Welcome to our newest feature on The Book Smugglers: SMUGGLED! For this new feature, we briefly video interview authors. Today’s guest is Kelly Creagh, YA paranormal fantasy/horror author of Nevermore (which Thea read and loved).

Please give a warm welcome to the lovely, talented Ms. Kelly Creagh!

And now for the rest of our Chat!

The Book Smugglers: Thank you for the taking the time to chat with us, Kelly, and welcome to our blog! Your debut novel, Nevermore is a Young Adult book blending the harsh realities of high school with a twist of the fantastic and a generous dose of the horrific. Can you tell us a bit about your book, and what inspired you to write Nevermore in all its Edgar Allan Poe glory?

Kelly: Thanks for having me! I’m a huge fan of your blog and I love reading your reviews and articles.

Nevermore is a tale about a goth boy and a cheerleader who are paired together for an English project. Varen, my goth character, chooses Edgar Allan Poe as the focus of the project. Needless to say, bright and sunny Isobel is less than thrilled about studying gothic literature let alone being paired with Trenton High’s foremost weirdo. Yet she is also somehow drawn to Varen and she can’t seem to grasp what makes him tick, or why he’s so scathing and aloof. Or why, ever since being paired with him, strange things have begun to happen.
When I first began writing Nevermore, I had only two things—an unnamed goth boy and a cheerleader. At the time, Poe was not yet a major factor in the plot. In fact, he was simply who my goth character happened to pick. So, in between writing, I conducted a bit of surface research on Poe. I soon learned about the strange circumstances surrounding the poet’s death in the fall of 1849. From there, Poe’s presence in the novel became more prominent. I continued with my research and, as I did so, all of these Poe elements began to surface, arising out of my subconscious to spread through every chapter until Poe (and the mystery behind his demise) became the very backbone of my tale.

The Book Smugglers: Is it safe to say that you are a huge Poe fan? Can you remember your first exposure to his work? And – if possible – do you have a favorite poem/story/Vincent Price movie adaptation/etc?

Kelly: Yes. I’m a total fan girl. And even though I’ve always been into Poe and his works, I don’t think I reached the true status of being an official die-hard fan until I started writing Nevermore. Since then, I have traveled to Poe’s Baltimore house and gravesite on three separate occasions. Actually, the last time I was in Eddie’s house, I had a bit of a mishap. I followed the tiny enclosed spiral staircase up to his attic room. Then, while positioning myself to perch on the top stair so that I could snap a photo, I accidentally touched the floor beyond the security point. The alarm sounded and blared through the entire house! When I came hurrying back downstairs, the looks that I received from fellow museum visitors made me want to crawl beneath the floorboards. It was like they thought I’d tried to steal Eddie’s boxer shorts or something!

In regards to my first exposure to Poe, I think that must have happened when I read The Masque of the Red Death in middle school. That one in particular can make quite an impression on a young mind.
But the moment that sticks out most vividly in my mind happened during my sophomore year of High School. Everyone in English class had to choose a poem to read aloud. I chose Annabel Lee, which sparked a huge classroom debate. I remember the class splitting into two teams, one half of the room arguing that the poem was “creepy,” the other insisting that it was “romantic.” I love this memory because I think so many of Poe’s works, particularly his poems, often incite similar disputes.

My favorite story written by Poe is William Wilson, which is a doppelganger tale. I’m also partial to The Raven because it seems to be the epitome of a classic Poe tale. It contains everything that makes Poe’s stories his own. Not only that, but it’s so rhythmical and precise. It’s truly the work of a genius.

In terms of my favorite Poe adaptations, I like Vincent Price in The Fall of the House of Usher. I also love the Simpsons spoof of The Raven and Tim Burton’s short film “Vincent,” which contains several Poe references.

The Book Smugglers: Of the real-world teen heroines out there today, it seems that the quiet/studious/artsy/cute-but-awkward type dominates YA fiction – especially in books that deal with the paranormal. Your heroine, on the other hand, is a popular, perky, pretty cheerleader – and her love interest, the sardonic, aloof goth boy. What made you write Isobel as your heroine and Varen as your hero?

Kelly: I chose a cheerleader and a goth because I liked the idea of opposites being forced to collaborate. With this recipe, the conflict is immediate and engaging and also very fun to write. But as my story evolved, I realized that I wanted to go deeper with this idea of opposites being joined against their will. With Nevermore, I strove to go beyond creating the type of tale involving themes of tolerance, reconciliation and acceptance. As a result, I think that Nevermore is not only a supernatural tale, but a story in which labels are tested and the very foundation of stereotypes are challenged.

The Book Smugglers: On the same subject, recently we’ve seen some interesting discussion about stereotyping in YA novels. In particular, there is something of a derisive attitude towards girls that dress a certain way (“slutty”) or behave in a certain way (go out to clubs/parties, etc). It’s not much of a jump to equate “stupid” or “silly” labels to popular cheerleader types, like Isobel. What do you think of this sort of stereotyping, and did any of these factors cross your mind when writing Nevermore?

Kelly: I have to admit that this kind of stereotyping drives me crazy, especially in regards to cheerleaders. I think cheerleaders are too often picked on in YA fiction and singled out as the best choice when casting the “mean girl.” Now, with that said, I do think that there are mean girls out there who happen to be cheerleaders. Just like there are mean girls who happen to be goths. Or chess club members. Or drama club members. As long as the motivation behind a character’s behavior is at least hinted at, I think that a popular girl can (and does) work as an antagonist inYA fiction. It only really irks me when I perceive that a character is mean (or stupid or slutty or silly) because she is a cheerleader—or as a result of whatever sport, activity, hobby or social sphere she is involved in. It is as though the author is insinuating that the activity itself is what insights the character’s behavior or defines her personality. But these stereotypes do exist in real life and naturally, this became a large part of my story. Though it’s not just Isobel who finds herself battling the popular, pretty, dumb cheerleader label. Varen, too, struggles with all the preconceived notions and fears associated with gothic culture. And even though Isobel and Varen each suffer from stereotyping, they are also guilty of labeling each other. This was just one dynamic which made their interactions and dialogue so interesting and enjoyable to write.

The Book Smugglers: Paranormal is hot right now in YA – especially anything of the fanged, furred or fey variety. Your take on the supernatural, however, is a little different. Can you tell us a bit about your version of the otherworldly in Nevermore?

Kelly: It’s true. You will find no vampires, faeries or werewolves in Nevermore. Instead, the supernatural elements center around the existence of a dream world, one which (in my universe) Poe visited and later wrote about and described in his poetry and fiction. Like Poe, my goth character, Varen, is a writer and it is through his writing that Varen stumbles upon this same alternate dimension that Poe discovered. That’s not to say that there aren’t supernatural characters in Nevermore because there certainly are! Beyond that, I don’t think I can reveal much more without spoilers.

The Book Smugglers: Why did you choose to write a young adult novel? Do you have any YA authors you particularly admire? Do you have any intention of writing for adults one day?

Kelly: I wanted to write a YA novel because, when I began Nevermore, the voices that popped into my head were those of teenagers. This happens with most of the stories I write. I think that, in many ways, I am a perpetual teenager. So, for the moment, I’m happy writing fiction for young adults, though my hope is that my work will appeal to adult and teen readers alike.

The Book Smugglers: The zombies are coming! The zombies are coming! You only have time to save ONE book, ONE movie, and ONE TV show. QUICK! What are they?

Kelly: OMG. Okay. Book = Phantom by Susan Kay. Movie = The Nightmare Before Christmas (though I know I would waste precious seconds trying to decide between that one and Edward Scissorhands. Actually, I’d probably waste too much time and get eaten over that decision.) And I don’t get to watch a lot of television, but I freaking love Sponge Bob.

The Book Smugglers: We Book Smugglers are faced with constant threats and criticisms from our significant others concerning the sheer volume of books we purchase and read – hence, we have resorted to ’smuggling books’ home to escape scrutinizing eyes. Have you ever had to smuggle books?

Kelly: I work at the library so when I hear about a new YA book that’s coming out I immediately put myself on the reserve list for the next available copy. I check out YA books in droves and either cart them home or keep them stuffed in my cabinet at work. That way, I get to sneak little sips whenever I get a moment. So I suppose I don’t smuggle them as much as I hoard them! I also purchase a lot of books and usually in hardback. So sometimes my bank account gives me a grumbly look though my dog, Annabel, never seems to mind.

As a child, Kelly would hold elaborate one-kid plays for patient relatives, complete with song, dance, and over-the-top melodramatics. Then, whenever Mom or Grandma called for a break, she would venture outside to slay dragons, run from make-believe ghosts and create magical feasts for fairies out of mud and pinecones.

Kelly holds an undergraduate degree in Theatre Arts and Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults. Today, she finds true joy in transcribing her dramatic daydreams onto the stage of the blank page. When not writing or curled up with a good book, Kelly can be found teaching, learning and performing the ancient art of Bellydance.

Thank you, Kelly for the wonderful interview! For more about Kelly Creagh, make sure to check out her (beautiful) website www.kellycreagh.com. Also make sure to check out our review of Nevermore HERE.

“On The Smugglers’ Radar” is a new feature for books that have caught our eye: books we heard of via other bloggers, directly from publishers, and/or from our regular incursions into the Amazon jungle. This is how the Smugglers’ Radar was born, and because there are far too many books that we want than we can possibly buy or review (what else is new?) we thought we could make it into a weekly feature – so YOU can tell us which books you have on your radar as well!

On Ana’s Radar

Jaysus, it’s been such a long time since we did a radar post – since before YAAM in July! I have collected several pretty covers though in the past month and Thea did the same and we had to have a talk – ONLY 10 entries.

Here are mine:

This is a book I got at BEA because of the awesome blurb and it had no cover then but NOW! LOOK! I LOVE IT!

Fifteen-year-old Finbar Frame seriously missed out in the gene-pool stakes as his twin brother Luke got the good looks, athletic ability and pigmentation. Finbar is tall, skinny, pale and pretty much allergic to the sun – and sadly, teenage girls don?t appreciate Finbar?s sensitive skin or his sensitive soul. But when a move to a new school converges with a cultural trend romanticising vampires, Finbar seizes the opportunity. He?ll become a vampire! Or at least fake it … to get a date.

I bumped into this one by accident on Goodreads. Did anyone know that Cherie Priest has a new series coming out? I couldn’t find a blurb though:

What is the 10pm Question? I MUST know:

Twelve-year-old Frankie Parsons is a talented kid with a quirky family, a best friend named Gigs, and a voice of anxiety constantly nibbling in his head: Could that kidney-shaped spot on his chest be a galloping cancer? Are the smoke alarm batteries flat? Has his cat, The Fat Controller, given them all worms? Only Ma, who never leaves home, takes Frankie’s worries seriously. But then, it is Ma who is the cause of the most troubling question of all, the one Frankie can never bring himself to ask. When a new girl arrives at school–a daring free spirit with unavoidable questions of her own–Frankie’s carefully guarded world begins to unravel, leading him to a painful confrontation with the ultimate 10 p.m. question. Deftly told with humor, poignancy, and an endearing cast of characters, THE 10 P.M. QUESTION will touch everyone who has ever felt set apart.

Purely for the beautiful cover:

Clementine thinks her cousin Fan is everything that she could never be: beautiful, imaginative, wild. The girls promise to be best friends and sisters …more Clementine thinks her cousin Fan is everything that she could never be: beautiful, imaginative, wild. The girls promise to be best friends and sisters after the summer is over, but Clementine’s life in the city is different from Fan’s life in dusty Lake Conapaira. And Fan is looking for something, though neither she nor Clementine understands what it is.

Printz Honor Winner Judith Clarke delivers a compassionate, compelling novel with the story of a friendship between two young women, and of the small tragedies that tear them apart from each other, and from themselves.

