I’m on three panels for this year’s Subjective Chaos Kind of Awards, which means nominees have dominated my reading this year. I’m making solid progress on Best Series, so time for a quick recap and a longer look at two of the nominees: Los Nefilim by Teresa Frohock and Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan.
young adult
Branwen’s dreams of granting Iveriu safety, Eseult happiness and Tristan her heart are in tatters. She is determined to right her mistakes – but with the local priests and the new King’s Champion watching her every move, the slightest mis-step could end in disaster…
As part of the Subjective Chaos Kind of Awards panel, I get to choose which categories I’ll read at each stage. This year, I put my hand up for Series and Novellas; I’m now halfway through the series so before I dive back into novellas I want to round up my thoughts on the first instalments of two of our Series nominees.
I’m cheerleading for debut authors again today, because the past year has been an awfully hard time to hit the shelves for the first time. Last week, I focused on adult fantasy debuts – today I’m taking a look at YA and cross-over fantasy debuts since last year’s Wyrd And Wonder.
7 years ago, Alva’s world was shattered by murder. Ever since, she has lived in fear. Now, Alva has a plan for escape. She’s ready to start a new life. But nothing about Alva’s life is quite as it seems…
Arrah is the heir to two great lines of witchdoctors, but she has no magic of her own. When children begin disappearing, she faces a terrible choice: sacrifice her years for a charlatan’s powers or lose those she loves. It’s no choice at all…
The Ness sisters survived Bosa Ness and Wheel Strizzardy. In their search for answers, they accidentally up-ended the Congregation’s economy. Now they must outrun the Revenue men if they are to confirm whether they’ve also doomed all of humanity…
There are never any strangers in the isolated moorland village of Near. Until now. A mysterious young man has been glimpsed in the moonlight. A child disappears each night. Is the stranger to blame, or does the moor harbour dark secrets?
The Ness sisters survived Bosa Sennen, but it’s less easy to shake her legacy: her obsessions with quoins and Occupations, not to mention a Congregation of enemies convinced that any who sail aboard the Nightjammer must be her heirs…
Kellen son of Ke is searching for the legendary Ebony Abbey, rumoured to possess a cure for the shadowblack. Separated even from Reichis, he finds himself caught between mistrustful monks and a Jan’Tep war party intent on wiping out the shadowblack once and for all. Can he unlock his curse and thwart his father’s ambitions?
The Hadleys are on the run, at the heart of a struggle that is challenging their convictions about who they are. The Jardines are in control of the country, the ruthless Chancellor happy committing atrocities and ruling by fear. But power is a slippery thing, and family can’t be trusted any more than rebels…
Kellen Argosi is both hunted and hunter – the Jan’Tep want him dead as a shadowblack-cursed traitor, while he is intent on thwarting their nefarious plot to possess the children of their foreign rivals. But Kellen is a 17-year-old with only one trick up his sleeve. You’d be right to think he’s at a disadvantage. Just as well he’s got friends to help him fight his family…
We started our quest with two dozen companions out to see how much fantasy we could celebrate in a month. I missed quite a lot of the latter half of Wyrd and Wonder – work exploded into overdrive and then my remote holiday turned out to have even less internet access than expected. However, there’s no stopping a fantasy party on a quest – so I’ve had an awful lot of fun catching up to compile this final retrospective!
We’re halfway through our month of Wyrd and Wonder (SNIFF) – I’ve been a little distracted by work (grr), but am loving my daily dose of all things fantastic! It can be tricky to keep up though, so here’s your weekly catch up of what we’ve seen this second week…
Wyrd and Wonder is off to a flying start – I’m delighted and overwhelmed by all the passion for fantasy being shared! It can be tricky to keep up, so here’s the first in a weekly series of catch up posts to highlight at least some of the blog posts, bookstagrams and chat so far…
onemore.org 