June 19, 2013
Burning Girls
In America, they don't let you burn.
June 18, 2013
The Stranger
The Syrena don't trust many humans.
June 12, 2013
Porn & Revolution in the Peaceable Kingdom
This is the story of a pet human and the slime mold who loves her.
June 11, 2013
A Visit to the House on Terminal Hill
They have their own way of doing things, and don't take kindly to outsiders.
In Solstice, the first YA novel from author P.J. Hoover, a young girl named Piper struggles with a world on the brink of a Global Heating Crisis. When her mother is called away, Piper discovers a hidden realm of gods, monsters, and mythology, and finally has a chance to learn her true destiny.
Read an excerpt here, and catch a reading in one of these cities:
Welcome back to the British Genre Fiction Focus, Tor.com’s weekly column dedicated to news and new releases from the United Kingdom’s thriving speculative fiction industry.
Already a familiar refrain, right?
Alas, this is the last time you’ll read it, because beginning this week, things are going to be different. Only a little, admittedly: news and new releases from the United Kingdom’s thriving speculative fiction industry will still be the focus of the Focus, of course, but going forward, we’re going to be splitting the two components of the column in its current form into posts of their own.
The news will still be a weekly treat each Wednesday. The new releases, however, will be a fortnightly proposition from this point on. It’s not yet set in stone, but let’s say every second Sunday. This means that the British Genre Fiction Focus will be rather more manageable for all involved. Plus, new books will have their own spotlight to shine in; their own space for discussion and such.
Got that?
Good. Then let’s get to the new and improved news. This week, it’s YA all the way! The last Waterstones Children’s Laureate has criticised the mainstream media for turning a blind eye to new releases for younger readers, whilst the latest Laureate outlines her plans for the future of literature for littles. In Cover Art Corner, we consider Katya’s War, and finally, an article from the Guardian examines gender segregation by way of the colours of the covers of the books our wee ones are taught to want.
I’m going to let you in on a little secret: promises are made to be broken. In truth, trust exists to be tested.
We’re often called upon to give our word, for what it’s worth, but keeping it is never so simple. Of course it can be done, and indeed, we should endeavour to honour as many of the bonds we form as possible. But sometimes, circumstances arise; unavoidable, inescapable circumstances that require us to behave badly in service of the greater good. To do something we have sworn not to, or say what someone else would rather we wouldn’t.
I’m sure I sound like someone with a guilty conscience, and perhaps I am. I’d argue that we all are, to a greater or lesser extent. Thankfully, the consequences of betraying a vow in our world are in nothing compared to what we’d face if we came from Kharein, the capital city of Darhan.
Settings are sometimes the best and most memorable characters of a story, and of returning to YA literature in particular; revisiting Narnia is like seeing an old friend, and I won’t pretend not to have chosen a grad school based on its resemblance to Hogwarts. Ghoulish Song is William Alexander’s second book set in the city of Zombay, and though I’ve not read its sister novel, the National Book Award-winning Goblin Secrets, this fantastical port city—noisy and wafting with the smell of fresh bread—has secured its place on my map of fantastical places. Alexander paints a picture so vivid, readers can’t help but cheer on his protagonist as she fights for her home.
Kaile’s first quest, however, is to save her mother.
When they came, everything changed.
But the Arrival did not happen in the blink of an eye. It took weeks for the ship first glimpsed at the outer reaches of our solar system—as yet a speck among faraway stars—to glide its way to its intended destination: Earth.
Humanity spent this time speculating. Watching endlessly looped footage of an alien eye in the sky until we knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that we were not alone in the universe.
What had brought these unexpected guests to our corner of the cosmos? No one knew. But they would, all too soon. In the intervening period, a lot of pointless posturing, a surplus of purposeless panic. In truth, nobody had a clue what to do.
These days, it seems like every member of young Hollywood is involved in a YA series adaptation of some sort. While speaking with Emma Roberts about her new film Adult World at the Tribeca Film Festival, Tor.com got her to spill a little bit about Delirium, the TV pilot she recently wrapped. She spoke about where on the YA spectrum the show falls—gritty realism or ethereal metaphor—and what draws her to characters like Lena Haloway.
Lauren Oliver’s novel Delirium envisions a dystopian United States where every citizen is afflicted with amor deliria nervosa, or the love disease. Lena (Roberts) longs for her 18th birthday when she can finally get the surgical cure... that is, until she meets Alex Sheathes (Daren Kagasoff).
