Female Role Models in Fantasy

July 2, 2013June 24, 2013 / Sharon Tyler / 1 Comment

I am a fan of books from a wide variety of genres, for a wide variety of age groups. However, there is one common thread in the books I feel the most passionate about, and that is well-written characters. When I find a book with a strong protagonist that I can actually like and yet also believe in as real, I am thrilled. Sometimes finding one of these characters that just happens to be female, and one I would want to hold up to my daughter or nieces as a role model, is very hard. A teen or young female character who does not act as a victim even if the situation might make others feel like one. They act and do everything they can to make their life, and the lives of others, better. Thankfully, I have read fantasy for a long time, and have found a few. Here are the authors, and some of their noteworthy books that you can recommend to the young girls and young adults in your life.

1) Tamora Pierce is my go-to recommendation for everyone that walks into the library and is looking for a fantasy book. Alanna: The First Adventure is the first book in the first series, Song of the Lioness, by Pierce. Alanna is a young girl that poses as her twin brother to become a knight and deals with the issues of bullying and personal strength. There are currently nine series by Pierce, two of which are geared for young adults, while the rest are for children, and she is still actively writing in at least one of them. My favorite series starters from Pierce are Alanna: The First Adventure, First Test (Protector of the Small), Trickster’s Choice (Daughter of the Lioness), and Terrier (Beka Cooper).

2) Robin McKinley has written a number of books that take classic stories, or plots that are reminiscent of them, and give them a solid twist. One of my favorites, The Hero and The Crown is about Aerin, who has the guidance of the wizard Luthe and the help of the blue sword to secure her birthright as the daughter of the Damarian king and a witchwoman of the mysterious, demon-haunted North. The Blue Sword, Beauty, Chalice, Spindle’s End, Pegasus, and Sunshine are other books I would recommend from McKinley.

3) Cornelia Funke is the author of the Inkworld series, which begins with Inkheart. You might recognize the shared title from the movie which was released in 2008. In Inkheart, twelve-year-old Meggie learns that her father, who repairs and binds books for a living, can “read” fictional characters to life when one of those characters abducts them and tries to force him into service. The sequels Inkspell and Inkdeath are equally good reads. For younger readers, I recommend Funke’s Igraine the Brave, The Princess Knight, and the Ghosthunter’s series which begins with Ghosthunters and the Incredibly Revolting Ghost!.

4) Patricia C. Wrede is the author of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles quartet, which begins with Dealing with Dragons in which Cimorene is everything a princess is expected not to be. She is headstrong, tomboyish, and smart. But most of all she is bored, so bored that she runs away to live with a dragon and in the process finds the family and excitement she’s been looking for. Other books that I would recommend by Wrede are Sorcery & Cecelia: or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot, Thirteenth Child, Mairelon the Magician, and Shadow Magic– all of which begin their own series.

Other authors that tend to offer up strong female children, teens, and adults as main characters in fantasy include: Libba Bray, Kristin Cashore, Cassandra Clare, Robin LaFevers, Maria V. Snyder, Garth Nix, Holly Black, Lilith St. Crow, Rachel Vincent, Elizabeth Moon, Kristen Britain, Edith Nesbitt, Dianna Wynne Jones, Patricia A. McKillip, and Sharon Shinn.

I know I left some great authors out, some are on the tip of my tongue even as I type this. Do you have a favorite fantasy book or author with strong female characters?

20 Book Club Picks (Part 2)

June 25, 2013June 5, 2014 / Linda / Leave a comment

Here’s another batch of favorite books for book clubs.

(If you missed the first batch, here’s the link.)

Wild – Cheryl Strayed
The Thirteenth Tale – Diane Setterfield
The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
Room – Emma Donoghue
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks – Rebecca Skloot
Eat, Pray, Love – Elizabeth Gilbert
Three Cups of Tea – Greg Mortenson
The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
Moloka’i – Alan Brennert
The Secret Life of Bees – Sue Monk Kidd
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close – Jonathan Safran Foer
The Shack – Wm. Paul Young
My Sister’s Keeper – Jodi Picoult
Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro
The Light Between Oceans – M.L. Stedman
The Forgotten Garden – Kate Morton
The Kitchen House – Kathleen Grissom
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie – Alan Bradley
Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides

Sharon Reads: The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

June 13, 2013June 3, 2013 / Sharon Tyler / Leave a comment

Darkest Minds

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken is a young adult novel about a world in which the children and teens of the world have either died from a strange illness or developed mental powers. The adults are both scared for their children and, in some cases, of them. Ruby was only ten when her parents locked her in the garage and she was sent to a camp for the newly ‘gifted’ children. Six years later, Ruby is still struggling with her abilities, the conditions she has survived, and the idea of freedom. On the run, Ruby discovers that there are multiple faction and dangers working in the world. Much has changed since she was last outside a fence, and discovering who she can trust is more challenging than surviving in the camp ever was. Can Ruby survive on the outside, and can she protect those that help her from her uncontrolled abilities?

