#middle grade sci fi

[checkoutmybookshelf]

I mean...this combination of depth and toilet humor is literally Shakespearean, so A+ for Eoin Colfer.

[vehicularmotorcycle]

Reading The Whispering Skull and I don't think I'll ever be over L&C getting canceled. It hits so much harder now reading the books. If nothing else, at least the one season it got led me to read these, I never would have found them otherwise

[qbdatabase]

Since Lesbian Visibility Week falls in Autism Acceptance Month this year, I’m combining them together! From April 26th – May 2nd, the Daily Books all feature autistic wlw characters, plus some bonus titles that have already appeared as Daily Books

Full list of titles, authors, and blurbs below the cut!

Barbary Station by R. E. Stearns

Desperate new engineers high-jack a space station to join a pirate crew only to find the pirates aren’t living in luxury–they’re hiding from the AI security system gone mad.

(bonus wlnb) The Unbalancing by R. B. Lemberg

New love blossoms between an impatient starkeeper and a reclusive poet as they try together to save their island home from sinking beneath the waves.

The Deep by Rivers Solomon

The water-breathing descendants of African slave women tossed overboard have built their own underwater society—and must reclaim the memories of their past to shape their future.

Ellen Outside the Lines by A. J. Sass

A novel about an autistic thirteen-year-old navigating changing friendships, a school trip to Spain, and expanding horizons as she questions her gender identity.

Hoshi and the Red City Circuit by Dora M. Raymaker

Due to their unique neurology, only the enslaved Operator caste can program the quantum computers that run 26th century Red City. When three of the caste are ritually murdered, it’s up to private investigator Hoshi Archer–herself a recently liberated Operator–to help the police solve the case.

All the Love Songs by Nicole Pyland

When Lennox and Kenzie meet, there’s electricity between them. And a celebrity summer camp is the perfect opportunity for them to explore what might be. But after the magic of their week away from the world dissipates, can they still find that spark and make their relationship work?

Sprinkled in the Stars by Violet Morley

AJ Beckett is just trying to get her seven-year-old autistic daughter through life in one piece. Melanie Cooper has just signed her last movie after the media keeps portraying her as cold and hard to work with. In a series of coincidental meetings, AJ battles her desire for control while Mel struggles with trust, but falling in love has never been so sweet.

Thornfruit by Felicia Davins

Alizhan can’t see faces, but she can read minds. Evreyet Umarsad longs to be the kind of hero she reads about in books. So when Alizhan needs help, Ev doesn’t hesitate. Together, they uncover a conspiracy that draws them all over Laalvur and beyond.

Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

Seven years ago, the Atargatis set off on a voyage to the Mariana Trench to film a “mockumentary” bringing to life ancient sea creatures of legend. It was lost at sea with all hands. Now, a new crew has been assembled …

The Outside by Ada Hoffmann

Autistic scientist Yasira Shien has developed a radical new energy drive that could change the future of humanity. But when she activates it, reality warps, destroying the space station and everyone aboard.

[wizard-legs]

A background design (leaning illustration) I completed recently :))) spent a looong time noodling with this bad boy so please click on it for hi res and zoom in on my little details shfjdjdj

[chinesegal]

Imperiets Arvingar vs My Dad the bounty hunter

"Imperiets Arvingar" and "My Dad the Bounty Hunter" are both children's sci-fi media that takes place in a futuristic setting and share a lot of concepts, plot-lines and themes, so I wanted to compare them.

My Dad the Bounty Hunter:

Imperiets Arvingar:

Both shows feature a pair of siblings who are dragged into adventures in space. Both have a parent who is revealed to be alien royalty and some social themes about oppression, imperialism etc.

Imperiets Arvingar (Heirs to the Empire) is a Swedish middle-grade sci-fi children's book about siblings Alice and Elias who live in a suburb in Sunnersta, Sweden with their mother and ex-rock musician father. One day, their mother disappears under strange circumstances, and while trying to search for her they end up abducted by aliens who are revealed to be her former crew-mates on the ship Stillheten (The Stillness). It turns out that their mother is an Alonai, a species that look like elves with blue or green photosynthetic skin and furthermore that she is a princess from the Alonai empire's imperial house, making them heirs to the titular empire.