What makes Justine Larbalestier’s Magic or Madness so distinctive and memorable is the protagonist, Reason Cansino. Reason is Australian, and half-Aborigine, and she has grown up in extremely peculiar circumstances which, naturally, seem completely normal to her. She has grown up on the run, with her mother, Sarafina, but cut off from the rest of her family—especially from her grandmother, Esmerelda. Sarafina has told Reason that Esmerelda believes she’s a witch, but of course there’s no such thing as magic. All the same, she’s taught her some tricks for how to deal with it, like counting Fibonacci numbers in your head. Now Sarafina has been hospitalised and Esmeralda has control of fifteen year old Reason, and the way magic works and whether it can be benign is about to become a huge problem. Reason knows how to live in the desert and how to keep moving on, but she knows almost nothing about the way normal people live....
Today we’re joined by Karen Healey, acclaimed New Zealand author of Guardian of the Dead, The Shattering, and When We Wake—two of which I’ve reviewed right here on Tor.com, so it should come as no surprise that I think she’s an excellent writer. She’s agreed to answer a few questions, so without further ado:
When We Wake is New Zealand author Karen Healey’s third novel, after Guardian of the Dead and The Shattering. It’s an excellent YA novel. It’s also really excellent science fiction: I stayed awake far later than I would otherwise have done to finish it.
In 2027, sixteen-year-old Tegan Oglietti dies. A hundred years in the future, her cryonically preserved body is revived by the Australian military—the first successful cryonic revival. The Girl Who Died is an instant celebrity and the government’s favourite guinea pig. All she wants to do is grieve her old life and try to build some semblance of a “normal” new one, but with her footsteps dogged by the media, a fundamentalist sect who believes she should commit suicide, and a minor case of futureshock, it’s not that easy. But Tegan’s stubborn. She goes to school, she makes friends. Bethari, the army-brat young journalist. Joph, the brilliant chemistry student walking around in a haze of her own creations. Abdi, the talented musician from Somalia who’s almost as much an outsider as Tegan is in immigrant-hostile 22nd-century Australia.
It’s 2073 on a lonely, desolate, mysterious Scandinavian island, when a journalist stumbles upon a beautiful woman and a deadly secret. It’s 2011 as a failed archaeologist unearths a grotesque burial with the help of an addled boy and his loving mother. It’s 1944, and a pilot with a 12-year-old daughter is rescued by a bitter farmer and his death-stained family. It’s 1902 when a forgotten artist befriends a young girl before dying upon completion of his masterpiece. It’s 1848, and a ghost tells two naughty children the tale of her lover’s magical transformation and untimely death. It’s the 10th century, and two siblings are separated by a blood-thirsty vampire and an infertile warlord. It’s a time before time, and a king and queen are murdered in a plea to the gods to bless their lands.
Malinda Lo’s newest book, Adaptation, is a step away from her usual fare: it’s a young adult science fiction novel set in the near future. As the story begins, Reese Holloway and her debate partner David Li are waiting for a flight back home from a championship with their coach when planes start mysteriously crashing all over North America, due to flocks of birds striking them. As they try to make their way home in a rental car, the nation goes into upheaval; rioting, looting, and murder abound. However, at night on the Extraterrestrial Highway, Reese wrecks the car—and they wake up nearly a month later in a secure facility, alive and healthy, with no memory of the events after the accident. (I will note that Adaptation is the first half of a duet. Readers alarmed by sharp cliffhangers, be forewarned. The closing installment is due to be released in 2013, so it’s not too long of a wait.)
Having appreciated Lo’s previous work, I’ve been looking forward to her first novel-length foray into science fiction. Plus, there are certain things that more or less guaranteed I would enjoy Adaptation—for my tastes it was a grab-bag of treats, mixing a diverse cast led by a young queer woman, a theme and structure riffing on The X-Files, and a fast-moving plot driven by conspiracy, action, and more than a little bit of (also queer/questioning) teen romance.
Be My Enemy is the sequel to last year’s Planesrunner, the book that launched Ian McDonald’s first ever YA series in spectacular fashion. I dearly love both of these novels and don’t want to ruin your enjoyment of them in any way, so if you haven’t read Planesrunner yet, stop reading this now and instead check out my review of that first novel, because there will be some spoilers for the first book below the cut. In other words: if you’re new to the Everness series, stop reading here until you’ve had the chance to devour Planesrunner. Gentle reader, you have been warned.
There’s just 24 hours left to snag these first in YA series ebooks for a great price. If you’re into YA with a touch of the fantastic, we’ve got a solution: get an ebook of the first in three diffrent YA series for 2.99 for one more day.
