance of survival. Inspired by books like Stephen King’s The Stand, Doomsday Book (Connie Willis), The Plague (Albert Camus), and awesome middle grade title Life as We Knew It (Beth Pfieffer), this book promises to be like the movie Outbreak but with teenagers on the brink of adulthood. Honestly, what more do you want in a book?

Check out this GREAT trailer:

Bethany Griffin’s MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH (Greenwillow), based loosely on the Edgar Allan Poe story of the same name, is due out in May. This creepy gothic novel takes place in a city that feels a little like Paris and a lot like New Orleans. A plague has decimated most of the world’s population and Araby’s father, a scientist, has discovered a mask that filters the air and provides protection. The only catch is that maniacal Prince Prospero controls who gets a mask and the masses can’t afford them.  Everything in the book oscillates between lavish and squalor- incredible gowns and balls and corpses rotting in the streets. I am not a love triangle girl (I maintain that Peeta and Gale exist to help Katniss fulfil her role and develop into the woman she will become, not as romantic polar opposites for her to agonize over. I will not comment on that *other* famous YA love triangle), but I admit to getting caught up in Araby’s struggle between manic genius and consummate bad boy with a cause Elliott, and works-all night-in-the-debauchery-district-wearing-sexy-eyeliner-in-order-to-support-his-orphaned-younger-siblings Will. If it’s not yet clear, I LOVED this book- full review to come later.

Both of these novels are by promising young authors who’ve taken a genre and made it their own. Plague books may be a close relative to dystopian novels, but there is something even more immediate and chilling about them. Let’s hope more authors get infected (sorry, I almost went an entire post without a bad plague pun) by this fledgling genre.

Dark in all the Right Places: This Dark Endeavour

Identical twins Victor and Konrad Frankenstein spend most of their days sailing, fencing, and laughing with their fiesty cousin Elizabeth and their witty, bookish friend, Henry. But when Konrad falls ill, and no doctor can figure out the cause or a cure, Victor takes matters into his own hands. He believes the cure lies in one of the ancient texts in the Dark Library, a mysterious library full of unusual books hidden deep within the Frankenstein chateaux. With the help of Mr. Polodori, a blacklisted alchemist, Viktor, Henry and Elizabeth set off on three dangerous and increasingly horrifying quests to obtain the ingredients necessary to make the Elixir of Life and save Konrad. But as the tasks get more difficult and Victor’s jealousy of Konrad deepens, he starts to wonder if the Elixir of Life is the answer he’s been looking for.

Picking up a Kenneth Oppel book is always the right choice. At this point in his illustrious (and, in Canada, unmatched) career, it is no surprise that Oppel is a master of pace. He knows when to use a cliffhanger, when to wield a plot twist, and when to linger over a sentence. His writing is never superfluous: there is no time lost nor word wasted in his novels. This is definitely true of The Dark Endeavour, which I devoured in record time.

I enjoyed the setting, 18th century Geneva, which Oppel portrays as a golden era of enlightenment and liberalism. While the setting and time period were clear in my mind, Oppel deftly avoids the exposition and dense language that can sometimes clog the storytelling in historical fiction. There are wonderful parallels drawn between science and magic and faith and magic, which allows Oppel to have some fun with the more supernatural or inventive parts of the story. Perhaps my favourite invention was the Wolf’s Vision, a potion that when applied directly to the eyes allows the user to see the world as a wolf does. In a clever and heady scene, it is with his Wolf Vision that Victor first realizes his lust for Elizabeth.

This Dark Endeavour is definitely the sexiest and therefore most teen of Oppel’s books. A great deal of the tension and conflict rests on a love triangle between Victor, Elizabeth (Oppel is careful to remind the reader that she is a DISTANT cousin), and Konrad. Konrad is the good son: affable, charming, kind. He is the twin who has won Elizabeth’s heart. Victor is the passionate son, who is often rash and given to bouts of jealousy. Despite creating these distinctions, Oppel is careful not to dwell on them, and therefore avoids creating flat, two dimensional characters.

