Reading Rants! Out of the Ordinary Teen Booklists!

The truth is out there, but not in these books!

I don’t particularly like the science fiction/fantasy genre. I’m sorry, but that elaborate building of nether-worlds and time travel and future shock doesn’t really do it for me. But I can’t say that now and then, I haven’t enjoyed some of the reads that have that sci-fi/fantasy twist, but are still grounded in a little thing we like to call reality. Some people are super serious about science fiction and fantasy books. That’s cool, and I respect all reading tastes, but I’m just not one of them. My picks tend to feature real-life teen situations that are set off by just enough of the fantastic to make the story fun and fictional. But whether you’re a total Trekkie or just surf over the sci-fi titles once in a while, I think you’ll find at least a few books that you can “beam-up” to your bedroom!

In a San Francisco of the near future, seventeen-year-old Marcus Yallow is a master hacker with a monster grudge. When the San Fran Bay Bridge is blown to smithereens by terrorists, Marcus and three of his best friends are hauled away as suspects by the Department of Homeland Security. They are interrogated, beaten, and denied food—FOR DAYS–just for being in the vicinity of the blast. After finally convincing his captors he knows nothing about the bombs, Marcus is released after signing documents swearing he’ll tell no one about his terrifying experience. He goes home to parents who are so happy that he’s alive that they buy his story of being quarantined due to possible exposure to biological toxins. But the world is not the way he left it. His beloved hometown has turned into a place where 24/7 surveillance is the name of the game. Law-abiding citizens are routinely shaken down if they deviate from their usual patterns by one iota. The DHS treats everyone like a potential terrorist threat. But Marcus refuses to accept the new police state and instead hatches a radical plan to jam the government’s circuits and return power to the people once and for all! How he manages to pull that off is the basis for this amazing sci-fi novel by tech-blogger Cory Doctorow. Clearly influenced by the events of September 11, 2001, stories from Guantanamo Bay, the PATRIOT Act and George Orwell’s classic 1984, Doctorow gives us a frighteningly contemporary glimpse at how easily the government can take away our civil liberties under the guise of keeping us “safe.” Totally timely and full of fascinating techno-talk that even the Google-challenged can understand, Little Brother is a fast-paced, thought-provoking read that will leave you searching for your own way to “jam” the Man! Want to know how Marcus does some of his techno-tricks? Check out Doctorow’s LB blog or connect with him on MySpace or Facebook.

In a fictional island kingdom off the Irish coast in the 1880’s, young Conor Broekhart leads a charmed life. As the beloved son of the head of King Nicholas’s sharpshooters, Conor is treated like royalty himself. He plays and plots with Princess Isabella, and learns self-defense and aeronautical design at the knee of the king’s best friend and Parisian scientist Victor Vigny. Together, they dream of creating the first heavier-than-air flying machine that will catapult man into the heavens. But all those dreams come to an abrupt end the day teenage Conor accidentally witnesses the double murder of his king and his adored tutor. Framed for the murders by the traitorous commander of the king’s army, Hugo Bonvilain, Conor is condemned to rot in an inescapable prison while his parents and Isabella are led to believe he is dead. At first, Conor wishes that were the case. But slowly, his resolve to escape grows until he fashions an outrageous plan that will either win his freedom or take his life. It is impossible to dig or swim your way off the prison island of Little Saltee. But if Conor’s plan works, he’ll just take to the air and fly…this historically flavored fantasy is pure white-knuckled pleasure from start to finish. Full swash-buckling swordplay, dizzying rescues from great heights and breathtaking escapes, Airman takes off quickly and lands with a satisfying thump. If you enjoy the adventures of Alex Rider, Matt Cruse, or even the clever machinations of Andy Dufresne, the brilliant hero of Stephen King’s Shawshank Redemption, then you’re going to want to book a flight with Conor Broekhart.

Whatever you do, don’t call them “vampires.” Why, they’re nothing like those cartoon-ish pasty-faced blood-suckers who hiss and turn into bats. Cole and his crew may be immortal and allergic to sunlight, but that’s about all they share in common with the murderous undead who haunt every strip mall multiplex screen. Instead, they call themselves “hemovores,” blood-eaters who got that way from a “smart virus” that rewired their systems to crave hemoglobin instead of hamburgers. Quiet and subtle, hemovores revere the humans they feed on, realizing that they would soon die without their life-giving blood. Now Cole, who after centuries still hasn’t fully adjusted to the hemovore life himself, must teach newly turned Gordon how to get around after dark. The best place to do that is the open road, where a new town every night guarantees that no one notices if a feed goes wrong. Except Gordon’s not exactly the most cooperative student. And, despite the decades under his belt, Cole is hardly a patient teacher. So when these two take a road trip together along with Cole’s wise-cracking friend Sandor, nothing goes as planned, and before long these hemovores are on the run—from each other. A moody and broody look at what it means to live (and drive) forever, this is the perfect choice for that next long car trip with your parents that feels ENDLESS. Pulling up to a library or bookstore near you May 2008.