Tor Books is pleased to announce a special ebook promotion for three select young adult fantasy titles. All the books are also the first in their respective series and $2.99 in the U.S. for just 24 more hours.
There’s just one week left to snag these first in YA series ebooks for a great price. If you’re into YA with a touch of the fantastic, we’ve got a solution: get an ebook of the first in three diffrent YA series for 2.99 for a limited time!
Tor Books is pleased to announce a special ebook promotion for three select young adult fantasy titles. All the books are also the first in their respective series and $2.99 in the US for only one more week.
A collection of debut Young Adult authors from Mac Kids hit the road on the Fierce Reads joint tour in May and they’re still going!
Fierce Reads consists of:
The tour circuit will begin with some individual book launches, then come together into a cross-country jaunt! Check out a list of the cities where they’ll be stopping below the cut.
The Hunger Games has come and gone, and the world has called for more heroes like Katniss Everdeen, the proof that Hollywood had been waiting for: a female protagonist who carried a blockbuster movie and made bank at the box office. Katniss is now heralded as the hot new thing in fiction and film, the one-of-a-kind that the world needs more of. In response, The Atlantic wrote up its list of female YA heroes (not all who were accurate to the title) of bygone years to point out that Katniss herself was not an anomaly. Right here on Tor.com, Mari Ness discussed the girl heroes that were missed, and the many stories that are often taken for granted in this arena.
But here’s a weird thought... what about female heroes for grown ups?
Cat Hellisen’s debut novel, When the Sea is Rising Red, is a (delightfully queer!) young adult second-world fantasy set in the highly gender-and class-stratified city of Pelimburg — a city that has seen better years, its economy now half-dismantled and its ruling Houses falling on hard times. The protagonist, Pelim Felicita, is the only daughter of House Pelim: useful as a trading chip for marriage, lacking autonomous citizenship or personal freedom, and bounded on every side by a rigidly defined set of acceptable social roles. The story kicks off when Ilven, Felicita’s romantic friend and only refuge from an abusive brother and smothering mother, commits suicide after having been bartered into a marriage she does not want. Trapped in a similar situation herself, Felicita decides to escape in the only way that seems viable: she fakes her own suicide and disappears into the city.
One of the immediate questions that flies when you bring up the words “Hunger Games” and “men” in the same sentence is “Gale or Peeta?” The instant bias toward the Top Two is almost funny; The Hunger Games series has a slew of interesting male characters who all have their own “type” to play into, even if Katniss isn’t interested in their charms.
Don’t believe me? Maybe it’s about time we examined romantic tropes foisted on men in The Hunger Games. Gale and Peeta follow the specific guidelines fiction usually dictates for the “competing suitor” scenario, but they’re not the only fellas worth mentioning, all of them designed to get a specific reaction out of female (and also potentially male GB) readers. How are they being offered up and which one of them melted your heart like butter in a frying pan?
To be honest, when I picked these three slim volumes up yesterday I wasn’t expecting them to be as good as I remembered them. The Prince in Waiting, (1970) Beyond the Burning Lands (1971) and The Sword of the Spirits (1972) were books I read first when I was ten at most, and which I read a million times before I was fifteen, and haven’t read for at least twenty years — though they’ve been sitting on the shelf the whole time, though the shelves have moved. I was expecting the suck fairy to have been at them — specifically, I wasn’t expecting them to have the depth and subtlety that I remembered. I mean they’re only 150 pages long — 450 pages didn’t seem enough space for the story that I remembered. It barely seemed enough for the world.
However, I was pleasantly surprised. These really are good books. They’re not much like children’s books and they’re not much like science fiction as it was being written in 1970, but my kid-self was quite right in adoring these books and reading them over and over.
[Read more: No spoilers. They’re set in a world generations after a catastrophe]
It’s time to check out a great excerpt from When the Sea is Rising Red by Cat Hellisen, out on February 28:
After seventeen-year-old Felicita’s dearest friend Ilven kills herself to escape an arranged marriage, Felicita chooses freedom over privilege. She fakes her own death and leaves her sheltered life as one of Pelimburg’s magical elite behind. Living in the slums, scrubbing dishes for a living, she falls for charismatic Dash while also becoming fascinated with vampire Jannik. Then something shocking washes up on the beach: Ilven’s death has called out of the sea a dangerous wild magic. Felicita must decide whether her loyalties lie with the family she abandoned . . . or with those who would twist this dark power to destroy Pelimburg’s caste system, and the whole city along with it.
