Publisher Spotlight: Flux

There are so many presses now it's hard to remember which ones I do and don't know.  I thought this was new, until I did a bit of research on them and discovered I have a few of their books on my shelf, namely Maggie Stiefvater's Lament and Ballad.  I've heard about some of their other books, including Shadow Walkers, which I've included below.  They've got some great cover art.  

So what kind of publisher is Flux?  From their website: 

Flux is an imprint dedicated to fiction for teens, where young adult is a point of view, not a reading level. You won't find condescension or simplification here. You will find comedy, tragedy, ecstasy, pain, discovery - everything you're likely to find in real life. Welcome to Flux...now.

Their website has category searches for SF, F, Romance, General Fiction, Social Issues and also the gender of the protagonist, which is interesting.

Here's a sample of what they publish:

Insomnia by J. R. Johansson

Her eyes saved his life. Her dreams released his darkness.

After four years of sleeplessness, high school junior Parker Chipp can’t take much more. Every night, instead of sleeping, he enters the dreams of the last person he’s made eye contact with. If he doesn’t sleep soon, Parker will die.

Then he meets Mia. Her dreams, calm and beautifully uncomplicated, allow him blissful rest that’s utterly addictive. But what starts out as a chance meeting turns into an obsession; Parker’s furious desire for what he needs pushes him to extremes he never thought he’d go. And when someone begins terrorizing Mia with twisted death threats, Parker’s memory blackouts leave him doubting his own innocence.

Innocent Darkness by Suzanne Lazear

A hoverboard appeared in her rearview mirror. “This is the Los Angeles Air Patrol,” a voice boomed. “I command you to land your vehicle in the name of the law.”

Noli Braddock and her best friend V’s incident with a flying auto have landed them in a heap of trouble. And when Noli is sent to a spirit-squelching reform school in San Francisco, she’s sure that her rebellious adventures are over.

Meanwhile, Kevighn Silver has been ordered by the Faerie Queen to bring a mortal girl back to the Otherworld. The magic requires a blood sacrifice every seven years, and only a mortal girl who shines with the Spark—a girl like Noli—will keep the Otherworld from complete destruction.

When an ill-timed wish sends Noli tumbling into the Otherworld, she’s more homesick than ever . . . until V arrives to save her from an untimely demise. But who exactly is V? And if he helps Noli escape, who will save the realm of Faerie from utter annihilation?

Shadow Walkers by Brent Hartinger

Zach lives with his grandparents on a remote island in Puget Sound in Washington State. With only his little brother, Gilbert, to keep him company, Zach feels cut off from the world. But when Gilbert is kidnapped, Zach tries the only thing he can think of to find him: astral projection. Soon, his spirit is soaring through the strange and boundless astral realm—a shadow place. While searching for his brother, Zach meets a boy named Emory, another astral traveler who's intriguing (and cute).

As Zach and Emory track the kidnappers from the astral realm, their bond grows—but each moment could be Gilbert's last. Even worse, there's a menacing, centuries-old creature in their midst that devours souls and possesses physical bodies. And it's hungry for Zach.

Book Review: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

Pros: horrifying invasion story, believable protagonists, compelling story

Cons: 

For Parents: some swearing, kissing, the violence isn't graphic but there are child soldiers, executions, and murder

Cassie has survived the first 4 waves of the alien invasion: light's out, surf's up, pestilence and the silencer.  Seven billion people didn't, including her mother and father.  Her five year old brother was taken away in the 4th wave.  Now she waits for the 5th wave and the courage to keep the promise she made to her brother, that she'd come after him.

This is a brutal invasion story.  These aliens know how to wipe out humanity and do so in sweeping waves, each more destructive than the last.  Through Cassie's eyes we learn about the 4 previous waves, and through her eyes, and those of a few other characters, we slowly learn what the 5th and final wave is.

There's a fair amount of violence, particularly when the child soldiers come into the picture.  But it's violence that serves a purpose and isn't graphically portrayed.  This is a book that questions humanity.  What will humans do to survive?  What makes you human in the first place?  The book doesn't answer these questions, making it a great jumping point for discussion.

The characters are believable, falling apart under the pressures of the new world and picking themselves up again because doing otherwise means death.  This makes the book difficult to put down.  The writing is intense and while you may see the revelation that is the 5th wave coming, it doesn't stop it from being horrifying in its implications.

The ending is very tense, though I'm not sure I believe the kids could accomplish everything they do, and it ignores the larger picture.  But it does give a good closure for the book.

I highly recommend it.

Razorbill Fall Preview

Last friday I had the opportunity to go to the Penguin Offices in Toronto for the Razorbill Fall Preview.  Razorbill, for those of you who don't know, is Penguin's YA line.