In modern day L.A., Lark is a savvy, white-collar criminal trying to assemble a new crew to assist in his perfect plan-to-end-all-plans. Peabody is a tired middle-aged cop who cares more about his family than his dead-end job. And Anthony is a newly hired dogcatcher who’s just fallen in love. These three men couldn’t be more different. But their lives become intertwined when Peabody is called on to investigate the disappearance and deaths of several of Anthony’s kennel colleagues. Suddenly, L.A.’s dogcatchers are dropping like flies. But Anthony’s too ga-ga over his new flame to wonder if he’s next. If he only knew his girl’s true nature, he wouldn’t just be worried, he’d be outta there faster than you could say, “here, boy!” Because she wears fur under her silky smooth skin, and answers to Lark, who, besides being a criminal mastermind, also happens to be a werewolf bent on world domination. Anthony’s girl is just one of his many disciples. Anthony and Peabody don’t know it yet, but they’re about to come into uncomfortably close contact with some very sharp teeth! You follow me so far? Good, because that’s only the first twenty pages or so. What comes next is an intricately plotted dog-eat-dog tale of blood, money and fangs that defies definition. First time adult novelist Toby Barlow has written a romantic supernatural noir mystery (in blank verse, no less!) that will keep you guessing right up until the final dogfight. If you are addicted to Stephen King or devoted to Dean Koontz, then Sharp Teeth is right up your dark alley. A four-star thriller—go fetch ST from your nearest library or bookstore asap! This one can’t wait to be read in paperback, it’s that cool AND that hot!

I was initially a little worried when I discovered there was going to be a graphic novel version of the Neil Gaiman insta-horror-classic, Coraline. (See a sample panel to the right of rat-man, Mr. Bobo) Even though I neglected to post a review here of the original novel when it first came out, I absolutely loved it and still promote it like crazy to my students. Would creating a GN version enhance or destroy the black magic of the initial work? For those of you not in the know, the title character is an only child who lives on a rambling old country estate with her busy working parents. She is bored with her solitary life, wishes her parents would pay more attention to her, and longs for adventure. Then Coraline discovers a door in the old house that leads into another world that is a mirror-version of her own. The two parents in this world dote on her and hang on her every word, and the toys in her room in this world are far more interesting than the boring old toys in her real room. Except, sometimes they…move when Coraline isn’t looking, and instead of a dog or a cat to play with, there are big, black rats. Her attentive new parents are great—except they have black buttons instead of eyes, and keep wanting to sew buttons onto Coraline’s face, too. When Coraline decides she’d rather live her own world, the “other mother” gets angry and kidnaps her real mother and father. Now Coraline must return to the other side of the door and play a dangerous game with the other mother in order to save herself and her parents. My fears that the GN wouldn’t do justice to Gaiman’s work were groundless—P. Craig Russell’s illustrations were just right, and matched the creepy visions I had in my head after reading the original. Seeing the “other mother” on the page in all her black-buttoned glory was a sinister treat, and the scene when the “other father” shambles up the cellar stairs in pursuit of Coraline after she has ripped the buttons from his melting face is completely terrifying! I strongly recommend checking this one out if you loved the novel, or are just a fan of horror comics. Coming to a library or bookstore near you July 2008.

In a future dystopian London, peopled with human-animal hybrids and organic machines that can grow their own flesh, 15-year-old Sigurd is determined to recreate the peaceful kingdom his father Sigmund originated, which was bombed out of existence with his father’s assassination. Now England is ruled by a patchwork of squabbling warlords, and to unite them, Sigurd must make a great show of power. He does so by forging a sword from the shattered remnants of a magic knife that was gifted to his father by the god Odin himself, and slaying the terrifying, half-machine dragon Fafnir. He bathes in the monster’s blood, which makes his skin impermeable to gun or sword, except for one small spot between his shoulder blades. Once gifted with this near-immortality, he sets about his Herculean task, braving Hel-fire, the pain of the grave (and rising from the dead) and horrific battles, while always radiating calm and good cheer. But eventually, his big heart spells his doom when three women become determined to possess him—dead or alive. Does even a demi-god stand a chance against not just one but three scorned women? This brutally violent stand-alone sequel to the equally powerful Bloodtide is based on a 13th century Icelandic legend called the Volsunga saga, and therefore brimming with the sorts of bloody battles and high body count you would expect from a Viking epic. I love the transformative power of this modernized classic (which was one of my 2007 Top Ten), but with an ending worthy of the Saw movies, this is not even PG-13 fare. If you love myth-mashes, but dismemberments make you hurl, try Chris Wooding’s Poison or Donna Jo Napoli’s Sirena instead.

