Magician’s Gambit by David Eddings

With Garion rescued from the clutches of the less than sane Essia, leader of the Nyissan people, the party is reunited with the slightly worse-for-the-wear Belgarath and Silk. It seems that Belgarath had the misfortune of being under a tree as it was falling, breaking his arm. Unfortunately for Belgarath it gives Polgara something else to make fun of him for. The two also come with bad news, the orb that they have been trying so desperately to retrieve as fallen into the hands of the Murgo priests. However the party seems to have caught a slight break and the body of the God Torak has been stolen too, giving them a little more time to prepare.

Setting off the party head for Aldur’s Vale, the place where Belgarath and Polgara learned all their skills. But the quickest way to get there is through the long abandoned country of Maragor, where the ghosts of all of the dead actually haunt its cities and Mara, their patron god, weeps inconsolably at the capital. In order for the party to pass through Maragor safely, Belgarath and Polgara must make all of them sleep for the entire week it takes to cross the country. Once through they make for the Vale, and there Garion has the opportunity to meet the God Aldur and must finally decide if he can accept the magic within himself and be able to one day take the name Belgarion.

After completing their task at the Vale, Belgarath takes the party to the hidden caves of the Ulgos. There Belgarath looks for one addition prophesied member of their party, a Ulgo by the name of Relg who specializes in finding hidden caves and tunnels. But convincing this religious zealot to leave the safety of the caves the Ulgos have inhabited for thousands of years may take a little divine intervention. With their newest member in tow and the princess Ce’Nedra safely tucked away with the ancient leader of the Ulgos, the party now head for Cthol Murgos, the city of the Murgo priests. And the last place any of them would want to be caught.

Magician’s Gambit marks the end of the first half of the quest and the beginning of the final part of the prophecy. The action has picked up considerably for this third book, and now that Garion has finally been able to make a decision about his powers, he’s finally been allowed to assist in the quest more, despite Aunt Pol’s misgivings. The series is a fun read, full of action and humor. Highly recommended for fantasy fans looking for something a little lighter than Tolkien.

Discordia : The Eleventh Dimension by Dena K. Salmon

Lance is an avid player in the popular online fantasy game, Discordia. He’s still pretty new playing MMO games, but he’s learning quickly and getting his zombie sorcerer character leveled up just as quickly. But all the time he spends playing Discordia makes life in the real world seem dull and dreary in comparison.

When Lance and his online friend Adam, a.k.a. “MrsKeller”, are invited by a level 60 player called “TheGreatOne” to join a special guild for helping lower level players get better loot and armor sooner, the two think they have it made – that is until the two are pulled out of their world into the real Discordia! Now the two online friends must learn to survive in a world they know from playing a game, but this is no game and getting a rez out of the graveyard isn’t going to work.

Looking for a portal that could take them home, Lance and Adam meet a girl named Rayva who seems to be a local, but something about her seems out of place. Together the three head toward Alchemia’s fortress hoping that stopping the evil sorceress from the game will opening the portal home, but unlike the game the lines between good and evil are not black and white.

If you’ve ever played a game, and wondered what it would be like to be in the game for real, Discordia might be the series for you. Perfect for the gamer, the series is also accessible to the non-gamers out there since it includes a glossary of the basic terms that have become the language of the MMO world. A good younger alternative to Epic, especially if it looks a little too intimidating size-wise.

Queen of Sorcery by David Eddings

It’s been months since Garion left the quiet farmstead in Sendaria to start a quest with the storyteller Mister Wolf and his Aunt Pol, who in truth are actually the ancient Sorcerer Belgarath and his daughter Polgara the arch-Sorceress. It has become apparent to Garion that his role in the quest has become more important; however Aunt Pol still won’t tell him why.