Sequels to some awesome sounding series are coming out.  Which means my to be read pile's grown some more as I've been woefully under reading it lately.

The first book's already on my list (because it sounds great and that cover is amazing), but in case you haven't heard of it, here you go:

Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes

In a land where magic has been forgotten but peace has reigned for centuries, a deadly unrest is simmering. Three kingdoms grapple for power—brutally transforming their subjects'' lives in the process. Amidst betrayals, bargains, and battles, four young people find their fates forever intertwined:

Cleo: A princess raised in luxury must embark on a rough and treacherous journey into enemy territory in search of a magic long thought extinct.

Jonas: Enraged at injustice, a rebel lashes out against the forces of oppression that have kept his country impoverished—and finds himself the leader of a people''s revolution centuries in the making.

Lucia: A girl adopted at birth into a royal family discovers the truth about her past—and the supernatural legacy she is destined to wield.

Magnus: Bred for aggression and trained to conquer, a firstborn son begins to realize that the heart can be more lethal than the sword. . . .

The only outcome that''s certain is that kingdoms will fall. Who will emerge triumphant when all they know has collapsed?

Book two, Rebel Spring, will be out in December.

Slated by Teri Terry

Kyla has been Slated—her memory and personality erased as punishment for committing a crime she can't remember. The government has taught her how to walk and talk again, given her a new identity and a new family, and told her to be grateful for this second chance that she doesn't deserve. It's also her last chance—because they'll be watching to make sure she plays by their rules.

As Kyla adjusts to her new life, she's plagued by fear. Who is she, really? And if only criminals are slated, why are so many innocent people disappearing? Kyla is torn between the need to know more and her instinct for self-preservation. She knows a dangerous game is being played with her life, and she can't let anyone see her make the wrong move . . . but who can she trust when everyone is a stranger?

I'm afraid I missed the release date for this one, but the sequel's called Fractured.

Champion, book three of Marie Lu's Legend series, will be out in November.  I loved the first book but haven't had the chance to pick up the second yet.  

Legend by Marie Lu 

What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic''s wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic''s highest military circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country''s most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem.

From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths - until the day June''s brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect. Caught in the ultimate game of cat and mouse, Day is in a race for his family''s survival, while June seeks to avenge Metias''s death. But in a shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what has really brought them together, and the sinister lengths their country will go to keep its secrets.

Throne of Glass is getting a new cover for the paperback edition, that will match that of book two, Crown of Midnight (which just got a starred review from Kirkus).

Throne of Glass by Sarah Maas

In a land without magic, where the king rules with an iron hand, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She comes not to kill the king, but to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition, she is released from prison to serve as the king's champion. Her name is Celaena Sardothien. The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. But something evil dwells in the castle of glass--and it's there to kill. When her competitors start dying one by one, Celaena's fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival, and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world.

There were some books that are series starters, rather than sequels:

Gameboard of the Gods by Rachel Mead

In a futuristic world nearly destroyed by religious extremists, Justin March lives in exile after failing in his job as an investigator of religious groups and supernatural claims. But Justin is given a second chance when Mae Koskinen comes to bring him back to the Republic of United North America (RUNA). Raised in an aristocratic caste, Mae is now a member of the military's most elite and terrifying tier, a soldier with enhanced reflexes and skills.

When Justin and Mae are assigned to work together to solve a string of ritualistic murders, they soon realize that their discoveries have exposed them to terrible danger. As their investigation races forward, unknown enemies and powers greater than they can imagine are gathering in the shadows, ready to reclaim the world in which humans are merely game pieces on their board.

Control by Lydia Kang

Control is set in a world of automatic cars, nightclubs with auditory ecstasy drugs, and guys with four arms—this is about the human genetic “mistakes” that society wants to forget, and the way that outcasts can turn out to be heroes.

After the violent death of her father, 17 year-old Zelia loses her younger sister, Dylia, during an abduction at a foster care agency. It turns out her sister Dylia isn’t just pretty and sweet—she’s illegal. In the year 2150, DNA must be pure by law, and anyone with enhanced genes face death. Zelia’s only allies are the freak-show inhabitants of her new, underground foster home. Along with the unexpected love of a very strange boy, she will need her flaws and their illicit traits to save the only family she has left.

Finally, and this is about a sequel again, The Gypsy King's sequel, A Fool's Errand, now has a cover!  We got to meet the author, who was very funny and excited to be writing the third book (currently slated for next May). 

A novel with only light fantasy elements, this series is supposed to be good for the history crowd too.  I've got the first book so look forward to my review soon. 

The Gypsy King by Maureen Fergus

A runaway slave with a shadowy past, sixteen-year-old Persephone has spent four long years toiling beneath the leering gaze of her despised owner and dreaming of a life where she is free to shape her own destiny. Then, one night, a chance encounter with a handsome chicken thief named Azriel changes her life forever.

