In My Mailbox 55

This meme was started by the fabulous Kristi who was inspired by Alea. Check out their blogs for more information. All summaries are from the book jackets.

For review:

The Prophecy - Gill James

Kaleem Malkendy is different - and, on Terrestra, different is no way to be.

Everything about Kaleem marks him out from the rest: the blond hair and dark skin, the humble cave where he lives and the fact that he doesn’t know his father. He’s used to unwelcome attention, but even so, he’d feel better if some strange old man didn’t keep following him around.

Then the man introduces himself and begins to explain the Babel Prophecy - and everything in Kaleem’s life changes forever.

Thanks to The Red Telephone for this. It sounds really good.

Zan-Gah: A Prehistoric Adventure - Allan Richard Shickman (signed)

“She began to move warily in a circle as the men frightened the trap, and as they got closer the lioness began to stride and prowl in a circle so small that she almost seemed to be chasing her tail. But she was watching, watching while she turned and snarled, for a weakness in the ever-tightening ring of her pursuers. Then, at the moment the attack finally sounded-when the men, putting down their drums and torches, charged on the run with their spears-the lioness saw what she was looking for. One of her enemies was smaller, weaker than the rest. There was a point of the strengthening line that could be broken! Thought merged with furious action and the beast, with a mighty bound of astonishing swiftness, darted towards Zan. Five hundred pounds of snarling fury sprang directly at him with claws bared and fanged mouth open!”

Zan-Gah: A Prehistoric Adventure has only begun. Pressed by love for his brother and a bad conscience, the hero undertakes a quest which leads to captivity, conflict, love and triumph. In three years, Zan-Gah passes from an uncertain boyhood to a tried and proven manhood and a role of leadership among his people. This dramatic and impassioned story will thrill and deeply move young adults and older readers. They will dream of Zan-Gah at night, and remember it all their lives.

Zan-Gah and the Beautiful Country - Allan Richard Shickman (signed)

Well past the middle of the night Zan felt a shaking of his shoulder as he slept, and then an impatient foot kicking at him. Instinctively grabbing for his spear, he looked up and saw the orange glow of a torch, and as his eyes adjusted to the invading light he recognised his brother’s ghastly face. Dael’s dangerous brow was furrowed, and the vein of his forehead bulged under the old scar. His teeth were clenched, and his eyes darted nervously back and forth. His every motion expressed a profound agitation, and Zan knew that what he had been dreading had come.

“It is time, Zan. Let us go!”
“Where? It’s dark!”
“I want to find where the river comes from.”

The volcanic turbulence that shakes Dael’s mind carries him to vicious extremes. It is Zan’s task to calm his brother and lead him away from thoughts both destructive and self-destructive. But even the paradise of the Beautiful Country will not erase them.

These aren’t my usual type of reads but I’ve been wanting to read more historical fiction and you can’t get an more historical than these! Thanks to Earthshaker Books for review copies.

The Chosen One - Carol Lynch Williams

Thirteen-year-old Kyra has grown up in her isolated community without ever questioning the fact that her father has three wives and she has twenty brothers and sisters; without ever questioning the strict rules imposed by ‘the Prophet’ who leads them.

But now Kyra has started keeping secrets. She reads books that are forbidden and sneaks away to meet Joshua, the boy she hopes to choose for herself, instead of having a husband chosen for her.

Kyra knows that it’s only a matter of time before her two secret loves are discovered. And when the Prophet decrees that she is to become the seventh wife of her sixty-year-old uncle, Kyra is forced to make a desperate decision. But saving herself mean endangering everyone she’s ever cared for.

How far should she go for freedom?

Thanks to S&S for this. I’ve never read anything like this before so I’m curious to see what it’s like.

Viola in Reel Life - Adriana Trigiani

Viola doesn’t want to go to boarding school, but somehow she ends up ay the Prefect Academy, which feels like a million miles away from her home in New York.

Viola’s sure she won’t survive the year - especially since her three new roommates all seem to like being at Prefect. Her only comfort is her camera and her dreams of becoming a filmmaker.

But life at Prefect is nothing like Viola thought it would be and soon she realises that this could be the most incredible year of her life; if she can just learn to put the camera down and let the real world in…

Thanks again to S&S. I really love the sound of this.

Extras - Scott Westerfeld

These days it’s all about the fame.

As if life isn’t hard enough when you’re fifteen, Aya Fuse’s face rank of 451, 369 is so low, she’s a total nobody. An Extra. But when she meets a clique of girls who pull crazy dangerous tricks in secret, Aya sees a way to get her popularity rating to soar…

Aya is sure she’s destined for a life in the spotlight, and if she can just ‘kick’ the story to show everyone how intensely cool the Sly Girls are, then the spotlight will be on her.

But is Aya prepared to be propelled out of Extra-land and into a world of instant fame, celebrity…and extreme danger?

Thanks to S&S. I’ve already read and reviewed a copy of the old cover and I loved it.

Titus and Atreus - Meridi Myers (signed)

Two worlds, two boys…one prophecy.

Grief-stricken by the loss of his parents, Titrus Attwaters is convinced his life will never improve. His older sister ignores his calls, his grades in school have plummeted, and his house, once a place of warmth and security, is now lonely, cold, and alien.

But when a young man appears one night in Titus’s house, claiming he cam ein upstairs through the full-length mirror, Titus’s life gets turned upside-down. For, as Titus soon discovers, this intruder is not from Earth. Against his will, Titus is kidnapped and taken to another world, a place like Earth but markedly different. It is here where he will befriend angels, face assassins, and help a young prince unravel a prophecy that proves much darker and more twisted than any of them had imagined.

Thanks, Meridi!

I also got six graphic novel versions of:
- Stolen Hearts: The Love of Eros and Psyche by Ryan Foely
- A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne
- Kim by Rudyard Kipling
- The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
- Harry Houdini by Cel Welsh

From Frances Lincoln. I won’t be reading these so if anybody wants any of them, drop me an email.

Bought:

None. I didn't need to this week!

Sophie