Leaving the relative safety of Cherek, Belgarath and the party make their way toward the Empire of Tolhendra to seek an audience with the elderly Emperor. Once there however, Belgarath and Aunt Pol are unable to convince the man that they really are the many thousands years old sorcerers of legend. Without the promise of having the Tolhendra army available should war break out, they leave, making for the Woods of the Dyrads. But they have a stowaway of sorts. The Imperial Princess Ce’Nedra has invited herself along and seeing as she sneaked out the palace, Garion and the others are likely to be labeled as kidnappers.

At the Woods of the Dryads, Belgarath decides to split the party for a short time. Belgarath and Silk will head off to do a little reconnaissance while Aunt Pol will take the rest into the country of Nyissa to wait for Belgarath and perhaps hunt up some information while they’re at it. But while there, Garion is kidnapped by the tyrannical and mad priestess-queen Essia and while there Garion will come face to face with the magic he barely believes in within himself.

Into the second volume of the Belgariad and finally the pace and action begin to pick up. In this book, Garion is faced with a serious decision to make. He must finally decide whether or not he believes in the powers the rule both the lives of Belgarath and Polgara. But first, Garion is going to have to decide if he’s going to follow the advice of the dry and ancient voice only he seems to hear. Exciting and often funny, Eddings’ series makes for different style of high fantasy and definitely worth trying.

Oath Breaker by Michelle Paver

It’s been a few months since Torak was turned outcast and hunted, then his status as outcast overturned. But even back among his friends and family, Torak still feels the effects of having been outcast from the clans. Along with his cousin Bale, Torak journeys to an isolated part of the Seal clan’s island to search for clues about a fragment of the Fire Opal, the powerful stone that the Soul Eaters want so desperately. One night however the two young men argue, and Torak leaves. The next morning Torak returns to find his cousin dead.

Torak knows that Bale was murdered, as an expert tracker he can read the signs on his cousin’s body, and he swears to hunt down the killer. As Torak begins to track the killer’s movements he realizes that who knows who it is, he’s looking for Thiazzi the Oak Mage, one of the Soul Eaters. Together with Renn and Fin-Kedinn, they track the Oak Mage to the Deep Forest. A foreboding place as the best of times, the Deep Forest clans have been on edge since the plague, and outsiders from the open forest clans are not welcome.

When Fin-Kedinn is seriously injured in a trap laid by Thiazzi, tracking him through dangerous territory falls to the two young people, who have had little interaction with the reclusive clans of the Deep Forest. As the Oak Mage’s traps become more and more deadly Torak must decide if his revenge for the dead means more than the safety of the living.

A very satisfying fifth installment of the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series, Oath Breaker delivers all the action and heartrending twists that Paver has done so well since in the first book as Torak learns more about both his talents and the choices his parents made even before his birth and how those choices they led Torak to where he is now.

Midnighters: The Secret Hour by Scott Westerfeld

Moving to a new town and starting at a new high school is hard enough but with your parents flip flopping rolls and your sister is becoming a royal pain some how the entire moving process becomes that much worse. However, these problems for fifteen-year-old Jessica Day do not compare to the number of bizarre occurrences and people she has come in contact with ever since she moved to the small town of Bixby.

From the moment she moved a strange group of students entirely dressed in black have been hot on her tail claiming that they all have something in common. Unsure, Jessica does her best to avoid them but when she starts to have a series of strange dreams that they very well predicted Jessica realizes that they just may be telling the truth.

They tell her that she is one of a few “Midnighters” those who are born at exactly midnight and are able to experience the 25^th hour where creatures from your worst nightmares appear all while the rest of the world is frozen in time. (So those supposed dreams were not dreams as all!) Humans once walked with these scary creatures but as their technological abilities progressed they had no way to compete and soon banished themselves to one hour each day where progress was not obtainable. Now, Midnighters are the only ones that know this special hour exists.

At first, these creatures apposed no threat, seeing as the current Midnighters kept to themselves and know how to handle them but for some reason Jessica’s entrance into this extra hour have thrown them over the edge. No longer able to co-exist the group decides it is essential to figure out why Jessica posses such a threat and how they can use her to their advantage before the 25^th hour takes on new meaning.