Sold to him for a small bag of gold coins, Persephone soon discovers what she already suspected: namely, that Azriel is not what he seems. And when she realizes that he believes Persephone has a special destiny—she is determined to escape him and his impossibly broad shoulders.

But things are no longer as simple as they once were.

Torn between her longing for freedom and her undeniable feelings for the handsome thief with the fast hands and the slow smile, Persephone faces the hardest choice she will ever have to make.

And no one—least of all her—could have imagined the shocking truth her decision will reveal.

If I Had ALL the Time in the World Teen Edition part 3

There are so many books I'd love to read, both old and new.  Since I won't actually get to read them all, I figure I could showcase some.  Maybe other people will read them and tell me what I'm missing. :)

These are books I heard of from some of the publisher previews I've been privileged to attend.  Note, a few of these are kids books rather than teen, but they still sound fun. :)

Ashes by Ilsa Bick

It could happen tomorrow . . .

  

An electromagnetic pulse flashes across the sky, destroying every electronic device, wiping out every computerized system, and killing billions.

Alex hiked into the woods to say good-bye to her dead parents and her personal demons. Now desperate to find out what happened after the pulse crushes her to the ground, Alex meets up with Tom-a young soldier-and Ellie, a girl whose grandfather was killed by the EMP. 

For this improvised family and the others who are spared, it's now a question of who can be trusted and who is no longer human.

Bonechiller by Graham McNamee

Danny is sick of running. Harvest Cove is the latest nowhere place he's drifted through with his dad. In summer, people come to stay in cottages on the vast lake. In winter, Harvest Cove is a ghost town hidden away in Canada's Big Empty. Danny's been running forever, but Harvest Cove might be his last stop. The place has a way of making people disappear.

As the cold sets in, Danny and his new friends stumble on a centuries-old nightmare. They start seeing things. Impossible things. And in winter, there''s no escape from Harvest Cove.

Bookweird by Paul Glennon

Norman Jespers-Vilnius is just an average eleven-year-old kid-until he absentmindedly nibbles on the edge of a page and wakes up inside his favourite book, the Undergrowth Series. Norman finds himself smack in the middle of an epic battle of animal kingdoms, where he forms a close friendship with young Malcolm, a future king. After joining Malcolm's fight he winds up back in his own bed, dirty and in torn pyjamas. But his adventures have only just started. It soon becomes clear that Norman has been caught by a mystifying force called "Bookweird"- Norman finds himself inside books his family is reading, mixing up plotlines. When he tries to undo an act of violence in his sister's horse novel, he has to explain the appearance of a pony to some disgruntled policemen at a crime scene in his mother's favourite thriller. Can Norman put all of the stories back on track and return these fictional worlds to normal? Or will Bookweird trap him in the pages forever?

Who Pushed Humpty Dumpty? by David Levinthal

Break-in at the Three Bears family home? It could only be one dame. Wicked witch gone missing from her candied cottage? Hansel and Gretel claim it was self-defense. Did Humpty Dumpty really just fall off that wall, or was he pushed? Here are five fairy-tale stories with a twist, all told from the point of view of a streetwise police officer called Binky, who just happens to be a toad in a suit and a fedora. When Snow White doesn''t make it to the beauty pageant, Officer Binky is the first to find the apple core lying by her bed. When an awful giant mysteriously crashes to the ground, upsetting the whole town, Binky discovers exactly who is responsible. Author David Levinthal and illustrator John Nickle retell these classic stories in the style of a 1940s noir detective novel-for kids!

The Infects by Sean Beaudoin

A feast for the brain, this gory and genuinely hilarious take on zombie culture simultaneously skewers, pays tribute to, and elevates the horror genre.

Seventeen-year-old Nero is stuck in the wilderness with a bunch of other juvenile delinquents on an "Inward Trek." As if that weren't bad enough, his counselors have turned into flesh-eating maniacs overnight and are now chowing down on his fellow miscreants. As in any classic monster flick worth its salted popcorn, plentiful carnage sends survivors rabbiting into the woods while the mindless horde of "infects" shambles, moans, and drools behind. Of course, these kids have seen zombie movies. They generate "Zombie Rules" almost as quickly as cheeky remarks, but attitude alone can't keep the biters back. Serving up a cast of irreverent, slightly twisted characters, an unexpected villain, and an ending you won't see coming, here is a savvy tale that that's a delight to read - whether you're a rabid zombie fan or freshly bitten - and an incisive commentary on the evil that lurks within each of us.