Well, Merry Christmas to me, as the sequel I’ve personally been waiting for all year (no, not Deathly Hollows or Edward vs. Jacob, Round Two) was gifted to me several days before it’s December 26th on sale date, allowing me to gift YOU in return with this review of the sumptuous Sweet Far Thing, the third volume of Libba Bray’s Gemma Doyle Trilogy (which begins with A Great and Terrible Beauty) At the end of Rebel Angels, angsty Victorian teen Gemma was able to bind the magic of the Realms to herself to keep it out of the hands of the warring Realms tribes. Her goal was to eventually unite the tribes by sharing the magic with all of them. But the longer Gemma holds the magic, the harder it is to think of giving it up, especially when it allows her a freedom in her own world that she used to be able to enjoy only in the Realms. She can create illusions that alter her physical appearance, and that of BFFs Felicity and Ann, frighten away unwelcome suitors, and even cause snippy schoolmates to crash and burn during their ballet recitals. But while Gemma is using her power to play dress-up with Felicity and Ann, Realms folk are running amok, fighting and even killing each other to try and force Gemma’s hand. Meanwhile, Mrs. Nightwing is rebuilding the cursed East Wing in order to reopen the portal to the Realms, Circe may or may not have actually been neutralized, The Rakshana are threatening Gemma’s brother’s life, Pippa’s gone lulu (and not in a cute way) and Kartik’s back, seriously steaming up Gemma’s gabled windows–all while Gemma is trying to prepare for her debut season, where she will be presented to Queen Victoria along with all the other upper crust debutantes. Talk about an  inconvienient  time to have to battle demons and topple armies of the dead! Though it takes 800+ pages to do it, Bray manages to tie up every end she loosed in the first two books, while continuing to develop Gemma’s defiant, curious, headstrong character, who grows into her newfound power and learns to wield it with caution and respect. Bray knows her third book’s big–she even gives a sly nod to the fact when Gemma complains about an unwieldly text, “I curse authors who write such lengthy books when a few neat pages of prose would do.” I don’t know about you, but I’d rather have a big book that satisfactorily answers all my questions anyday, and this one certainly does that! An excellent purchase for some of that Christmas or Hanukkah money that’s burning a hole in your pocket.

In this companion book to Pfeffer’s phenomenal Life As We Knew It, seventeen-year-old Alex Morales deals with the day-to-day drudgery of the apocalypse in New York City. An asteroid has struck the moon, nudging it closer to Earth and upsetting the balance of the tides. This causes tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions, bringing civilization to a standstill worldwide. Alex, who lives on the upper West side of Manhattan, is trying to take care of his two younger sisters on his own, as his Mami stuck in Queens and his Papi is away in Puerto Rico. Like Miranda from LAWKI, Alex must make some tough choices as the new head of the family in order to make sure that he and his sisters survive, including breaking into other apartments in his building to forage for canned goods, and “body shopping” with his friend Kevin—which consists of picking over the ever growing number of corpses that litter the city streets for goods they can trade for food. Even as his life grows more and more surreal, Alex and his sisters cling to their Catholic faith and school to provide structure in a world gone completely mad. Will the siblings make it out of NYC alive? And if they do, what kind of world is waiting for them on the mainland? While I throughly enjoyed this novel, I have to admit that it didn’t strike the same chord in my heart as LAWKI. It may have something to do with the fact that in LAWKI, Miranda’s  story is told in first person (”I said, I did”) and in TD&TG, Alex’s story is told in third person (”He said, he did.”) And maybe it strikes a little too close to home–living in NYC, it’s not fun imagining myself in Alex’s shoes and having to scavenge in my neighbor’s abandoned apartments for food! However, I still recommend you go out and read it as soon as it’s available–which will be June 2008. Just re-read the very excellent LAWKI while you’re waiting.

Lady’s maid Dashti may look meek, but her inner fortitude is far more than that of her fragile Lady Saren. When Lady Saren is condemned to seven years in a locked tower by her father for not marrying evil Lord Khaser, Dashti is the one who rations the food, sings the songs of healing to ease her lady’s anxiety, and chases the rats from their precious stores of food. When Lady Saren’s true love, Lord Tegus, comes calling through the tower’s only opening (a chamber pot dump hole), it is also Dashti who must speak to him, under her shy lady’s orders. After a few such intimate, whispered visits, Dashti is horrified to discover that she is in love with her lady’s man. She writes it all down in her Book of a Thousand Days; her forbidden thoughts of Tegus, her despair that her lady will ever come out of her depression, her fear that they will not survive the tower imprisonment. But survive they do, and before Dashti knows it, they are on to another adventure where she will need to call on the strength of her ancestors to keep them both alive. Finally, they come to the point where Dashti’s precious Book will either save their skins, or condemn Dashti to death. Will Dashti, a lowly mucker girl, be able to claim both her life and the love of a lord? This rarely told Grimm fairy tale, re-imagined by Hale to have taken place on the Mongolian steppes, is a sweeping romantic epic that will steal your heart even as it makes it race with excitement. It’s one of the best fractured fairy tales I’ve ever read, and the fact that Hale sets it in a real time and place makes it even more rich. Follow this one up with Donna Jo Napoli’s historically imagined Pied Piper story, Breath.

Oh, Harry, I’m gonna miss ya.

Like the rest of the country, I’ve been holed up with HP7 for the last few days, dying to know what happened to the Hogwarts crew, while simultaneously hoping this last helping of Harry would never end. I’ve not reviewed any of Harry’s adventures on RR before, as the books are so popular and well known, that there would have been little I could add to the enormous body of critical writing that already surrounds the best-selling series. But with the end of a series that has captivated teen imagination for as long as RR has been on the ‘net, I feel moved to add my two cents at last. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry continues the quest that he and Dumbledore began in Half-Blood Prince: find the remaining horcruxes that contained the tattered remnants of Voldemort’s black soul and destroy them. Joined by Ron and Hermione, Harry and his two BFFs try and puzzle out the obscure clues left them by Dumbledore about where to find the remaining cursed curios. In addition, Harry learns about a trio of objects known as The Deathly Hallows that, possessed together, are rumored to be able to defeat the Grim Reaper himself. Are these objects related to Harry’s quest? Can he use them to destroy the horcruxes? Or are they just a false trail laid by Dumbledore to confound Voldemort, who is hot on Harry’s tail? I can say little more without spoiling the ending for all four of the folks who haven’t read it yet, even though some eager beavers have already posted the entire plot summary on Wikipedia.