Aidan posted the final cover art for NK Jemisin The Broken Kingdoms sequel to the SUPERB The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms:

In the city of Shadow, beneath the World Tree, alleyways shimmer with magic and godlings live hidden among mortalkind. Oree Shoth, a blind artist, takes in a strange homeless man on an impulse. This act of kindness engulfs Oree in a nightmarish conspiracy. Someone, somehow, is murdering godlings, leaving their desecrated bodies all over the city. And Oree’s guest is at the heart of it.

Jenny at Wondrous Reads posted the UK cover for Behemoth by Scott Westerfelf and can I just say: SO much better than the US cover. I can’t wait for this book. Oh wait, I already have it *teases*

The behemoth is the fiercest creature in the British navy. It can swallow enemy battleships with one bite. The Darwinists will need it, now that they are at war with the Clanker powers.

Deryn is a girl posing as a boy in the British Air Service, and Alek is the heir to an empire posing as a commoner. Finally together aboard the airship Leviathan, they hope to bring the war to a halt. But when disaster strikes the Leviathan’s peacekeeping mission, they find themselves alone and hunted in enemy territory.

Alek and Deryn will need great skill, new allies, and brave hearts to face what’s ahead.

This one looks and sounds good.

Krystal just met the perfect boy. Trouble is, he’s dead.When fifteen-year-old Krystal Bentley moves to Lincoln, Connecticut, her mom’s hometown, she assumes her biggest drama will be adjusting to the burbs after living in New York City.But Lincoln is nothing like Krystal imagined. The weirdness begins when Ricky Watson starts confiding in her. He’s cute, funny, a good listener–and everything she’d ever want–except that he was killed nearly a year ago. Krystal’s ghost-whispering talents soon lead other “freaks” to her door–Sasha, a rich girl who can literally disappear, and Jake, who moves objects with his mind. All three share a distinctive birthmark in the shape of an M and, fittingly, call themselves the Mystyx. They set out to learn what really happened to Ricky, only to realize that they aren’t the only ones with mysterious powers. But if Krystal succeeds in finding out the truth about Ricky’s death, will she lose him for good?

Clarity “Clare” Fern sees things. Things no one else can see. Things like stolen kisses and long-buried secrets. All she has to do is touch …more Clarity “Clare” Fern sees things. Things no one else can see. Things like stolen kisses and long-buried secrets. All she has to do is touch an object and the visions come to her. It’s a gift.

And a curse.

When a teenage girl is found murdered, Clare’s ex-boyfriend wants her to help solve the case — but Clare is still furious at the cheating jerk. Then Clare’s brother — who has supernatural gifts of his own — becomes the prime suspect, and Clare can no longer look away. Teaming up with Gabriel, the smoldering son of the new detective, Clare must venture into the depths of fear, revenge, and lust in order to track the killer. But will her sight fail her just when she needs it most?

Look at this one! Doesn’t it look awesome? But what does it mean? The Bird! The Cage! The ring! THE CIRCLES! I will not disclose the private emails that Thea, I and Karen Mahoney exchanged when we saw this cover because then you will know for a fact that we are all mental.

What if you knew exactly when you would die?

Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb—males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out.

When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden’s genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape—to find her twin brother and go home.

But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden’s eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant she trusts, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limted time she has left.

Then, this one:

Eighteen year old Lexi Wentworth is cursed. For as long as she can remember, she’s spent every night swimming. If she doesn’t, she’ll regret it—simply walking will be agony, as if she’s stepping on shattered glass. Her body craves the water, demands the water, until she can’t say no.

But it’s not the swimming that troubles Lexi. It’s the singing that goes with it.When she turned sixteen, her siren song killed the only boy she’s ever loved. Now, she avoids the popular shores of the Pacific in favor of a long forgotten lake up in the mountains, where she can swim and sing in peace, far from the population of her oceanside home.

Until, that is, Cole Mills discovers her lake. He’s new to Lincoln City High, and he doesn’t know about Lexi’s reputation as an ice queen—a reputation she’s carefully cultivated to keep everyone around her safe. He pushes her, talks to her, forces her to dream of what life could be like if she weren’t a siren.

Lexi can’t stop herself from warming to him, from falling for him. Soon, he’s demanding answers, following her to the lake, unknowingly risking his life. How can she keep him safe when the one thing she wants most–to hold him close– will endanger his life?

And because I am a troublemaker and like to break the rules *blows raspberries at Thea*, here is a 11th – a pretty cover:

On Thea’s Radar

Cheeky, Ana! Ok, so here’s my pent-up list of new titles I am dying to read, starting with…

Aren’t these covers deliciously retro-’80s horror?! They look like a mix of the Fright Night poster and Basket Case. Needless to say, WANT. Here’s the blurb:

Lazarus Stone is about to turn sixteen when his life is ripped to shreds by a skinless figure drenched in blood. He has a message: The Dead are coming and Lazarus is all that stands in their way. And it all begins with the reek of rotting flesh…

I read and adored Galen Beckett’s The Magicians and Mrs. Quent – so I am thrilled to see that the next book in the series is due out soon!

“Her courage saved the country of Altania and earned the love of a hero of the realm. Now sensible Ivy Quent wants only to turn her father’s sprawling, mysterious house into a proper home. But soon she is swept into fashionable society’s highest circles of power—a world that is vital to her family’s future but replete with perilous temptations.

Yet far greater danger lies beyond the city’s glittering ballrooms—and Ivy must race to unlock the secrets that lie within the old house on Durrow Street before outlaw magicians and an ancient ravening force plunge Altania into darkness forever.

Just got this one in the mail, and I am ecstatic:

Decades ago, in a place where the veil between our world and the world of the Aetherials—the fair folk—is too easily breached, three young people tricked their uncle by dressing as the fey. But their joke took a deadly turn when true Aetherials crossed into our world, took one of the pranksters, and literally scared their uncle to death.

Many years later, at the place of this capture lies a vast country estate that holds a renowned art facility owned by a visionary sculptor. One day, during a violent storm, a young woman studying art at the estate stumbles upon a portal to the Otherworld. A handsome young man comes through the portal and seeks shelter with her. Though he can tell her nothing of his past, his innocence and charm capture her heart. But he becomes the focus of increasingly violent arguments among the residents of the estate. Is he as innocent as he seems? Or is he hiding his true identity so that he can seek some terrible vengeance, bringing death and heartbreak to this place that stands between two worlds? Who is this young man?

The forces of magic and the power of love contend for the soul of this man, in this magical romantic story of loss and redemption.

And look! A new Sheri S. Tepper novel!? Gorgeous cover, apocalyptic setting, I am sold.

Long ago was the Big Kill, a time when the slaughterers walked the earth unseen, killing, departing, returning to kill again and again. Since then mountains have risen, deserts have fallen, the last of humankind has scattered; myth, superstition, and legend have replaced knowledge; and the great waters rising are changing the world.

In the west, the people of Norland live in small kingdoms, unaware that a hideous evil from ages past has been revived. Powers are being used. Curses are being laid . . . and the waters are rising as never before.

As forests drown, swamps become lakes, and roads disappear, houses—whole towns—are hitched to teams of oxen and moved upward. Misery is compounded when the Sea King declares war. No ships may sail on the new, growing oceans, and refugees from sunken islands continue to arrive.

And in Norland a cursed princess fights death, awaiting the one who can save not her, but perhaps humanity. She is tended by one fearful young girl, her servant and soul carrier, Xulai, a child of her own kind from the mystical kingdom of Tingawa. Upon her mistress’s death, Xulai must return to their homeland to fulfill a sacred mission.

Accompanied by her protectors, Great Bear and Precious Wind, and guided by the mysterious wanderer Abasio and his talking horse, Big Blue, the band begins a journey to this land across the western sea where the waters’ rising has long been expected. Their odyssey, fraught with peril and wonder, is long enough for plans to be made that are so strange, so audacious, that they are instantly dismissed; plans so potentially successful that an ancient killer must be awakened to stop their fulfillment.

This new release looks interesting as well – although the concept feels a little…dated. Still, I’m intrigued:

This haunting debut from a brilliant new voice is sure to be as captivating as it is controversial, a shocking look at the imminent collapse of American civilization—and what will succeed it.

In the aftermath of the switch from analog to digital TV, an anarchic movement known as Salvage hijacks the unused airwaves. Mixed in with the static’s random noise are dire warnings of the imminent economic, political, and social collapse of civilization—and cold-blooded lessons on how to survive the fall and prosper in the harsh new order that will inevitably arise from the ashes of the old.

Hiram and Levi are two young men, former Scouts and veterans of countless Dungeons & Dragons campaigns. Now, on the blood-drenched battlefields of university campuses, shopping malls, and gated communities, they will find themselves taking on new identities and new moralities as they lead a ragtag band of hackers and misfits to an all-but-mythical place called Amaranth, where a fragile future waits to be born.

This is a reprint of an older book – yes, I haven’t read Robert Charles Wilson, what’s wrong with me, etc. Beautiful cover, intriguing synopsis:

In a top-secret government installation near the small town of Two Rivers, Michigan, scientists are investigating a mysterious object discovered several years earlier. Late one evening, the local residents observe strange lights coming from the laboratory. The next morning, they awake to find that their town was literally cut off from the rest of the world…and thrust into a new one!

Soon the town is discovered by the bewildered leaders of this new world–at which point, the people of Two Rivers realize that they’ve arrived in a rigid theocracy. The authorities, known as the Bureau de la Covenance Religieuse, have ordered Linneth Stone, a young ethnologist, to analyze the arrivals and report her findings to the Lieutenant in charge.

What Linneth finds will challenge the philosophical basis of her society and lead inexorably to a struggle for power centering on the mysterious object that Two Rivers’s government scientists were studying when the town slipped between worlds.

Saw this one over at A Dribble of Ink and started salivating…

In a world where we have been genetically engineered so that we can photosynthesise sunlight with our hair hunger is a thing of the past, food an indulgence. The poor grow their hair, the rich affect baldness and flaunt their wealth by still eating. But other hungers remain . . . The young daughter of an affluent New York family is kidnapped. The ransom dermands are refused. Years later a young women arrives at the family home claiming to be their long lost daughter. She has changed so much, she has lived on light, can anyone be sure that she has come home? Adam Roberts’ new novel is yet another amazing melding of startling ideas and beautiful prose. Set in a New York of the future it nevertheless has echoes of a Fitzgeraldesque affluence and art-deco style. It charts his further progress as one of the most important writers of his generation.

Saw this title over at Presenting Lenore – Lenore, by the way, has an impressive amount of dystopian reads going on – and, again, the greed kicks in:

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone—one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship—tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn’t do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now, Amy must race to unlock Godspeed’s hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there’s only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

And finally, I’ve been yearning for this book (supposedly I have a review copy out there in the universe, but I am impatient and want it nowNowNOW!):

Zombies have infested a fallen America. A young girl named Temple is on the run. Haunted by her past and pursued by a killer, Temple is surrounded by death and danger, hoping to be set free.

For twenty-five years, civilization has survived in meager enclaves, guarded against a plague of the dead. Temple wanders this blighted landscape, keeping to herself and keeping her demons inside her heart. She can’t remember a time before the zombies, but she does remember an old man who took her in and the younger brother she cared for until the tragedy that set her on a personal journey toward redemption. Moving back and forth between the insulated remnants of society and the brutal frontier beyond, Temple must decide where ultimately to make a home and find the salvation she seeks.

And that’s it from us! What books do YOU have on your radar?

