Gothic Sports Vol. 1 by Anike Hage

Main Character: High school student Anya
Location: undefined
Time period: Contemporary
Genre: YA Mange, Sports, Soccer

Anya is excited to be going to a new school, Lucrece High. She's been trying to transfer into this school because it has an excellent reputation for sports. She really wants to get on a team--either basketball or soccer. She makes some friends right away, but unfortunately she also makes an enemy--Marie. Anya is also upset to learn that Leon attends Lucrese High. The two of them had been in elementary school together and Leon did something that Anya thought was unforgiveable.

When Anya tries to join a sports team, she discovers that Marie is captain of the girls' basketball team. So much for basketball. It turns out that soccer is not much better, since the soccer team is being coached by a student who doesn't let girls play. Determined to play something, Anya and her friends form their own soccer team. To attract more attention in the hopes of gathering a full roster of players, Filiz (a girl into goth and cosplay) designs goth inspired team uniforms. They manage to get Delia, a 12th grader, to agree to coach them, despite the fact that Delia is Marie's best friend. Which will be more important to Marie--her friendship with Delia or her dislike of Anya?

Dragon Harper by Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey

Main Character: Kindan, a harper apprentice
Location: The planet Pern
Time period: sometime in our future, but Pern's past
Genre: Fantasy, Dragons

I have enjoyed the Dragons of Pern series since I first read Dragonflight way back when. I lost track of it after 1998's Masterharper of Pern and somehow missed the new books written with Todd McCaffrey. (On the plus side, I now have a new stack of books to look for and read.)

Since I have obviously missed a few titles, I had some trouble placing this book within the chronology of Pern. Obviously it takes place before the original stories but is it before or after Moreta's Ride and Nerilka's Story? Like those two books, this one deals with a flu-like pandemic which decimates the population.

One of the things that makes this series so enjoyable is how it has created this world that has a vast population and multiple locations as well as a rich history. Pivotal events are seen from many different points of view, and sometimes we get to go back into the past to see the real events behind a future legend or enigmatic song.

Fruits Basket Vol. 6 by Natsuki Takaya

Main Character: Sweet, optimistic Tohru Honda, and friends
Location: Japan
Time period: Contemporary
Genre: YA Manga, Fantasy

Kyo's mentor, Shishou, comes for a visit. As a test, he removes the protective bracelet that Kyo wears. This removes Kyo's control and he transforms into a hideous, mishapen beast. This is one of the aspects of being possessed by the cat spirit. Tohru sees him in this form, but she stays with him, trying to ease his pain. He lashes out at her, cutting her with his claw, but still she will not abandon him. Slowly, her presence calms him and he goes back to his human form. We also learn that Kyo has been told his mother killed herself because she could not bear his being a monster. Poor Kyo.

Tohru accompanies Yuki on a visit to Ayame's store and has fun dressing up in the costumes.

Epic by Conor Kostick

Main Character: Erik
Location: Earth colony planet New Earth
Time period: Undetermined future
Genre: YA Fiction, Science Fiction, Dystopian Society

Wow! I liked this book, and I'm looking forward to the sequel, Saga, which is scheduled to be published May 2008.

Erik lives in a culture where a massive multi-player online game has become the basis of law and economy. Everyone spends so much time in the game that they neglect daily chores in the real world. And since your wealth in the virtual world affects your status in the real world, everyone scrounges for coppers in the virtual world but rarely try anything that might get their characters killed because then they would lose everything and have to start again. Erik, however, begins to think differently. When he needs to create a new character, he makes a female swashbuckler who has few fighting skills but is very pretty. And when he walks down the streets of the virtual world, he begins to notice that NPCs (non-player characters) and begins to interact with them. He learns that when he takes the time to explore the game in ways he never did before, opportunities arise which promise to make him very rich and powerful.

This book had a bit of similarity to Margaret Haddix's Hidden Children series--both of them deal with an unjust or corrupt government and the hidden resistance movement that arises in response.

Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz

Main character: High school student Schuyler and others
Location: New York
Time period: Contemporary
Genre: YA Fiction, Fantasy, Vampires
Series: Blue Bloods #1

Vampires are big in YA literature right now. The most popular series is Stephenie Meyers' Twilight series, though my personal favorite is Scott Westerfeld's Peeps and The Last Days (which postulates that vampirism is really caused by parasites--very gross and very cool!)

Thnk vampires crossed with Gossip Girl with some of the BBC series Hex thrown in for good measure. Blue Bloods is set in a world where vampires--or Blue Bloods, as they call themselves--are fallen angels who have split from Lucifer and are now doing good deeds to try and earn their way back to heaven. In order to avoid that pesky immortality problem where everyone around you ages and begins to notice that you don't, these vampires go into a hibernation cycle and are reincarnated through the generations.

Since this is the first book in a series, a lot of time is spent introducing the characters and setting the scene, but it's done well, keeping the plot moving forward and making me look forward to the next book. The characters begin as stock cliche high school characters--Mimi, the popular mean girl queen bee; Schuyler, the outcast oddball who under her unfashionable clothes in actually the most beautiful girl in school; Jack, the popular and gorgeous jock that Schuyler yearns for; Oliver, the stalwart best friend who is deeply in love with Schuyler though she only sees him as her friend; and Bliss, the new girl who is so grateful for Mimi's attention and support. I get the feeling that they will grow with the series (except maybe Mimi--she seems unredeemable so far.)