Though the outcome of the final tome is often in doubt, one thing remains constant—its length. Like it’s predecessors, Deathly Hallows is a doorstop of 759 pages. And I have to say, about 500 of those pages felt like filler. But when the action comes, it comes hard and fast and violent, and several key players in the Harry Potter epic (not unsurprisingly) lose their lives. I’ll admit, I shed a tear or two. But, the ending, o the ending! Finally, finally ALL is revealed, including the most hotly debated topic since the end of Book 6: whose side is Snape really on? Suffice it say it was an immensely satisfying conclusion, with an epilogue that some may find a bit sentimental, but one I thoroughly bought into. Mostly because it was just really, really hard to tell such a good friend good-bye. I suppose I’ll just have to order up all the audio books (which I’ve heard are stupendous) and start all over again! I hope you’ll do me the honor of posting some of YOUR Harry Potter remembrances and reviews here on RR. At some point, comments may contain spoilers, so be aware of that fact before clicking on through!

Now, what on earth is J.K. Rowling going to do with all her free time??

When sixteen year old Gretchen Yee casually wishes to be a fly on the wall of the boys’ locker room in order to see if they really are as moronic as they seem, she never expects the powers that be to take her up on it. But lo and behold, suddenly Gretchen (who loves Spiderman and has been reading The Metamorphasis by Kafka) has sprouted multiple legs, wings, and antennae. She has become exactly what she wished for, and in the week she calls the boys’ locker room home, when she’s not fighting the overwhelming fear that she may never be human again, she learns some very interesting facts about the opposite sex. Gretchen sees all their faults, flaws, and surprising strengths; sees her crush Titus stand up to bully Shane, sees boys get beat up as they shower up, and finds out first hand that they are as obsessed with their “gerkins” as girls are with their “biscuits.” Speaking of which, will Gretchen ever get her own “biscuits” back, and finally be able to tell Titus how much she digs him? It’s great to watch life from the wall, but when it’s time to come down, you have to act on what you’ve learned. Jewish/Chinese-American Gretchen, compulsive cartooner and artificial redhead, is a breath of fresh punk air in a pinky blush world of chickety-chick lit. I would totally love this bad-ass little pink book, even if it wasn’t lovingly set in my adopted hometown of NYC, and didn’t mention one of my favorite places of all time, The Angelika Film Center.

Jane’s mousy best friend Ally makes a dangerous deal with beautiful and manipulative Lanalee, demon-in-training, in order to gain a little popularity and erase her Catholic high school’s memory of her unfortunate public projectile vomiting incident. But Jane isn’t about to let her best bud sell her eternal soul for some cool clothes and a few high quality hair extensions. When she challenges Lanalee (who she doesn’t believe is REALLY a demon) and offers her own soul in exchange for Ally’s, all hell (literally) breaks loose. How do you fight a cupcake-wielding she-devil? Why, with more sweets, of course, especially chocolate kisses! This sly, sarcastic supernatural story is both funnier and darker than Johnson’s other works, which are also all pretty great. If you like your chick-lit. flavored with a little smoke and brimstone, then Devilish will certainly light your fire!

Though there is some buzz in the news about a meteor striking the moon, Miranda is too busy worrying about her stepmother’s new baby and final exams to really pay attention. But when the moon is struck so hard that it moved off its orbit, changing its gravitational pull, Miranda has no choice but to sit up and take notice. Because suddenly, the ocean’s tides are turning into tsunamis, earthquakes are leveling entire cites, and volcanoes are spouting deadly ash that is robbing the earth of it’s precious sunlight. In Miranda’s small town in Pennsylvania, the effects aren’t as immediate, but they are just as deadly. Grocery stores are emptied and not re-stocked, gas prices soar, and friendly neighbors turn hostile as each family stockpiles supplies to get them through the winter. Things Miranda has always taken for granted, like clean laundry, chocolate, and prom, have suddenly become things of the past. This is no sensationalistic “Day After Tomorrow,” in fact, what Miranda’s deeply felt, doubt-ridden, and utterly realistic journal entries most reminded me of was The Diary of Anne Frank - a thoughtful compilation of everyday details about what it is like to have your life whittled away bit by bit until one day you look around and realize that life as you knew it had vanished forever. This is a beautifully written, timeless, timely tale that will stay with you long after the cover is closed. My heart still hurts. Magnificent.

In the second half of the twenty first century, Bo Marsten lives in the United Safe States of America, where everything is so safe, it’s completely mind-numbing. To play any sports, you have to wear about 50 pounds of safety gear, and if you call someone a name or, god forbid, get in an actual fistfight; you’re looking at a minimum of two years jail time. The laws are so strict because in the future, the USSA runs on penal work. Everyone doing time works on road crews or food factories. When Bo, who has a few anger management issues, is accused of giving his classmates a psychosomatic rash (because they’re supposedly terrified of him) he is sentenced to several months of pepperoni shooting in a Canadian pizza factory. There, he is noticed by Hammer, the factory boss who also coaches a highly illegal tackle football team. Football is Bo’s first taste of freedom and danger, and he is surprised at how much he likes the rough game. But when his term is up, how can Bo return to the claustrophobic safety of regular society? Which is more important? Being safe, or feeling free? Riffing on everything from global commercialization to political correctness, the always brilliant and multifaceted Hautman is at the top of his game in Rash, a satirical, pointed comedy chock full of intelligent laughs.

