Books: The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

What if your parents decided to Escape the Realities of Earth in order to create a new life for your family?  Would it be a Haven (Heaven) of life on another planet?  Can you ever really escape the realities of Human Nature?  Can anyone ever hope to create a new and more perfect world? 

The setting: Prentiss Town in the New World.  Todd was born here, orphaned here, grew up here.  Viola just crash landed, losing both her parents.  Will they survive to create a new human future?

The Problem: Noise!  Oh yeah, what if you could hear animal’s thoughts on this new planet?  NOISE!!  What if men couldn’t hide their thoughts from each other, from women?  NOISE!!! What if the planet already had “people”?  NOISE!!!!

Read Book 1 of the Chaos Walking series to find out what happens to Todd and Viola.

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

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Books: Goliath by Scott Westerfeld

World War I history with a twist.  The third and final installment in Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan series does not disappoint, including the new art work by Keith Thompson.  Goliath is non-stop action, multiple battles between the Darwinist (British Allied) and Clanker (German Allied) forces, and a love story, of course.  Wow!

Midshipman Dylan Sharp (actually a girl named Deryn) and Austrian Crown Prince Aleksander are again aboard the Darwinist Air Ship, Leviathan.  This time they travel to New York to help Nikola Tesla stop World War I with his new weapon Goliath.  The journey includes stops in Russia, Japan, California, and Mexico.

Do you call it Historical Fantasy Fiction?  Steam Punk?  I'm not sure.  I guess, like Deryn, I might exclaim "Barking Spiders!" this is great story telling with cliff-hanger chapters and characters who live on in the reader's imagination after the cover is closed.  "Barking Spiders!" indeed!

I like to call it history with a twist because real historical figures enter the narrative and interact with the main fictional characters Alek and Deryn.  In the pages of this third installment, you'll meet the likes of the aforementioned Nikola Tesla, William Randolph Hearst, and Francisco "Pancho" Villa. This is great reading for young adults and adults alike.

Below is a link to the Book Trailer the publisher (Simon and Schuster) made for the book.