Jeanne DuPrau |
Corgi |
0552552399 |
Feb 2006 |
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The sequel to The City of Ember, which I haven’t read, this book does a fair job of standing by itself as a single story. |
Archives for February 2006
Jabob’s Ladder
Brian Keaney |
Orchard Books |
1843627213 |
Feb 06 |
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A teenage boy wakes up in a strange field and remembers nothing other than his name. Not where he came from, nor his parents’ faces: not even the words home or parents. In a little while a man comes to collect him and takes him by boat across a wide river to a grey settlement called Locus. Here he is allocated a uniform and a bed in a dormitory: one of hundreds of dormitories full of teenage boys and girls, all of whom have woken up in the field and come to make their lives in Locus. The days are spent picking rocks off the ground where new dormitories are to be built, the nights are for playing the ‘memory game’, when inmates share any little tiny snatches that return to them from the lives they lived before. Such nuggets are priceless, spiritual food to the inmates. |
The Mob
Clem Martini |
Bloomsbury |
0747575789 |
Jan 2006 |
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The Mob is the story of a flock of crows that have gathered for their annual meeting. The multitude has come together for play, pairing off and the general hubbub of family reunions. |
Mixed Magics
Mixed Magics (audio CD) by Diana Wynne Jones, read by Anthony Head |
Collins |
0007213425 |
March 2006 |
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Originally published in 2000, this collection of magical short stories is being published as a CD audiobook for the first time. Not having previously read any of the other Chrestomanci books, I admit to being tempted into starting with this one purely on the basis of it being read by Anthony Head. I was not disappointed – his mellifluous tones are easily absorbed and his subtle delivery perfectly complements Wynne-Jones’s lively prose. I discovered that the stories work fine as a stand-alone collection and you need not have read the others in the series in order to appreciate them. Each of the four tales is linked by the mercurial and often unpredictable presence of Chrestomanci, an enigmatic enchanter who presides over many worlds, intervening when needed to maintain harmony and balance. |