Similarly, in MDBH (My Dad the Bounty Hunter) Lisa and Sean's mother Tess is revealed to be a princess from a human-like alien civilization, the Doloorami.

In my opinion, Imperiets Arvingar is a far more mature book with darker themes and characters who are much more complex while MDBH feels like a kiddie toon.

From the beginning, the Alonai empire aren't good guys; they've conquered a large part of the galaxy which is why even Alonai commoners are treated with a great deal of respect and privilege, and they've destroyed multiple civilizations in the past. Even good characters aren't free of prejudice and we learn that one of the most celebrated rulers in Alonai history is seen as a reviled tyrant in another, responsible for destroying a whole planet.

In contrast, the Doloraami empire are depicted as idealized and mostly good guys despite the "empire" in their name. The king and queen are wise and open-minded rulers while Alonai aristocracy are hedonistic snobs who backstab each other quite a lot.

The characters in Imperiets Arvingar feel much more complex to me; despite the simplistic writing common in Swedish kid's lit they all have deep personal fears, struggles and so on, while the characters in MDBH feel more archetypical and generic.

For example, Alice is a tomboy with an interest in biology and wants to assert her own identity in the face of being told she is a princess and treated like royalty. Sean and Lisa on the other hand, while endearing don't have the same amount of personal struggle.

[good-books-to-read]

Hi looking for books Recs

Fantasy of sci fi preferred

No horror

Middle Grade maybe Early Ya

Non Binary or Aro Ace

Little to no romance

Thanks you

[moraiwings]

Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.

Donna Barba Higuera, The Last Cuentista

[frecht]

i really enjoy sending books to the book channel in my school friends' discord server even though the friend most likely to take my recs left it (suffice to say there was. some drama. mostly surrounding the friend who made the server's absolutely INSUFFERABLE boyfriend) and the other 3 people remaining are 1. the insufferable boyfriend in question who doesn't read anything except for very popular manga (which he then sends to the server as if no one's heard of them before. even though even i have (and i know very little about anime & manga)) 2. an english major who i have not seen read for fun the whole year ive known her and 3. another person who i have not seen read for fun at all

[flourmelon]

“In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him.”

Ender’s Game

—Orson Scott Card

08.18.2022

🐝🛸👦🛶🍼

[threeravenspublishing]

Want to take a walk on the dark side?

Want to take a walk on the dark side?

It’s been a few years since we first launched the site, and I figured that since we were rolling out several new imprints, it was the perfect time to do a facelift to the site. So, I’ve had several people in our discord and otherwise asking me about the new logos in the header. Because of the crazy number of great submissions we’ve had come in, it only made sense to expand things beyond genre…

[checkoutmybookshelf]

From Criminial Mastermind to Fairy Tale Hero: The End of Artemis Fowl

Here we are, everyone: The final Artemis Fowl book. It has been a journey revisiting the first series I was old enough to follow and fandom, and it's wild to me that we're finally at the end. Especially since I picked up the first Artemis Fowl book in late elementary school (I'm genuinely not sure when though, because the first book came out in April of 2001, when I was in fifth grade and it's very possible I didn't pick the book up until sixth grade, which would have put me at 11, same age as Artemis in that first book) and the final book came out in 2012, when I was in my junior year of undergrad. So at that point, Artemis, Holly, and Butler had been part of my life for a long time. And now here we are, to say goodbye to them again after this leisurely re-listen/read. Let's talk Artemis Fowl: The Last Guardian.