The Black Prism is fantasy author Brent Weeks’ new book (release date: tomorrow) and as part of their marketing campaign, publisher Orbit came up with an awesome idea:

Five blogs had the opportunity to send a few interview questions for Brent Weeks to answer…on camera! And if we may so ourselves, ours turned out to be a pretty groovy interview (Weeks answered a Smuggler-centric question and everything).

Check it out:

If that doesn’t get you excited about The Black Prism (and convince you of Brent Weeks’ general awesomeness), well, we don’t know what will.

About The Book:

Gavin Guile is the Prism, the most powerful man in the world. He is high priest and emperor, a man whose power, wit, and charm are all that preserves a tenuous peace. But Prisms never last, and Guile knows exactly how long he has left to live: Five years to achieve five impossible goals.

But when Guile discovers he has a son, born in a far kingdom after the war that put him in power, he must decide how much he’s willing to pay to protect a secret that could tear his world apart.

About The Author:

Brent Weeks was born and raised in Montana. After getting his paper keys from Hillsdale College, Brent had brief stints walking the earth like Caine from Kung Fu, tending bar, and corrupting the youth. (Not at the same time.) He started writing on bar napkins, then on lesson plans, then full time. Eventually, someone paid him for it. Brent lives in Oregon with his wife, Kristi. He doesn’t own cats or wear a ponytail.

You can read about the author and his books on his website, www.brentweeks.com (yes, it’s the groovy one).

In addition to providing more info about Brent Weeks, the website also includes Weeks’ blog, an official forum, AND wicked cool details and extras for his books. There’s an awesome quiz readers can take that ties into the Lightbringer Books – naturally, we couldn’t help ourselves, so both of us took the What Color Is Your Magic Quiz…and we both got the same result (which is a little creepy, but makes perfect sense once you read the description):

We are orange magic drafters!

Take the quiz at Brent Weeks.com

You are an orange drafter

Orange luxin is slick, lubricative, and heavy. It is often used in conjunction with machines and traps. Oranges are often artists, brilliant in understanding other people’s emotions and motivations. Some use this to defy or exceed expectations. Others become master manipulators.

The results from your color matching test have also shown that you are one of the elite, a superchromat. The magic you do will almost never fail. Satrapies will compete to recruit you, and you will have a wide latitude in what work you choose to do once you finish your studies. You can expect your patron to lavish praise and honors on you. As a monochrome, you will master your color, and only have to defer to bichromes and polychromes and, of course, the nobility and the satraps who support us all.

Magic in the Black Prism

When a candle burns, a physical substance (wax) is transformed into light. Chromaturgy in The Black Prism is the inverse: A drafter transforms light into a physical substance (luxin). Each different color of luxin has its own strength, weight, and even smell: blue luxin is hard, red is gooey, yellow is liquid, etc. But even as drafters change the world, the luxin changes them too, physically, mentally, and emotionally. The color change of a drafter’s eyes is only the beginning…

We encourage everyone to take the quiz and let us know what your results are! And fret not – we will be reviewing The Black Prism very soon!

Thank you to Brent Weeks and Orbit for the wonderful opportunity!

Welcome to our latest guest post in the YAAM – 2010 edition. As part of our celebration of all things YA, we invited authors from different genres to write about the books and the genres they write.

Today’s guest is Karen Healey, author of one of our favourite 2010 books, Guardian of the Dead. We invited Karen to be a part of YAAM and to write about awesome female characters.

Please give it up for Karen!

A few nights ago, I re-watched Bring It On 5: Fight To The Finish (not as good as 3, much better than 2, though without the bonus of surprise!Felicia Day*).

The Bring It On franchise, despite its varying quality, is one of my favourite movie series. I love movies about many female characters with different talents and skills, filled with young women who talk to each other and inspire each other and compete with each other and eventually trust each other to move in unison to a common goal.

Movies about cheerleaders are one of the few ways I can get these things in my film-viewing. Also, cheerleading is an awesome display of incredible athleticism, and ought to be an Olympic sport.

Bring It On 5 reminded me of two things: 1) that people often dismiss cheerleaders, in fiction and in reality, for being too girly, too perky, too bouncy. They are discounted both as athletes and as individuals, worthy of respect. And 2) that the Bring It On franchise never comes up in discussions of “strong female characters”.

That is a phrase that bugs me, by the way. Why should anyone get a pat on the back for writing strong female characters? No one gets complimented on the strength of their characterization of male characters – we assume that’s a given quality of good writing, not a special bonus. And why do so many female characters described as “strong” fit into a particular model of strength; a woman or girl who is physically strong and who can literally kick ass?

I am as guilty of this as anyone, having written a book where the female protagonist has a black belt in tae kwon do, but I am increasingly concerned at what I see as a trend of prizing physical aptitude in a very narrow field. I think we’re discounting other forms of strength in female characters as insufficiently strong, or not quite kickass enough – and therefore weak. Too feminine, too girly – as if there was anything wrong with being female, or a girl.

Of course, an abundance of kickass girls is a natural response to a long history of girls being viewed as weak and dainty, unable to fight for others or defend themselves. I certainly don’t think we should undermine the importance of telling girls that violence is not a male only domain. But there are so many ways to be strong, and while being able to break bricks with your hands is definitely one of them, I am all about embracing a wide spectrum of strength.

Which brings me to my brand new girl-crush, Teal Sherer. Teal Sherer is not a cheerleader, in fiction or real life. She is an actress, producer, sometime dancer, and activist. She’s paraplegic, and uses a wheelchair.

Teal Sherer plays the hilariously rage-filled, death-loving gamer Venom in hot internet series The Guild. She played Cathy in a production of Proof, which is only my favourite modern play of all time (about another awesome lady, a brilliant young mathematician who has trouble convincing anyone that her incredible work is actually her own). She is on the SAG Performers with Disabilities committee, campaigning for equal rights opportunities for performers with disabilities. And she works with UCP Wheels for Humanity, a non-profit that recycles over 226,000 pounds of discarded wheelchairs each year, refurbishing and distributing them to children and adults with disabilities in developing countries.

Can Teal Sherer kick literal ass? No, she can not. Does Teal Sherer kick metaphorical ass? Faster than Jackie Chan on fast forward.

And I find myself wondering; if Teal Sherer were a fictional character in a film, would people think she wasn’t sufficiently strong?

Fortunately, though the movies do not often satisfy my yen for awesome ladies being figuratively rather than literally strong, YA fiction certainly does. Not that, as a genre, it doesn’t have its problems, but within it I can find plenty of young women kicking ass without actually kicking ass. Best of all, the text supports them as awesome ladies, worthy of my admiration rather than my scorn. Here are just a few of these strong female characters:

Girl, Overboard, by Justina Chen Hedley, stars Syrah, a snowboard loving artist girl, with an occasionally bad attitude and some big family issues. After an injury that wrecked her knee and a love affair that stomped all over her heart, Syrah has to come to peace with never being able to make the big time in the snowboard world. But she discovers there are other ways for her to achieve, and other ways to be a role model, and as she embraces her own potential, she begins to heal some of the rifts in her family.

In Eighth Grade Superzero, by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, main character Reggie is a dude.

But one of his two besties is Ruthie, a supersmart activist firecracker, always writing reports on injustices and calling her friends out on racist and sexist language. She’s interested in change for the better on a macro and micro level, and supports Reggie to run for school president because she believes in his ability to make a difference too.

Frankie, in The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, by E. Lockhart, is another feminist badass, but she’s less out and proud about it than Ruthie. Instead of speaking up when she discovers the existence of an all-male secret society at her co-ed private boarding school, to which her boyfriend belongs, Frankie remotely infiltrates it using her smarts and inner spygirl, making the boys dance to her tune to pay them back for their exclusionary secrecy.

Cass, the heroine of A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend, by Emily Horner, is at the beginning of her story neither out nor particularly proud. In fact, her ex-nemesis made her first school life hell on account of her suspected sexuality. But when Cass’ best friend, theatre-loving, musical-writing Julia dies, Cass undertakes three epic quests: 1) ride her bike from Chicago to Santa Monica to scatter Julia’s ashes in the ocean. 2) help her other bereaved friends put on Julia’s last gift to them, the musical she wrote (entitled Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squad.) And, unexpectedly, 3) Make peace with her ex-nemesis, and, gradually, fall in love with her.

In Pink, by Lili Wilkinson, narrator Chloe has a girlfriend, accepting parents, a hippy dippy school – and a secret desire to wear pink. She heads to a new private school, where no one knows anything about her, and remakes herself into a pink-loving Pastel. But after the world’s must humiliating audition for the school musical, she’s slated for stage crew, and learns some much-needed lessons about being herself and standing up for the right for anyone to be who they are.

Zephyr, the vegetarian, social justice activist protagonist of Moonshine, by Alaya Johnson, proves that fighting oppression is just as vital in supernatural worlds. Zephyr is very much invested in rights for the unliving – vampires need jobs, after all, and a vampire whose only hope of an unliving wage is in crime is not a safe vampire. While Zephyr, who is descended from demon hunters, does have some training in kicking ass, it’s her go-to of last resort, not her first response, and her strength of character resides in her compassion and dedication to her causes, not in her ability to stake when necessary.

On the other hand, Mae of The Demon’s Covenant, by Sarah Rees Brennan, is absolutely untrained. Her one kill – with a pocket knife – was achieved under extreme duress, and in a world where a hidden war rages between the demon-binding magicians of the Circles and the glittering Goblin Market, Mae is dangerously normal. She has no magic, like her brother Jamie, nor any fighting ability like the enigmatic Ryves brothers. What Mae has is the ability to observe, plan, and lead, and she puts it to outstandingly good use to fight for the people she loves.

Melanie, the heroine of Hiromi Goto’s Half World, (with gorgeous illustrations by Jillian Tamaki) is also not your everyday heroine. She’s fat, friendless, poor and bullied.

When her neglectful, loving mother disappears into the Half World whence she came at the hands of the nightmarish Mr. Glueskin, Melanie is brave enough to follow her, and true enough to reentwine the Realms that had been divided, setting right a great wrong.

Gratuity Tucci, the heroine of Adam Rex’s The True Meaning of Smekday, is also on a quest to find her mother – this time, in our world, where alien creatures called the Boov have invaded the lands formerly belonging to the Noble Savages of Earth, and announced that all humans in America are to be moved to one state. Accompanied by a cat named Pig and a rogue Boov named J.Lo, Gratuity embarks on a roadtrip in a souped-up hovercar to find her mother, some allies, and a solution that might just save her species from colonization.

Benevolence, of Catherine Gilbert Murdock’s Princess Ben is not a typical fairytale princess. She’s chubby, ungracious, and far better at healing than at small talk and dancing. But when her parents and grandfather are assassinated, she’s suddenly the heir to the throne, and has to learn princessly airs and the art of diplomacy. Only developing her secret magical abilities can compensate for her misery. At least until she’s called upon to ward off invasion and tyranny, when she has to combine new skills and old to save her nation.

Wildgirl, the co-narrator of This Is Shyness, by Leanne Hall, is a tourist from saner parts of the city exploring the darkness of the suburb of Shyness, where the sun never rises. She doesn’t have martial arts skills or superpowers – unlike her guide, the interestingly hairy Wolfboy – and despite her claims, she’s not that great on the ukelele. But she does have determination and courage in spades, and she’s going to need them against the sugar-high gangs of Kidds and their mysterious controller. It’s going to be one wild night in Shyness.

So there you go – eleven awesome young ladies kicking ass without kicking a lot of ass, in contemporary fiction, in urban fantasy, in sci-fi, in high fantasy, and magical realism. Characterisation is a strength of all of these works, and so, I think we can rightly claim them to be “strong female characters”.

But if you’re also looking for young ladies kicking literal ass, may I recommend The Squad series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes? I also have a yen for cheerleaders who are secretly GIRL SPIES. Because people always underestimate cheerleaders.

