1. Skulduggery Pleasant-Resurrection by Derek Landy
After Valkyrie’s episode with Darquesse, she, understandably, feels 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 eyes, 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, which would be on a good night, one where Valkyrie would actually get something that even distantly resembled sleep, but Valkyrie 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 pet dog. The story picks up a few years after 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 such things as the new massive city of Roarhaven for sorcerers to live in, the world of Magic has advanced many times over since Valkyrie’s time. This is probably primarily due to the fact that Roarhaven now has a Magic school of it’s own, the only one of it’s kind, 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 or famous can afford to attend. So if you thought anyone who goes there, probably wouldn’t be your top choice for someone who’d just blend in, you’d be wrong. Omen Darkly, no not the chosen one, but his brother, is Skulduggery’s prime candidate for such task of blending in. 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 having to save the world!
AGE RATING: 12+
TEEN RATING: 4.9/5
TEEN OVERVIEW: A fabulous reminder of how simply awesome these books are!
2. Calamity (A Reckoners Novel) by Brandon Sanderson
Calamity (A Reckoners Novel) by Brandon Sanderson.
With Prof, the team’s former leader, guide and solid reliable rock 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 consumed Prof, the man she love(d) who now tirelessly hunts her down. Prof hunts her for the simple reason that anyone that close to him, usually finds out one way or anther what his 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 places? Now that Prof has taken Regalia’s place, as the person responsible for for-filling her master plan, what could it really entail? And how much does she know about Clamity?
AGE RATING: 13+
TEEN RATING: 4.5/5
TEEN OVERVIEW: Far murkier than it’s predecessors, leaving us (the readers) wandering in the dark, wondering what could possibly happen next and how the story will finish. All this just makes Calamity (the book!) simply inhumanly possible to put down once you’ve picked it up and started reading.
3. 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, compared to the last, it may get a bit more complicated and harder to see what the end result could be. In this chronicle the ‘Feather Hunters’, visit more dimensions than before. Bigger, more twisted and layered than they may seem. The first dimension 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 people’s children, and who don’t take to outsiders kindly, even if they mean well.
AGE RATING: 13+
TEEN RATING: 4.5/5
TEEN OVERVIEW: 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.
