Top ten fantasy fiction universes

In 2013, Samantha Shannon published The Bone Season, the internationally bestselling first installment in a seven-book series of fantasy novels. Its first sequel, The Mime Order, was published in 2015, and the third book in the series, The Song Rising, is out this month.

One of Shannon's ten top fantasy fiction universes, as shared at the Guardian:

Filigree Street, from The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley

While this tale is set in the real cities of London and Oxford – and shot with glimpses of Meiji-era Japan – you won’t find the titular Filigree Street on any map. Pulley braids the real and the whimsical in her vision of London in 1883. Home Office clerk Nathaniel Steepleton finds himself intrigued by the Japanese watchmaker Keita Mori, whose home in Filigree Street is ticking with eccentric clockwork creations – including an unforgettable octopus named Katsu. Mori has a mysterious gift: he can remember things that have not yet come to pass. Grounded with details of Victorian life, this steampunk-esque fantasy teeters on the brink of explaining its mysteries with science, but never feels less than magical.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six novels in which nothing is as it seems

At the B&N Reads blog Jeff Somers tagged six "novels [that] make you think you know what’s going on, only to completely twist you up when you’re done reading," including:

We Were Liars, by E. Lockhart

This YA novel is a corker of a bookish puzzle that will blow minds of all ages. Cadence Eastman spends her childhood summers on a small island owned by her incredibly wealthy grandfather. Her first 14 summers there are idyllic, spent romping with the “Liars,” Cadence’s cousins and and a beloved family friend. The fifteenth summer, however, is different: Cadence wakes up after a mysterious accident, suffering from a host of mental problems, including amnesia. She spends a summer away from the island, then returns, only to find everything has changed. As Cadence delves into the mystery of what happened to her, the reader will be fooled right up until the last moment—and then will feverishly flip back to the front to see how they could possibly have missed the clues along the way.

Read about the other entries on the list.

We Were Liars is among Avery Hastings's five favorite books featuring unreliable narrators, Darren Croucher's five favorite YA novels featuring liars, Michael Waters's six must-read YA books for Mr. Robot fans, Lindsey Lewis Smithson's top seven sob-inducing books that deserve to be made into movies, Ruth Ware's top ten psychological thrillers, and Meredith Moore's five favorite YA thrillers.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top dystopian novels

One of Robert Collins's top ten dystopian novels, as shared at the Guardian:

Idoru by William Gibson

I've often found Gibson hard to get on with: his narrative description can be as dense as computer code. But he updates [Philip K.] Dick's preoccupations to the cyberpunk era, and evokes the delirious intermingling of human consciousness with virtual experience, through the sprawling psychosis of the internet.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten literary kids with very crummy childhoods

At the B&N Reads blog Jeff Somers tagged ten literary kids with extremely difficult childhoods, including:

Jack, Julie, Sue, and Tom in The Cement Garden, by Ian McEwan

McEwan’s debut remains a disturbing black mirror to Party of Five. When the kids’ parents die, they hide their mother’s corpse by encasing it in cement in the basement and try to avoid going into the “system.” To say this does not go well for them is an understatement. To say it’s surprising that all that happens is some sociopathic derangement and enthusiastic incest is also an understatement. And the ending is just ambiguous enough that you can’t be certain they all survive—or that they should.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books with deadly games

Peter Tieryas is the author of United States of Japan and Bald New World. One of his five favorite books that have games with deadly consequences, as shared at Tor.com:

Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

I had no idea what the book by Koushun Takami was about when I first picked it up. I knew there was a movie based on the book and it was a bestseller in Japan. But when a group of classmates in junior high are subjected to sleeping gas and wake up, only to be informed they’ll be taking place in a deathmatch against each other, I was stunned. Metal collars are placed around their necks that will explode if they try to escape, and they’re each given a weapon ranging from guns to worthless items like a fork. Some embrace the violence, like Kazuo Kiriyama who is a sociopath and relishes his chance to take part in the games. Others try to resist, only to be mercilessly slaughtered. I was both enthralled and repulsed, unable to put the book down but wishing it wasn’t disturbing me so much (the extreme violence resulted in the book being condemned by the Japanese National Diet).

What’s most chilling is how they start to turn on one another and how that forces you to wonder what you would do in their shoes. Morality is turned upside down and the social commentary is disturbing as you realize everything is being broadcast for the public. It’s as though The Purge were vicariously mixed with something on E!, audiences chowing on sponsored popcorn and soda as analysts commented on the brutality and effectiveness of each killing.

(Note: As much as I enjoyed Running Man and The Hunger Games, I’m leaving them off this list because of the similarities they share with Battle Royale).

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Four books that changed Ian McGuire

Ian McGuire's new novel is The North Water.

One of four books that changed the author, as shared at the Sydney Morning Herald:

WASHINGTON SQUARE
Henry James

I've taught literature in universities for 20 years, and Washington Square is probably my favourite novel to teach. It's short (an advantage in the era of brief attention spans) but almost perfect in its structure, as well as being beautifully written, complex, clever, utterly unsentimental and terribly sad.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Washington Square is among five books that changed Carol Wall and Will Eaves's top ten siblings' stories.