Book Review: Dualed by Elsie Chapman

Pros: interesting premise, fast paced ending

Cons: protagonist isn't very likable and makes unwise decisions,  no social commentary

For Parents: no language or sexual content, lots of gun and knife violence 

West Grayer's world is an enclosed city.  Fear of those on the outside breaking in created a law that all babies are born with the physical aspects of two sets of parents, genetically altered to look like identical twins.  Sometime between the ages of eleven and eighteen both people are activated.  At that point they have thirty-one days to kill their Alternate (Alt).  If neither completes, they'll both die.  West's oldest brother and younger sister were both killed by their Alts.  Her mother died as a PK, a Peripheral Kill, during someone else's completion and her dad's just committed suicide.  West is determined to survive her activation and prove she's the best qualified for their city's way of life.

This is a teen book adults won't enjoy as much as the intended audience.  As a protagonist, fifteen year old West is too determined to do things herself, doesn't need help and makes her decisions with the idea that her actions don't impact anyone else.  She's angry and feeling unworthy of being the alt left alive, and makes choices that cause her to feel these things more over time, rather than less. 

Despite how the synopsis sounds, this isn't a cat and mouse hunt between the girls like Marie Brennan's fantasy duology Doppleganger and Warrior and Witch (republished as Warrior and Witch).  It's focused primarily on West's avoidance of her assignment, though the ending does have some tense scenes when she's finally on the prowl.  

It's also not a vehicle of social commentary, the way Battle Royal and the Hunger Games are.  There's no deeper meaning to why the kids are forced to kill each other or much in the way of questioning its efficacy of turning out a society of adults prepared for - and ready to repulse - an invading army.

I found West's decision to become a striker interesting as I would have expected assassinating a legal target to be easier than killing random people.  I wanted to see more of the psychological effects that killing had on her.  Instead she's emotionally shut down (which is an effect, but not the one I'd expected).  I didn't quite believe she would be accepted so readily as a striker.  I would have expected their qualifications required more than merely a desire to become one.  She should have had to pass some sort of test of skill and/or discretion before she got the tattoos.

I expect teens will love this, while adults who want more philosophical discussion in their books may want to give it a pass.

New Author Spotlight: Gretchen McNeil

New Author Spotlight is a series designed to introduce authors with up to 3 books in the different SF/F subgenres.

Today's spotlight shines on Gretchen McNeil! Her books are:

• Possess by Gretchen McNeil (Balzer + Bray)
• Ten by Gretchen McNeil (Balzer + Bray)

Here's the cover copy for Ten:

Don't spread the word!

Three-day weekend. House party.

White Rock House on Henry Island.
You do not want to miss it.

It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives, three days on Henry Island at an exclusive house party. Best friends Meg and Minnie each have their own reasons for wanting to be there, which involve their school's most eligible bachelor, T. J. Fletcher, and look forward to three glorious days of boys, bonding, and fun-filled luxury.

But what they expect is definitely not what they get, and what starts out as fun turns dark and twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine.

Suddenly, people are dying, and with a storm raging outside, the teens are cut off from the rest of the world. No electricity, no phones, no internet, and a ferry that isn't scheduled to return for three days. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on each other, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine?

Check out these other books if you want some creepy serial killer tinged Halloween reading:

• Daemon Hall by Andrew Nance (Square Fish)
• Beyond by Graham McNamee (Wendy Lamb Books)
• The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting (HarperCollins)

Book Review: Beyond by Graham McNamee

This is my second R.I.P. (Readers Imbibing Peril VII) review, and the first book.  I'm not sure I'll be able to get a second book in as planned, but we'll see.  If you want to see what reviews others have written, check here.

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Pros: great characters, fast paced, honest chills, no romance

Cons: too short!

For Parents: no content

The real reason behind Jane's numerous brushes with death is too crazy for anyone but her fellow 'creep sister' to believe.  So when she starts hearing voices and seeing things - in addition to her already extreme sleepwalking and migranes - she only tells her friend Lexi what's really going on.  Somehow, she's picked up a ghost.  One who wants her dead, and is able to use her own shadow - and body - to kill her.

This is a brilliantly written teen novel.  The chapters are short and punchy, making it very fast paced and quick to read.  The characters are fully fleshed: Jane's parents who love their daughter and want to help but don't know how.  Jane, who wants to explain but knows they won't believe her.  Lexi, whose father left when she was young, and who makes dark films in order to understand the world.

The story is explained through quick flashbacks to Jane's various deaths, her friendship with Lexi and dealing with the present.  There is a love interest, but it's kept low key and just barely factors into the plot.

The ghost is suitably terrifying, as is it's reasoning for wanting Jane.  There is some adult creepiness involved with the ghost's past that comes into play with Jane's present, but it's passed over with limited details.

It's a great book for younger teens to adults who want a decent - but not gory or too terrifying - scare.   And the author's Canadian. :)