In a world full of necromancers, the Abhorsen reverses their work. When he gets trapped in Death by the necromancer Kerrigor, he sends a package to his daughter Sabriel, who resides across the Wall, a barrier separating the magical Old Kingdom from Ancelstierre.

When Sabriel receives the Abhorsen’s necromancy bells and ensorcelled sword, she sets out across the Wall, unwillingly assuming the title of Abhorsen. At first determined to find her father, she fights her way through Dead Hands and Mordicants, all the way to the Abhorsen’s House. There she finds Mogget, a Free Magic elemental in the shape of a cat. Mogget, who served the Abhorsens for thousands of years, sheds some light on the strange goings-on of the raised Dead, and helps her escape the Mordicant literally waiting at the gates.

Flying a Paperwing aircraft, Sabriel and Mogget set off to find the prior Abhorsen’s body, to locate him in death. Along the way they discover the plans of the necromancer Kerrigor. In his quest for immortality, spanning over 200 years, he has been trying to destroy the Charter Stones, the monoliths regulating magic, Life, and Death. If he could destroy them, then the Charter would cease to exist, and everything would be controllable by Free Magic.

Sabriel is an interesting and different book. While reading it, I had a hard time putting it down. I’m a fantasy maniac, as some of you may know by now, and Sabriel is an exceptional work of fantasy by an innovative author.

Endymion Spring isn’t your average mystery.

In the year of 1453, Gutenberg and his apprentice Endymion Spring are setting the type for the book they will be mass-printing. Gutenberg’s financier, Johann Fust, shows up, bringing with him a locked chest.

In present day Oxford, Blake Winters finds a blank book in a library. Marked “Endymion Spring,” the ancient book eventually shows him, and only him, a prophecy.

The story moves back and forth between 1453 and the present, slowly revealing everything. In the present, Blake searches for the Eternal Codex, a book containing all of history and future, the blank book pointing him toward it. Back in 1453, Endymion Spring hides the Codex to keep it out of the hands of Johann Fust, the investor who obtained the book through nefarious means, so as to have all of time’s knowledge.

Matthew Skelton, an expert on books and printing, has done an excellent job of merging fiction and history in Endymion Spring. It’s worth reading, especially if your addicted to books.

In a world full of magic it is the Chrestomanci’s job to control the magical community, keep the magical from trampling the nonmagical, and limit travel between their world and others. Because of the risks involved, the Chrestomanci is always a powerful enchanter with nine lives-so he can afford to lose a few. He also must have the ability to learn what everyone is up to and travel easily himself to the other worlds. In the series, there is also a Chrestomanci-in-training for each book.

In Charmed Life, Gwendolen and Cat are picked to live and study in Chrestomanci Castle-they believe because of Gwendolen’s abilities. However, she and the Chrestomanci clash immediately, and she proceeds to show everyone the extent of her powers. Cat, meanwhile, is cowed by her and trying to fit in without incurring his sister’s wrath. When Gwendolen escapes into another world, she leaves a Replacement further complicating matters for Cat.

Charmed Life is the start of an ingenious series. I like it best of the series with The Lives of Christopher Chant a close 2nd. Cat and Chrestomanci are wonderful characters, and there are several entertaining tidbits and plenty of twists with foreshadowing details.
related-magic, multiple lives, law enforcement, family, travel between worlds, doubles in other worlds, high interest
RL=5th-YA

Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins Publishers: NY, 1978.
Originally published by Macmillan London Ltd: Great Britain, 1977.

The 3rd book in the series, The Lives of Christopher Chant regards the Chrestomanci in Charmed Life and is equally enjoyable. There is a fairly new book in the series, The Pinhoe Egg-2006.

See a review of the series at www.bookadvice.net.

J. K. Rowling has once again penned an amazing story that even surprised people who had been speculating and theorizing about the series for years. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, released on July 21, 2007, is the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter Septology. JKR’s narrative is brilliant, and the characters believable. Personally, I like Deathly Hallows better than it’s predecessor, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, though it’s not my favorite of the series. Can one really have a favorite among seven amazing books? If I had to choose a favorite, it would probably be Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

In Deathly Hallows, Harry leaves the Dursleys for the last time, going to The Burrow for Bill Weasley’s wedding. On his seventeenth birthday, a day before the wedding, he is legally enabled to use magic outside of Hogwarts. On that day, he also finds that Albus Dumbledore had left him and his friends a number of odd objects with no explanation why. Their importance only comes into play later in the book.

Right after the wedding, Harry, Ron, and Hermione leave The Burrow to hunt for Voldemort’s four remaining horcruxes. With several setbacks, discoveries, and close encounters with Voldy’s followers, they eventually succeed in finding (and destroying) most of them. Unfortunately, one horcrux remains….plus Lord Voldemort himself.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is one of the best books in the series. It’s absolutely packed with plot-twists, explanations everyone’s been waiting for, and surprises no one would have guessed. I highly recommend this book, though you should definitely not read it unless you’ve read the previous six books in the Septology.

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.

Ken Oppel is currently at work on Starclimber, a sequel to the amazing book Skybreaker. The third book is the Airborn series, leads us to believe (through the title) that the characters will be heading into space possibly.

For those of you who don’t know, Airborn (and Skybreaker, the [in my opinion] better sequel]) are set in an alternate history. In France, or what would have been France if certain events had turned out a bit different, the mainstream methods of flight are airships (think Zeppelins) and Ornithopters. Skybreaker was totally amazing, with some really…different ideas.

Airborn, the first book in the series, is currently in production as a movie (to be released in 2008), the same year that Starclimber will (probably) be released.

EDIT: From KennethOppel.ca, the book will be released in September 2008 in Canada. Sadly, it won’t be released in the United States until January 2009, and the following May in the UK.

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?

I don’t know if any of you have ever read the CHERUB books, but CHERUB is a fictional division of MI5 (British Intelligence), in which all of the agents are children. It is believed that if criminals use children to commit crimes, authorities can use them to get back at the criminals.

CHERUB is written by Robert Muchamore. I have an exclusive interview (it’s going to be used on my fansite) with Rob (see below).

Read the rest of this entry »

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.