Ender's Game: Earth is Losing...

After decades of battle against insect-like aliens, we still haven't found a general who can defeat them.We're running out of soldiers, we're running out of spaceships, and we're running out of hope. But maybe, with the right training, one special boy can be molded into a hero.

Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card, tells the story of Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, who's only six when he's recruited to Battle School to learn strategies to defeat the aliens. I'm excited to see the movie adaptation next year, but you should definitely read it first, so why not now, before the hype starts and you hear spoilers?

Eve, Terrified of Adam

Okay, I just finished Eve by Anna Carey, and I don't know WHAT to think. It started out like such a happy, idealistic book about the future. Eve was the happiest girl at her compound, accomplished in many languages, subjects, and surrounded by beloved friends. But then, when she was about to give her valedictorian speech and head off to a bright future learning a trade and having a glamorous life in the city, she found out that the future she was looking forward to was a lie.

Dragon Trilogy

 His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik takes place during the Napoleonic Wars.  In this fantasy,  aerial combat is accomplished with the use of dragons.  Laurence of the British Navy finds himself the trainer for a dragon he has named Temeraire and he has new responsibilities as he feeds and gets to know the newly hatched dragon.   This is an exceptional dragon of strength and power and I am surprised that he is also intelligent and can speak!   Laurence feels conflicted because if he stays with Temeraire he must leave his career as an officer in the Royal Navy and join the flying aerial fleet. There were fantastic battle scenes and unique dragons of different breeds with exceptional skills.  Novik continues this soaring adventure with Throne of Jade and Black Powder War.

 

Edgy Reads

I was going to do a best-of-the-year post, but when I looked back at the teen books I read in 2011, I realized that most had something in common: they were pretty dark and disturbing. Dark content in YA literature got a lot of press this year, but in the end, it's a personal decision. If you're searching for books that push the envelope and give you that unsettled, is-this-really-okay-to-read feeling, give these a shot!

• After by Amy Efaw is the raw, unflinching story of the person behind the headlines:  Devon did something terrible, something so bad she can't even quite remember or believe it, even in her cell in juvie, where she has all the time in the world to reflect.

Start at the beginning...

Steampunk and post-apocalyptic books may have only just starting getting popular but I think Alan Moore proved that heroines with shaved heads are awesome a long time ago. Thankfully Philip Reeve is rocking all three elements with "Fever Crumb,"the prequal to his Mortal Engines Quartet. If you aren't familiar with that series it is basically a post-apocalyptic steampunk rollercoaster of adventure awesomeness. After almost total destruction of the world from nuclear war, cities roll around on giant machines to escape the natural disasters that ensue. While rolling around the cities eat each other. Seriously. Big cities devour tiny cities, bigger cities devour big cites, and so on and so on. At the same time the cities are fighting a rebel group looking to get cities to finally stay put.

Go Where No One Else Has Gone

Can you imagine yourself being cryogenically frozen? Neither could I until I read Across the Universe by Beth Revis. At the very beginning this book grabs your attention with vivid details of the whole process of being frozen. I read the introductory chapter online and then waited anxiously for the book to be published. The main characters parents are being frozen for an expedition across the universe that will take 300 years! Her choice is to stay on Earth with family and friends or accompany her parents on the journey while frozen. Timing is everything for this expedition! Without giving too much away this story has a society in which its inhabitants are emotionless and strictly obedient to their leader with the added complications of time and space travel.

Nice thing is, a sequel titled A Million Suns is due out January 12, 2012! Yeh!