#1 Skulduggery Pleasant-Resurrection

Skulduggery Pleasant-Resurrection by Derek Landy

After Valkyrie’s episode with Darquesse, she, understandably, felt even just partly responsible for the evil her alter ego reaped . Therefore, she like her ex-partner, feels the guilt of something they had little doing in and little control over and feels the need to make up for it somehow, if only a little, but enough to prove at least to themselves that they’re better than that. Even still, when every time you close your eyes to so much as blink, the horrifying images of what someone who was not you, but was still a part of you, has done, flash before you never giving you a moment alone to drown in your own guilt, even the strongest of us would soon fall into despair. So I suppose it’s not a surprise when Valkyrie feels the need to deprive herself of comforts, like her family and friends, who’d tell her she’d no control over the events that had passed, until eventually even she herself would end up believing them and then she would finally get a night of actual sleep. Unaccompanied by her gruesome nightmares and uninterrupted by her frequent waking only to find herself drenched in sweat, and that would be a good night, one where Valkyrie would actually get something that even distantly resembled sleep, but she seems to think she doesn’t deserve that, she deserves to suffer, after what happened.

This is more or less the dark thought chain that leads Valkyrie to live in America, in solitude for a number of years, miles away from anyone who’s ever shown her love, apart from her new companion, Xena, her dog. The story picks up a few years where the last book (The Dying of Light) left us off, but the simple world of Magic, Valkyrie once new is gone, new advances in Magic has left that once proud but simple time behind. Now with the new massive city of Roarhaven for sorcerers to live in, the world of Magic has advanced many times over, primarily due to the fact that Roarhaven now has a Magic school of it’s own, solely for sorcerers. Unfortunately the school isn’t big enough to support the entire Magic world on it’s own, so only the rich, powerful, famous one or all of the above can attend. So if you thought anyone who goes there, probably wouldn’t be your top choice for someone who just blends in, you’d be wrong. Omen Darkly, no not the chosen one, but his brother, is Skulduggery’s prime candidate for such task. But is Skulduggery wrong to involve someone so young in something so ‘potentially’ dangerous? Well Valkyrie certainly thinks so, but why would her opinion matter anyway, she’s only back on a temporary basis after all, unbeknown to Skulduggery. All Omen, desperate to put some meaning in his life, can say is,’potentially dangerous’, so it may not be dangerous at all, but Valkyrie has different ideas, even if they mean she herself is hypocritical.

With Valkyrie back in Ireland, Skulduggery only but assumes Valkyrie would be happy to help out on such a case, especially when it’s only a regular old boring case, that totally could not quite possibly escalate out of hand into, yet another instance of their saving the world!

Teen Rating: A fabulous reminder of how simply awesome these books are!  4.9/5   12+

 

#2 Calamity

Calamity (A Reckoners Novel) by Brandon Sanderson.

Now with Prof, the team’s former leader, guide and solid reliable rock, amid a stormy dark Epic-filled sea, consumed by the darkness, the team doesn’t no where to begin. Especially when the brains of their ‘Epic thwarting’ operations, Tia, is on the run from the man she loves Prof, who now tirelessly hunts her down, for the simple reason that anyone close to them, usually finds out one way or anther what that Epic’s weakness is. And regardless of how much Prof, when in his free minded state would never do such a thing regardless of what it’s implications may be to his powers. But for a consumed Epic to loose their powers is second only to their the nightmares of their weakness in fear factor. For the Reckoners’ team to loose contact with their leader and essentially their brains, in the form of Tia, where does this leave them? And who will step up and take their place? Now that Prof has taken Regalia’s place, as the person responsible for for-filling her master plan, what could it entail? And how much does she know about Clamity?

Teen Rating: Far more murkier and in a way darker, leaving us (the readers) wandering in the dark, in terms of how the story will finish and the same could be said for people’s true motives. All this just makes Calamity simply inhumanly possible to put it down, once you’ve picked it up.     13+         4.5/5

 

#3 Tsubasa Omnibus 2

Tsubasa Omnibus 2 (Note: it’s a comic book series!!!)

Syaoran and his dimension jumping companions are still on their journey to reclaim Princess Sakura’s memories, for whatever their reasons may be. In every world, just as in the first book, the feathers have an extraordinary way of finding themselves in the hands of evil and dangerous characters. In this book it may get a bit more complicated and harder to see what the end result will be. In this chronicle the ‘Feather Hunters’, visit more dimensions than before. Bigger,  more twisted and layered than they may seem. The first dimensions they enter is, the snowy country of Clow, where the town’s people are being haunted by a 300-year-old princess who’s been stealing the town’s people’s children, and don’t take to outsiders kindly.

Teen Rating: The biggest comic book I’ve possibly ever seen and maybe ever will see! But, with some of the most beautiful illustrations and an amazing story to go with it, it’s a miracle it was finished in one lifetime. 4.5/5    13+