My New Favorite Books

I confess to being an avid fan of science fiction and fantasy. I love it. I am enthralled by it. I am envious of people who can even conceive of alternate worlds, languages or realities, let alone being able to write an understandable and entertaining novel about them. Don't get me wrong, I love the other stuff too, but I have had a passionate relationship with fantasy since I was small. I think the first example I remember was The Juniper Tree and Other Tales from Grimm, edited by Lore Segal and illustrated by the wonderful Maurice Sendak. My mother bought me this book when I was 8 or 9 after realizing that if she wanted me out from underfoot, books were the way to go. Anyone who has read the real version of Grimm's fairy tales knows that in addition to being wildly entertaining, they can be very dark, as well. I remember being completely fascinated with Godfather Death, which is perhaps a bit morbid for a 9 year old.

A few other favorites from elementary school and junior high are The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword, by Robin McKinley. McKinley had such an impact on me that to this day I instantly buy anything she writes. She is a wonderful writer for girls of all ages, and she even worked her magic on a boy I once dated and whom I harrassed into reading one of her books.

I remember well two novels by William Sleator that I read while on forced house arrest while living very much against my will in Guatemala. Since it was dangerous for young, American girls to be out on the streets by themselves and since my parents could not afford private school, we were home-schooled for six months and loathed every minute of it. Books became my number one escape. Anyway, I was fifteen at the time and the Sleator books were actually for my little brother, who was 9. I enjoyed them very much anyway, and I still have copies on my own bookshelves. Interstellar Pig is about a boy who gets drawn into an exciting board game with some local tourists involving interstellar wars and conquest (think Risk in space with lots of creatures) and how he reacts when the interstellar wars turn out to be real and Earth is the next planet to be conquered. Singularity is about a teen-aged boy who is resentful of his twin brother who is both popular and condescending. He finds a space warp where time in the warp is faster than in the regular world. He gets the idea to spend a night in the time warp (one year in warp time) so that he will be older than and therefore less a victim of his self-centered brother. Very appropriate literature for an angry 15-year old who hated being stuck with her family 24/7.

In high school a boyfriend of mine introduced me to the Robotech books and also David Eddings. Again, fantasy and sci-fi with very little reality involved and perfect for escaping teenaged angst. I first read Ender's Game in high school, as well, which opened the door to many more Orson Scott Card novels. Though I love Card's books and look forward to when they come out, the bonus has been his weekly column, Uncle Orson Reviews Everything. He really does review everything, and almost all of it is very entertaining reading, but what I love is that he reviews all sorts of books. I really don't know where he finds the time to read as much as he does, and I don't always agree with his reviews, but his fantasy and scifi recommendations are always excellent. Which leads me to my favorite of the moment, the Inda series by Sherwood Smith. Smith writes mostly literature for young adults but this series is intended for adult readers. The series follows Inda, the second son of a military regional leader who ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time and as a result is exiled from his home and academy training and ends up at sea on a trading ship. If you are looking for light reading this is not the series for you, and Smith's Inda world is built entirely on a military society, so if you don't like to read about war and intrigue, then you should pass this one by. However, Smith's characters have great depth and even within a story built around war the focus is on human nature and human relationships and all the complexity involved. I keep thinking about that world even though I finished the latest installment, King's Shield, weeks ago. That is the sign of great writing.

So, until I find new favorites, these are the books that I must now find space for on my bookshelves, so that I can pull them off and dive in whenever I want.