Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!
It is not everyday I find myself drawn into a new world of Steampunk – it is a genre of interest on many different levels for me – from fashion, to soundscapes to motion pictures to the curious gadgets and/or found object art collages artists are assembling to create Steampunk elements which can be used in our own technologic timescape (such as the modifications to keyboards and computers) – however, the literature side of this new niche of exploration which hinges itself between Science Fiction & Fantasy – depending on where an individual author is going to insert their story-line into the fray of what is already released – you have a potboiler of a chance of finding cross-genre influences & a multiverse of aptitude for showcasing a Steampunked world!
Remember reading The Indian in the Cupboard – where small figurines of childhood came to life? I still remember being so lost inside that world, as to firmly believe every character could potentially be ‘met’ as the illusion and the line crossing between the fantastic to the real was so well introduced, it gave the beauty of the story beneficial dimension! I love stories which seek to do the same – to introduce a line of thought where there is a lovely suspension of belief, to where you can embark into a Fantasy lit world as a new explorer of that world but also of the prospect of what you can find whilst your visiting it. There are new perimeters of what can be done and there lies the best joy for myself as a reader. The happenstance discoveries!
This week, I’ve been happily sharing the first #blogmas posts of December – focusing on #newtomeauthors of Fantasy – already sorting out one to ILL (inter-library loan borrow from my local library), one to request as purchase (at the library) and then, there is this one – which has a curious premise – whose more curious about whom? The curios or the human? And, how do they start to interact and respond to each other?
Share in the comments below what you love most about reading Fantasy – especially in YA stories like this one, which seek to thread imaginative plausibility into the heart of the narrative!
Published by: Blink YA | Blink Young Adult (@BlinkYABooks)
an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
Read about their publishing focus on Clean YA! (I was most impressed!)
Converse via: #FantasyForChristmas, #FantasyNerd and #Steampunk
The Curio series:
Curio (book one) | add to LibraryThing
Published: 10th January, 2017 | ISBN: 978-0310729518
Grey Haward has always detested the Chemists, the magicians-come-scientists who rule her small western town. But she has always followed the rules, taking the potion the Chemists ration out that helps the town’s people survive. A potion that Grey suspects she—like her grandfather and father—may not actually need.
By working at her grandfather’s repair shop, sorting the small gears and dusting the curio cabinet inside, Grey has tried to stay unnoticed—or as unnoticed as a tall, strong girl can in a town of diminutive, underdeveloped citizens. Then her best friend, Whit, is caught by the Chemists’ enforcers after trying to protect Grey one night, and after seeing the extent of his punishment, suddenly taking risks seems the only decision she can make.
But with the risk comes the reality that the Chemists know her family’s secret, and the Chemists soon decide to use her for their own purposes. Panicked, Grey retreats to the only safe place she knows—her grandfather’s shop. There, however, a larger secret confronts her when her touch unlocks the old curio cabinet in the corner and reveals a world where porcelain and clockwork people are real. There, she could find the key that may save Whit’s life and also end the Chemists’ dark rule forever.
Mark of Blood & Alchemy (prequel)
29th September, 2015 | AISN: B013YZM6PE *sadly this is only a digital release
In this novella prequel to Evangeline Denmark’s YA fantasy novel Curio, Olan Havardsson flees a devastating plague that took his family only to be saved by a mysterious group of “magickers” with healing powers. But as he accompanies his rescuers to their alpine enclave, mysteries arise surrounding their potions and powers of alchemy. Questions mount when Olan observes a deep division forming between those who seek to defend the purity of the healing alchemical work and those who would wield it as a powerful weapon.
Olan is thrust into the midst of this dissention after he discovers he is somehow special–chosen as a guardian like the enclave’s founder. As he spends time with two of his rescuers–Auriana, a clever and captivating inventor, and Alaric, a brooding young man wrestling with his father’s cruel beliefs–Olan realizes he may have the power to direct the course of blood and alchemy.
Introducing readers to the fantastical world of Curio, this novella is wrapped in adventure, romance, and intrigue.
