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This post written by Clint The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray
by Chris Wooding
[cover name=thehauntingofalaizabelcray]
Alaizabel Cray isn’t exactly haunted. Ghosts don’t follow her around and cause trouble. She’s more possessed. Sometimes. Plus, monsters are drawn to her.
The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray is set in London during the Victorian period, although they never say what year. The Victorian period feels right because houses and streets are still lit by gas lamps and horse-pulled carriages are still the main form of transportation. However, history doesn’t exactly match up. In this world, the United Kingdom lost a war with the Prussians and, not too long after that, monsters called wytch-kin started taking over part of London.
Two of our main characters, Thaniel and Cathaline, are professional wytch-hunters who run around London at night and do their best to kill wytch-kin. While hunting a Cradlejack, a wytch-kin that abducts babies, Thaniel stumbles across a dirty, crazy woman who doesn’t seem to mind hanging out near the Cradlejack. Feeling sorry for her, Thaniel takes her home and, much to his surprise, nurses her back to sanity. Not too long after that, Thaniel and Cathaline discover that they are all in the middle of a supernatural plot that threatens to destroy the entire world.
One thing I have always wanted to see in a book is a villain who says something like, “Yeah, I’m evil, but I don’t want to destroy the world. I live there!” We get one of those in this story. However, despite the fact that he sounded like he was off to save the world, I found his actual role kind of disappointing.
Some people put this book under horror. I don’t think that’s quite right. It’s more along the lines of supernatural investigation. It has monsters and a serial killer, and there a couple of slightly gruesome scenes, but nothing that bad.
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This post written by Clarissa Magic Bites
by Ilona Andrews
[cover name=magicbites]
Kate Daniels is a kind of soldier-for-hire in an imaginary version of Atlanta, carrying a sword, some words of power, and no tolerance for fools. In this world, sometimes magic flares up and the electricity goes out, and sometimes magic goes down and the spells that she has protecting her house from bad things fail, and creeping vampires get in. (Vampires are incredibly disturbing and unnatural in this series–not sexy at all! Shapeshifters–people who can turn into animals, etc.–on the other hand, can be dangerously attractive.) In Kate’s world, there are rules about magic, about vampires, about shapeshifters, and about how all of these things interact. Kate’s not really fond of rules, though, which is one reason she’s a mercenary and not part of any organization. But in order to avenge the death of someone important to her, she agrees to work with an organization. That makes life complicated. There are a lot of complications coming her way–plenty of danger, a little romance, yikes! Kate is the kind of person who kicks butt first and asks questions later, but she’ll figure it all out eventually. Assuming she can get a handle on her drinking problem …
One of the best things about the book is that you can tell the author has really thought through the setting. A lot of recent supernatural investigation/urban fantasy novels focus on either romance or sex and don’t spend a lot of time creating a cool, detailed world, but this author has really put a lot of thought into how things work. That’s appreciated. (There’s some romance, but it’s definitely not the main feature.)
This is Ilona Andrews’ first book, and English is not her first language. If you’re really sensitive to grammar, you might notice a couple of awkward spots, but overall, the writing is fine. People who have read the second and third books say that they get better and better. (Plus, it’s great to see more published authors whose first language isn’t English! Andrews’ first language is Russian, and you’ll see some references to Russian culture and language in the story, which is cool.)
You can read an excerpt online at the author’s website.
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This post written by Clarissa Planetes
by Makoto Yukimura
[cover name=planetes]
A lot of people think this might be the best science fiction manga (and anime) ever–and even if you don’t like manga, but you’re interested in space exploration, or you liked Apollo 13, The Right Stuff, etc., you should find this somewhere. Planetes is an extremely well-drawn and well-told story about several different people who work in space; although the focus of the story changes in different volumes and chapters, the multicultural core characters are debris collectors who clean up the garbage that (even in our time) is cluttering up outer space. One of the characters has a tragic past. Another dreams of owning his own spaceship (almost to the extent of losing his own humanity). Another is trying to remind him that compassion and love can co-exist with ambition and survival in space. Another wants … actually, who knows what Fee wants, except to keep everyone else from screwing up or getting themselves killed or slacking off too much. The characters have to deal with the normal daily-life stuff of their personal demons, their relationships, and their jobs; their bigger goals; and the background problems of terrorism and corporate/governmental questionability as humanity expands toward Jupiter. This excellent series avoids the over-the-top silliness that can make you roll your eyes at some manga; the adventure is just grand enough and the touching moments are just pointed enough. You can finish the series in only 5 books (the last two are both labeled volume 4–part 1 and part 2), which is also nice.
(Warning: volume 3 contains some nudity.)
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Where to Find It
[linkplus name=Planetes url=”http://csul.iii.com/search/X?SEARCH=t:(planetes)+and+a:(yukimura)&SORT=DX&l=eng” series=true]
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This post written by Clint Out of the Dust
by Karen Hesse
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Set in Oklahoma during the years 1934-1935, this book tells the story of a family of farmers during the Dust Bowl years. Billie Jo describes her family’s experience through a series of free verse poems.
You can look it up on Wikipedia, which is where I got that description.
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This post written by Clarissa Shrine of the Morning Mist
by Hiroki Ugawa
[cover name=shrineofthemorningmist]
This often comedic series, about schoolgirls who serve as shrine maidens and fight evil monsters, gently spoofs other series such as “Sailor Moon.” Several sisters and their school friends use divine magic to protect their shrine, their town, and a distant cousin who has the ability to see the other world. In the meantime, of course, their school gets smashed up by giant monsters and wacky hijinks ensue.
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Where to Find It
You’re going to have to check a bookstore for this one. Sorry about that.
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This post written by Clarissa Emma
by Kaoru Mori
Emma is a generally well-researched, charming story about the life of a maid in Victorian England. She’s different from other maids because she knows how to read (and she likes to). Naturally, there is cross-class romance–she falls in love with a wealthy young man!–and lots of details about the daily life of of the period. It’s surprisingly funny in parts, too. We first saw advertisements for this during our honeymoon in Japan, and I never thought it would be released in the US, but now it has been. Despite the frilly dresses and the theme of romance, when this series was published in Japan, it ran in a magazine aimed at men. (Japan is really different sometimes.)
This is not related to the Jane Austen novel Emma.
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This post written by Clarissa Nana
by Yazawa Ai
[cover title=nana]
Two young women with the same name (one ordinary, slightly ditzy country girl and one rebellious aspiring rock star) encounter love, sex, and heartbreak in Tokyo. It’s been a huge hit in Japan, already resulting an animated TV series, two live-action films, video games, and a tribute album with major Japanese pop stars. This series has striking, stylized art.
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Where to Find It
[linkplus name=”Nana” url=”http://csul.iii.com/search/X?SEARCH=t:(nana)+and+a:(yazawa)&SORT=DX&l=eng” series=true cchasone=notvolume1]
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This post written by Clint Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
by Hayao Miyazaki
[cover name=nausicaa]
This is a story about Nausicaä, a young woman in a post-apocalyptic future, one thousand years after the Seven Days of Fire destroyed the old world. Humans live in small kingdoms scattered around the Sea of Corruption, a forest of giant mushrooms and huge insects that is slowly taking over the globe. Whatever you may think about manga (Japanese comics), this series is epic. It’s packed full of ideas, has very detailed illustrations, and has a memorable main character.
Watch out, though. There are several different printings of the series. They contain exactly the same story, but one is in four volumes, one is seven volumes, and one is in ten volumes. They are shaped differently, so this shouldn’t cause too much confusion.
You can look it up on Wikipedia.
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