Sometimes a Fantasy: Top Sci-Fi of 2004

LOCUS is the ‘Magazine of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Field.’ These are some of its recommended Young Adult titles. Click on the titles below to look up the book in the online catalog.

Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War by Clive Barker
Candy Quackenbush's adventures in the Abarat continue as she makes a startling realization as to who she is, and the forces of Night begin plans for war.

The Blue Girl by Charles DeLint (Main Library)
New at her high school, Imogene enlists the help of her introverted friend Maxine and the ghost of a boy who haunts the school after she receives warnings through her dreams that soul-eaters are threatening her life.

The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer
After Jack becomes apprenticed to a Druid bard, he and his little sister Lucy are captured by Viking Berserkers and taken to the home of King Ivar and his half-troll queen, leading Jack to undertake a quest to Jotunheim, home of the trolls.

Unexpected Magic: Collected Stories by Diana Wynne Jones (Main Library)
A collection of sixteen stories including "The Plague of Peacocks," "Aunt Bea's Day Out," "The Fat Wizard," "No One," and "Everard's Ride."

Gifts by Ursula K. LeGuin
When a young man in the Uplands blinds himself rather than use his gift of "unmaking"--a violent talent shared by members of his family--he upsets the precarious balance of power among rival, feuding families, each of which has a strange and deadly talent of its own.

The Keys to the Kingdom: Grim Tuesday by Garth Nix
Arthur didn't think he would have to return to the strange house that nearly killed him on Monday. But the next day brings new challenges in the form of an enemy named Grim Tuesday, who threatens the safety of both Arthur's family and his world.

Gothic! Ten Original Dark Tales by Deborah Noyes, ed. (Main Library)
Drawing on dark fantasy and the fairy tale as well as horror and wild humor, ten acclaimed authors pay homage to the gothic tale in stories of the supernatural and surreal.

Airborn by Kenneth Oppel
Matt, a young cabin boy aboard an airship, and Kate, a wealthy young girl traveling with her chaperone, team up to search for the existence of mysterious winged creatures reportedly living hundreds of feet above the Earth's surface.

The Amulet of Samarkand: the Golem’s Eye by Jonathan Stroud
In their continuing adventures, magician's apprentice Nathaniel, now fourteen years old, and the djinni Bartimaeus travel to Prague to locate the source of a golem's power before it destroys London.

Midnighters, Vol. 1: The Secret Hour by Scott Westerfeld
Upon moving to Bixby, Oklahoma, fifteen-year-old Jessica Day learns that she is one of a group of people who have special abilities that help them fight ancient creatures living in an hour hidden at midnight; creatures that seem determined to destroy Jess.

November 21, 2006