This combination of compelling love triangle and supernatural elements is perhaps what attracted the attention of the producers of Twilight, who have already purchased the film rights. So far, the production boasts director Matt Reeves (Let Me In, Cloverfield) and writer Jacob Aaron Estes (Mean Creek), which you can read more about here.

There has been a lot of hoopla lately over an inflammatory article in The Wall Street Journal bemoaning the dark state of YA*. Among other things, it refers to a vast range of books (from dystopian fantasy to contemporary realistic fiction) as too dark and “depraved.” In Canada, a similar (though more measured and far less concerned) article came out the following week in The National Post (which oddly did not reference the WSJ article, despite discussing similar issues and even relying on some of the same books).

I don’t really have much to say on this issue that hasn’t been said by hundreds of other people, although  I expressed my feelings on this and other things YA on a recent Fresh Air Panel on CBC, along with Toronto Public Library’s Cameron Ray and Evan Munday. You can hear our thoughts on this (and some great summer reads!) here:

audioplayer.html?clipid=2041237793

The fact is, every few years a similar article surfaces, inevitably resulting in an outpouring of support from writers, librarians, and the YA community. This time around, search under the hashtag #YAsaves and get ready to be inspired. Questions of censorship and what is appropriate will always plague the children’s literature and YA community. Every book has a reader, and it is the lucky job of those of us who work in this industry to make sure each book finds the perfect audience. In the case of This Dark Endeavour, it will be enjoyed by boys and girls, particularly those with a fondness for adventure and speculative fiction, ages 12+.

The Dark Endeavour will be available in hard cover from HarperCollins Canada in August.

*If you must, you can read it here. Be warned that this piece reads like an op-ed written by Nancy Grace.

*And here’s the much more well-rounded, journalistic article from The National Post.

Crazy Love: Delirium

What is so appealing about dystopian or post-apocalyptic romances? Perhaps for teens, more so than adults, ’what would you do for love’ is a defining question. Love is elusive and hard enough in the real world, imagine if it happened under a fascist, totalitarian regime? Of course there are many realistic novels set in oppressed countries that deal with this exact theme, but perhaps this is too political or too real for those readers who are looking for the catharthis of a tragic romance. There are many dystopian romances out there right now, Delirium, Matched by Ally Condie, and Across the Universe by Beth Revis (which  is less dystopian and more sci-fi, not that the publisher would admit that)* and I am making my way through the lot of them, starting with Delirium.

Lena is looking forward to her 18th birthday when she will undergo a procedure that will ensure that she will never become infected with amor deliria nervosa (aka, love). Lena lives in a world where love is dangerous and outlawed and the citizens of the United States (for the most part) voluntarily submit themselves to what seems to be a partial lobotomy in order to live a happy, peaceful, life.  After the procedure they go to college and are matched up with a partner with whom they will marry and have children. Lena’s mother and sister were both infected, leading to suicide (Lena’s mother) and a violent struggle ending in a cure (Rachel, the sister). Lena wants nothing more than to be ordinary, happy, and unexceptional, until she meets Alex. When she discovers that Alex is an invalid, one of the people from the Wilds who live outside the electrified fence of the city, Lena is shocked and scared, but by this point it is too late- she is in love with Alex.

I picked this up because I was intrigued by the concept- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind meets Allegra Goodman’s The Other Side of the Island with a little Romeo and Juliet thrown in there for good measure. The concept is a perfect conduit for the teen theme trifecta: forbidden love, individuality, free will. What makes it so appealing is that these themes are explored in the most extreme situation. Oliver is playing on the notion that at some point in adolescence, the idea of marrying and moving to the suburbs, thereby turning into one’s parents, is a foreign and horrifying concept to many teens. Multiply that fear times ten and you have Delirium.

One of things I liked about this book is how Oliver explores all kinds of love. Although it is ultimatley Alex that Lena can’t live without, she realizes that it is also love that she feels for her best friend Hana and her cousin Gracie. Some of my favourite scenes are those between Lena and Hana, which feel bittersweet because there time is so limited. After the procedure things like friendship don’t matter, and memories from before fade away.

