The Warlock by Michael Scott

Title: The Warlock
Series: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel Book 5
Author: Michael Scott

Release Date: 1st June 2011

My Rating: 4/5

About the Series:
The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel is an urban fantasy series set in present day time but relies heavily on some of history and mythology's best known heroes and villains, from Joan of Arc, Mars - God of War and of course Nicholas Flamel (best known to the children of today from the first Harry Potter book), to Medusa and William Shakespeare.

In the last four books we have discovered that Sophie and Josh Newman, two ordinary fifteen-year-olds from San Francisco, are actually the twins of legend, prophecised to save or destroy the world. As Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel take them from America, to France, England and various shadow-realms searching for those who can awaken the twins and train them in the four elements, they are also in a race against time to stop Doctor John Dee, magician, necromancer and all-round bad guy from using the stolen Codex to bring destruction to the world.

***Do not read ahead if you have not read book four, The Necromancer***

Blurb:
The Newman twins have finally been divided. The end is near.

In San Francisco, Josh has chosen a side - and he will not stand with his sister, Sophie, or the Alchemyst, Nicholas Flamel. He has chosen to fight along side John Dee and the mysterious Virginia Dare. Sophie will do anything she can to find her brother, but her training must continue. Earth Magic is next; with Perenelle and Nicholas as weak as they are, Niten must help her to find her instructor. Someone Sophie already knows very well…

In A Nutshell:
Fans will not be disappointed as favourites are put in danger, magic is tested, Dee creates mayhem and lives are risked. Connections between characters become known and a shock-inducing cliff-hanger will leave you speechless.

My Review:
The Warlock, the fifth book in Michael Scott's six-book series, picks up right where The Necromancer left off with Sophie and Josh choosing separate sides, Sophie with the Flamels and Josh with John Dee and Virginia Dare. As both groups flee Dee's crumbling 'Enoch Enterprises' building after Coatlicue is sent back to her shadow-realm with Aoife sacrificing herself, Sophie and Josh struggle with the others' betrayal, as each twin believes they are on the right side.

Every chapter switches back and forth between a whole host of different characters as they all prepare to come together for the explosive final book The Enchantress, due mid 2012. Josh, Dee and Virginia Dare head for Alcatraz where Machiavelli and Billy the Kid are waiting to release the cells of monsters onto an unsuspecting city of San Francisco. Sophie and Niten set off to find Tsagaglalal, She Who Watches, while the extremely weakened Prometheus escapes his crumbling shadow-realm with an exhausted Perenelle, and Nicholas, who is near death.

Scatty, Joan, Saint Germain, Palamedes and Shakespeare have travelled back in time with the mysterious hook-handed man to destroy the lost city of Danu Talis. Characters such as Prometheus and Tsagaglalal who are with Sophie in present time, are also featured on Danu Talis with Scatty and the others since they were there when it was destroyed. Once you get your head around the time warp, it can actually get quite funny, especially when they run into Prometheus who has no idea who they all are (and Scatty is his niece!).

There are also appearances from Gilgamesh, Black Hawk, Mars Ultor, the Witch of Endor, mysterious Elders Isis and Osiris, the Old Man of the Sea, Elders Hel and Odin and Codex creator Abraham the Mage. Many of them, despite their centuries old rivalries, come together with Sophie, Perenelle, Tsagaglalal, Niten and Prometheus to try and stop Dee, their common enemy.

Fans will not be disappointed as favourites are put in danger, magic is tested, Dee creates mayhem and lives are risked. Josh remains suspicious of Dee's motives but Sophie also begins to questions Perenelle's actions when she becomes reckless. As the fifth book progresses, a lot of connections are made between characters who have appeared throughout the series, some that will make you sit back and go, 'ohhhhhhh.'

And the ending? OMG what an ending! But what, how?! I knew something like this was coming...but not THIS! The shock-inducing cliff-hanger opens up so many new questions that will leave your mind reeling and absolutely desperate for the sixth and final book. I can already tell, it is going to be AMAZING!

I've stuck with this series now for four years and I really am quite desperate to read the final book, especially now, since The Warlock finished on the biggest cliff-hanger possible. A whole year! Seriously?! Maybe Michael Scott, to say thank you to all your loyal fans, you could release The Enchantress much earlier? Say like in six months time? That would be really great. Thanks.... I can dream right?!

A big thank you to Random House Australia for providing me with a review copy.

The Comet Box by Adrian Stirling

Title: The Comet Box
Author: Adrian Stirling

Release Date: 1st June 2011

My Rating: 4/5

Blurb:

It's 1986 and Halley's Comet is hurtling towards Earth. Everyone's talking about what the comet will bring: wishes could be granted, great disasters could happen.

Andrew's wish is that his runaway sister, Amelia, will finally come home. But as the comet approaches, he begins to learn why she left, and the more he knows, the more he wants to forget. Will Amelia's return tear his comfortable world apart?

In A Nutshell:
A slice of Australian suburban life in the 80's when a teenage boy becomes curious about the secrets of his neighbours and his own family. An insightful page-turner.

My Review:
The Comet Box is the story of one boy as he searches for answers in his slice of suburban Australian life in the 1980's. I don't think I have ever had so much trouble writing a review before. I really enjoyed it, but I have no idea why! I'm failing to put it into words but it's just a feeling that I had while reading it. It was a total page-turner but I can't pinpoint why it was, which is absolutely useless when trying to write a review!

Andrew is a curious fourteen-year-old who likes knowing what is going on around him. He believes he is pretty clued in to everyone and that there isn't much he doesn't know about his classmates and neighbours. What he discovers throughout The Comet Box is that curiosity is not always a good trait to have because once you know something, you then have the responsibility of what to do with that knowledge. How will your decision effect others? What do you do when things fall apart, when you find out that your perfect world is actually not so perfect?

I think the intrigue is because all the secrets and lies that are floating around in Andrew suburbia could very easily be those of anyone's neighbours. And the problems that Andrew's family faces, could be any family's problems. You never know what is going on behind closed doors. Everyone tries to present the perfect life to prying eyes, but usually, nothing is as it seems.The story isn't propelled by major action or teen drama, but is more subtle, with an underbelly of secrets swarming around the streets of Merton. As it simmers, it pulls you in.

Thank you to Penguin Australia for this review copy.

2011 Prime Minister's Literary Awards Short-list

Today here in Australia, the 2011 short-listed titles for the Prime Minister's Literary Awards were announced.


In the Young Adult Fiction category the titles are:
About a Girl by Joanne Horniman
Good Oil by Laura Buzo
Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley
The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta
The Three Loves of Persimmon by Cassandra Golds

I have read three of the five titles (click on the title for my review) and while I really liked all three, my vote goes to Cath Crowley's Graffiti Moon.

In the Children's Fiction category the titles are:
April Underhill, Tooth Fairy by Bob Graham
Flyaway by Lucy Christopher
Now by Morris Gleitzman
Shake a Leg by Boori Monty Pryor and Jan Ormerod
Why I Love Australia by Bronwyn Bancroft

I have only read Flyaway by Lucy Christopher, although Morris Gleitzman's Now has been on my TBR list for a long time.

*********

The winners will be announced in the first week of July. To view the adult short-listed books click here.

Solstice Cover Love

I have recently discovered the debut novel, Solstice, by P.J. Hoover.

Isn't it pretty?!


Where Mythology and Dystopia meet...

Piper’s world is dying. Global warming kills every living thing on Earth, and each day brings hotter temperatures and heat bubbles which threaten to destroy humanity. Amid this Global Heating Crisis, Piper lives with her mother who suffocates her more than the chaotic climate. When her mother is called away to meet the father Piper has been running from her entire life, Piper seizes an opportunity for freedom.

But when Piper discovers a world of mythology she never knew existed, she realizes her world is not the only one in crisis. While Gods battle for control of the Underworld, Piper's life spirals into turmoil, and she struggles to find answers to secrets kept from her since birth. And though she’s drawn to her classmate Shayne, he may be more than he claims. Piper has to choose whom she can trust and how she can save the people she loves even if it means the end of everything she’s ever known.

*********

Solstice is available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords and has certainly been added to my by TBR list!

Author Interview: Amy Plum

Today, the wonderful Amy Plum has stopped by to chat about her debut novel Die For Me, what we can expect from it's sequel Until I Die and...Willy Wonka.

I absolutely LOVED Die For Me and you can read my review here.

*****

Can you describe Die For Me in three words?
Gothic Parisian romance.

Where did the idea of revenants come from?
It was my attempt to do a mash-up of two mythological creatures: gods and zombies. But as I went further along with the development of their story, I truly had a feeling that they were something that already existed, and that I, as a writer, was charged with discovering. Everything about them makes sense and lives quite comfortably side-by-side with existing mythologies.

Can you share anything about the sequel Until I Die?
Yes. There are a few new characters. I packed in lots of fun new Parisian locations. More of the revenant mythology will be revealed. And now that Vincent and Kate are together, they will be faced with huge questions about how they can actually make a revenant-human relationship work.

Die For Me is going to be a trilogy. Do you already know how the last book will end?
I do know how the last book will end. But I am not quite sure how I will get there!

Excluding Vincent and Kate, do you have a favourite character in Die For Me?
That’s actually a really hard question. Because I am incredibly fond of several of my characters: Jules, Georgia, Ambrose, Charlotte, Mamie...even Gaspard. I feel like I know them all really well, and if I could actually stand in front of any of them, I would throw my arms around them for a big old American hug!

Which fictional character would you like to trade places with?
Any fictional character that can fly and eat everything they want without gaining weight. Because, besides not having those two qualities, I’m pretty happy with my life!

What is your favourite word?
I have been told that I use the word “magical” WAY too much. But I would have to say that the French word “pamplemousse” is my favorite for the way it rolls around in the mouth. That and my daughter’s middle name, Tallulah.

What are some of your favourite YA books at the moment?
I am re-reading Josephine Angelini’s Starcrossed and really enjoying it. She has such an amazing way with words! Just started Cassi Clare’s City of Bones, and know I’m going to devour the series. And I had never read Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy before a friend sent it to me a few months ago. Have read the first two books and LOVE THEM!!!

Who are some of your literary crushes?
Eric Northman. Aragorn. Mr. Darcy (in both Pride & Prejudice AND Bridget Jones’s Diary). And (I know this is really strange) Willy Wonka.

*****

A massive thankyou to Amy for taking the time to answer my questions. I am so excited about Until I Die and am going to try my best to wait patiently for it...although I will probably fail epically.

My review of Die For Me
Amy's website
Amy on Facebook
Amy on Goodreads

Graffiti Moon Love

Over the last week, the winners for The New South Wales Premier's Literary Award and the Australian Publishing Association Book Design Awards were announced.

The NSW Premier's Literary Awards 2011
I am very excited because Cath Crowley won the Ethel Turner Prize for Young People's Literature for her totally awesome YA novel Graffiti Moon. I am super happy about this because Graffiti Moon was one of my favourite books from last year and I highly recommend it.

To view the other category winners, click here.


APA Book Design Awards
We're not supposed to judge a book by it's cover right? Well that's exactly what this award is all about. There are nineteen categories but I'm only going to comment on the Best Designed Young Adults Book Award. The winner as you might have guessed from my post title was Graffiti Moon! Congratulations to designer Melanie Fedderson! The really funny thing is that I originally didn't like the cover but over the last 6 months it has really grown on me :)

For the full list of winners and commended titles click here.


Read my review of Graffiti Moon
Read my review of Cath Crowley's other book A Little Wanting Song
Read my interview with Cath Crowley

The Dead I Know by Scot Gardner

Title: The Dead I Know
Author: Scot Gardner

Release Date: 1st May 2011

My Rating: 4/5

Blurb:

Aaron Rowe walks in his sleep. He has dreams he can't explain, and memories he can't recover. Death doesn't scare him - his new job may even be his salvation. But if he doesn't discover the truth about his hidden past soon, he may fall asleep one night and never wake up.

In A Nutshell:
I loved The Dead I Know. It was suspenseful, heart-breaking, touching and hopeful. It can get a bit dark at times so I would recommend it for ages 15+.

My Review:
The Dead I Know begins with a lot of mystery surrounding our main character Aaron. He has shown up for his first day working at a funeral parlour looking worse for wear and with an antisocial attitude. We don't know a lot about him except that he's a bit of a loner, lives in a caravan park with Mam, who we assume to be his mother, and that she has some kind of mental illness. Because of Mam's apparent illness, Aaron has to play the role of the parent the majority of the time and since it is just him and Mam, there is a lot sitting on his young shoulders. On top of this, he's having trouble with his violent and drug-addicted neighbour and he has recently started sleepwalking and having disturbing nightmares. It is evident he is troubled but the question is, what traumatic memories are hidden away in his subconscious?

"If Mam were an alcoholic, her mental state would be easy to explain. If she'd taken drugs or had an accident, her luck-of-the-draw world would make more sense. Sometimes she was lucid and practical; other times she was a stormy two-year-old. There was no rhyme or flow, just what she was served. Yet, for all her shifting states, she never woke with a stranger's broken hairbrush in her hand."

Aaron needs mindless, repetitive tasks to stay focused and keep himself calm, meaning being an assistant at a funeral home is perfect for him. He doesn't have a problem with death. That doesn't however make him a morbid, angry teenager wanting to kill everyone.... he just understands it. I know that the fact the book is set in a funeral home might deter some people from picking it up, but please don't let it stop you. There are a couple of moments when you might get a tad squeamish but it's really not the focus of the book. It's about Aaron and whether or not he can put his past behind him and find peace of mind.

"The police protected the living, ambulance officers protected the injured and we protected the dead. All as it should be."

The Barton's, who own the funeral parlour, are such lovely people and I thought that John Barton was the perfect person to help Aaron during this particularly difficult time. John takes him under his wing, subtly providing him with a support network without Aaron really realising it. Throughout the story, Aaron's past slowly comes to light, expertly drawn from him by John's precocious 12-year-old daughter Skye (who I started off really disliking but quickly found the value of her personality). What we come to realise is that Aaron is a broken boy struggling with not only the horror of his past (which is so tragically sad!), but also the pain, pressure and denial that comes with having a loved one suffering from dementia (something I am all too familiar with).

I honestly really loved The Dead I Know. It was suspenseful, heart-breaking, touching and hopeful. I read the whole thing in one sitting, I was just so desperate to know what had happened to Aaron and that he would be ok. I really came to care for him as a character and was able to identify with him in reference to his struggles with Mam. Recommended for ages 15+

And if that's not enough, it comes recommended by John Marsden, "I have never read a book more gripping, nor more triumphantly alive"

Thankyou to Allen and Unwin for providing me with this review copy.

Attention Perth Bloggers! How About A Meet-Up?

Hello fellow Perth Bloggers!

Danni from The Book Nerd Club and I have been talking about organising a Perth YA Book Bloggers Meet-Up for a quite a while now and the time has come for us to get our act together.

So if you live in Perth and run a young adult reviewing blog (or adult is fine too) then come along to our first ever meet-up! There are so many bloggers over east but there are only a small amount of us here in Perth and it would be awesome to have the chance to meet each other. Young or old, we don't mind as long as you blog! And if all goes well, we'd love to make it into semi-regular thing.

If you are interested in coming along, we will be meeting at San Churros in Subiaco at 4pm on Thursday 9th June. It would really be appreciated if you could email me to RSVP just so we have some kind of idea as to how many people to expect.

San Churros can be found on the corner of Rokeby Road and Roberts Road in Subiaco. It is right across the road from the Subiaco train station. Next door is Jus Burgers and across the road is the old Subi Market site.

If anyone has any questions, please don't hesitate to send me an email at jwillis87(at)hotmail(dot)com. You can RSVP to it as well.

Um, can you say yum?!

Heads Up! - Changes Coming!

Hello loyal Tales Compendium followers!

You may have noticed that last month I had a poll on the sidebar asking your opinion on what I could do to make The Tales Compendium better. So along with some of my simmering ideas, I actually listened to what you had to say.

More author interviews and give-aways seemed to be the big things people were interested in and I'm pleased to say that both of these are getting a boost. You may have noticed I've had both Rachel Caine and Steven Herrick featured in the last few weeks and I have more exciting interviews from Amy Plum and Antony John (to name a couple) on the way in the coming weeks. I'm also planning some cool give-aways.

