You heard that right. The Site of Requirement has an article up about the whole thing.

Photos of book pages (supposing it’s the real book and not a hoax) were spread through BitTorrent. Scholastic has obtained a court order, with the intent of identifying the book-spoiler. The torrent files have been removed, and the images as well I believe.

Skulduggery Pleasant is a living skeleton. If that isn’t amazing enough for you, he’s also a magic-wielding detective. And, as the book’s cover puts it, “he’s the good guy.”

Investigating Gordon Edgley’s mysterious death, he ends up teaming-up with Gordon’s niece Stephanie. What starts as a simple murder investigation quickly turns into a race to obtain an ancient magical artifact before the murderer. The plot runs through Stephanie and Skulduggery’s misadventures as they stumble through the numerous plot-twists, slowly figuring out their ultimate goal.

It’s hard to describe the book. It’s totally different from anything out there, so I’m not going to go too much into details. Read it yourself.

Skulduggery Pleasant is a great book, filled with magic, humor, and numerous plot-twists. I wasn’t joking about the book being filled with humor, either. It’s hard to get through a page without running into at least two hilarious lines.

LibRate rating: 4.5.

Also note that Warner Brothers has just obtained filming rights.

In the first book of Garth Nix’s Keys to the Kingdom series, Arthur Penhaligon (is it just me, or does that sound a bit like Pendragon?) nearly dies from an asthma attack. Oddly enough, he doesn’t. A couple of men dressed in clothes 100 years out-of-date (Mr. Monday and his servant) give him half of the first Key, expecting him to soon die (thus the Key’s ownership would revert back to them and fulfill a prophecy). Their plans go awry and Arthur, still alive, retains the ownership of the partial Key.

Mr. Monday soon sends his minions to force Arthur to relinquish ownership to the key, bringing a plague. Arthur leaves the Secondary Realms (our universe) to fight Mr. Monday for the greater half of the First Key to the Kingdom, so he can rid Earth of the sickness and free the Primary Realms from the Tyranny of Mr. Monday and the Morrow Days.

Though the writing level is a bit lower than I’m used to, the Keys to the Kingdom series is very enjoyable….and isn’t that the whole purpose of fiction? To entertain?

The Amber Spyglass, the third book in the His Dark Materials Trilogy, the story continues on from the last book (which ended rather abruptly).

In The Amber Spyglass, Lyra and Will continue on their quest, taking a side trip to the Underworld. After leaving the Underworld mostly unscathed, they go to Lord Asriel.

The whole Underworld thing is a bit overused, though a few new ideas were added. Regarding the Dæmons and the Underworld, I was able to predict what would happen later in the book (with the help of a small clue). There was, obviously, a precedent happening.

With several plot-twists, and unexpected happenings, the trilogy draws to a close. Darker than the first book, the book is nonetheless enjoyable. I wasn’t a huge fan of the ending, which seemed a bit…odd, but whatever. The book was good anyway.

I strongly recommend that you read The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife before reading this book.

“It tells the truth. As for how to read it, you’ll have to learn by yourself.” With these words, Lyra is given an Alethiometer. Armed with this mysterious tool, which will answer any question truthfully, she sets out on what will become an adventure, determined by an ancient prophecy.

The story takes place in another world, similar to ours. Geographic locations, like Oxford and London, exist…though they are different. Packed with action and mystery, the story flows well. Once you get into the book, you’ll have trouble stopping.

I really enjoyed the book, reading it in a couple days despite my busy schedule, and I’m presently waiting for the movie, which will be released in December.
If you want a believable fantasy book, try The Golden Compass. If you like it, there are a couple sequels.

I finished my second reading of The Dark Is Rising series. The first was 4 to 5 years ago, and I remember being excited and enthralled by it. This time, looking at it more objectively, I noticed that there is an excitement building within the books similar to an orchestra rising to a crescendo. This is an impressive achievement for the author. The series is a masterful work of storytelling. It has the complexity of Tolkien without the heaviness. The language is filled with the High Magic making the reading an awesome poetical experience.

The story just touches on Arthurian legend, and yet it still has a strong Arthurian feel. The books are heavily laced with a mystical and magical sense of purpose and of destiny, though a wrong turning at one point or another could change the whole outcome. Read the rest at BookAdvice.net.

Leonardo’s shadow is an interesting book about Leonardo da Vinci’s servant.

