Cover Reveal – The Extraordinaires: The Subterranean Stratagem

The theatre can wait. First there’s a mystery to solve, not to mention a world to save . . .

Kingsley Ward and Evadne Stephens are the Extraordinaires and they should be the toast of the town – but their juggling and escapology act is failing, and Kingsley is to blame. His wolfish side is breaking free, ruining performances and endangering those around him. The secret to controlling this wildness lies in his mysterious past. Was he really raised by wolves? Who were his parents? What happened to them?

The discovery of Kingsley’s father’s journal promises answers, but when it is stolen the Extraordinaires uncover ancient magic, a malign conspiracy, and a macabre plot to enslave all humanity. What begins as a quest to restore Kingsley’s past becomes an adventure that pits the Extraordinaires against forces that could shatter the minds and souls of millions.

I’m a huge fan of Michael Pryor.  His Laws of Magic series was brilliant and his latest series, The Extraordinaires is set to be even better.  I reviewed the first book in the series, The Extinction Gambit here on the blog and I’ve been eagerly awaiting the second book.

The Subterranean Stratagem is out 2 April from Random House Australia.

Back to Black Brick by Sarah Moore Fitzgerald

Sometimes a story can come along at exactly the right time.  It can mirror something that is happening in your own life and really strike a chord with you.  Back to Black Brick is a story about a grandfather who has Alzheimer’s Disease and his grandson, Cosmo, who tries everything he can to stop him losing his memory.  My nan has early stage dementia so I can completely understand how Cosmo feels.  Cosmo, however, does something that I can’t do – he travels back in time to meet his grandfather as a young man.

Cosmo’s brother Brian died when he was ten years old. His mum hides her grief and Cosmo lives with his grandparents. They’ve been carefree days as Granddad buys him a horse called John and teaches him all he knows about horses. But the good times have to come to an end and although he doesn’t want to admit it, Cosmo knows his Granddad is losing his mind. So on one of the rare occasions when Granddad seems to recognise him, Cosmo is bemused that he gives him a key to Blackbrick Abbey and urges him to go there. Cosmo shrugs it off, but gradually Blackbrick draws him in… Cosmo arrives there, scared and lonely, and is dropped off at the crumbling gates of a huge house. As he goes in, the gates close, and when he turns to look, they’re rusty and padlocked as if they haven’t been opened in years. Cosmo finds himself face to face with his grandfather as a young man, and questions begin to form in his mind: can Cosmo change the course of his family’s future?

Back to Black Brick is a captivating story about families, the secrets that they keep, and the pain they hold inside.  Sarah Moore Fitzgerald wraps this all up with plenty of mystery, a dash of history, and time travel.  It’s a time-slip story but quite different from similar stories I’ve read.  When time travel is involved the characters generally have to think about how their actions in the past will affect the future, but Cosmo does everything he can to try and change the future.  He wants to try and stop his grandfather’s memory from fading when he’s older, so he tells him about things that he’ll need to remember for later in life.

As soon as I heard Cosmo’s voice I knew I would really like this character.  Cosmo is a loner who has been affected by the death of his brother, the abandonment of his mother, and his grandfather’s worsening condition.  From the first few paragraphs you know how much Cosmo loves and admires his grandfather.  He wants to do everything he possibly can to help stop his grandfather losing his memory and would hate for him to have to go into a home.  So when Cosmo gets the chance to meet his grandfather as a young man he believes this is his chance to change the future and make things right.

There were several things that I really loved about Back to Black Brick.  I thought the characters were very well developed and you felt like you were part of their gang.  I especially liked the way that you could see the personality traits mirrored in both the young and old version of Cosmo’s grandfather, Kevin (like the ‘Ah, fantastic’ when he’d drink tea).  The other thing that I loved about the story is the way that Sarah explains how the time travel happened and the way that Cosmo’s visit to the past affected the future.  I like the way that this explanation rounds off the story but still leaves you with a sense of mystery.

4 out of 5 stars

Pulse by Patrick Carman Book Trailer

Pulse by Patrick Carman looks and sounds absolutely AWESOME!  I’m a huge fan of Patrick’s books for younger readers (Floors) and young adults (Thirteen Days to Midnight) so I can’t wait to get my hands on Pulse and dive into his new trilogy.

Pulse is released in NZ on 26 February.

