RogerBW's Blog

Island of Whispers, Frances Hardinge 20 March 2024

2023 fantasy novelette. On the island of Merlank, the ferryman has to take the dead away to where they can end their existences, or they'll hang around and haunt. Milo is one of the Ferryman's sons, and since noticing the dead can cause you to join them, his curious nature makes him unfit for the job. Until the lord's daughter dies… Illustrated by Emily Gravett.

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Unraveller, Frances Hardinge 05 November 2022

2022 fantasy. In the marsh-woods of Raddith, Things are living. And some of them give people the ability to curse: if you fester a hatred for long enough, you can turn your enemy into bees, or steal their shadow, or just set them on fire…

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Kill Orbit, Joel Dane 18 May 2022

2020 young adult SF, last volume of its trilogy. Maseo Kaytu and Anvil Squad are being sent into space, and nobody's even telling them why…

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Burn Cycle, Joel Dane 06 April 2022

2020 young adult SF, middle volume of a trilogy. Maseo Kaytu has done the previously impossible and operated one of the mysterious CAV weapons as its pilot rather than as a remote controller. What next?

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Cry Pilot, Joel Dane 08 December 2021 - 2 comments

2019 young adult SF, first of a trilogy. Maseo Kaytu is a former child terrorist, who enlists because he feels a need to make up for some of the harm he did. But it's a crapsack world, and the only way he can get in at all is by volunteering for the suicide units…

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Airborn, Kenneth Oppel 23 July 2020

2004 young adult steampunk fantasy, first of a trilogy. Matt Cruse is a cabin boy aboard the airship Aurora.

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Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir 11 May 2020 - 3 comments

2019 young adult fantasy, first of a planned trilogy. In a decaying interplanetary empire powered by necromancy, Gideon is a foundling brought up by the Ninth House, guardians of the Locked Tomb. But the Empire has required all the houses to send their necromancer-heirs, and a necromancer needs a bodyguard…

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Deeplight, Frances Hardinge 30 April 2020

2019 fantasy. The islands of the Myriad used to have gods: great and implacable entities living in the sea, feared as much as worshipped. Thirty years ago, for no obvious reason, they turned on each other, fighting until they were all dead. But parts of their bodies make for useful salvage…

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Goliath, Scott Westerfeld 22 October 2018 - 1 comment

2011 young adult steampunk SF, final volume of a trilogy. The living airship Leviathan crosses Russia en route to Japan; will Nikola Tesla's latest terror weapon end the Great War?

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Behemoth, Scott Westerfeld 03 October 2018

2010 young adult steampunk SF, second of a trilogy. As an alternate Great War is beginning, the airship Leviathan visits Istanbul to give a British bribe to the Ottoman Sultan. But much more is going on behind the scenes.

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Leviathan, Scott Westerfeld 20 September 2018

2009 young adult steampunk SF, first of a trilogy. In an alternate 1914, the German Clanker powers build massive legged war machines, while the English Darwinists engineer creatures to serve their purposes. But none of that stops the Archduke Franz Ferdinand from being assassinated.

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Hera 2781, Janet Edwards 02 August 2018

2015 young adult science fiction, short story in the Earth Girl setting. Drago Tell Dramis is a young pilot, in an awkward social situation, and having to perform a desperate and dangerous mission.

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A Skinful of Shadows, Frances Hardinge 06 December 2017

2017 fantasy. Makepeace has a gift, or curse, that she doesn't entirely understand. But she's going to have to learn about it fast, in part because it's 1641 and the tension between Parliament and the King is coming to a head.

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Earth 2788, Janet Edwards 05 September 2017

2014 young adult science fiction, collection of short stories in the Earth Girl setting.

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The Lie Tree, Frances Hardinge 23 July 2017

2015 fantasy. In Victorian England, Faith Sunderly has gone with her family to the Isle of Vane as her father the famous naturalist supervises the excavation of fossils, though it gradually becomes apparent that he is under some sort of cloud. Still, there is science to be done… by the men.

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Cuckoo Song, Frances Hardinge 19 July 2017

2014 fantasy. Triss has survived a fall in the river, but she doesn't feel quite right: she's permanently hungry, her memories are fuzzy, and her sister refuses to talk to her.

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A Face Like Glass, Frances Hardinge 15 July 2017 - 2 comments

2012 fantasy. In the underground city of Caverna, Neverfell was found with no memories, aged five, in a cheese-vat. Seven years later, she sets out to catch an escaped rabbit, and ends up finding her place in the world.

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Earth Flight, Janet Edwards 10 November 2016

2014 young adult science fiction, third in the Earth Girl trilogy. Jarra is Handicapped, unable to leave Earth for any of the colony worlds where most of society now happens, but she's also a famous hero. Which means she's now become a symbol, both for those who want to bring the Handicapped more into society and for those who resist that trend.

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Gullstruck Island, Frances Hardinge 05 July 2016

2008 fantasy. The isolated towns and villages of the volcanic Gullstruck Island rely on the Lost, who can project their senses at a distance, to keep them in contact with each other. Arilou is one such Lost, and Hathin is her helper. But it's all going to get vastly more complicated. US vt The Lost Conspiracy.

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Verdigris Deep, Frances Hardinge 21 May 2016

2007 young adult fantasy. Ryan, Chelle and Josh fish some coins out of the old well, to pay for a bus home. Then things get far too complicated, far too fast. US vt Well Witched.

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Earth Star, Janet Edwards 25 January 2016

2013 young adult science fiction, sequel to Earth Girl. Jarra is Handicapped, unable to leave Earth for any of the colony worlds where most of society now happens, but after a daring rescue she's a hero. Now her archaeological and historical skills will be tested in an entirely new field.

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Earth Girl, Janet Edwards 07 November 2015 - 2 comments

2012 young adult science fiction. Jarra is Handicapped; something in her immune system revolts at alien worlds, so she's limited to living on Earth with the other people who can't go to the stars and be part of proper civilisation. What's worse, all the offworlders look down on "apes". But that's not going to stop her doing her best to have a good life.

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The Hunger Games: Catching Fire 26 June 2014 - 2 comments

2013, dir. Francis Lawrence, Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson: IMDb / allmovie

After winning the Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen is a post-traumatic wreck. The perfect time to send her on a publicity tour! Spoilers for book and film will follow.

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Divergent, Veronica Roth 28 February 2014

Young adult novel, read because a film based on it is coming out soon and I want to be able to complain about the film-making separately from the writing. (And because last time I did this I read The Hunger Games, which I quite enjoyed.) Here be spoilers.

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Ready Player One, Ernest Cline 25 January 2014 - 1 comment

Ready Player One is a young adult SF novel, the first by this author. Set in the future, it deals with its protagonist's efforts in a pervasive virtual world to win a contest based in the videogaming and related culture of the 1980s.

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