Reading YA Fiction
What can I say? I'm a book pig. In the last month I must have read, or re-read, at least a dozen YA fiction novels.
I started with Diane Duane's newest book, “A Wizard of Mars,” (550 pages, rating = A). This is the ninth book in her series which started with “So You Want to be a Wizard.”
I read this, and then re-read her first two books, “So You Want to be a Wizard,” and “Deep Wizardry,” which sit on the shelf next to my bed (along with maybe 100 other books --- it's a tall 5-shelf bookshelf, double stacked with books.) I then checked out of the library, as many of the other books in the series as I could get. The library didn't have “High Wizardry” or “A Wizard Abroad” available, the third and fourth books in the series. But I re-read “The Wizard's Dilemma,” “A Wizard Alone,” “Wizard's Holiday,” and “Wizards at War,”
Having now read “A Wizard of Mars” at least twice, I can say it is some of her best work. The tone is much lighter than some of the previous books in the series. It is only the earth and Mars in danger of destruction, and not the entire Universe. No one ends up dying or being lost. Many parts are laugh-out-loud funny. The previous characters (still living and not having been lost or moved on) are all reprised. The book ends in a good way and, unlike “Wizards at War,” doesn't leave you with a knot of pain and loss in your heart and tears running down your face.
One of my favorite lines is: “...Carmela said, and stretched her fluffy-sweatered self out among the cushions, toying with her single dark braid.” Yes indeed, Carmela is back, and plays a key role in this book. This book also contains a number of inside-jokes; references to movies or things that only the people who have seen them would recognize. I recognized the Warner Brother's martian, but not the dark glasses at night movie. “No matter,” (from “Quigly Down Under”) the book is full of good things to find.
Having read that, I read two of Diane Duane's other books, “The Book of Night With Moon,” and “To Visit the Queen.” These are also books about wizards --- cat wizards. But as these cats are part of the team who work to keep the world-gates running by tweaking their superstring structures, I sometimes felt that the technical descriptions got in the way of the plot/action.
I also read Meg Cabot's latest book, “Runaway,” (310 pages, rating – A). This is the third and final book of her trilogy which started with “Airhead,” and continued with “Being Nikki.” And I have to say it was a very satisfying tie-up to the series. I have also read this at least twice. I loved the phrase, “happily stabbing lettuce and goat cheese.” As some of her teenage fans have said on her web-site, it was “Amazing!!!”
I also read 3-4 other books in the last month. Just yesterday, I checked out another three books from the library, and have already read two of them.
“Wild Ride to Heaven,” by Leander Watts (169 pages, rating B (A?)). This short book is set in the early 1800's. The story is told in first person, with an uneducated dialect. (This is unusual since the Main Character is supposed to have been widely read.)
“Moribito II: Guardian of the Darkness,” by Nahoko Uehashi (243 pages, Rating B (A?)). The second book of the Moribito series, translated by Cathy Hirano, illustrated by Yuko Shimizu. This seems to have been narrated in first person from a graphic novel, and sometimes the text has just that feeling. But altogether an interesting story of the woman, Balsa, who is a spear-wielding bodyguard for hire.
Read well,
Logan
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