Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Haunters by Thomas Taylor

I am a vivid dreamer, but this novel takes vivid dreaming to another level!  In this story, those that have the ability can "dreamwalk" themselves into other times in history.  Yes, that's right...time travel through dreaming.  When they appear in history they appear as ghosts.  The agency that David gets involved with try to protect the past and "uphold the dreamwalker's" code.  But there are other dreamwalkers, the Haunters, that are attempting to change history to gain power and wealth for themselves.  It is up to the dreamwalkers to stop them and protect the past, their present and their future.  Lots of action in this book and a great surprise ending!!  I am thinking this will probably become a series, but haven't heard about when the release of the next book might be.

Monday, April 13, 2015

The Inquisitor's Apprentice by Chris Moriarty

This story takes place in late 19th Century New York but it's an alternate history.  In this New York everyone uses magic.  Well, at least in Sacha's Jewish, Hester Street neighborhood they do.  That is until the police come around.  You see, magic is against the law in the US.  In fact there are special police that are in charge of investigating magical crimes called Inquisitor's.  Sacha makes the mistake of letting people know that he can see when people use their magic so he is made an apprentice to Inquisitor Maximillian Wolf and their first crime to investigate is to find out who is trying to kill inventor Thomas Edison.

I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the second one that we have in the library.  I LOVED Sacha's family.  They survived the pogroms (anti-Jewish campaigns) in Russia and are making a new life in America. I love all the Yiddish words they weave into the conversation.  I also really enjoyed Lily, the other apprentice to inquisitor Wolf.

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Blood Red Road by Moira Young

What a great adventure story.  It IS set in a futuristic wasteland, but the focus is not what happened to make it a waste land.  The focus of the book is the "quest" that Saba goes on to get her kidnapped brother back.  I liked Saba.  She is pretty prickly, but she grows on you as she grows in her understanding of herself and others and how to treat them.  One thing about this book that I must note is that the whole thing is written exactly the way Saba speaks...which is not always grammatically correct.  Lots of "I ain't gonna do that...," "just" becomes "jest" and "get" become "git."  Many of the words are spelled phonetically (spelled like they sound).  For example: "exact" is spelled "ezzack" in the story.  I found it tricky at first, but it really gave Saba a voice I could hear in my head.  There is a book #2 that follows this called "Rebel Heart" that we have in the library, and I hear that this is being made into a movie.