My Most Anticipated February New Releases

life-in-outer-spaceLife in Outer Space by Melissa Keil

Sam Kinnison is a geek, and he’s totally fine with that. He has his horror movies, his nerdy friends, World of Warcraft – and until Princess Leia turns up in his bedroom, he doesn’t have to worry about girls.

Then Sam meets Camilla. She’s beautiful, friendly and completely irrelevant to his life. Sam is determined to ignore her, except that Camilla has a life of her own – and she’s decided that he’s going to be part of it.

Sam believes that everything he needs to know he can learn from the movies … but now it looks like he’s been watching the wrong ones.

 

Night School LegacyNight School: Legacy by C.J. Daugherty

In the last year, Allie’s survived three arrests, two breakups and one family breakdown. The only bright point has been her new life at Cimmeria Academy. It’s the one place she’s felt she belongs. And the fact that it’s brought the dreamy Carter West into her life hasn’t hurt…But far from being a safe haven, the cloistered walls of Cimmeria are proving more dangerous than Allie could’ve imagined. The students, and faculty, are under threat and Allie’s family – from her mysterious grandma to her runaway brother – are at the centre of the storm. Allie is going to have to choose between protecting her family and trusting her friends. But secrets have a way of ripping even the strongest relationships apart.

 

Back to Black Brick by Sarah Moore Fitzgerald

Cosmo’s brother Brian died when he was ten years old. His mum hides her grief and Cosmo lives with his grandparents. They’ve been carefree days as Granddad buys him a horse called John and teaches him all he knows about horses. But the good times have to come to an end and although he doesn’t want to admit it, Cosmo knows his Granddad is losing his mind. So on one of the rare occasions when Granddad seems to recognise him, Cosmo is bemused that he gives him a key to Blackbrick Abbey and urges him to go there. Cosmo shrugs it off, but gradually Blackbrick draws him in… Cosmo arrives there, scared and lonely, and is dropped off at the crumbling gates of a huge house. As he goes in, the gates close, and when he turns to look, they’re rusty and padlocked as if they haven’t been opened in years. Cosmo finds himself face to face with his grandfather as a young man, and questions begin to form in his mind: can Cosmo change the course of his family’s future?

 

Book of DoomThe Book of Doom by Barry Hutchison

There’s panic up in Heaven. They have mislaid the BOOK OF DOOM – the most important object in existence. Oopsy.

They think Satan might have stolen it, the sneaky little devil, so to save the world – plus, you know, quite a lot of embarrassment, fifteen year old Zac and his angelic guide Angelo are sent to retrieve it.

Sadly directions aren’t Angelo’s strong point and they soon find themselves just as lost as the book, wandering through Afterworlds such as Valhalla and Hades and encountering some colourful characters along the way…

Can the hapless pair make it to Hell and back?

N.B. Released 23 March in New Zealand

 

The Phantom of Terawhiti by Des Hunt

It’s the school holidays and Zac thinks he might go crazy with boredom. He’s living in exile with his disgraced father on the remote Terawhiti Station on Wellington’s wild southwest coast. Then Zac and his dad witness a boat sink during a storm. Investigating further, Zac finds a set of unusual animal prints on the beach. Whose boat is it? And what creature could have made the prints? Soon armed men are prowling the coast, and threatening Zac, his friends and his family. He must do all he can to protect the Phantom of Terawhiti from those intent on hunting it down.

 

Hysteria by Megan Miranda

Mallory’s life is falling apart. Her boyfriend was stabbed. He bled to death in her kitchen. Mallory was the one who stabbed him. But she can’t remember what happened that night. She only remembers the fear …When Mallory’s parents send her away to a boarding school, she thinks she can escape the gossip and the threats. But someone, or something, has followed her. There’s the hand that touches her shoulder when she’s drifting off to sleep. A voice whispering her name. And everyone knows what happened. So when a pupil is found dead, Mallory’s name is on their lips. Her past can be forgotten but it’s never gone. Can Mallory live with that?

 

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She’s trying to break out of prison–even though if she succeeds, she’ll be the Commonwealth’s most wanted fugitive.
Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit’s gran­dmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn’t know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother’s whe­reabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner.