An interesting and original premise that is promising for the entire series. The only complaint I have is the fact that Jessica is not a strong or particularly interesting narrator. Sure, her being new leaves a lot of questions to be answered but the rest of the Midnight clan seems much more interesting and one can only hope that we will learn more about them and their past with the books to come. I am sure those that read the first book will want to see what is going to happen in the 25^th hour in the books to come.

Anything But Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin

In Anything But Typical a twelve-year-old boy by the name of Jason Blake allows readers to see what is like to live with Autism and how his reactions or refusal to react cause his peers and family members to view him. Diagnosed at an extremely young age has made it possible for Jason to come into his own in since various forms of therapy and aid have made it possible for him to attend school without a one on one.

Even though Jason is fully functioning he still has difficulty communicating with others and carries a lot of anxiety since different smells, sounds, and reactions can send him in a tizzy. Despite these setbacks he is still extremely intelligent and has profound gift when it comes to reading and writing. As a matter of fact, Jason talks a lot about the power of words and how just because someone is not reacting the way one would expect does not mean that they do not comprehend or better yet feel the repercussions of their comments.

Realizing that a lot of his classmates do not understand him and would much rather stay away causes Jason to find alternate forms of communication. He is an avid user of a fan fiction website known as Storyboard where he is able to post some of his creative writing pieces and users can then read and critique his work. When a girl from Texas by the name of Rebecca begins reading one of his stories and comments a friendship begins to blossom. For the first time in a long time Jason is not only free but hopeful for his future since there are people out there who will take the time to listen BUT when his parents surprise him with a chance to go to the annual Storyboard Convention in Texas he does not know if he should go. What will Rebecca think if she meets him? Will she see him like his classmates do? And, most importantly will she still want to remain friends?

A touching coming of age story that allows readers to not only understand what it means to have a certain level of Autism but also that things are not always as they seem. Just because Jason has trouble communicating does not mean that he cannot understand what others are saying or thinking. I think this book is something that everyone should really take the time to read. Excellent for middle schoolers and up!

Midnight for Charlie Bone by Jenny Nimmo

So, I know this book and even series may be considered juvenile for our teen book review blog but for those of you looking for something to fill your Harry Potter-less days I have a feeling that the Charlie Bone series may be just what you need. Here, readers get a bit of mystery, magic, and a cast of colorful characters that are sure to make you smile.

In this first installment readers are introduced to the mysterious powers of the Red King, known in his day as a powerful magician whose abilities have been passed down through his descendants for generations. No one as of yet has been born with all of the Red King’s abilities, but one or two powers tend to turn up in those that you would least expect. Those that receive these powers are required to attend Bloor’s Academy to not only perfect them but also to keep a watchful eye on their ability in case new powers come to surface.

Charlie Bone was a normal ten-year-old boy living with his widowed mother, both his grandmothers and, a very quiet Uncle until one morning he comes in contact with an old photograph and is able to hear the thoughts of the people in it!. Grandma Bone is over joyed realizing that her grandson has been given the King’s powers just like his father. This means that her grandson will not only follow in her father’s footsteps but will also keep the family name high and mighty.

Charlie, on the other hand is far from excited and is now forced to leave everything he has known to attend Bloor’s Academy for the gifted. But, with his new endowment comes new responsibility as this mysterious photo gives him clues about a baby who has been adopted by an unkind family while her loving aunt is still among the living! When Charlie and his new friends discover that she is endowed they realize that she must be attending Bloors, but who is she? It seems that this mysterious girl has no idea about her past or her abilities and now it is up to Charlie to figure out what the academy is hiding and how to bring her back to her family.

A wonderful introduction to the Charlie Bone series and although not as good as Harry Potter and on a slightly lower reading level the premise is still intriguing and I am sure it will be fun to watch Charlie grow up much like Harry has been along the way. The first of six books already in the series.

Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings

In the old stories, the God Torak stole an object of great power from his brother the God Aldur. The object was far too powerful for Torak, causing the earth to split and Torak himself to be severely injured. But still Torak would not relinquish Aldur’s talisman and if fell to one of Aldur’s students, the sorcerer Belgarath, to find and protect the talisman. All of this happened at least seven thousand years ago, and as far as young Garion is concerned it’s just an exciting story about impossible things.

Garion has been raised on a quiet Sendarian farm by his Aunt Pol, who runs the kitchens of the large farmstead. But Garion’s idyllic days of playing in the fields and haunting the warm corners of the kitchen abruptly come to an end when the traveling storyteller Pol mockingly calls old Wolf urges Aunt Pol and Garion to leave the farm as quickly and quietly as possible. That night Garion is thrown into an impossible story and everything he thought he knew about his life, his place in the world and even his beloved Aunt Pol are challenged.

The young man is dragged from his quiet, rural farm into the parlors and war counsels of kings and queens and into a dangerous quest to stop an ancient evil from reawakening. Along the way their growing party is tracked by someone Garion has seen on the periphery for his entire life, a shadowless stranger who been following Garion, tracking him even across the sea to the kingdom of Cherek. Now Garion must figure out why the man has been watching him for so long, but the truth may place him in more danger than he expected.

Pawn of Prophecy is the first book of the Belgariad series, and as such spends much of the time setting up the back-story that fuel the rest of the series. The series is considered high fantasy, much like Lord of the Rings, but is for more accessible to the average reader.

Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Disbelief becomes fear when a meteor strikes the moon, knocking it closer to the earth. And with that, life as we knew it is no more. With the moon in a new orbit the oceans begin to surge up in massive tidal waves and long dormant volcanoes around the world begin to erupt.

16 year old Miranda is a typical teen of the time, and she’s taken all of it for granted until now. School has been let out early for the summer as there’s no electricity to run the lights or food to serve at lunch, so Miranda and her two brothers stick close to home, trying to help their mother prepare for the worst. As the summer drags on with little contact from the outside world the worst that her mother prepared for comes to pass. Volcanic winter; and it comes early with a killing frost in August. The early winter begins to take its toll on the family as they must begin sealing off the house, holing up in the tiny sunroom with dwindling supplies, limited water and only a wood burning stove to provide warmth as the temperatures plummet.

Told through Miranda’s journal entries from May, just prior to the disaster, to the following March, you’re guaranteed to be sucked deep into this story. Miranda’s growth from bratty teen to responsible adult to felt in every entry as things around her begin to change; some for the better and some for the worse.

This title is a 2010 Teen Nutmeg Nominee.

Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon

As a young woman of Xia, it is Ai Ling’s responsibility to marry now that she is seventeen and of age. But Ai Ling as not interested in being married off to someone she doesn’t even like or know. She’d far prefer to be like her own parents and marry for love, and not be forced into a subservient role. But in the end Ai Ling has little choice when each attempted betrothal ends in rejection. She’s far too educated and free-spirited.

One day, Ai Ling’s father is summoned to the see the Emperor. He promises to be home within a month, but when one month become three, and then six, Ai Ling and her mother are put into a difficult position as they begin to run out of money. The two do their best to get by, but when a lecherous merchant in town appears with a claims debt and offers to marry Ai Ling as payment, the young woman decides that it’s time she set off for the Palace of Fragrant Dreams and bring her father home.

The long journey is treacherous for a woman traveling alone, and before long Ai Ling is attacked on the road. Not by a person, but by a monster. One straight out of the Book of the Dead Ai Ling used to sneak out of her father’s study. In the nick of time she is saved by another young traveler, a young man named Chen Yong. Chen Yong is on a quest of his own, but it seems the two have the same destination in mind and Ai Ling’s simple task of bringing her father home is quickly changing into something much bigger.

Set in a fictional country similar to ancient China, Silver Phoenix is a satisfy debut novel. Ai Ling’s coming of age and empowerment as an independent woman in a country where women are subservient and expected to stay in their quarters and only bear children for their husband matched with the action make for an exciting read.