The Darkest Minds is a highly entertaining and engaging read. It is however, not easy emotionally. It is very highly charged. Just for starters, they round up kids and send them to ‘rehabilitation’ camps and fear them. The world building is so well done that you could believe that the scenario could happen anywhere at any time. The fear, mob mentality, and power plays in the world are something I could honestly see playing out.

I highly recommend The Darkest Minds to young adult and adult readers. This dystopian novel has rich characters, a world to fear, and deep set conspiracies and plots that will have you looking over your shoulder long after putting it down. There are significant amounts of death, violence, and cruelty in the book- so I do not recommend it for younger or more sensitive readers. I am looking forward to reading the sequel(s) that I have been told are coming.

Brightly Woven

Alexandra Bracken’s other book in our collection, Brightly Woven which is about sixteen-year-old Sydelle Mirabel, an unusually talented weaver, must master her mysterious power and join a young wizard in stopping an imminent war in land. I also recommend a reading this book, perhaps while waiting for sequels of either to be released.

Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander to be a Cable Series on Starz

June 3, 2013June 3, 2013 / Louise / Leave a comment

Fans of the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon have longed for the books to be adapted for the screen since the first novel was published in 1991. The 7 books (with an 8th due later this year) defy genre categorization, containing elements of romance, fantasy/time travel, and historical fiction. Thy are epic in scale, rivaling George R. R. Martin’s “Song of Ice and Fire” series for sheer page-count.

Ron Moore, creator of ‘Battlestar Galactica’, is on board to helm the new “Outlander” series for the Starz cable network. Set to unfold over 16 episodes, Outlander tells the story of married World War II combat nurse Claire, who accidentally steps back in time to the year 1743 where she is “immediately thrown into an unknown world of adventure that sends her on the run and threatens her life.” The ‘Outlander’ series of books have sold over 20 million copies.

As a huge fan of these books, I was both thrilled and wary when Ms. Gabaldon announced at BEA 2013 that Outlander would finally be adapted for the screen. So often, books we love don’t measure up when made into movies or television series. Still, I’ll be watching!

One to Watch: After Earth

May 19, 2013May 15, 2013 / Susan O. / 1 Comment

After Earth is a big-budget ($130 million) science-fiction adventure film starring Will Smith and his son Jayden as a father & son who crash-land on Earth a thousand years after man has abandoned it, and the adventure they have trying to escape the dangerous wild habitat the Earth has become. Smith himself came up with the basic story, and worked with screenwriter Gary Whitta to carry the idea further. Due for release on May 31, 2013, it is expected to be a blockbuster.

Will Smith, acting as producer, hired director M. Night Shyamalan (Unbreakable, The Sixth Sense, Signs) for the film. This was the first time in twenty years that Shyamalan accepted a project based on someone else’s screenplay (the final screenplay was done by Stephen Gaghan). This would also be Shyamalan’s first digital film.

Science-fiction adventure stories come and go, but what makes After Earth a unique film is the backstory. Normally, a film is scripted, filmed, and then if it is successful, writers are hired to create backstory, a “Bible” from which movie tie-ins, novels, short stories, and future scripts can draw material to make a unified vision of that world. After Earth is the first film to flesh out its backstory before the scripting was even finished. Three expert writers were hired for that task: Peter David, Robert Greenberger, and Michael Jan Friedman, all of whom were well-versed in writing not only successful science-fiction and comics, but media tie-ins as well. All three collaborated in creating the “universe” in which the story takes place, the what, why, where, when and how, working on set with Smith, Shyamalan, and the scriptwriters to make the story as cohesive and believable as possible.

As told to me by Bob Greenberger, the three authors worked from the original Whitta script, taking tiny open references and creating minute details that would answer any questions the production team might have as to what cataclysms sent man from Earth, why Nova Prime, and what happened in the intervening years. Over a period of two years, this background encyclopedia grew to more than four hundred pages! If you’ve seen anything about the film in print, on the internet, or in film references, you can pretty much guarantee that information came from their work.

Of course, such detail and planning spawns stories on its own. Several novels centering around the movie are poised for release: After Earth, the novelization of the film by Peter David, The Perfect Beast (After Earth: Ghost Stories) by Peter David, Robert Greenberger, and Michael Jan Friedman, and After Earth: United Ranger Corps Survival Manual by Robert Greenberger, as well as several short e-stories available for Kindle Purchase, with more to come in the ensuing months.

With a top-notch cast and writing crew like that, how can After Earth be anything but a hit? Check out these other books by these great authors, (or meet them in person at the Shoreleave Science Fiction Convention in Baltimore this August).