Artemis grew and changed so much across eight books, which makes sense because holy cow do kids change a LOT between 11 and 15. We get so busy living life in those years that we don't really think about how much we truly learn and grown between prepubescence and full-on teenagerhood, but that is a time of massive change, and I think that more than anything else really justifies how Artemis goes from a chillingly vampiric child to a teenager with enough compassion and empathy to understand that sometimes the right choice is a heroic self-sacrifice for the people that your people (both humans and the people, in this case) love. Artemis also did a really interesting version of that thing so many teenagers do where they hit a point where they can't just phone in their abilities anymore and have to actually put effort in, but for Artemis it was emotional rather than intelligence. And yet even when making said heroic sacrifice, we have the absolutely beautiful callback to the end of book one, where Artemis drugs his mother, Butler, and Juliet to keep them from being harmed by the bio-bomb. To stop Holly from preventing him from stopping Opal, Artemis sedates her. The more things change, the more they stay the same...

Except where best villain ever Opal Koboi is concerned. By this book, Opal is so disconnected from reality that she is willing to risk literally going nuclear to escape captivity, and then just...casually sparks off the apocalypse because if there is one thing our girl wants, it's to be Empress of the World, and if that means using spirit zombies and an ancient fairy doomsday device, then I guess it's a good thing she's already versed in black magic. Or something. Opal is fully and completely off the rails at this point, and if you catch yourself referring to yourself as "Mommy" in reference to the spirits of several scores of ancient elven berserkers who would--barring a geas--murder you for it, you might want to stop and take a long, hard look at your life choices. And maybe don't forget that you've cloned yourself, because that's the kind of little detail that can completely ruin your chances of being Empress of the World.

Holly quite possibly deserves every medal that exists for managing to drag Artemis's extremely out-of-shape butt through increasingly dangerous and high-stakes missions while navigating fairy politics and *checks notes* breaking up with her commanding officer after a disastrous date where they both got kicked out of a crunchball match. (And once again...HOW DARE Colfer leave this in exposition and not show us this amazing disaster of a date!?!?) Holly has also just been through the emotional wringer with Artemis and every time he decided to double-cross or lie by omission to bring off a plan and every time he does something infuriatingly human that drives up her blood pressure and yet makes the mission succeed. And then she has to sit there and watch him die to save humans and fairies. Seriously, the fact that Holly Short is a functional being rather than a hot mess is nothing short of a miracle.

And then we come to Butler. Long-suffering, super fucking over it, broken-hearted Domovoi Butler. Artemis got DAMN lucky that the whole "put my spirit in a clone of me" plan panned out, because if it hadn't, Holly was entirely correct: Butler would never have recovered. Butler and Opal might be my two favorite characters in the entire series at this point. That's not where I started--for a very long time, Holly was my favorite character, and Commander Root still gets an honorable mention--but as a grown-ass adult (I'm not doing that math for you, if you want to know that I'm old, you do the math), I cannot escape how dedicated, competent, kind, and just AWESOME Butler is. I feel like the vibe here is very similar to the thing that happens when you watch Sound of Music as a kid and either Maria or one of the kids is your favorite character, but when you come back to it as an adult, Captain Von Trapp is EVERYTHING (RIP Christopher Plummer, we loved you). Butler has a similar vibe but in a different genre.

So, I was an adult and had enough experience of watching fandoms to see the mixed reactions to this book being released. People were sad the series was ending, people were disappointed because the series had seemingly drifted, and people loved it. My reaction was pretty mixed, because I had a lot going on, I knew there were good things here but I was also kind of missing the heisty, criminal mastermind vibes, but also OPAL KOBOI. So I was pretty unsure how to feel about this book when it came out, and then I didn't reread it for literal years because I went to grad school.

Returning to this book now, I have suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch respect for how Colfer tied up the series and how he pulled off a new Irish mythological cycle, but updated for the twenty-first century. I have enough life on me to appreciate the changes Artemis goes through, and enough literature degrees to have a new and deeply fulfilling perspective on the series structure. Last Guardian is not my favorite book of the series--it's not even in the top three--but I think that what it does is genuinely impressive and I love how you can finish this book and go instantly back into the OG Artemis Fowl. The story does not, strictly speaking, have to end. And that is a vibe I can 100% get behind.

I deeply love the Artemis Fowl books, and I cannot recommend the series enough. They have so many strengths, are incredibly well-written, and they live rent-free in my head even now as an adult.

