Week 8 Sci Fi

Sue- If you only have time to read one entry, go ahead and skip this one and read my Houdini blog entry (Sci Fi is not your favorite anyway).



For everyone else, science fiction and fantasy:

In my autobiographical blog entry I revealed that I met my husband in a science fiction class. Pam Cole wrote on page 380, "Science fiction and fantasy require a great deal of mental energy for understanding." I have always liked to visualize the other worlds that authors create, and I enjoy the complexity. My friend Christy just had her first YA book published, and I went to her book signing party last week. Her book is titled Prophecy of Days. If you look on the blogs I follow that are not from this class, you can find her blog, Juvanescence. In her book you will find a mixture of science fiction and magical elements. She even has a monkey named Mr. Papers in the book, that does Origami. She leans heavily on New Age symbols and includes a mystery. My point is that more and more of this genre has blurred lines.
I recommended a book titled Wings by Aprilynne Pike to some of the girls in my library that had finished the Twilight series. Wings is an urban fairy fantasy about a home schooled girl who decides this is the year she will attend public school. The trouble is that during her first year there, she begins to grown bumps on her back that turn out to be wings. The girls I recommended it to, loved it! And for those who want a guy's science fiction and are mature readers, I recommend The House Of Scorpion by Nancy Farmer. In its future setting, a boy is born who is a clone of a powerful drug lord. The boy, Matt, does not know that clones are used for replacement body parts for wealthy, old people. This is an action book that makes readers think about the ethics of science. I was surprised that it was not in the box page 363 Genetic, DNA, and Cloning. I was also surprised that I didn't see The Hunger Games by Collins because it was very popular.
One last thing to note (because I could go on too long) is that many authors of sci fi/fantasy for YA now have facinating websites. Take a look at this one http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/features/athertonseries/index.html