Cora’s a ghost who’s been haunting her house ever since she was accidentally murdered back in 1897. Evan is a flesh-and-blood boy, who just moved into Cora’s old house with his mom and little sis. While they haven’t formally met, they’re VERY interested in each other. Cora can’t keep her wispy hands off the first hottie she’s seen since the olden days, and Evan can’t stop dreaming about a beautiful fair-haired girl who comes to him at night and gets him all hepped up! But when Evan brings his real girlfriend Carrie over and things get a little hot and heavy, Cora reminds them both with a very real sign that a little kissing can sometimes lead to places you’d never choose to go. A great ghost story about how wrongs can be righted and the right message gotten — even if it’s a few centuries late!

Poison is a cynical girl who doesn’t believe in fairy tales. But when her little sister Azalea is stolen by the evil Scarecrow and replaced with a black-eyed changeling, Poison is willing to do whatever it takes - even travel to the world of Phaerie - to get her back. But the further into Phaerie she goes - past the Bone Witch, the Spider Queen, even the flame-haired, fickle-hearted Lord of Phaerie himself, the more she despairs of ever finding her sister. And then she discovers a plot so diabolical, so gruesome, that it will turn upside down and inside out everything she knew to be good and true - forever. Just the way author Chris Wooding takes everything YOU know about the tired fractured fairy take genre and turns into something so new and different, you’ll be imbibing Poison on a regular basis!

Stubborn red-headed Victorian heroine Gemma Doyle is back in this brilliant sequel to Libba Bray’s best-selling A Great and Terrible Beauty. The girls from Spence are looking forward to spending a nice, quiet Christmas at home, away from the terrors of the otherwordly Realms and the twisted magic they have inadvertently set free there. But the mysterious Raksana have something else in mind…they send Kartik to Gemma to persuade her to journey into the Realms again and bind the magic she loosed when she defeated Circe the first time. But do the Raksana have Gemma’s best interest at heart? Does Gemma have the strength to bring back the Order? And is Pippa REALLY dead? Have no idea what I’m talking about? The go right out to your nearest public library or bookstore and get caught up by reading A Great and Terrible Beauty (review on this list below) so that you’ll be all set to plunge into the pages of this steamy, dreamy sequel!

In Tally Youngblood’s futuristic world, pretty is everything. The government has decided that if everyone looks the same, wars over ethnic and cultural differences will die a natural death and everyone will be peaceful…and Pretty. Life is just a waiting room, until that magical 16th birthday when government sanctioned surgeons nip and tuck former adolescent Uglies into gorgeous, cookie-cutter Pretties, who get to party nonstop and never worry about tomorrow. Until Tally meets Shay, all she wants is to be pretty. But then Shay tells her about a far away phantom society called the Smoke where people actually choose to stay Ugly and don’t care about parties. When Shay suddenly disappears, the government wants to know why. They tell Tally she must lead them to Shay or risk being Ugly forever. How can Tally choose between her best friend and her future? And does she have any hope at all of finding Shay? Or the Smoke? Uglies is an edge of your seat thriller, strong social commentary and richly characterized story, all rolled into one. It will have you thinking twice about your addiction to Extreme Make-Over! And the cliff-hanging ending will have you racing back to the library to check out the next three books in the series:Pretties, Specials, and Extras.

Like a girl in a fairy tale, Sloe is trapped in an icy land. She has been forced to live, with her mother, a fallen queen, in a hovel on the edge of a frozen waste. There is no grass, trees, or birds–only snow, poisoned ground, and endless cold. Sloe’s only distraction from her numbing life is the magic her mother makes in the dead of night, with glass tubes and mysterious powders. When Sloe is sent away to the school of the enemy, her mother makes her promise to guard the magic with her life, should her mother ever be forced to leave their hovel. Now, the worst has happened. Sloe has returned to find her mother gone and the magic tubes left for her to carry to safety. There is a compass, and a map for her to follow. But this is no fairy tale. Instead, this is Ann Halam’s dark vision of the future, where a brilliant scientist is thrown in prison with her little girl for harboring the secrets of animal life in a world that saw it’s last horse, elephant and cheetah long before Sloe was even born. In Sloe’s test tubes are living pieces of DNA that she must carry across a continent to save not only herself and her mother, but all of animal-kind. Brilliant, breath-taking and edge-of-your-seat thrilling, Halam melds fairytale constructs with cutting-edge science in a story so thought-provoking, Siberia is a place you’ll want to visit again and again, despite the chill factor!

