A Break from the Kiddy Books

Even though I’ve got a pile of kids books on my desk to get through before they become overdue, I’ve been reenergizing with adult reads the last few days (even our book for next month’s teen fantasy discussion group is an adult one, Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys). Although I do have to recommend the YA book I most recently read, Dread Locks (Dark Fusion Series, #1), by Neal Shusterman. It’s a very nice reworking of the Medusa myth set in the contemporary world and starring a teen boy. Fast-paced, dark, and suspenseful, with a strong ending.

But the mythology theme seems to have stuck because I finally started a graphic novel series that Hadrian recommended to me a while back: Fables, by Bill Willingham. The premise is that Cinderella, Beauty & the Beast, Old King Cole, and countless other characters from tales and rhymes have had to flee their individual realms to the last safe haven available, the “mundane” world of New York City. There they have established Fabletown, an underground community with a mayor, sheriff, and such while blending in with the “mundies” and going about their everyday lives. I requested the second volume as soon as I finished the first, and expect to have read all seven before too long.

I also picked back up with Y: The Last Man, by Brian Vaughan. I’d read the first five volumes as the library received them but then forgot to watch for the newer ones. I just finished volume six, should get number seven soon, and am on the list for eight, which is still on order. It’s another excellent graphic novel in which all males on Earth mysteriously and instantly die. The only survivors, for unknown reasons, are Yorick and his pet monkey. Needless to say, the sudden deaths throw the world into a bit of chaos and turn Yorick into a commodity. He finds a few allies in his efforts to figure out why he is still alive while trying to find a way to Australia, where his fiancé was when he lost contact with her.

And, thanks again to Hadrian for getting me on the holds list as soon as the book was ordered, I just started The Blood Knight, the third entry in Greg Keyes The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series. This is a more traditional fantasy novel series, but an excellent one. It’s a bit too complex to relate much about it in a short space, except to say I’ve dropped everything else to start on it right away. If you like this kind of thing at all, I recommend giving it a try.