One of the most common ways to build a fantasy setting is to base it on some certain aspect of the real world and then make as many–or as few–tweaks as possible. For a long time, all we got were variations on medieval England.  Then, slowly, other times and cultures began to trickle in. We’re …

Starting in the 17th century and continuing to this day, a debate has raged over who, exactly, is the father of calculus. Owing to favorable historical circumstances, or maybe to strange providence, Newton and Leibniz were both working their way toward it, sniping at each other along the way. One way or another, calculus was …

To be an Archivist in Wasp’s world is a far more coveted position than in our own. For starters, those who don’t make it are killed. And those who do gain possession of the only items known to ward and capture ghosts. They also gain the grudging tribute of a town barely scraping by, ensuring …

Once again, we’re in rebellious territory with Snow Like Ashes, the story of a band of refugees set on reclaiming their homeland at any cost. The escaped citizens of Winter, a magical kingdom forever frozen in that single season, lost everything to the evil denizens of Spring. To fight back, they need to reunite the …

Let’s just get this out of the way first: in Red Queen, a young woman is dragged from obscurity, thrust into a deadly competition, and then embroiled in a revolution. Comparisons to The Hunger Games are inevitable and warranted. Fortunately, Red Queen riffs but doesn’t replicate. It has its own world and its own rules, which in this dystopia …

So the world ended. As apocalypses go, it wasn’t the worst: there were no zombie pandemics or nuclear holocausts. Most people even survived it. Unfortunately, a decade later, they’re still surviving, not really thriving. It’s not the standard dystopian dictatorship that’s really keeping them down, and it’s not the weird new stars in the sky …

Is this YA Fantasy? Is it even YA, or fantasy at all, beyond being a retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses fairy tale? I don’t know, and I don’t care, because Geeklies, you have to read this book. The original story features twelve princesses who sneak out each night to go dancing, and the only …

Ah, trolls.  They brood under bridges and over 4chan, and now they’ve found another home in pseudo-monarchical France, the setting of Stolen Songbird. Cecile, a budding chanteuse, knows nothing of trolls as she prepares to leave her farm for the big city, to join her mother as a singer for the National Opera.  But her …

I found this book when looking at examples of query letters. Stefanie Gaither’s was held up as an ideal pitch. I recommend reading the full critique, especially for any would-be writer. The blurb, in her own words: When Cate Benson was twelve, her sister died. Two hours after the funeral, they picked up Violet’s replacement, …

Snow White this ain’t. (Moderate spoilers ahead) In Stitching Snow‘s version of the distant future, Snow White’s story begins with a cage match. Essie, alone in the ring with someone twice her size, surrounded by a crowd of men who want her to lose, shows us her wits and her grit right off the bat. …