Toni V is part of a society of evolved humans who have left polluted planet Earth and now live and work in a world that revolves around one precious commodity: water. Toni V not only likes water, he longs for it. He and his fellow work detail mates can’t wait to take a dip in the company pool at the end of a long dusty day of demolishing old buildings and fill their gills with oxygen rich, wonderfully wet water. Toni V knows that “shirking is for losers,” so he’s nervous about stopping work for even a minute to examine the contents of an old water can he digs up. What he finds is a diary (on paper, of all the quaint old fashioned things!) written by a girl named Pelly D. Pelly D. lived a very posh life in the days before the War and the bombs that destroyed the buildings that Toni V. is now working to clear away. Toni V. doesn’t know much about the war, only that the General’s motto, “back to work, back to normal” doesn’t encourage much retrospection. At first, reading Pelly D’s diary is fun - she led the kind of life that Toni V can only fantasize about. But the more he reads, the more he is troubled by Pelly D.’s circumstances. Why must she submit to a “voluntary” testing of her DNA? Why are her family and friends being stripped of their goods and homes and forced to take a barcode on their hand? When he reaches the end of the diary, Toni V. knows in his heart what has happened to Pelly D. But does he have the strength to share it with others who, like him, have been blissfully unaware of the horrific past that their new nation is being built on? I have not felt chills like this from reading a book since turning the last page of the very fine Feed by M. T. Anderson. (further down on this list) And when I read the author’s note that mentioned she was inspired by diaries found buried beneath the site of the Warsaw Ghetto, I knew I had just finished a modern sci-fi classic. Read it, then pass it on to at least six friends. Never forget.

In the world Matt Cruse inhabits, planes were never invented, and instead, air travel is booked through massive dirigibles, or blimps. Matt is a young cabin boy aboard The Aurora, a luxury blimp that was also the home and workplace of his late father. While on duty one day, Matt helps recover a balloon, that holds in its basket a sick old man. The man tells Matt wild stories of flying creatures before he lapses into a coma and dies. A year later, Matt encounters the man’s headstrong granddaughter, Kate, who is in possession of his diary. The book clearly states the old man’s belief that he had discovered a new species of flying mammal, which he dubbed “cloud cats.” Kate, with Matt’s help, hopes to somehow get off the Aurora and explore the island that her grandfather identified as the home base of the cats. But before Matt can argue Kate out of this wild scheme, the airship is attacked by pirates, and Matt is forced to decide between the two loves of his life–one old, one new, one massive blimp, one beautiful girl. Enchanting and wonderfully imaginative, this book has the same passionate and adventurous flavor as the movie “Titanic,” except in the air!

Soon-to-be-sixteen Chloe King’s day starts out pretty good–she skips school with her two best buds to hang at Coit Tower in her hometown of San Fran. They have coffee, a great view, and each other. Chloe couldn’t ask for a more perfect day. But that’s when things start to turn a little sour. Chloe gets too close to the tower’s edge and takes a nasty spill that would kill anyone else. But not Chloe. At least, not today. To her friends’ surprise, Chloe rises from the dead only to discover a brand new springiness to her step, sharp night vision and claws that come out when she’s pissed. What’s happening to her? Does it have something to do with the cute dark haired guy who’s been hanging around the thrift store where she works? And what’s up with the scary ninja dude who keeps showing up with his throwing stars and pledges to destroy her in the name of “The Order of the Tenth Blade?” While Chloe uncovers some of the answers, the rest await readers in the next book of this cool cat series. Can you say, “HEL-lo, Kitty”?

The Gothic novel is not dead, as proven by this simply delicious page-turner penned by the fabulous Libba Bray. All the elements are here: a tortured heroine named Gemma who witnesses her mother’s horrific murder, a gloomy old boarding school with a dark supernatural secret at it’s core, and three witchy classmates who become the catalyst for Gemma’s discovery of a ghostly, ghastly power that could destroy them all!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! (Sorry, couldn’t help giving a deep, hand-wringing villainous burst of laughter) You’ll want to read this one in bed, with a box of chocolates and all the lights on.

Nathaniel is a angry, smart, and somewhat cocky magician’s apprentice bent on revenge. Bartimaeus is a bored, brilliant, and somewhat annoyed ages-old djinn (genie) who’s bent on getting away from Nathaniel. Except that’s impossible. Because young Nat knows the right words to call up and bind Bart, Bart has to do his bidding. Bart, used to being called into service by powerful kings or queens or heads of state, can’t bear the fact that he has to listen to a snot-nosed kid barely into his teens. And Nat can’t stand the fact that Bart won’t take him seriously. And what he wants Bart to seriously do is steal the most powerful object in the alternate land of London: the amulet of Samarkand. Nat wants the amulet so he can lord it over it’s former owner, a powerful and slimy magician who humiliated him when he was just a baby wizard. But, as you may expect, there’s a few snags along the way…Bartimeus’s voice is the funniest voice I’ve heard in fiction in a long while. For a rip-snortingly hilarious read that rivals those books about Hogwarts, give the Amulet of Samarkand a spin.

Susan’s life is perfect. She has a perfect family, perfect blond hair, and gets perfect grades. Except for her one perfectly awful secret, her life looks ideal from the outside. No one knows that Susan’s perfect dad hits her perfect mom whenever he gets mad at Susan. The only way for Susan to keep her mom from getting hurt is to be perfect–all the time. It will take three flesh and blood, not-so perfect friends, and two friendly ethereal entities (a dead boy named Edmund and a kindly haunted house named, what else? House) to help Susan break free of her perfect hell. Who wants to be perfect, anyway? A rich, atmospheric, and not always straightforward novel full of life, love, and suspense, Bones had me racing to find it’s two companion novels, A Red Heart of Memories and Past the Size of Dreaming.