And what the heck, let’s finish with a link to a vid of ladies of all ages and various abilities being awesome. Lady awesome = my most favourite thing.

* She plays a neo-punk ballet dancer turned cheerleader when funding is cut: “Most of my pieces involve anguish as a theme. Do you have any cheers about anguish?”

About the author: Karen Healey is a New Zealander living in Australia, where she is a young adult novelist and PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne. She has, no lie, a scholarship to write about superhero comics. You can visit her on her website and on her livejournal .

Thank you Karen – What a fantastic way to close YAAM!

Title: Plain Kate

Author: Erin Bow

Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books
Publication Date: September 2010
Hardcover: 336 pages

Plain Kate lives in a world of superstitions and curses, where a song can heal a wound and a shadow can work deep magic. As the wood-carver’s daughter, Kate held a carving knife before a spoon, and her wooden talismans are so fine that some even call her “witch-blade”: a dangerous nickname in a country where witches are hunted and burned in the square.

For Kate and her village have fallen on hard times. Kate’s father has died, leaving her alone in the world. And a mysterious fog now covers the countryside, ruining crops and spreading fear of hunger and sickness. The townspeople are looking for someone to blame, and their eyes have fallen on Kate.

Enter Linay, a stranger with a proposition: In exchange for her shadow, he’ll give Kate the means to escape the angry town, and what’s more, he’ll grant her heart’s wish. It’s a chance for her to start over, to find a home, a family, a place to belong. But Kate soon realizes she can’t live shadowless forever — and that Linay’s designs are darker than she ever dreamed.

Stand alone or series: Stand alone

How did we get this book: We both got signed ARCs at BEA.

Why did we get this book: We went to the YA Buzz Editor’s panel at BEA and Erin Bow was one of the panelists, when she started talking about her book, we both started foaming at the mouth to get it. About half an hour later, we are walking around the signings session and lo and behold: Plain Kate! Erin Bow! THERE! So we just got in line and got us lovely copies.

Review:

First Impressions:

Ana: I came away from BEA in May with about 100 books in my suitcase and I can honestly say that Plain Kate was my most anticipated read out of the bunch after I saw the author speaking at one of the panels. We often say here at The Book Smugglers’ HQ that sometimes having that much expectation works against a book, as unfair as it is. I think this is at work here, at least in my case: I loved many, many things about Plain Kate: the writing, the setting, the main characters, and it is really, a very good book but ultimately I felt strangely underwhelmed and somewhat disappointed that it wasn’t as good as I hoped.

Thea: As Ana says, Plain Kate was a total surprise at BEA. I hadn’t heard of the author nor a peep about the book, but when we heard Erin Bow read a passage aloud, I instantly knew I had to get a copy. And you know what? I walked away from Plain Kate feeling emotionally worn, but immensely satisfied. For me, the book lived up to my expectations, and then some. I loved this book.

On the plot:

Ana: What I liked the most about Plain Kate was the atmospheric medieval Russian setting and the evocative, beautiful prose which combined to give the book a distinct flavouring, a feeling that the reader is taking part in one of those old tales. To start with, the story is extremely inviting, welcoming even, as the tale of Plain Kate unfolds. From her relationship with her father, then with the village and its support (or lack) system, from her pride on the fact that she was one of the best wood-carvers that there was even though she was not officially part of a guild; to the increasing fear of witchery and what happens to people who let fear dictate their actions. Had the story followed this pattern and had Kate’s story gradually develop on its own, it would have been awesome, I think.

But soon enough, after Kate meets the witch Linay and makes a Faustian deal with him, it becomes clear that Plain Kate is at its core a Revenge story, the Revenge is what moves the plot along but because the Revenge is to be exacted by someone OTHER than Kate it is as though the story suddenly moves its focus and the main character becomes a supporting character of her own story (but more on that further down).

I did find the story itself interesting (and I love the idea of how important one’s shadow is) even though not necessarily original but I liked its uncompromising darkness. Although the execution of the plot was not flawless and I counted at least two instances of Extreme Coincidence to move it along. I would say that the first part of the novel was my favourite, then it lags a bit in the middle and it picks a bit again towards the ending which makes for a very uneven read.

It also needs to be said that I LOVED the fact that there is no romance in sight, none, zero. It is all about Kate and her friends and enemies and that the ending was a happy as it could be given the circumstances. But writing this I realise that perhaps the one reason I have to LOVE the book is perhaps the wrong reason: I love it for what it is NOT, rather because of what it IS.

Thea: I have to disagree, Ana. Though the book is titled Plain Kate, and though Kate is clearly the protagonist, I loved that she is an indirect heroine, by someone else’s design rather than of her own choosing. I love that ultimately, Linay chose Kate as his subject, not because of any innate magical ability or because she was born under a certain star when the planets aligned or whatever Chosen One sort of hoopla – rather, Kate is our heroine because of her perceived weakness, and over the course of the book this flourishes into strength. Instead of following Kate on a journey of her own design, Plain Kate takes an ordinary – plain – girl, and gives us her adventure in a game of a much bigger design.

I think that’s awesome.

From a writing standpoint, Ms. Bow’s prose is smooth and lush – as I remarked to Ana in an email, this book reminded me so of Garth Nix’s Sabriel (and not only because there’s a talking cat). Written in the style of the fantasy novels of my childhood – relying on emotions and almost poetic descriptions as opposed to a focus on action or romance (as seems to be the modern trend), Plain Kate is almost nostalgic. And, as a fan of Tamora Pierce and Garth Nix, Ms. Bow is a bonafide throwback, and I mean this in the best possible way.

With regard to setting, I completely agree with Ana – the medieval Eastern European feel to the novel is perhaps not entirely unique, though it is well written and conceived. The brutality of people looking to blame “witches” for their misfortunes, their propensity for hate, the mob mentality, it’s all unflinchingly seen in Plain Kate. At the same time, there is this underlying thread for wanting to belong – for acceptance and love for oneself, which is handled beautifully, I think. As Ana mentions above, Plain Kate does have a revenge story (in fact, it is the impetus for the plot), but I don’t think it’s fair to say that this novel is a revenge book. More than anything, Plain Kate is about acceptance and sacrifice.

On the characters:

Ana: On one hand the majority of the characters are complex and never fall into one-dimensional territory. That is especially true with regards to Linay who has compelling characteristic that makes him sympathetic even when he is being heinous. I appreciated the difficult, intricate love-hate relationship he forms with Kate.

On the other have I have mixed feeling directed to the protagonist of the novel. She has all the markings of a great character: strength of character, a sense of self-worth, empathy and quiet determination. It is a shame that she is written into a story that increasingly becomes not her own and which makes her more of a “reactive” character than an “active” one as most of the things that happen in the book and which serve to move the story further are events that happen TO Kate rather than out her own volition, even those some of these reactions are actually pretty cool because of who she is.

And then there is Taggle, her cat, whom I loved so totally, although I can’t really say why for risk of spoiling it but he is full of heroism and dedication and has an arc of his own which is a very interesting pointing at another consequence of Kate’s Faustian pact with Linay.

Thea: I share Ana’s love for Taggle, and her mixed emotions towards Linay (and I would extend that to Behjet, as well); it is the mark of a gifted writer that a reader can loathe a character and yet still feel sympathy and understanding at the same time. Plain Kate’s world is a rough one, and her journeys take her to people that fear her skill at carving, taking her natural talent for witchcraft, and her mismatched colored eyes only exacerbating her position. Each character in this book has surprising depth, with no simple “good” or “bad” cookie-cutter types of heroes or villains.

And this, of course, extends to Kate as well. While I completely agree that Kate’s story is more of a “reactive” one, I do think this is part of the appeal of Plain Kate. Plain Kate begins her journey because she is singled out for her weakness – when she isn’t weak at all. Using the lessons of her father, Kate gradually takes hold of her own story, and by the end of the book, she has made her choices (heartbreaking though they may be) and won me over completely. It’s very clever characterization when you think about it, this slide from utterly passive and reactive to aggressively proactive.

And a quick note as to the adjective “Plain” prefacing Kate’s name. While it is true that Kate is neither beautiful nor ugly, I personally think that the “Plain” refers to Kate’s simple honesty, or as the Miriam-Webster Dictionary says, “free from artifice.” That is Kate to the letter.

Final Thoughts, Observations and Rating:

Ana: It is the strangest thing: Plain Kate has many elements that should have me truly love this book but I was left cold. I wish I could be more positive but two weeks after reading it, all I can remember is the cat. I did love the prose though and I will be first in line to get Erin Bow’s next book (which sounds awesome).

Thea: I loved Plain Kate from beginning to end, and I most certainly will be back for more from author Erin Bow. Absolutely recommended.

Notable Quotes/Parts: From the first chapter:

A long time ago, in a market town by a looping river, there lived an orphan girl called Plain Kate.

She was called this because her father had introduced her to the new butcher, saying: “This is my beloved Katerina Svetlana, after her mother who died birthing her and God rest her soul, but I call her just plain Kate.” And the butcher, swinging a cleaver, answered: “That’s right enough, Plain Kate she is, plain as a stick.” A man who treasured humor, especially his own, the butcher repeated this to everyone. After that, she was called Plain Kate. But her father called her Kate My Star.

Plain Kate’s father Poitr was a woodcarver. He gave Kate a carving knife before most children might be given a spoon. She could whittle before she could walk. When she was still a child, she could carve a rose that strangers would stop to smell, a dragonfly that trout would rise to strike.

In Kate’s little town of Samilae, people thought that there was magic in a knife. A person who could wield a knife well was, in their eyes, half-way to a witch. So Plain Kate was very small the first time someone spat at her and crooked their fingers.

Her father sat her down and spoke to her with great seriousness. “You are not a witch, Katerina. There is magic in the world, and some of it is wholesome, and some of it is not, but it is a thing that is in the blood, and it is not in yours.

“The foolish will always treat you badly, because they think you are not beautiful,” he said, and she knew this was true. Plain Kate: She was plain as as stick, and thin as a stick, and flat as stick. She had one eye the color of river mud and one eye the color of the river. Her nose was too long and her brows were too strong. Her father kissed her twice, once above each eyebrow. “We cannot help what fools think. But understand, it is your skill with a blade that draws this talk. If you want to give up your carving, you have my blessing.”

“I will never give it up,” she answered.

And he laughed and called her his Brave Star, and taught her to carve even better.

They were busy. Everyone in that country, no matter how poor, wore a talisman called an objarka, and those who could hung larger objarkas on horse stalls and door posts and above their marriage beds. No lintel was uncarved in that place, and walls bore saints in niches, and roads were marked with little shrines on posts, which housed sometimes saints, and sometimes older, stranger things. Plain Kate’s father was even given the honor of replacing Samilae’s wiezi, the great column at the center of the market that showed the town’s angels and coats of arms, and, at the top, supported the carved wooden roof that sheltered the carved wooden gods. The new wiezi was such a good work that the Guild Masters sent a man from Lov to see it. The man made Kate’s father a full master on the spot.

“My daughter did some of the angels,” he told the man, gathering Kate up and pulling her forward.

The man looked up at the faces that were so beautiful they seemed sad, the wings that looked both soft and strong, like the wings of swans that could kill a man with one blow. “Apprentice her,” he said.

“If she likes,” Poitr answered. “And when she is of age.”

When the guild man went away, Plain Kate chided her father. “You know I will be your apprentice!”

“You are the star of my heart,” he said. “But it is two years yet before you are of prenticing age. Anything might happen.”

She laughed at him: “What will happen is that I will be a full master by the time I am twenty.”

But what happened was that her father died.

Rating:

Ana: 6 – Good

Thea: 8 – Excellent

Reading Next: The Way of Kings by Brandon “we lurves him” Sanderson

“Inspirations and Influences” is a series of articles in which we invite authors to write guest posts talking about their…well, Inspirations and Influences. The cool thing is that the writers are given free reign so they can go wild and write about anything they want. It can be about their new book, series or about their career as a whole.

Today’s guests are Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson, writers of the lovely and fun MG novel The Familiars. The book tells the tale of 3 familiars – magical animal companions – the cat Aldwyn, the blue jay Skylar and tree frog Gilbert and how the fate of their loyals (magical human companions) and possibly of the whole land depend on them. The novel releases in early September and is also soon to be made in a major motion picture, produced by Sam Raimi. We are delighted to have the authors here today talking about their influences and to give away two copies of the book.

Without further ado, Adam and Andrew, everybody!

Sometimes, you don’t realize how someone influences and changes your life until years later. When I was in seventh grade, I had an English teacher give me an assignment to write the first ten pages of a sequel to Pearl Buck’s The Good Earth. Now, I knew very little about Chinese farmers other than what I had read in the book. But it didn’t seem to matter. Over the next few nights, I felt as if I was Wang Lung with new plights, hardships and victories. By the time I had finished the assignment, I felt as if something special had happened, as if the story had written itself.

A week later, the teacher handed back the graded paper. There, on the top, was a bright red A+ from a teacher who wasn’t even keen on giving As. It was a boost of confidence, an affirmation that I could write creatively and convincingly. It felt great.

Then, I went to my next class. Science. And I let the paper slip from my mind.

Eight grade. Ninth grade. Tenth grade. Didn’t think about it.

Then to college. Other things occupied my thoughts.

It was in my junior year, when I was starting to consider being a writer,that I thought back on that paper. And her bright red A+.

“I could do this,” I thought to myself.

I never got to thank my 7th grade English teacher for her encouragement and that assignment. So, I will now.

Thank you, Mrs. Winer.

–Adam Jay Epstein

*******

I grew up in the early 1980s in one of those idyllic suburban towns with only one movie theater – the kind that played the same movie for up to a year at a time. When I was just 4, that movie was “Star Wars.” It had been re-released in theaters in 1981, and it was not just the first movie I ever saw on the big screen, but the second and third and fourth, too. To further my obsession, I also collected every last action figure and vehicle from the “Star Wars” trilogy that I could get my hands on. I remember my mom even bribing me to take swimming lessons with the promise of a Boba Fett Slave 1 starship. And taking medication for chronic childhood ear aches always went down a little easier with a new x-wing fighter or Jabba the Hut palace.

My favorite hobby as a kid was playing shows with my action figures. I spent countless hours in every corner of the house with a Han Solo in one hand and a Darth Vader in the other. That’s where my imagination was born, I think. Making up stories about good guys and bad guys, jedi knights and evil lords. It wasn’t just “Star Wars,” either. I had superheroes, GI Joes, and WWF wrestlers joining the living room adventures, as well. Then I started translating those epic tales to paper, in the earliest days without using quotation marks for dialogue!

I guess I’ve always been drawn to hero’s journeys. Whether it’s Luke Skywalker, Frodo Baggins, Harry Potter, or Peter Parker, the possibility of even the most ordinary everyman becoming extraordinary is a timeless and irresistible tale. And “The Familiars” is a story not so different: about the unlikeliest of heroes rising up against insurmountable odds and finding greatness within them.

–Andrew Jacobson

About the authors: ADAM JAY EPSTEIN spent his childhood in Great Neck, New York, while ANDREW JACOBSON grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but the two met in a parking garage out in Los Angeles. They have been writing for film and television together ever since. This is their first book.

Adam Jay Epstein lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Jane, their daughters, Penny and Olive, and a black-and-white alley cat who hangs out in their backyard. Andrew Jacobson lives with his wife, Ashley, and their dog, Elvis, four traffic lights away.

About the book:

Running to save his life, Aldwyn, the street-wise orphan cat, ducks into a strange store. Moments later Jack, a young wizard-in-training, comes in to pick out his familiar – a magical animal companion. Aldwyn’s always been clever. But magical? Apparently Jack thinks so—and Aldwyn is happy to play along. Anything to get out of town!

Once home with Jack in Stone Runlet, Aldwyn thinks that he’s got it made—a life of ease with a boy who loves him. He just has to convince the other familiars—the know-it-all blue jay Skylar and the friendly tree frog Gilbert–that he’s the telekinetic cat he claims to be.

Then, after the sky lights up with an omen, the unthinkable happens. Jack and the other young wizards are captured by the evil queen of Vastia. Together Aldwyn, Skylar and Gilbert must save them—but how?

On their thrilling quest across the land, the familiars will face dangerous foes, unearth a shocking centuries old secret, and discover a mysterious destiny that will change them all forever.

You can read more about the book at the website The Familiars.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

We have TWO ARCs (Advanced Reading Copies) of The Familiars up for grabs. The contest is open to ALL, and will run until Saturday, August 21st at 11:59 PM (PST). To enter, simply leave a comment here letting us know which animal would you pick as a familiar. ONLY ONE ENTRY PER PERSON, PLEASE! Multiple comments will be disqualified. We will announce the winners in our Sunday stash. Good luck!

Title: WE

Author: John Dickinson

Genre: Science Fiction, “Young Adult”

Publisher: David Fickling Books (UK)
Publication Date: January 2010
Paperback: 288 pages

Paul Munro must leave Earth. He is sent to a station at the edge of the solar system, that is manned by just four people. There he must find out why certain signals are not reaching Earth.

Before he begins his journey, they remove his World Ear – a tiny communications device that integrates the internet with the brain. And when he reaches his destination, body wasted by low gravity, exiled for life and cut off from all the other humans with whom he shared his thoughts, his companions ask: “Did you consent?”

He cannot answer.

How did I get this book: Bought (via Waterstones UK and downloaded to my B&N Nook. Gotta love the international appeal of the ebook!)

Why did I read this book: I’ll be honest – the first thing to catch my eye with this book was the cover. And then, when I read the synopsis, I was hooked. SO hooked, in fact, that I had to buy the book immediately from the UK (as it isn’t available in the US).

Review:

In a not-so-distant future, mankind has changed. The majority of the human population is interlinked by the World Ear, an implant that allows its user to instantaneously connect with anyone else who is implanted, communicating in a mixture of images, sounds, and even transmitted sensations like touch, scent, or taste. The World Ear has allowed humanity to supersede the individual; it has allowed humanity to be connected in one massive consciousness, with information received and dispersed at the speed of thought.

There is no need for speech.

There is no need for strong emotion.

The World Ear has taken humanity to its next evolutionary stage.

WE is the story of Paul Munro, one man selected by the collective consciousness of the World Ear as a telemetry specialist on an important outpost at the furthest reach of the solar system, dedicated to analyze the gas planet, its moon, and search for any sign of intelligent life. But because of the unique problems posed by the planet and moon, none of the station’s inhabitants can be connected to the World Ear. Our first introduction to Paul is immediately after he awakens from the procedure that has disconnected him from the network – and his abject terror at being utterly alone, mute and almost completely incapable of communication. After his eight year journey (in stasis) to the outpost at the edge of the solar system, Paul gradually adjusts to new life with the three other humans that will likely be his only companions for the rest of his life – May (exuberant doctor), Lewis (imposing commander), and Vandamme (partner to the lost telemetrist and a self-contained astro-geologist) – learning to speak, emote, and interact. As Paul becomes more articulate and self-conscious, he suspects that there is something amiss in his mission to uncover the source of the interference with transmissions to Earth. With his suspicions mounting, Paul is determined to discover the truth at any cost.

This is the first book I have read by John Dickinson, and what a fabulous introduction it turned out to be. WE is one hell of a novel. This is cerebral science fiction at its best, posing ambitious questions and demanding its characters and readers to confront what it truly means to be human. It is one of those books that gets better the longer one thinks about it; processing, digesting, and interpreting the data in every possible way (much like Paul’s “hunter” program). Ever since discovering Stephen Baxter last year, I have been on the lookout for hard science fiction titles that manage to blend human character appeal with the cold, cruelty of space – and WE manages to do just that.

Reminiscent of Baxter’s Titan and of M.T. Anderson’s dystopian SF masterpiece, Feed, WE examines the meaning of humanity, the definition of intelligent life, and the value of the individual in relation to the whole. It is in these quiet questions, asked both explicitly by the characters, and implicitly of the readers, that WE shines. Is emancipation from “the We” (as the characters aboard the station call Earth and the World Ear) a good thing? At what level of connection does the individual begin to become irrelevant? The We is utilitarianism in the extreme, with a new overall consciousness comprised of ALL its interlinked consciousnesses – akin to a giant brain, with each human acting as a neuron, firing signals and interacting with others to produce the desired result. Instead of painting a dystopian future where consumerism runs amok (as in Anderson’s Feed), WE’s future is more quietly menacing – our cult of personality and fixation on the individual falls to the greater good, which sounds fine, doesn’t it? Except in such a society, there is no individual autonomy – just as protagonist Paul is asked by Lewis, “Did you consent?” he is unable to answer.

On a less-nebulous/more-concrete level, the reason why WE is able to provoke such intriguing questions is because the science, the setting, and the characters are impeccably written. From the technical aspects to the science (the space elevator, the limitations of the World Ear, the physiological changes to those in deep space, the temperature and atmosphere readings) Mr. Dickinson appears to have done his homework, working within the parameters of our current understanding of physics and our own solar system (see additional thoughts below for more on that). The images of a distant gas giant and its icy moon are richly – if coldly – detailed, providing a harsh, unforgiving, and evocative backdrop for the novel. On the character level, WE is told through Paul’s observations – effective, since Paul’s communication skills are underdeveloped to say the least, especially in his exchanges with his fellow crew members. In such an unrelenting, isolated environment, these character are a microcosm of humanity – Van, who turns to religion; May and Lewis, who cling to a different hope for the future; Paul, obstinate and determined to uncover the truth. As these characters say in the book, they are the last four humans in existence, differentiated from their siblings on Earth because of their disconnection from the We, their ability to feel acute emotion, and even physically with their low-gravity distorted bodies. It’s a scary and effective picture, with these fragile creatures struggling for life in the most inhospitable of locations. These characters are flawed, genuine creatures that make questionable decisions – and that is part of the beauty of WE. Ultimately, regardless of whether or not Paul and the crew made the right choices, they are able to make a choice, and that is the important thing.

From a plotting perspective, I am loathe to say too much for fear of spoilers – suffice to say that WE is a psychological thriller, with a mystery and a powerful revelation. Though this is more of a quieter, slowly simmering plot, heavy on dialogue and internal reflection and lighter on action, WE may not appeal to everyone (this is no military science fiction novel, so if you are looking for nonstop battle scenes, look elsewhere). That isn’t to say the plotting is poor or the book cumbersome – because it’s not. I devoured WE in a single sitting.

What else can I say? I loved this book. On a final note concerning the genre – WE is a young adult novel as much as, say, The Handmaiden’s Tale or 1984 or The Martian Chronicles (all books that are frequently shelved in the YA section, as well as the mainstream SF or Literature sections). Which is to say, WE doesn’t really fit into the typical, current mold of romance-featuring, adventure filled coming-of-age sort of novel that one might normally associate with YA F/SF (in fact, author John Dickinson has blogged about the mis-categorization of this book). That isn’t to say that WE shouldn’t be read by young adults – rather, it is a book that can transcend age barriers. Yes, neither the protagonist nor any other character in this book is a young adult, but need that be a defining quality for the genre?

How about I put it like this: WE is a mainstream Science Fiction novel that I encourage anyone – of any age – to read. Rife with imposing, challenging questions, WE resonates as one of the best new science fiction titles I have had the pleasure of reading this year.

Notable Quotes/Parts: From Chapter 1:

He had asked to be alone when he woke. After all, he had reasoned, from now on he would always be alone.

They had told him there would be no pain from the operation. He had looked up the techniques they would use, checked the possible complications and had understood why they had said that. Nevertheless, something in him was surprised to discover that they had been right. There was none. There was only emptiness.

He blinked, automatically holding his eyelids closed for just that fraction of a second that would summon his displays. But no voice spoke in his head. No images appeared, no lists, nothing.

There were no weather reports, news pictures, financial statements, alerts concerning the state of his house or vehicle or the transmission systems that he was supposed to maintain. There were no demands from his supervisors. And there were no personal messages. Like everyone else he always went to those first. But there were none – no loving images, no jokes or pictures, no one wishing him luck or promising to remember him. There was nothing more from Her. There never would be.

You can read a full extract online HERE.

Additional Thoughts: Though he never specifically mentions the name of the planet and moon, this all takes place on Neptune (a gaseous planet, furthest in our solar system) and its moon, Triton (I’m pointing this out because I’ve seen a few reviews call the planet Jupiter, probably because of the reference to a Great Dark Spot – which also happens to appear on Neptune) Since I am kind of an amateur astronomy dork (emphasis on amateur), here are a few cool things about Neptune, and its largest moon.

Like Uranus (though smaller) Neptune is a gaseous planet, composed primarily of hydrogen and helium, but as the most distant planet in our solar system and the coldest, it also has an abundance of ice – water, ammonia, and methane. Neptune has thirteen moons, the largest of which is Triton (the moon on which WE’s space station is built). Now the COOL thing about Triton is that it is one of the few moons in our solar system (and the only large moon) that has a retrograde orbit – that is, it orbits Neptune in the opposite direction of the planet’s rotation. And, like our moon, Triton has a synchronous rotation with Neptune – one side faces Neptune at all times. The other cool thing about Triton is that because it has a weirdo tilt, both of its poles take turns facing the Sun – which in turn means, Triton is geologically active (i.e. the moon has volcanic activity and active nitrogen geysers, caused by heating from the Sun). Triton also is one of the coldest objects in our solar system, with surface temperature readings of -235°C (-391°F). (Intriguingly, Neptune itself is frigidly cold, but at its liquid mantle core reaches 5000 Kelvin) The observations we have of Neptune and Triton are from Voyager 2, the only spacecraft to fly by the planet and its moon in 1989.

You can read more about Neptune and its moons on NASA’s Solar System Exploration page HERE.

Rating: 9 – Damn Near Perfection, and one of my favorite novels of 2010 so far.

Reading Next: Plain Kate by Erin Bow

Title: John Belushi is Dead (US)/ Hollywood Ending (AUS)

Author: Kathy Charles

Genre: YA/ Contemporary

Publisher: Text (AUS) / MTV (US)
Publication Date: 2009 (AUS) / August 24 2010 (US)
Paperback: 320 pages

IN THE END WE ALL FADE TO BLACK.

Pink-haired Hilda and oddball loner Benji are not your typical teenagers. Instead of going to parties or hanging out
…more IN THE END WE ALL FADE TO BLACK.

Pink-haired Hilda and oddball loner Benji are not your typical teenagers. Instead of going to parties or hanging out at the mall, they comb the city streets and suburban culs-de-sac of Los Angeles for sites of celebrity murder and suicide. Bound by their interest in the macabre, Hilda and Benji neglect their schoolwork and their social lives in favor of prowling the most notorious crime scenes in Hollywood history and collecting odd mementos of celebrity death.

Hilda and Benji’s morbid pastime takes an unexpected turn when they meet Hank, the elderly, reclusive tenant of a dilapidated Echo Park apartment where a silent movie star once stabbed himself to death with a pair of scissors. Hilda feels a strange connection with Hank and comes to care deeply for her paranoid new friend as they watch old movies together and chat the sweltering afternoons away. But when Hank’s downstairs neighbor Jake, a handsome screenwriter, inserts himself into the equation and begins to hint at Hank’s terrible secrets, Hilda must decide what it is she’s come to Echo Park searching for . . . and whether her fascination with death is worth missing out on life.

Stand alone or series: Stand alone

How did I get this book: ARC from MTV

Why did I read this book: The publisher contacted me and offered a review copy and after reading the blurb I thought I would like to try and read it.

Review:

Hilda and her friend Benji are a couple of teenagers who live in LA and go around visiting sites of celebrity murder and suicide. In one of these incursions, in search of the apartment in which an old Hollywood actor stabbed himself to death with a pair of scissors, they end up in a rundown Echo Park apartment where an elderly, bitter man called Hank lives. Recognising his loneliness, Hilda starts visiting Hank often and sharing stories over watching old Hollywood movies and then striking yet another friendship with Hank’s neighbour, Jake. As Hilda’s friendship with both Hank and Jake develop, hers and Benji’s start to fall apart.

John Belushi is Dead is quite an interesting book, one that provided me with a fascinating journey.

Starting with Hilda and Benji’s interest in the macabre side of LA/Hollywood and its celebrities. The narrative is constructed in a very clever fashion by introducing its main characters in the middle of one of these raids and then interspersing the text with glimpses into their past. Hilda and Benji have been brought together by a fascination with death, albeit for different reasons. Hilda’s motivations are clear to herself and to the reader: the sole survivor of a horrible car crash that killed her parents, she feels like she has cheated death and is only buying her time until it catches up to her. Hilda is of course, the narrator, the main character, the one that makes it possible for the reader to connect with or possibly even relate to. Benji, on the other hand has no similar back story and his motivations are a bit shadier. Why is this important?

Because most of the book is spent on sites where death occurred or with the characters talking about death. And the author doesn’t shy away from graphic details either. I admit to feeling extremely uncomfortable reading about crimes, suicides, accidental deaths of celebrities and I felt very much like a voyeur. It felt a bit too morbid for me and very difficult to understand where these characters were coming from. We are talking about visiting sites such as where Sharon Tate died, or where James Dean’s car crashed or buying “memorabilia” such as tiles from a famous actress swimming pool.

This book brought to mind something that author John Green talked about in an event I attended recently, an analogy between mirrors and windows and how sometimes when we look at someone we are looking at a mirror and seeing ourselves or what WE expect that person to be or behave when in reality we should be looking through a window. I think that this analogy can also be applied to books and reading and how sometimes, we read excepting to find a certain story and expecting the characters to behave similarly to how we would behave when in fact, a book is a window into a different world. Although I do think that it is possible to combine both when reading: depending on how you focus your eyes, you can look into a room via a window and still be able to see your reflection. Meaning: it is, I think rather impossible to distance oneself completely when reading.

But nevertheless I was extremely aware of this analogy when reading this particular book and how it felt utterly incapable to understand what could possibly move these characters into talking about or visiting these places. What is a statement to the writer’s ability is the fact that beyond the uncomfortable feeling, there was also an element of interest. And that comes from the fact that the writer expertly handles her subject by introducing a plethora of characters with different motivations (going back to the last paragraph) and exploring the different ways that people deal with death and with Dark Tourism (which is what Benji and Hilda are effectively doing here) : from curious morbidity to exploitation, from sympathy to genuine care and remembrance.

I spoke about my journey as a reader when reading this book and this is part of it. That at the same time that the morbidity and the interest on these deaths felt wrong to me, I also had to confront the fact that I too, have done something similar before. I have visited a concentration camp in Austria; a town that has been decimated by the Plague in England; a battlefield in Scotland; and just last Sunday I was walking through a small town cemetery looking at old graves. As much as I would like to think that I did all these in remembrance and in a respectful manner, who is to say that there isn’t an element of voyeurism and morbidity? For that realisation alone, the book was well worth the read.

Having said that, as it happens with all good books that deal with death, this is a book about life and the living, and having to carry on living despite past mistakes, difficulty, loss and grief. And as the plot it builds up with darkness, Hilda starts to see the light at the end of the tunnel and a way out if it. I loved her different relationships and way of connecting with all characters: her memories from her hippy parents; her problematic dealings with her aunt who is now raising her; her budding romance with Jake; her strange, difficult relationship with Bejji and her even more difficult friendship with Hank.

The original title John Belushi is Dead when it was first published in Australia was Hollywood Ending and both the title and cover of the book are , I think, more fitting than the US ones. Not only because they point to the fact that book is dark and possibly disturbing but also the title is twofold. It refers to both that idealised, happy Hollywood Ending and to the real, it happens-too-often Hollywood Ending.

And that brings me to the ending of the book itself and how it feels disconnected to the remainder of the book. The build up is such that I believed an all-around happy Hollywood Ending would be not only impossible but also unwelcomed and unrealistic. When it does happen, it feels like a cop out. Although of course I was rooting for a good ending for Hilda, I found the Hank-ending and the Benji-ending extremely problematic.

The first because it feels like erasing a problem, and forgetting something that should not be forgotten which is ironic, given the context of the novel. The fact that Hank is allowed an ending of his own choosing is somewhat beautiful but at the same time unsettling because his past slips away and there are no repercussions (to him or to Hilda) whatsoever. The Benji-ending is an even bigger issue because throughout the entire novel , it is made very, very clear that Benji has extremely serious issues and is potentially a dangerous person. His ending is simplistic and unrealistic within the context of the novel.

Ultimately, I enjoyed John Belushi is Dead very much. It is very different from what I usually read and I appreciate it for taking me to places I didn’t even know existed – both in fiction and reality.

Notable quotes/ parts:

We watched Double Indemnity, one of my favorites, and whatever discomfort may have existed between us melted away. I was a firm believer in the unifying force of art in all its forms: a shared love for a movie, book, or song could transcend all other obstacles in a relationship. Hank reminded me of a song by Tom Waits, or a novel by John Fante. For all his cragginess, there was an underlying soulfulness, and his words floated in the air like the music of a raspy trombone or a wailing saxophone.

Rating:7 – Very Good

Reading Next: I have no idea!

Title: Dark Life

Author: Kat Falls

Genre: Post-apocalypse, Dystopia, Speculative Fiction, Young Adult

Publisher: Scholastic (US) / Simon & Schuster (UK)
Publication Date: May 2010 (US) / August 2010 (UK)
Hardcover: 304 Pages

The oceans rose up, swallowing up the lowlands. Earthquakes shattered the continents, toppling entire regions into the rising water. Now, humans live packed into stack cities. The only ones with any space of their own are those who live on the ocean floor: the Dark Life.

Ty has spent his whole life living deep undersea, helping his family farm the ocean floor. But when outlaws attack his homestead, Ty finds himself in a fight to save the only home he has ever known. Joined by Gemma, a girl from the Topside who has come subsea to look for her brother, Ty ventures into the frontier’s rough underworld and discovers some dark secrets to Dark Life . . . secrets that threaten to destroy everything.

In her debut novel, Kat Falls has created a breathtaking world where the deep can be dangerous, the darkness can be deadly, and sometimes it takes extraordinary power to survive.

Stand alone or series: First book in a planned series

How did I get this book: Review Copy from the publisher (UK)

Why did I read this book: What can I say? I love a good post-apocalypse novel – and apocalypse by way of global warming seems to be the soup du jour. Ever since I first read the blurb for Dark Life last year, I’ve been eager to read and review it – and with YAAM ending, I finally put my foot down to get it done.