It’s set in the 1400s, when Da Vinci is painting The Last Supper in Milan. Basically, Leonardo is working on his flying device instead of the painting…and racking up huge debts.

There’s plenty of funny dialog, a bit of action, and the hilarious thoughts of the servant (the book is written in a hybrid first-person style).

Leonardo’s Shadow is interesting, thought-provoking, and enjoyable to read. I’d recommend reading it. If your local library has it, try it. If you have something to say about it, fell free to comment.

Trickster’s Choice and Trickster’s Queen are more fantasy books by Tamora Pierce. They are…different from the rest of her books, though.

In a typical book by Tamora Pierce, the main character is focused on attaining some goal, relentlessly plowing through the plotline. In these two books, however, the heroine is more easygoing…and funnier. The storyline is no less serious than any of Pierce’s other books. It’s more serious if anything. Seeing as the character, Aly of Pirate’s Swoop, is a Spy rather than an aspiring knight/mage/whatever, it makes more sense.

The two books detail the rebellion of the native people of the Copper Isles (Aly is actually from the nearby country of Tortall, though she ends up in the Copper Isles). Three hundred years previously, the patron god of the Isles was ousted, and simultaneously the Isles’ rulers were overthrown. In the present day Copper Isles, a rebellion has started…the head spy for the operation being Aly of Pirate’s Swoop.

The books are well written and interesting, though they do take longer to read than the rest of the author’s books. Tamora Pierce has improved remarkably as an author, going from the somewhat childish Song of the Lioness series to current works like Trickster and Terrier.

Cell: A Novel is the only book I’ve read by Steven King so far. So far, it’s the best book of his I’ve read.

In Cell, an odd happening called The Pulse (a wave sent through cellphones to their users). Basically what The Pulse did was erase all the cellphone users’ brains. Scary?

The book details the survival of a small group of people who weren’t Pulsed because they didn’t have cellphones. By survival I mean “running from insane ‘Phoners’.” Eventually th Phoners started to develop a sort of single mind resembling that of an ant colony. “Survival” is a broad term including most of the book.

Though a little…odd, it was a good book. Even though it’s really hard to describe (this is my third time trying to write this review), it’s still good. The book got going with the main plot really fast. There were only a few pages before the Pulse happened. Judging by what I’ve heard from other people, this must be one of his less-scary books.

By the way… I don’t have a cellphone (and neither does Steven King).

In 1968, a book by Anne McCaffrey known as Dragonflight was published. It was derived from s short story she published earlier on called “Weyr Search”. Dragonflight was followed by two more called Dragonquest and The White Dragon. Today there are over 20 books in the Dragonrider’s of Pern series, the latest two being co-written by her son Todd McCaffrey.

A brief history of Pern:

A few decades ahead of today (I want to say in the 2040s, but I don’t remember), a group of people are sent to colonize a planet known as P.E.R.N. They come in three spacecraft and settle there, with no way to return due to the fuel capacity of the ships.

Eventually trouble begins. Thread, an omnivorous fungus-type thing, starts to fall from the sky. It came from a cloud trailing an erratically orbiting planet (dubbed “The Red Star” by Pern’s inhabitants). Thread dissolves/eats pretty much anything carbon based, so the only safe places from it are caves, buildings made from non-carbon plastics, and underwater (not a good option). Fire burns the Thread, killing it. Unfortunately, Thread can’t be allowed to touch the ground. It starts eating the plant matter and animals, multiplying and burrowing into the ground as it does so.

To combat the Thread, the colonists (a large group of farmers, scientists, builders, geneticists, etc) at first use HNO3 devices in combination with “hoversleds” to char the Thread before it hit the ground. They continued to do this while their geneticists looked to a better solution.

Based off a native species known as a “Fire Lizard”, the Pernese created dragons. They were telepathic and could breathe fire after eating phosphine-bearing rocks. This proved to be the solution they needed until the Thread stopped.

The Thread did stop after a few decades, but it started again after. It turned out that the Red Star reliably passed by Pern on a regular basis.

Dragonriders of Pern is almost certainly my favorite Sci-Fi series. I haven’t yet found a Sci-Fi book, other than Dragonriders, that was this good. Dragonriders is very realistic as you read it (very believable), and unlike other Sci-Fi books it isn’t bleh. The complex storyline unfolds over the large number of books, ending in…well I won’t spoil it. Give it a try.