Each chapter opens with a quotation from propaganda or societal texts. I like this concept, which allows the reader insight into the world of the book without being too expository.Some of these sources are  recognizable but have been altered to fit the goals of the new regime. For example, the Adam and Eve story from Genesis revolves around the seed of love, rather than an apple of knowledge. At times these books felt a little forced (The Book of Shhh in particular is a bit obvious), as does the concept of an entire nation voluntarily submitting to have their emotion centres destroyed, but Oliver is a compelling writer and Lena is smart and engaging and before you know it, it’s two am and you’re still reading. Delirium will be like catnip for teen girls; they will devour it and come sniffing for more. And this spring, I will have lots to offer them.

Delirium is available in hard cover from HarperCollins.

*Somewhere along the line science fiction became a dirty word in YA. Now everything is “speculative,” “dystopian,” or “post apocalyptic”. Let’s call a spade a spade, folks.

Finding My Way Back to Sci-Fi/Fantasy: Pathfinder

Typical fantasy cover alert: More specifically, this cover reminds me an awful lot of the NA cover for Finnikin of the Rock

My first non-Christmas post! Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas and everything it encompasses, but it’s good to be back on my regular reading track. I have a tempting stack of teen ARCS waiting for me (Holly Black! Deb Caletti! Melina Marchetta! Tim Wynne-Jones!) that makes me yearn for a sick day, if only to lounge around and read all day. First up, Pathfinder.

I am embarrassed to admit that I have not read Orson Scott Card’s famous and beloved Ender’s Game or any of it’s subsequent titles. It has always been on my vast To Read pile and after reading Pathfinder, it has definitely moved up the ranks. I am very glad that one of my bosses urged me to read Pathfinder, which I resisted at first. It was a thought-provoking read that engaged me from the very beginning.

Rigg has spent his life traveling with his father, hunting animals and trading their pelts. So it comes as a complete shock when upon his death-bed, Rigg’s father instructs him to find his mother and sister, a sibling he never knew he had. Accompanied by his cheeky but ultimately loyal friend Umbo, Rigg heads off for the old imperial city- a dangerous place he has never set foot in. But Rigg is not your average teenager. He has a special ability to see the paths of any living creature, animal or man. This window into the past becomes important in his quest, as does the ability Umbo has been keeping a secret–until one fateful day that sets both of them on course for adventure.  

But there is another layer of the story. This is also the story of another young man, Ram, specially trained and hand-picked to pilot a spacecraft through a timefold and into the future in the hopes that humans will find another planet to inhabit. Card doles out Ram’s story in tantalizing little slices, which is probably for the best, as much of the science is complicated and can make your brain hurt, but in a good way. Trying to figure out how these two stories would converge was a great exercise in imagination.

In fact, throughout the entire book, I felt engaged in a way I haven’t been in fiction in a long time. Card is an excellent storyteller, but the reader needs to work a little bit in order to get the most out of the story. I have no idea how plausible the science is, but it doesn’t matter. It feels possible in Card’s world, and that’s all that matters. I love time travel books, which I think are exceedingly difficult to pull off well. Card’s logic seems to work, but to be honest, there came a point where I stopped trying to rationalize it and just trusted the author’s authority.

 This isn’t a breezy read, or a story that lends itself well to skim reading, but it is an extremely well-crafted, intelligent read for those who like to be intellectually engaged with their novels. If I had any complaints, it would be that the world of Pathfinder is very much a boy’s world. Female characters are few and far between, and at first glance appear to be meek, corrupt, or very masculine, but I found the relationships between various male characters realistic and at times even heart-warming. Lovers of science-fiction, fantasy, speculative fiction, and historical fiction, for that matter, will enjoy sinking their teeth into Pathfinder.

I will warn you that this is the beginning of a new series, so don’t expect too much in the way of resolution from Pathfinder. If you’re like me, you will curse Orson Scott Card for leaving you hanging, and then start counting the days until the second book in The Serpent World series is released.

Side note: I’m not really into book trailers, but this one is pretty effective:

Pathfinder is available now in hardcover from Simon Pulse, an imprint of Simon and Schuster.