Review:

Dark Life is the story of Ty Townsend, a teenager born and raised on the sea floor, four hundred-plus feet beneath the surface. After the world’s temperature rose, the ice caps melted, permanently changing the climate and topography of the planet with twenty percent of the (former) United States’ eastern seaboard submerged under new sea-level. With so much land gone, humans faced two choices – to cram together in strictly limited land residences, or to move to the sea floor. Those pioneers of underwater habitation – Dark Lifers – enjoy all the space they want, but face incredible hardships. The Commonwealth (which has instigated marshal law for decades) controls the flow of supplies to underwater districts such as Ty’s home, Benthic Territory, and can revoke it at will. A band of raiders, led by the fearsome criminal Shade has been terrorizing Benthic Territory, intercepting ‘wealth shipments of supplies and wreaking havoc. The Commonwealth issues an ultimatum to those in Benthic Territory – either they catch the raiders on their own, or else all supplies will permanently dry up, their already high taxes will go through the roof, and land ownership rights revoked.

An enraged Ty – just two years from getting his own land – resolves to do whatever he can to help catch the raiders. But, he has his own hands busy with Topsider Gemma, whom he stumbles upon in deep water. A runaway orphan determined to find her missing older brother, Gemma and Ty’s paths intersect in strange and unforeseen ways – both work together, with the fate of the underwater colony, and more, at stake.

Dark Life is Kat Falls’ first novel, and it is undeniable, action-packed FUN. Fast-paced, wonky and imaginative, I thoroughly enjoyed this science fiction-type underwater romp (even if it really strains the limits of belief). The first thing to say about Dark Life is how adeptly Ms. Falls urges the plot along – I’m talking Rachel Caine-style non-stop action and wonder. And, as I’m a sucker for a briskly plotted sci-fi thriller, this translates to Thea-crack. From a plotting and writing perspective, Dark Live is unabashedly Over-The-Top, and I mean this in the best possible way. Like, the way that Avatar is ridiculously over the top. Or Aliens versus Predator is ridiculous and over the top. Or Lost could be ridiculous and over the top. Dark Life has a ridiculous amount of twists and reveals, which leaves me one very happy camper (or is it diver?). The setting is wonderfully detailed and aesthetically awesome, evoking a sort of Avatar-under-the-sea meets The Abyss with bio-luminescent life (I can definitely see how this book will translate to the big screen). and I loved the divide between those in Ty’s underwater world, and those in Gemma’s topside realm. Of course, as the descriptions are filtered through Ty’s narrative and the majority of the story takes place in the ocean’s depths, it’s strange to see how humanity chooses to cling to its crumbling, crowded and polluted relics when such beauty, space, and life is available underwater. Through Ty’s lovingly detailed descriptions, Benthic Territory comes to lush, vibrant life.

And, with narrative in mind, the characters of Dark Life are solidly written as well. As a protanonist, Ty’s voice is honest and self-assured, painting a heroic character – even if he does lean towards the too good to be true category. As his foil, Gemma makes up for Ty’s goodie-goodie tendencies with her brashness, her tendency to stick her foot in her mouth, and her pushiness. Needless to say, the two make a good pair. (My only quibble lay later in the book as Gemma’s tendency to get abducted at the worst possible instant – there are at least three pivotal instances of this in rapid succession) Then there are the supporting characters of Ty’s family (how I LOVE Zoe), a scarred Doctor, and a ruthless gang leader. I won’t say much for fear of spoilers, but they are all wonderfully written.

Of course, there is the minor problem of believability. The idea of deep sea living is as foreign and irresistible as outer space, facing many of the same challenges. Granted, this is not a hard science fiction title and Ms. Falls is not a marine biologist or engineer – but Dark Life does push the boundaries of credulity. Tropical fish, humans and livestock walking around at 400 feet underwater, traipsing to the surface and back at will without nitrogen buildup in the blood (not to say anything about getting up to the surface from 400 feet below on a single breath at the end without massive embolisms)? These technical issues said, Ms. Falls does subscribes to the George Lucas/Gene Roddenberry school of physics – and as with Star Wars or Star Trek (or, since the esteemed Mr. Zemeckis is involved, Back to the Future), the rules of physics sometimes don’t need to apply if the rest of the world is as compelling as Ty’s happens to be. Plus, that’s not to say that there aren’t any technological gadgets in place to aid the suspension of disbelief – I love the idea of “Liquigen” (filling the lungs of divers, allowing them to breathe and not suffer any ill effects of pressurization) and the jellyfish-like homes, just as love the idea of terrafarming the bottom of the ocean using superheated water from black chimneys and bacteria. Oh yeah, there’s also the idea of “Dark Gifts” and how water pressure stimulates other parts of the brain, leading to talents like dolphin sonar and other superhuman abilities. Yeah, these things are impossible. But, so what? For the sake of the story, even though I’m at the outer limits of credulity, I’m willing to push skepticism aside because Dark Life is that much fun.

Wildly enjoyable with a plot that won’t quit and a highly imaginative scope, Dark Life is a winsome first novel from Kat Falls. And I, for one, hope to return to Ty’s world very soon.

Notable Quotes/Parts: From Chapter 1:

I peered into the deep-sea canyon, hoping to spot a toppled skyscraper. Maybe even the Statue of Liberty. But there was no sign of the old East Coast, just a sheer drop into darkness.

A ball of light shot past me — a vampire squid, trailing neon blue. The glowing cloud swirled around my helmet. Careful not to break it up, I drifted onto my knees, mesmerized. But my trance was cut short by a series of green sparks bursting out of the gorge. I fell back, every muscle in my body tense. Only one fish glittered like an emerald and traveled in a pack: the green lantern shark. Twelve inches long and deadly as piranhas, they could rip apart something twenty times their size. Forget what they could do to a human.

I should have seen them coming, even this deep. I should have known the squid had squirted its radiant goo to divert a predator. And now my helmet’s crown lights served as an even brighter beacon. With a jab to my wrist screen, I snapped them off, but it was too late — I couldn’t unring that dinner bell.

I pried a flare gun from my belt and fired into the midst of the electric green frenzy. Two heartbeats later, light exploded over the canyon, shocking the sharks into stillness, eyes and teeth glittering. Quickly, I scooped the anchor of my mantaboard out of the muck and hauled myself onto it. Lying on my stomach with my legs dangling, I twisted the handgrips and took off, making serious wake. If my lungs hadn’t been filled with Liquigen, I would’ve whooped aloud.

Not that I was in the clear. As soon as the flare died, the sharks would be on me like suckerfish on a whale. I thought about burying myself in the thick ooze of the seafloor. Bedding down with the boulder-sized clams had worked before. I chanced a look over my shoulder. Sure enough, the darkness twinkled with stars — vicious little stars, shooting my way.

Tilting the manta into a nosedive, I flicked on the head beams, only to have the light reflect off metal. A sub! I crashed into it and toppled, boots over helmet. The manta’s handgrips tore from my fingers as I slammed onto my back. Sliding down the sloped hull, I grappled for a hold without luck until my feet hit the bumper and I stopped short. My guts took longer to settle.

Without a rider, the manta would shut off automatically; I’d have to find it later. Right now, I needed to take cover. But why was this little rig sitting on the seafloor without a light on to announce its presence? Was it a wreck? If so, it hadn’t sunk that long ago. The polished metal hull was barnacle free.

I scuttled along the bumper until I found the circular door to the air lock. The panel cover dangled from one hinge with pry marks scoring its edge. I hesitated, wondering about those marks, when suddenly the hull gleamed with emerald light.

I slammed the entry button. Like a dilating eye, the hatch opened and seawater filled the small chamber. Plunging into the air lock, I whirled to see sharks streaking toward me from all sides. I hit the interior button whole-handed. As the hatch clinched shut, the sharks plowed into it like mini torpedoes. From inside, they sounded like Death pounding at the door. I slumped against the chamber wall and grinned. Nothing put a buzz in my blood like escaping predators.

How many rules had I just broken? Visiting Coldsleep Canyon alone: forbidden. On nothing but a mantaboard: absolutely forbidden. Exploring a derelict sub: off the sonar screen. But now I had to take cover until the sharks left. It was the smart thing to do. The safe thing. Not that my parents would ever hear about the sub or the sharks. With a gang of outlaws roaming the territory, they had enough to worry about.

When the last drop of seawater disappeared through the grated floor, I tipped back my helmet and inhaled. The air was rank but did its job: The oxygen-infused liquid in my lungs evaporated. Switching on my flashlight, I opened the next hatch and stepped right into someone else’s nightmare.

Blood dripped from every surface in the gear room — walls, benches, lockers. . . . Wet and glistening, it puddled around the prospecting tools that littered the floor. I slowed my breath as if that would lessen the metallic tang that now filled my nose — a stink that conjured up the blood-slicked deck of a whaling ship. Some fisherman butchered something big in here, that’s all, I told myself. A sunfish or a marlin. Nothing to panic about. Except . . .I edged farther into the room. No matter how hard it thrashed, a dying fish couldn’t have emptied the weapons rack, let alone ripped it off the wall.

Circling the overturned rack, I panned my light across the open lockers — all ransacked — and tugged at my suit’s neck ring. Usually my helmet didn’t bother me when it hung off the back of my diveskin, but now its weight choked me. The sharks outside weren’t doing my nerves any favors, either, knocking along the sub’s hull, looking for a way in.

As soon as the sharks stopped tapping, I’d head up to the sunlight zone and hunt for dinner like I should have been doing all along. But the tapping didn’t stop. If anything, it grew louder. Worse, I realized it wasn’t the sharks tapping at all, but . . .

Footsteps.

You can read the full excerpt online HERE.

Rating: 7 – Very Good

Reading Next: We by John Dickinson

Giveaway Details:

We have FIVE copies of Dark Life up for grabs, courtesy of the UK publisher. The contest is open to ALL, and will run until Saturday, August 21st at 11:59 PM (PST). To enter, simply leave a comment here letting us know what your “dark gift” would be (i.e. dolphin-like sonar, electric eel-like shock capabilities, superhuman swimming speed, whatever!). ONLY ONE ENTRY PER PERSON, PLEASE! Multiple comments will be disqualified.

Good luck!

Title: Zombies vs. Unicorns

Authors: Team Unicorn edited by Holly Black – Kathleen Duey, Meg Cabot, Garth Nix, Margo Lanagan, Naomi Novik & Diana Peterfreund; Team Zombie edited by Justine Larbalestier – Libba Bray, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Cassandra Clare, Maureen Johnson, Carrie Ryan & Scott Westerfeld

Genre: Speculative Fiction, Young Adult

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry (Simon & Schuster)
Publication Date: September 2010
Hardcover: 432 pages

It’s a question as old as time itself: which is better, the zombie or the unicorn? In this anthology, edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier (unicorn and zombie, respectively), strong arguments are made for both sides in the form of short stories. Half of the stories portray the strengths–for good and evil–of unicorns and half show the good (and really, really bad-ass) side of zombies. Contributors include many bestselling teen authors, including Cassandra Clare, Libba Bray, Maureen Johnson, Meg Cabot, Scott Westerfeld, and Margo Lanagan. This anthology will have everyone asking: Team Zombie or Team Unicorn?

Stand alone or series: Stand alone collection of short stories (although some stories fit in established universes for other series’ – i.e. Carrie Ryan, Diana Peterfreund)

How did I get this book: ARC at BookExpo America 2010

Why did I read this book: Did you SEE that author list? Although I’m not really a huge anthology fan or unicorn lover (Diana Peterfreund’s killer unicorns the exception), I am always down for a zombie collection. Not to mention, we got to meet the lovely Justine Larbalestier and Holly Black (as well as Scott Westerfeld and Diana Peterfreund) at BEA this year as they were signing galleys for Zombies vs. Unicorns. Put all that together, and there was no way I was going to miss out on reading this promising anthology.

Review:

An anthology is a tricky thing to put together – there are almost always a few gems, sparkling ever-so-brightly (not unlike a unicorn’s pretty, pretty sheen) and there are some stinkers (not unlike a zombie’s dessicated stench). The general trend of Zombies vs. Unicorns, I am happy to report, is toward the positive. While there were a couple of stories I could have done without, overall, I was entertained by and pleased with the quality of the stories in this collection. Mostly.

