Sci Friday: Teen Fantasy and Sci-Fi

~post by Marie

I’ve already been over my very first love in Science Fiction, A Wrinkle in Time, but I have thus far neglected a very critical and formative part of the development of my love for sci-fi and fantasy: Young Adult sci-fi and fantasy!  If you’ve ever been in any bookstore ever, you know this section is huge.  Lately, it has become overrun with books about vampires, and lots of angsty high school romances, and dystopian hells.  While these are quite popular nowadays, there was a time when there was nary a vampire sparkling gently in the sunlight, or children pitted against each other in a pointless slaughter fest for the sake of entertainment (unless you want to count Battle Royale, but that’s something altogether different).

While I already had the active imagination that craved substance and that desperate wish that unicorns were actually real, there are two series in particular that really drove home for me how much I love this genre.

On a recent visit to my parents’ house, I perused my old bookshelf and found well-worn copies of books that I half remembered, but remembered with fondness and a growing sense of excitement at revisiting some old literary friends.
First is a series by Tamora Pierce, The Immortals Quartet.  I spent a lot of time at the library as a young girl, and while scouring the racks of paperbacks in the young adult section one day after school, one cover in particular caught my eye.  A girl was sitting bareback on a horse, surrounded by a herd of the majestic creatures, with a falcon perched on her upheld hand.  Wild Magic, proclaimed the title, and I snatched it quickly off the shelf and scurried home as quickly as I could.  I knew it was going to be good.  I began reading, and before dinner was ready, I had finished the book.  It was as if Tamora Pierce had opened up my mind and plucked all the magical longings from my brain and put them into a book.  This young heroine was my age, had a pony, could talk with and heal animals, lived in a time of knights and kings, magic was alive and well, and so were dragons.

The next day I went back to the library, and found that the next three books that complete the quartet were already published, and waiting for me to pluck them off the shelves.  Within a week I had devoured them all.  Adventure, scandal, intrigue, character development (that’s the English major coming through; I knew I liked it at the time, I just didn’t have a word for it) bows and arrows and swords, and a charming, tough as nails orphan girl with an incredible gift and an unbelievable heritage solidified this series forever as one of my favorite reading treats.  Tamora Pierce has written a lot of other really great series, several of which take place in the same world she created in the Immortals Quartet, though this one is still my favorite.

Shortly after, in that same fated library, I discovered another intriguing cover: a pale, dark haired girl delicately holds a bell as she looks over her shoulder at a menacing black shadow.  The word Sabriel was etched on the front, and the back cover hinted at high adventure, a long kept secret, mysterious dark and powerful forces, and one girl who could save two disparate worlds: Sabriel.  Same story.  Knocked that sucker out in a few hours flat, and, much to my then disappointment, I discovered that I would have to wait almost AN ENTIRE YEAR before the next installment of the Abhorsen Trilogy by Garth Nix was due to hit my beloved library.

One of the most agonizing things about really enjoying an unfinished series, as any ardent reader can tell you, is the interminable waiting period between closing the last page of a dangling cliff hanger, and waiting for that author to get his tail in gear and crank out the next installment.  Good ol’ Garth, though, he certainly delivered.  Lirael and Abhorsen, though long in coming, were totally worth the wait.  Certainly fantasy, with a bit of steam punk and sci-fi thrown in for good measure, this is another telling of the classic story of good vs evil incarnate, and the sheer precipice on which the world teeters if our protagonist does not keep her wits about her and solve the mysteries of the past to ensure that there will be a future.

Having reread both of these series in their entirety in my adult life, I still attest to their entertainment value, and champion both Pierce and Nix as superbly imaginative crafters of fine tales.

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Sci Friday is a weekly post focusing on all things Sci Fi. Booksellers Tommy and Marie are you intrepid leaders on this journey through awesome new books; the best and worst of what’s come before; Sci Fi film adaptations and more. Check back next Friday for more!