Learn about Ian McGuire's ten top adventure novels.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten kids' books with kickass heroines

One of Joanne Harris's ten top "kids' books with kickass heroines," as shared at the Guardian:

The Black Tattoo by Sam Enthoven

After his visit to Chinatown, Jack will never be the same again. Demons, martial arts and vomiting bats feature in this strange and fabulous world - not to mention the Black Tattoo itself, and Esme, a young girl with the most spectacular fighting skills kids' fiction has ever see.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five delightfully disturbing narrators

Sarah Skilton is the author of Bruised, a martial arts drama for young adults; and High and Dry, a hardboiled teen mystery. At the B&N Reads blog she tagged five "messed-up narrators of... recent novels [who] make for scandalously fascinating storytellers," including:

David Federman in Loner, by Teddy Wayne

Wayne’s Justin Bieber-inspired The Love Song of Jonny Valentine was so real it hurt. Expect to feel similarly empathetic toward Harvard freshman David Federman (rhymes with “fader,” as in, he fades into the background) despite the fact that you won’t want to; he’s stalking a female classmate. Smart and obsessive, lonely (though not socially clueless, which actually makes his experiences more painful to read about), David straddles the line between “normal” and not. It’s a testament to his precise narrative voice—filled with astute observations about millennial life—that readers will relate to his struggles despite cringing over his choices. Pair with You, by Caroline Kepnes, if you’re feeling daring.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top black comedies

In 2007 novelist and short story writer Ray French tagged his top ten black comedies for the Guardian. One title on the list:

The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe

Meet Francie Brady: "When I was a young lad 20 or 30 or 40 years ago I lived in a small town where they were all after me on account of what I done on Mrs Nugent." The narrator's tragic descent into isolation, madness and violence is told in disturbing yet hilarious language. Imagine Hitchcock writing the plot for one of Beckett's rambling monologues and you get some idea of the sheer brilliance of McCabe's novel. But, throughout, the author's enormous compassion for Francie shines through. Once you've met him, Francie Brady is impossible to forget.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Butcher Boy is on Allen Barra's top twelve list of the best postwar Irish novels, Nick Brooks's top 10 list of literary murderers, Declan Burke's 2008 top ten list of Irish crime fiction, and Edward Hogan's top ten list of stories set outside the city.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten books about adopted children

Kate Hamer's new novel is The Doll Funeral. One of her top ten books about adopted children, as shared at the Guardian:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

How could this not be in the Top 10? When Mrs Reed unwillingly adopts Jane, the young girl begins a fight to define herself in the face of others attempting to do it for her. This is the ultimate novel, for so many people, about how one holds onto identity in the face of overwhelming odds.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Jane Eyre also made a list of four books that changed Vivian Gornick, Meredith Borders's list of ten of the scariest gothic romances, Esther Inglis-Arkell's top ten list of the most horribly mistreated first wives in Gothic fiction, Martine Bailey’s top six list of the best marriage plots in novels, Radhika Sanghani's top ten list of books to make sure you've read before graduating college, Lauren Passell's top five list of Gothic novels, Molly Schoemann-McCann's lists of ten fictional men who have ruined real live romance and five of the best--and more familiar--tropes in fiction, Becky Ferreira's lists of seven of the best fictional depictions of female friendship and the top six most momentous weddings in fiction, Julia Sawalha's six best books list, Honeysuckle Weeks's six best books list, Kathryn Harrison's list of six favorite books with parentless protagonists, Megan Abbott's top ten list of novels of teenage friendship, a list of Bettany Hughes's six best books, the Guardian's top 10 lists of "outsider books" and "romantic fiction;" it appears on Lorraine Kelly's six best books list, Esther Freud's top ten list of love stories, and Jessica Duchen's top ten list of literary Gypsies, and on John Mullan's lists of ten of the best governesses in literature, ten of the best men dressed as women, ten of the best weddings in literature, ten of the best locked rooms in literature, ten of the best pianos in literature, ten of the best breakfasts in literature, ten of the best smokes in fiction, and ten of the best cases of blindness in literature. It is one of Kate Kellaway's ten best love stories in fiction.

The Page 99 Test: Jane Eyre.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight books behind Elon Musk's billions

At the Daily Express, George Simpson tagged eight of billionaire Elon Musk's favorite books, including:

Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M Conway

This book is written by two historians who believe modern scientists who have connections in the political and corporate worlds have created alternative facts on issues like smoking and global warming.

Musk tweeted on it in 2013: “Same who tried to deny smoking deaths are denying climate change.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten YA novels that celebrate the way the internet connects us

At the BN Teen Blog Dahlia Adler tagged ten YA novels that celebrate the way the internet connects us, including:

Tash Hearts Tolstoy, by Kathryn Ormsbee

Leo Tolstoy is Tash’s idol, and the original brains behind her passion project, a web series called Unhappy Families. But he’s not the only guy who inspires Tash—not as long as adorable Thom Causer is sharing her blogosphere. When Unhappy Families blows up and Tash gets an opportunity to meet Thom in person, she knows she can’t pass it up, even if most of the rest of the cast and her best friends can’t make the trip. The only problem is that Tash doesn’t quite know how to navigate the dating pool yet; how and when do you tell a guy you like that you’re a romantic asexual, and that no matter how cute you find him, sex is off the table?

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue