The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf

Jem and the Holograms: Showtime (Volume 1) Kelly Thompson, Sophie Campbell, 2015 New Release! I received an electronic copy of this book from NetGalley for the purpose of review. Premise: Jerrica Benton and her sisters dream of a music career. An online video contest seems like a great way to make a splash, but first Jerrica will need a way around her stage fright, and then they’ll meet the competition…Collects Jem and the Holograms Issues #1-6 Up front, I need to admit: I never watched Jem as a kid. I knew that there were dolls in shiny outfits, but it wasn’t a show I was ever into. Today, I think I’ve maybe seen at most one episode, watched on Youtube years back when I was curious. I was told the premise at some point. So unlike many people who are going to read this book, I don’t care about Jem the show. I love Jem the comic book. I love the bouncy, sprightly dialogue, the silly situations. I love the good-hearted characters and the fledgling romances. I love tha...

Penryn & the End of Days (Angelfall, World After, End of Days) Susan Ee, 2012, 2013, 2015 Premise: Six weeks ago, the world ended. Or, at least, a series of catastrophes and an army of angels decimated the human race, which amounts to about the same thing. Penryn is 17. She only wants to keep her little sister safe, and her schizophrenic mom alive. When her family is separated, she will do anything to get them back. Even make a deal with an angel. For a series that, if you emphasize certain parts of the plot, falls squarely into many Paranormal YA tropes, this had some serious bite. The action was fast and furious, the story fascinating in its twists and turns. I'll say up front that there is a romance and I didn't hate it by the end, because it ended up tying into the plot in a really interesting way. If it had ended up being a romance for the sake of angst or for the sake of romance itself it might have driven me crazy, but I actually think all the relations...

Gwendolyn’s Sword E. A. Haltom, 2015 New Release! I received a copy of this book from NetGalley for the purpose of review. Premise: Lady Gwendolyn has been doing a fine job managing her husband’s estate while he is overseas with King Richard. But with mercenaries sympathetic to Prince John passing through and machinations from her sister-in-law, Gwendolyn will use a superstition, her own stubbornness and her unorthodox training to protect her people. Spoilers ABOUND below, FYI. I was going to cut this book some slack because I assumed it was YA, but I’m not seeing that on any of the promotional pages. I might have enjoyed this at age 12. Now, not so much. It’s not that it’s terrible. It’s that it’s terribly cliche. Gwendolyn doesn’t just know how to use a sword. She’s also great at it, despite the first chapter being the first time she fights in earnest against someone with deadly intent. She’s also secretly the heir of King Arthur. I almost put the book down for good ...

Ancillary Sword (Imperial Radch Book 2) Ann Leckie, 2014 Premise : Sequel to Ancillary Justice . If you haven’t read Ancillary Justice yet… I don’t know what to do with you. Breq’s ploys in the first book have allowed her a certain amount of autonomy. Now she just wants to keep herself and her crew alive long enough to fulfill a debt. I bought this book months ago and only got around to reading it now, just before the release of the third book. I am an idiot for waiting. Although, on the other hand, having some distance from the first novel allowed me to fall in love with the conventions of the series all over again. I love Breq’s perspective. She has lived a long time, she is not human, not really, and sees things in a subtly different way from the people around her. I love the way she questions history and draws connections that are uncomfortable or unthinkable for others. And I still love the pronoun thing. [In case anyone’s reading this who hasn’t read the first: bec...

Free Country: A Tale of The Children's Crusade Neil Gaiman, Toby Litt, Rachel Pollack, Alisa Kwitney, Jamie Delano, Chris Bachalo, Peter Gross, Peter Snejbjerg. et. al., 2015 New release! I received a copy of this book from NetGalley for the purpose of review. Premise: Once upon a time there was an idea for a Vertigo Comics crossover story, which took characters from a handful of titles (Sandman, Swamp Thing, Books of Magic, Animal Man, Doom Patrol, Black Orchid) and gave young characters from these worlds a story together. Unfortunately, given budgets and timelines, the plot ended up a bit rushed. This edition features an all-new middle chapter, giving more characters on-panel time and clarifying the story. Acts One and Three originally released 1993-1994 as The Children’s Crusade 1 and 2. Premise the Second: Children disappear. It happens. It has always happened. But what if they are all going to the same place? Who could possibly be able to find out? This story i...

Demon Drums Carol Severance, originally published 1992, Kindle edition 2015 New eBook release! I received a copy of this book from NetGalley for the purpose of review. Premise: Iuti had seen enough blood. She retreated from battle and gave up everything for a chance at peace. But sometimes peace is too good to be true, and chance encounters can change the course of war. I really liked this book. It has an uncommon setting, an uncommon protagonist and an uncommon story, and all of those things work extremely well. The story starts after the main character has tried to leave behind a major war. The world is evocative of Micronesia, with multiple island nations and a closeness with the sea. Iuti’s tie with a powerful shark-spirit gave her power in battle, but exhausted her soul and finally drove her from her people. I know that dealing with issues of PTSD is not as infrequent in fantasy as sometimes it seems, but this book also features a fully adult female protagonist in...

Throne of Glass Sarah J. Maas, 2012 Premise: Celaena is an assassin, sentenced to die in a labor camp for her crimes. She has one chance to earn her freedom: Win a competition to work for the king she despises. Hmmm. I’m quite torn on this book, honestly. I tore through it, read it extremely quickly, but after I was done, all that stayed with me were the bits I didn’t like. The cover of the book says that fans of The Hunger Games will love this book, and I agree in that it’s very readable. The pace is breakneck from almost start to end. And yet, I found that to be a critique as well, as when I described the competition premise to a friend who immediately said: “So this got published because Hunger Games made lots of money, right?” The setting and backstory had lots of intriguing hints which might be developed in later books, but the ending of this book I found unsatisfying. There seems to be an undercurrent of untapped magic in the society and the palace, mysteries aboun...