Reformed teen thief Jack Morgan is having a bad day. First, he’s forced to hide out on an uninhabited planet while on the lam for a crime that, for once, he didn’t commit. Now a spaceship has just crashed nearby, and while scavaging the wreakage for loot, a giant dragon-like alien attacked, or rather, ATTACHED himself to Jack. Now, Jack finds himself dealing with Dracos, a K’Da, which is a race of dragon warrior poets. Dracos is smart, soft spoken, and a deadly fighter. But for all his strength and cunning, he can only live 6 hours at a time with out a human host to hug. When Dracos is sharing Jack’s bod, he looks exactly like a body-sized dragon tattoo. Because when K’da go all symbiotic on you, they become two dimensional. Confused? So is Jack. But it becomes pretty clear pretty quick that the crash of Dracos’s ship and Jack being framed on his last job are somehow linked. This unusual pair just has to find how! A totally excellent adventure, Dragon and Thief is an awesome introduction to sci-fi for those who have had bad experiences with it in the past.

Imagine, if you can, a world where to visit the ocean you have to wear a space suit to protect you from the poisoned air and water, and where steaks are grown in sheets of filet mignon, because DNA research has allowed farmers to bypass that whole cow business. A world where there is no more “outside” and suburbs are stacked on top of each other, each with their own “sun” that they can turn on and off. In this world, Titus and his friends all have a “feed” or mini-computer in their heads that allows them to chat, watch television, and buy the latest jeans–constantly and simultaneously. In fact, they are so over stimulated that they don’t care that there are no more trees or grass or ozone layer. And why should they care about something they’ve never seen? Then Titus meets Violet, who sees things for how they really are–and they’re not pretty. Once Titus sees his world through Violet’s eyes, he can never go back to his carefree, careless existence. But is it possible to break free of the feed? And what kind of life awaits you if you do? If you read one book this semester, this summer, this year–READ THIS ONE. You will either, a) become deeply suspicious of advertising, b) turn off MTV–possibly for good. or c) buy a copy for all your friends because it is both the best, and most disturbing book you’ve ever read.

Candy Quakenbush (try saying that three times fast!) has been transported by an ocean that appeared out of nowhere from boring old Chickentown, Minnesota, to the mystical land of Abarat, where every hour of the day is a different island and she is apparently a hero. Stalked by Christopher Carrion, the Lord of Midnight (who frighteningly brings to mind the veteran horror author’s other well-known and terrifying movie villain, Pinhead) and helped by the eight-headed John Mischief, Candy tries to discover who she is in this new and wonderfully weird plane of existence. With stunning full-color illustrations by the author that bring to life every bizarre creature that swims, flies and trots across his pages, Clive Barker’s Abarat is fabulous feast for both the eyes and the mind. And don’t be disappointed when the numerous plots don’t converge in the end–this is the first book in a planned series.

This is probably the most violent, gory, incestuous, and just plain sickening books I have ever read. It’s also one of the most complex and brilliant, which is why I’m including it on RR. But be forewarned, this is not a story for the faint-hearted or weak-stomached. Based on Icelandic/Norse myth, Bloodtide is a disaster story that takes place in a ravaged, futuristic London. There are two main warring tribes–the Volsons and the Conors, who are constantly fighting over land and the right to rule all the people of London and the accompanying countryside. The head Volson, Val, tries to make peace with the head Conor (also named Conor) by offering his 14 year old daughter Signy’s hand in marriage. Signy’s smart, cute and no slouch with a sword, so Conor agrees. But he’s planning a terrible double-cross–when Signey’s dad and brothers come to Conor’s palace to toast her wedding, Conor looses his army on them and ruthlessly murders them all. This includes chaining up her three brothers to be eaten by a huge, brutish half-wild boar, half man. (that’s the scene where I almost lost my lunch) Except her twin bro, Siggy, manages to escape (and that’s the scene where I laughed my head off. Siggy gets out of reach of the pigman, who can’t climb and keeps calling him “Dinna,” begging Siggy to come down so “Piggy” can eat him, nice and gently:) Siggy flees to the countryside and begins to raise a rebellion against Conor and his crew. Meanwhile, Signy has her own problems back at the palace, dealing with her paranoid psychotic husband and mourning her family’s total annihilation. And folks, that’s just the first few chapters. There’s also a magic knife everyone wants, a shape-shifting cat woman, and loads of other “half-men” who are scary combinations of people, animals and machine. Plus, rampant violence, poverty, dead people hung by their feet, and some Norse gods running around. The story telling is difficult, with many voices chiming in, some in a bastardized Cockney accent. You’re either gonna love it or hate it, but I guarantee, if you make all the way to the end, you’ll never forget it.

I always enjoy it when a author tries something new, and Pete Hautman is always coming up with something different. He’s written realistic and fantasy-type stuff, and also novels for adults. And now a first-rate science fiction about the end of the world as we know it. In 2028, a huge flu hits the world and wipes out most of human-kind. There’s only two types of people left–those who were never exposed to the virus, and those few that lived through it, called Survivors. You can tell Survivors apart from others, because the flu leaves them all completely hairless and missing some vital human ability–their eyesight, hearing, or not being able to read or understand language anymore. This story is told by four teens who live on the edge of the Grand Canyon–Ceej and Tim, who are best friends, Harryette, Ceej’s sister and also a Survivor, and Isabella, a Hopi Indian who tries to lead them all to a mythical “hole” somewhere in the Canyon that will take them to another world where there is no flu. While they’re searching, they’re being pursued by the Kinkas, a nasty group of Survivors who think it’s their job to expose anyone they meet to the flu virus, so that only “pure” Survivors are left on the planet. A whole bunch of other stuff happens as well, but I hope I’ve hyped enough of Hole in the Sky to wet your whistle for some seriously good post-apocalyptic fiction!