I've been thinking about my ratings system for a while now and have decided that the time has come to change it. For over a year now I've been rating books out of ten but I've decided that it gives me to many different options and I think it needs to be easier to know exactly how I feel about a book. So from now on my ratings will be out of five. All previously reviewed books, for the time being, will stay with their current out of ten ratings but I hope to change them all over to my new system over the next few weeks.

1/5 - I didn't like it
2/5 - It was ok
3/5 - I liked it
4/5 - I really liked it
5/5 - OMG words can not express my love for this!

And, as you may have noticed, as I have, that my reviews have been getting longer and longer and I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing. I have so much to say on books these days and they might just be getting a bit too long for some of you. So, I've decided to add a little "In A Nutshell" spot before my full review so you can get a quick opinion on the book before I go into why I love it so much. It will essentially just be a little snippet of what the longer review says.

I hope everyone likes the changes and continues to read The Tales Compendium. Thanks for sticking with me!

Jess xxx

Author Interview: Steven Herrick

Today I have a special treat for you all. Australian author Steven Herrick has very kindly answered a few questions about his soon to be released YA novel Black Painted Fingernails.

Herrick has written more than eighteen novels for all ages in either verse or prose.

He has won the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards twice (and been short-listed three times), the Australian Speech Pathologists Book Award in 2005, been short-listed for the Australian Children's Book Council Book of the Year Award four times, his 2010 release, Slice, was one of the Notable Books for Older Readers with the CBCA, had two books named on the honour lists of the CBCA and been highly commended by the Children's Literature Peace Prize.

It seems to me, he is a force to be reckoned with.

Where did the idea for Black Painted Fingernails spring from?
It began as a verse-novel about an insecure young man who meets a free-spirited woman, but after many attempts at writing the main female character in verse, I gave up and left it alone for two years. When I approached it afresh as a prose novel, I found it much easier to write. And it allowed me to also add chapters on the parents, which I enjoyed immensely. These chapters were written after our two sons had left home, so I felt keenly the pain of the parents.

You usually write novels for young adults in verse. What changed your mind when you wrote Black Painted Fingernails?
I was at a stage where, after ten verse-novels in eleven years, I felt I'd said all I could say in that form. My last three books have been prose and I've enjoyed the challenge. Having said that, I used a multiple narrator form in 'black painted fingernails' which I've used before in my verse-novels. I guess I like to tell stories from multiple perspectives... there is no single truth.

Can you tell us a little about James and Sophie from Black Painted Fingernails?
I had lots of fun writing Sophie in particular - a woman who is strong-willed and independent. In many of my previous books, the male character has been to the fore... not in this book. But, most of all, I loved writing the parents - their sense of bewilderment and loss at being left alone as their only child sets off into the world.

What would you like readers to take away from reading Black Painted Fingernails?
That we all carry around our own insecurities, obsessions, feelings of love and loss, ambitions... each day.

Can you describe Black Painted Fingernails in three words?
It's a book! No? Okay...umm, how about - love, loss... landscapes

Last year Slice was released. Can you tell us a little about what inspired you to write it?
I really wanted to write about about the everyday minor details of a young man whose mind and mouth sometimes run ahead of themselves! It's a simple story, I hope, of a man trying to make sense of what being a man really means - how do you respond to love, bullies, friends, school, family - all those crucial little things of being sixteen and a little lost. That's where the title comes from - it's slice of life stuff.

What are you reading now?
For pleasure, I regularly read books about football (soccer) - often on the politics of world football. I've just finished a wonderful book called 'Why England lose' - which attempts to look at football from a scientific and empirical data perspective - sounds boring, but it wasn't. I'm also rereading the first draft of my next book - a verse-novel for children tentatively titled 'Pookie Aleera is not my boyfriend!'

A massive thank you to Steven for taking the time to answer my questions :)

Black Painted Fingernails will be published by Allen and Unwin in June. You can read my review here.

Slice was published by Woolshed Press via Random House in 2010. I haven't read it yet but you can read Nomes' review of it over at her blog inkcrush.

All Steven Herrick titles are available via The Book Depository for those of you outside Australia.

Visit Steven Herrick's website here.