Hysteria Book Trailer

I loved Megan Miranda’s debut young adult novel Fracture (you can read my review here) so I’m really looking forward to her new book, Hysteria.  Like her first book it sounds dark and chilling which is my favourite sort of book.  Hysteria is released in New Zealand and Australia in February.

Here’s a video of Megan Miranda introducing her new book:

Win Zom-B Underground by Darren Shan

Zom-B Underground is the 2nd gore-filled Zom-B series and it takes you deeper inside Darren Shan’s zombie-infested world.  If you know any Darren Shan fans, or anyone who likes zombies or horror in general, the Zom-B series is fantastic.  You can read my review here on the blog (Warning: may contain spoilers).

I’ve got a copy of Zom-B Underground to give away to one lucky reader.  All you have to do is enter your name and email address in the form below.  Entries close Wednesday 23 January (NZ only).

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Thank you for your response. ✨

Zom-B Underground by Darren Shan

Warning: may contain spoilers.

The first book in Darren Shan’s Zom-B series was an explosive book that introduced us to Darren’s zombie horde.  Like many of Darren’s fans I’ve been eagerly awaiting the second book in the series to find out what happened after the cliff-hanger ending of book one. Zom-B Underground certainly doesn’t disappoint and takes you deeper inside Darren’s zombie-infested world.

Can you hold on to your humanity when you’re a monster?

How do you face the present if you’re haunted by the past?

Where can you turn when you’re trapped in a living nightmare?

For B Smith, death is not the end!

 

One of the things I like the most about Darren Shan’s writing is that he doesn’t waste time.  After a quick recap (which I always find really helpful) we’re thrown right back into the action, with B surrounded by chaos and not knowing where she is.  There are zombies everywhere and what seem to be soldiers with various weapons, including flame-throwers.  Darren’s writing is fast-paced and he certainly keeps you on your toes with lots of twists and turns.

While not as gory as the first book, there is still plenty of skull-cracking and brain-gobbling to make readers cringe. Not since Wobblebottom in Barry Hutchison’s Doc Mortis has a clown freaked me out so much as Mr Dowling.  Darren’s description of this sadistic clown is absolutely terrifying!  He seems to appear out of nowhere and shows up at the worst possible times in the story.  A lot of mystery surrounds Mr Dowling and it’s clear that he plays an important part in the overall story of the series.  Unfortunately, it won’t be the last we’ll see of him as he seems to grace the cover of book three, Zom-B City.

The thing that really stood out for me in Zom-B Underground is the way Darren portrays life as a zombie.  There are so many intricacies of zombie life that I’d never thought about before, like issues with eating and sleeping, and even zombie privates.

Once again Darren leaves you on a cliff-hanger so that you can’t wait to rip your claws and teeth into the next book.  Luckily, we only have to wait a couple of months, as Zom-B City is released in March (with 2 more books coming after this in 2013).

4 out of 5

Darren Shan reads Zom-B Underground

The second book in Darren Shan’s creepy Zom-B series, Zom-B Underground is out now in NZ.  The first book was gory, super-creepy and absolutely fantastic.  I’m excited, but slightly scared, to find out what happens in this next book.  Zom-B Underground is the first of 4 Zom-B books to be released in 2013 so there are plenty more Shan zombies coming our way this year.

Night School: Legacy Book Trailer

Night School by C.J. Daugherty was one of those books which took me by surprise last year.  I didn’t know whether would be my cup of tea but I really enjoyed it (you can read my review and my interview with C.J. Daugherty here on the blog).  I’m can’t wait for the sequel, Night School: Legacy which is due out in NZ on 29 January.

2012 Cybils Book Awards Finalists

I mentioned a couple of months ago about how I had been selected as a round 2 judge for the Young Adult Science Fiction/Fantasy Category of the Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards, or the Cybils.  The finalists have been announced today and now my work begins.  Here are the finalists in my category:

The only one I’ve already read (and totally love!) is Every Day by David Levithan, so I’m really looking forward to losing myself in the new worlds of these books over the next month.  The winner of each category will be announced on 14 February.

You can find out about the finalists in each category on the Cybils website, cybils.com.  I was pleased to see some of my other favourite books of 2012 as finalists, including The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate (Fantasy and Science Fiction – Middle Grade/Elementary) and Wonder by R.J. Palacio (Middle Grade Fiction).

Have you read any of the YA Fantasy and Science Fiction finalists? What are your favourite finalists?