His Majesty's Dragon By Naomi Novik

If you are a fan of Patrick O’Brian or Bernard Cornwell, or just love dragons this is a book for you.

Captain Will Laurence was content with his life. As one of the youngest to rise to Captain in the British Navy, he thought fighting Napoleon’s ships was all the adventure he would ever need. Little did he know how much his life was going to change when his crew captures a French ship. For this ship was transporting a dragon’s egg. A great prize for the British as dragons’ eggs are scarce and England needed more dragons and their aviators to help fight Napoleon. But this egg was close to hatching and they would never reach shore in time for a trained aviator to harness the beast. When the egg cracked it was Laurence, whom the dragon addressed and consented to carry so with a heavy heart, Laurence follows his duty and resigns from the Navy to take care of the hatchling. Leaving behind him everything he had known, and the life he had once had Laurence and his dragon, Temeraire, fly north to Scotland to beginning training in the Aerial Corps. But Temeraire is a Chinese dragon, breed for intelligence and strength and Laurence learns there is more to being a dragons’ captain than just riding a dragon.

In this first book of a series Novik weaves a story of hard won friendship, betrayal and adventure. A wonderful blending of fantasy and history, with detailed battles onboard ship and in the air, leaving you wanting more. Thank goodness there are three more books…!

Don't forget: you can place this book on hold by going to http://vulcan.bham.lib.al.us

The Northern Lights by Philip Pullman

All right, all right, this one should be titled “The Golden Compass” as that is the title the first book of “His Dark Materials” in the USA. However the book was first published and is still titled in the UK “The Northern Lights” and that is the book I read. Nothing but the title has been changed.

In a world where theology, magic and science are closely allied, Lyra Belacqua lives a carefree life at the Jordan College in Oxford, but when Lyra thwarts an assassination attempt on her Uncle, Lord Asriel, eavesdrops on his presentation to his colleagues at the College, and her best friend Roger is kidnapped, her life is turned upside-down. Now Lyra and her dæmon, Pantalaimon must begin a journey to find out the truth about herself and her world which will take her from the safety of the only home she has known to the far reaches of the North.

Follow the link to request this great book from the JCLC catalog

Sorcery and Cecelia

Sorcery and Cecelia or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot: Being the Correspondence of Two Young Ladies of Quality Regarding Various Magical Scandals in London and the Country

By Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer

Do you like Regencies? Or alternate histories? If so, then you will enjoy this delightful book written as a series of letters between two cousins, Kate and Cecelia. There’s romance and mystery and adventure as well as a touch of magic in this 316 page novel.

London, 1817, and Kate is suffering through her first Season in the shadow of her beautiful sister Georgiana. Cecelia is left behind in the country and encounters new arrivals -- the not as sneaky as he thinks he is James Tarleton and the oddly popular Dorothea Griscomb.

Their plotlines converge when Kate attends Sir Hilary Bedrick’s investiture to the Royal College of Wizards and stumbles into a magical trap set for the Marquis of Schofield. Not only is Sir Hilary a neighbor, back home in Essex, but he appears to be involved with Dorothea’s stepmother, Miranda Tanistry Griscomb, in a dastardly scheme that snares both cousins. There’s a large cast of secondary and tertiary characters, but they add depth to the world, rather than distract from the four main characters. You’ll also visit familiar places like Vauxhall Gardens and Carlton House, but they do have their slight differences. For example, in this book, Carlton House has magical wards.

I found Kate, and her letters, to be more entertaining than Cecelia, perhaps because of the fun banter between Kate and the “odious Marquis” and perhaps because she was … less emphatically confident than Cecelia. Likewise, I found the Marquis to be a more intriguing and fully realized character than Mr. Tarleton.

And if you like this book as much as I did, you’ll be happy to learn there are two more books featuring these characters: The Grand Tour and The Mislaid Magician. You’ll find them, and this book, in the Young Adult section, but don’t let that deter you. When Sorcery and Cecelia originally came out in the late eighties, it was simply labeled fantasy.