Grad student Andrea Mitchell is screwed. She signed on to be part of a revolutionary time travel project where scientists have opened a portal into the 16th century. She had planned to live with and study the Sterkram clan of tribesman (think something similar to Mel Gibson and his crew in Braveheart) and write a book about their way of life that would change anthropology studies forever. But instead, she has been caught in a political power-play between the loyal but also murderous Sterkarms and the greedy corporate suits who are funding the study. The suits want her to teach them how to take advantage of the Sterkarms so that the natural resources of their unspoiled land can be taken, and the Sterkrams just want Andrea to stay on their side of the portal, marry one of their young men and forget all about things like running water and central heating. While Andrea tries to decide what to do, her Sterkarm boyfriend Per is badly hurt on a raid, and she convinces the suits to take him into the 21st century where he will receive better medical treatment. While there, Per discovers the suit’s evil plan and then…well…just imagine what happens when crafty 16th century barbarians clash with technologically advanced corporate moguls. The result isn’t pretty, people, but is it ever edge-of-your- seat exciting! A truly amazing sci-fi, historical adventure that could make a science fiction fan out of even hard core, realistic fiction reader me.

Sibs Kestral and Bowman have gotten themselves into some seriously hot water. Unhappy with the strict authoritarian rule of Aramanth, (a world that could be either parallel to ours, or somewhat futuristic, depending on your point of view) they refuse to play along with the system of tests that every citizen must take and pass to advance to into a higher level of society. Once their family is blacklisted, they are busted down to the lowest level, and Kestral is forced to go to a “special school” for “old children,” a fate she soon learns is worse than death. So she breaks out of her school prison and hits the road with Bowman and their friend Mumpo in search of the “tongue” of the Windsinger, an ancient instrument that could restore tolerance and freethinking to the people of Aramanth. On their way, they meet up with the kindly, dirty Mud People, the war-hungry Chakas and Barakas, and worst of all, the terrible Morah and its’ army of smiling, deadly Zars. Fast-paced action, cool characters and some pretty scary bad guys will make this English import popular with fans of The Giver and Harry Potter.

In the year 2094, exchange students don’t just come from other countries, they also rocket in from other planets. 16 year old Daria isn’t too happy about having to share her home with just such an alien student named Fen from the planet Chela. After all, as one of the youngest breeders of endangered species on planet Earth, she has enough work on her hands without having to introduce her new 7 foot tall, gray skinned housemate around. Luckily for her, Fen is really into helping out with the animals. In fact, he’s a little too into it. And when he flatly refuses to discuss the animal life on his own planet, Daria discovers why–Fen is part of a biological plot to repopulate his own planet with Earth-born species. Daria, torn between sympathy for a people who have no animal life of their own to love and a fierce protectivness over her wild charges, has to decide whether it would be better to help Fen or put a stop to his plans. Besides being a page turner, this novel is chock full of fascinating animal and environmental conservation facts. Both an educational (and I don’t mean in that dry textbook way) and completely entertaining read.

Imagine a future where the green house effect has finally kicked into high gear and the worst has happened: the polar ice caps have melted and the whole world is either underwater or nearly there. This is the only future Zoe has ever known, and she’s trying to navigate it the best she can. With just a leaky rowboat and limited supplies, she’s left the island she’s lived on most of her life to search for her parents, whom she was accidently separated from. Once out on her own, she is captured by a gang of wild teens from another sparsely inhabited bit of land. Their leader, a slippery character named Dooby, hides her boat and Zoe must strike a terrible bargain with him in order to get it back. But all’s not lost–Zoe still hasn’t lived by her wits for so long for nothing. She still has a few tricks up her sleeve and she is determined to find that elusive Mainland that exists somewhere out there on the water. An exciting futuristic adventure tale in the tradition of Lord of the Flies.

Whensday Bluehouse doesn’t have too much to be happy about. The futuristic world she lives in has constant acid rain, child slave labor, and a Nazi-like government group called the Syndicate that runs everything. She manages to escape the Pits, a quarry where kids work until they die, due to the kindness of an old coffin maker, who hides her in his Lifehole. When a lady from Top Town, the big city where the rich live sheltered from the rain, offers the coffin maker money if he will sell her Whensday, Whensday has no choice but to run away and try to find some kind of future in the bleak landscape of Bone Trees and Safe Jam. This book stuck in my throat and lodged in my heart. It’s depressing and exhilarating all at once, and not many books can make that claim. Read it and weep.

For those of you who slept in history class, the sirens were these Greek mythology babes who lured dudes to their deaths by singing so sweet that guys crashed their ships just to get closer to the music. Napoli has taken that myth, mixed it up with The Little Mermaid, and created a tale of true love that will break your heart. Sirena, our tender-hearted mermaid/siren decides that she would rather live alone than accidentally kill another man softly with her song. But fate steps in, as it often does in mythology, and a gorgeous guy ends up being stranded on Sirena’s deserted isle. Of course, our mermaid babe falls for him, but there’s a catch. If the two of them become lovers, Sirena will gain immortal status, but her poor boyfriend will remain the same. Does Sirena want to watch her true love grow old while she stays forever young? Tune into Napoli’s newest myth-mash and find out!