Here’s my take on each of the stories.

“The Highest Justice” by Garth Nix (Unicorn)

A strong start to the anthology, Garth Nix writes probably the best self-contained short story in the whole book. Featuring both a zombie AND a unicorn in the same story – on the same “side” too (I think this counts as breaking the rules) – “The Highest Justice” is a fantasy tale about a grieving young princess, her unfortunate (zombified) mother, poisoned at the hands of her treacherous father and his twisted lover. And there’s justice too. This one is a bit old school (Garth Nix is one of my favorite authors from childhood, and reading this new story reminded me of how much I love his style of fantasy and writing), and I mean that in the best way. A phenomenal start to the book – well done, editors, for beginning with this one.

Rating: 8 – Excellent

“Love Will Tear Us Apart” by Ayala Dawn Johnson (Zombie)

This short story, one of a surprising – refreshing! – many that feature a same-sex romance, is a frustrating mix of AWESOME and not-so-awesome for me. I loved the sardonic, mac-and-cheese loving voice of teen infected protagonist Grayson. The food comparisons alone are wonderful, and I loved the very real, astonishingly deep relationship portrayed between him and the delectable Jack. Lust, hate, revulsion, love all rolled into one complicated package of emotion, fueled by violence (and set to a killer soundtrack), the overall characterizations and direction of the story is brilliant. The ending line is EPIC. But, there were some stylistic choices that irritated the crap (brains?) out of me. The story is divided into different mini-chapters, alternating the realtime storyline with Grayson’s little asides about his past – and, for the most part, the little asides (in my opinion) were largely unnecessary, dragging down the irresistible momentum of the actual story. Plus, the cheese factor in the asides was high – the “Dirty Harry” chapter in particular, with cringe-worthy rules such as, “Use your brains! Or someone else will eat them for you” didn’t do anything for me, not really flowing well with the heavier, more dramatic tone of the story. But again, just my opinion. Overall, another winner.

Rating: 7 – Very Good

“Purity Test” by Naomi Novik (Unicorn)

I have had Naomi Novik on my shelf for a while now, but have yet to read her Temeraire books. As such, “Purity Test” was my first introduction to the author, and I was thrilled to finally try some of her work… but, unfortunately, this was one of the few duds (for me). Working the humor angle with a trapper-keeper unicorn on the hunt for a certain young woman, “Purity Test” as its title suggests plays on the bond between virginity and unicorns. Unfortunately, the dialogue felt kitschy, the jokes pretty bad, and the story (though well-executed), ultimately forgettable.

Rating: 5 – Meh

“Bougainvillea” by Carrie Ryan

My favorite story of the anthology. I adored The Forest of Hands and Teeth and thoroughly enjoyed The Dead-Tossed Waves, so I was thrilled to discover that “Bougainvillea” fits in the same universe, albeit at a much earlier time. Alternating between past and present (or “Then” and “Now”), “Bougainvillea” follows Iza, a young woman on the island of Curacao shortly after The Return. Daughter of a ruthless – but effective – leader, Iza struggles with her own sense of worth, her relationship with her father, the growing threat of pirates offshore, and the ever present Mudo surrounding them all. Iza’s is a beautifully crafted, bittersweet character arc (this is right in Ms. Ryan’s wheelhouse) and I loved it from beginning to end. Especially the end. “Bougainvillea” provides valuable insight to The Return and Mary and Gabry’s world in TFOHAT and TDTW, also provoking some interesting questions, too.

I would LOVE to see Iza’s journey continue in another story or book…whaddya say, Ms. Ryan? Pretty please?

Rating: 10 – Perfection

“A Thousand Flowers” by Margo Lanagan (Unicorn)

If “Purity Test” was kitschy and plays with the technicalities of virginity and its connection to unicorns, “A Thousand Flowers” takes that virginity connection and perverts and twists it beyond recognition. Ms. Lanagan is not one to shy away from gritty, less-palatable elements and she explores the darker, more complicated side of sexuality (this is the author of Tender Morsels we’re talking about, after all). Ms. Lanagan’s work might not be for everyone, certainly not for the faint of heart, but this is an author with a gift for storytelling as she interweaves magic and wonder together with the uglier side of human nature. Is “A Thousand Flowers” a little sensationalist and exploitative? Yes. But it also is an effective, brutal explication of female sexuality and “virtue.” I’m not really sure if I particularly liked this story, but it’s certainly thought-provoking and memorable, to say the least.

Rating: 7 – Very Good

“The Children of the Revolution” by Maureen Johnson (Zombie)

This story was my first exposure to Maureen Johnson’s writing – I’ve been dying to read something by her ever since her awesome keynote speech at Book Blogger Con earlier this year. Funny, charming, incredibly witty – these are the words I would use to describe the lovely Ms. Johnson. And, just as I hoped, “The Children of the Revolution” was similarly enchanting (well, you know, in a more slimy, guts and brains and raw sinew kind of zombie way). Following a college freshman duped into following her stoner boyfriend out to the UK for a study abroad program only to learn that said program is essentially slave labor and said boyfriend is a grade-A jackass, “The Children of the Revolution” also pokes fun at Hollywood celebrities and their penchant for truly insane religions. Little adorable toddler zombies. Sponge Bob. How could I not love this story? Ms. Johnson’s voice is wry, flippant, and totally winsome. I’ll be back to sample her other work, very soon.

Rating: 7 – Very Good

“The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn” by Diana Peterfreund (Unicorn)

This story, along with Ms. Ryan’s and Mr. Westerfeld’s, were my most highly anticipated stories of this collection, and I am happy to report that Diana Peterfreund once again delivers. “The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn” might sound like a playful, lighthearted title, this is a surprisingly moving story about a girl struggling with her terrifying new-found abilities, her family expectations, her relationships, and, of course, a baby killer unicorn. One of the longer stories in the bunch, “Baby Killer Unicorn” actually feels like more of a novella than a short story. I love that protagonist Wen is markedly different from the other female leads in this collection, and in fact from Ms. Peterfreund to date – she’s not as rough as Astrid (of Rampant) or as assured as Amy (of the Secret Society Girl books). Wen is quieter, religious (which stands out in a sea of usually agnostic/atheistic or religion-free genre stories), and confused – but when she does stand up for herself, it’s an awesome, empowering feeling.

While I loved the story overall, what didn’t quite work for me, however, was the question of time frame. First, the integration of unicorns into modern society sits strangely. In Rampant, the existence of unicorns isn’t really something people take as fact – but in this short story, a jump has been made where unicorns are commonly known of (they are on the news, for example) and universally feared. Also in terms of time frame, Flower/Flayer (titled killer baby unicorn)’s growth and Wen’s caring for him felt rushed and abrupt.

That said, this is one of the strongest unicorn pieces in the book, and one of the keeper memorable stories in the collection.

Rating: 7 – Very Good

“Innoculata” by Scott Westerfeld” (Zombie)

My second favorite story of the book, “Innoculata” proves to me, yet again, that Scott Westerfeld is the bees knees. Once zombies have taken over the planet and only a handful of humans remain in a basically safe enclosure, equipped with food, water and shelter, what else is there to do? “Innoculata” is a story about a rarely examined side effect of the zombie apocalypse: boredom. I love the idea of completely random inoculation (and the idea of the cowpox/smallpox explanation); I love the characters (a F/F pairing this time!); I love the idea of apocalypse survivors on a weed farm led by a former DEA raider; I love the action-packed awesomeness of it all.

Another gem of a self-contained story.

Rating: 9 – Damn Near Perfection

“Princess Prettypants” by Meg Cabot (Unicorn)

Ahh, Meg Cabot. How I loved this story – my favorite Team Unicorn entry of the whole bunch. “Princess Prettypants” (truly awesome name) pokes fun at the Lisa Frank type of unicorn:

On Liz’s seventeenth birthday, she gets an honest-to-goodness unicorn from her crazy Aunt – one that literally farts rainbows and is named “Princess Prettypants.” Seriously. What begins as the worst birthday ever turns into a sweet revenge tale, with the help of one really, really pretty unicorn. Hilarious, smart and just…cool, written with Meg Cabot’s trademark wit and verve, “Princess Prettypants” is absolutely delightful.

Rating: 8 – Excellent

“Cold Hands” by Cassandra Clare (Zombie)

Cassandra Clare’s take on zombies is slightly different than the usual “no room in Hell”/pathogen/demonic possession sort of deal – in this story, one town is plagued by a curse that brings deceased loved ones back to life as zombies. These aren’t the eat-your-brains types of zombies; rather, they are the forlorn undead that only want to be with their families and lovers. Because the undead will follow those loved ones wherever they go, no one from “Zombietown” (as Lychgate it is known to the rest of the world) is allowed to leave. That doesn’t bother Adele so much, however, because she has her true love, James, who also happens to be the next Duke of Lychgate, by her side. But when James is killed by his Uncle, their love is tested to its limits, as James returns to claim his place, and to be with Adele.

A solid entry, I liked how earnest and romantic this story was as both Adele and James are tragic characters. Although the time period felt a little oddly anachronistic (Dukes? Really?) and the overall story leaned towards the melodramatic, I finished the story feeling basically satisfied and entertained.

Rating: 6 – Good

“The Third Virgin” by Kathleen Duey (Unicorn)

I’m not going to lie, this story was a near DNFer (“Did Not Finish”). Maybe it’s because the story is so exposition-heavy, and almost entirely internalized for the majority of the tale, from the perspective of a unicorn. Most likely it’s because “The Third Virgin” is yet another unicorn story dealing with the unicorn-virginity connection – which is unfair to Ms. Duey and her story, because had this been placed earlier in the anthology, I probably would not have had such a hard time getting through it. I’ll schedule it for a reread later, but I simply could not get hooked with the slow moving plot, and the lackluster voice of the narrating character. At this point, I think I was a little unicorn’d out.

Rating: 5 – Meh

“Prom Night” by Libba Bray (Zombie)

Well, talk about going out with a bang. “Prom Night” is one of the more haunting stories in the collection, by virtue of that ending. I loved the moral quandary this particular story posed – which is something that none of the other entries attempted. Even though the world has turned into kill or be killed, eat or be eaten, what is the moral thing to do? Did the teens of “Prom Night” do a terrible thing by sending their infected parents beyond their walls? At what point does the veneer of civilization begin to wear thin?

Libba Bray’s closing is a fitting end for a pretty one-sided showdown. Sorry Team Unicorn – from where I’m sitting, Team Zombie is the clear victor.

Rating: 7 – Very Good

On the Introductions…

The book and each story are prefaced by quick exchanges between editors Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier – and while I enjoyed this quippy rapport, and the general idea of a zombie-unicorn throwdown, my only quibble is that after a while, these introductions felt a bit repetitive and the teeniest bit self-serving and silly. I’m absolutely certain that it was a blast to write and work on this collection together – but as a reader, the introductions seemed to be more fun for the authors than perhaps they will be to their audience.

That said, overall, Zombies vs. Unicorns is a solid anthology, and well worth checking out. I definitely recommend it – especially for the zombie or unicorn lover.

Overall Rating: 7 – Very Good

Reading Next: Dark Life by Kat Falls

Giveaway Details:

And would you look at that? We’ve got TWO copies of Zombies vs. Unicorns up for grabs. The contest is open to addresses in the US and Canada and will run until Saturday August 21 at 11:59pm (PST). ONLY ONE ENTRY PER PERSON – multiple entries from the same IP address will be disqualified. Entry is simple – just let us know which team floats your boat – zombies? Or Unicorns?

Good luck! We will announce the winner on Sunday in our weekly Smuggler Stash.