[prologusblog]

Rick Riordan: A ​mélység lánya

A Percy Jackson könyvek óta nagyon megszerettem Rick Riordan munkásságát, ami nem is volt nehéz, hiszen írói stílusa könnyed, humoros és lebilincselő. Riordan gazdag és élénk leírásokat használ, hogy megteremtse a fantasy világait. A részletek segítenek az olvasónak elképzelni a helyszíneket, a szereplőket és a tárgyakat, amelyekkel a főhős találkozik. A leírások nemcsak a látványt, hanem a…

[clarislam]

Book Review: "Dragon Ops" by Mari Mancusi

What happens when three kids find themselves stuck in the virtual world of an augmented-reality video-game theme park? Find out in "Dragon Ops" by Mari Mancusi! #bookreview #DragonOps #MariMancusi #fantasy #scifi #kidlit

Cover of “Dragon Ops” by Mari Mancusi. I’m back with another book review, and this time I’m reviewing “Dragon Ops” by Mari Mancusi! I actually read one of her past books years and years ago called “Gamer Girl,” long before I started this author website. After discovering recently that she wrote more books since then, I was curious about “Dragon Ops” and decided to read and review it! Here’s a…

[alexsfictionaddiction]

Review: Stitch by Pádraig Kenny

I love new takes on classic stories and I've heard great things about Pádraig Kenny's writing. So, I was so happy to be approved for his new Frankenstein-esque middle-grade story and I had a great time following these heartwarming characters.

Stitch and his friend Henry were created by a professor and have spent their whole lives in a castle in the woods. They've never seen the outside world but when the professor dies, his nephew shows up with some big scientific ambitions, which Henry is a key part of. Can Stitch and Henry escape into the unknown, unforgiving human world?

Stitch's days are quiet and his existence seems quite pointless before the adventure starts. I loved getting to know him and his rich inner life, which is a sharp contrast to the tiny world that he inhabits. From the very beginning, he was a really interesting character to follow, so the connection was instantly there.

Henry is less developed than Stitch but due to his large size and strength, he is considered a dangerous liability and shut away. Stitch and Henry do have a George/Lennie dynamic and there is evidence that Of Mice and Men was another influence of Kenny's while writing this. I loved their friendship and was fully invested in the two of them making it to safety and happiness.

The Professor's nephew has an assistant named Alice, a young orphan who befriends Stitch. She tells him about monsters and how the human world treat those who look different. It's a harsh reality and a lesson that Stitch has to learn if he is to venture beyond the castle grounds. I loved Alice's role in the story and felt that she was a vital part in facilitating Stitch's integration into society. Everyone needs someone to guide and protect them and it was heartwarming to see that Alice felt that she could do that for Stitch.

As is the case every time the topic appears, I also really enjoyed thinking about how monsters are not always easy to spot. It's a major theme of Frankenstein and imparting that lesson in an easy-to-read, engaging children's novel is genius. The whole book is built on values such as kindness and empathy, which allows room to explore the struggles that those who have gone without kindness and empathy have been through.

Stitch is a beautiful, unique retelling of a story that has been told many times before. However, although it's clear where the influences have come from, this didn't feel like recycled content. It felt fresh and relevant to a contemporary young readership, making it a great introduction to gothic science-fiction for the age 8-11 market.

[wondereads]

New shelves!!! I’m so excited to finally be able to display all my books for the first time since I started college! It took me a good two days to get all these up, and they’re all double-stacked, but I should be getting a fourth bookshelf once I unpack enough to fit it in my room. I can’t wait to read my physical books again after a semester abroad!

[booksformks]

Book Review: World's Worst Time Machine

World’s Worst Time Machine (Volume 1)by Dustin Brady, Dave Bardin (Illustrator) 4 of 5 stars At the garage sale of a famous scientist, Liam finds a box labeled, “World’s Worst Time Machine”, and decides to try it out. He slaps together a few wires, sticks an old-fashioned telephone onto it, hooks up half an ink-jet printer, fastens it all together with duct tape, and plugs it in. His friend…