Science Fiction Fantasy Books

My daughter recently turned 7 and she can't put these chapter books down. Great books to read over the summer for girls or any child interested in fairy fantasy. Definitely recommend.

We own all of this series! Started reading them when my daughter was 4 (she just turned 5 now), and they are age appropriate. Not too scary and always a happy ending. One book only takes us about 4-5 nights worth of reading together. The longer ones are good too "Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg" and "Fairy Haven and the Quest for the Wand", but they are a little bit scarrier than the short books (more appropriate for ages 5-7 I would think).

My daughter loves the Disney fairies and she is learning how to read. Because of the topic, she is having a great time reading these and learning faster than she would with other books. Great books!

Its a lovely set of books for beginners to fairies land. Great for grade schoolers. Beautiful pictures easy to read.

We purchased these books for my 6-year old daughter. We read them together and love the stories. We also enjoy the life learning that can be extracted from them.

I order this book for my son who is twelve years old. He reads the book and practises to summarise the story for English improving. It is helpful to my son.

This was purchased for a student. He had read all other parts of the series and when he finished this book, he was extremely satisfied. Thank you Amazon for having what I was unable to find in local book stores.

I bought these books for our grandson who was in the sixth grade. He read the entire series in 4 weeks. It was wonderful seeing him reading every spare moment he had. He gave up TV and PSP3 to finish these books. That is testimony enough for me showing how fabulous this series is. He is now in 7th grade and re-reading the series.

If you followed this series from the beginning this is a great ending for the story. It had adventure and sometimes it actually made me feel like i was in the book. Which i would say was a pretty good quality. Some parts kept me guessing which only made me want to read it even more.
But i do have to say i put this book on HOLD for a little. Cause personally the first chapter didnt get me as motivated as i wanted it to. and i am guilty for doing that. if i dont exactly like how it starts. but i am glad i finished it. and if you read all the other books. this is a GREAT finish and you should deffinatly get it.

I wasn't as disappointed with the book as much as I thought I would be after reading some of the reviews on this website. The book definitely had a more satisfying conclusion than the Series of Unfortunate Events. I found the book suspenseful enough to make me want to keep reading it. I do agree with other reviewers that the ending did seem rushed. "Can there really only be a few pages left," I thought to myself. If you have read the other books in the series I would definitely recommend reading this one, but I hope the author will begin another series telling what happens next with these characters. I'd always hoped to see the reunion between Luke and his parents. For the best of MPH, check out Running out of Time. Running Out of Time (Aladdin Fiction)

My kids love this series. My son read them when he was in first grade and my daughter is now in first grade and she loves them too

In this magical time-travel adventure, Merlin sends Jack and Annie to the Paris World's Fair of 1889 where they must find four magicians and warn them about an evil sorcerer who wants to steal their secrets. The fairground itself is a place of magic, stretching out below the Eiffel Tower and bustling with people who have come from all over the world. Unfortunately, as Jack and Annie race around the fair on their quest they seem to miss each magician by minutes.

Young fans of this series will enjoy the fast-moving plot and the surprise ending. Along the way, they will learn much about famous inventors and technological changes of the late 1800's. Mary Pope Osborne has found a delightful way to engage young readers in biographical information that is anything but boring.

My grandson has done nothing but rave about how GOOD this book is. Perhaps part of it is because he loves magic as well as reading.

I would recommend this book to kids who like books that have magic, adventure, and information about other cultures. That is why I would recommend this book.

Magic Tree House #35: Night of the New Magicians, is another wonderful installment in Mary Pope Osborne's Magic Tree House series. In this book, Jack and Annie go to Paris, France for the World's Fair of 1889. There they have to find "four new magicians" and warn them about an evil sorcerer who is planning to steal the secrets of their magic.

I am just a kid, but i highly suggest that any fans of Mary Pope Osborne should read this book AND the entire Magic Tree House series.

this book is wonderful and it has many pictures. It's adventure with a little bit of comedy which is just what I like. These books I recomend to all.

The Bone series just gets better with every volume. This volume follows the adventures of Fone and Smiley as they travel to the eastern end of the valley and the difficulties they encounter along the way. As in the previous volumes, the characters are wonderful and fun, and the plot takes many twists and turns, making for great reading. I love Bone!

I go to the bookstore and find a book that looks good by the cover. I enver read it. I am very picky about finding the "perfect" book. And i just found it back in early March of 2007. I was on a band trip [took 3 hours] and my friend pulled out the 3rd Bone series book. I was curious and started to read it. I got a little bit confused because I didnt read the 1st or 2nd one. The coloring is amazing! It must of took forever to make it! It has alot of adventure, and keeps you wondering. I finished the 3rd book [175 paages] before we even got to our destination. I couldnt put it down! It is such an AWSOME book! on March 9th I bought book 4 and 5... I read both of the books in 3 strait hours! I cant wait untill the 6th book comes out so I can start to read it!!! If your kid wants a exciting book.. This is the book for you!

This is an alright series, somewhat enjoyable, but not as exciting as say Harry Potter. But, I have found that it has been a great way to get my kids interested in reading a bedtime story. I want the whole set, but Scholastic really needs to re-evaluate this release schedule of only one every six months. I bet they wind up losing a lot of their early audience that drops off after the first one or two.

My seven-year old literally jumped for joy when we received book 5. He loves these books, and I had great difficulty not reading the entire book to him in one sitting. As it was, he looked at every page of the rest of the book. At bedtime, he went to sleep with the book beside him.

This is the best one out of the series and will keep you reading fo hours! There are surprises every page and a HUGE twist at the end, this book will have you hooked to this series! I recomend this book to anyone that likes fantasys and dragons!

(written by 9 yr old reviewer)

Fire Star is an incredible story about witches clashing with humans, hurt polar bears, and a kidnapped girl. Read this enchanting story by Chris D'Lacey.

The author ends one of the chapters with a witch luring a landlady's daughter into the world of coldness. And it makes the reader want to read more.

In the book, one of the characters meets up with a polar bear who is fighting with the character's girlfriend!

An Eskimo goes to his dad to stay with him for a week. When he is there with his father, an evil spirit comes into his father's house and haunts all of the family.

I loved the book for the journey but some of the words didn't always fit into the story. I think kids 9-12 would like this book, Fire Star, by Chris D'Lacey. I hope they do.

Best, by far, of the Dragon Trilogy. D'Lacey knows how to keep a reader interested. I speak from the perspective of an adult. His visuals, regarding the animation of the dragons is wonderful, to the point of veing able to visualize what the drgons are doing.

Highly recommend the Trilogy to all...youngsters and olsters, alike.

after the first two books, i was expecting a climax in the third. my wish certainly came true, as firestar was AMAZING. i definitely reccomend it. it is a bit grim so i wouldnt recommende it for kids under 10. the ending was great, even though he did die, ihave a feeling the healing dragon will bring him back in the next book. its leading up to a very interesting next book and im very excited.

Unlike the previous books in the series, Fire Star turns dark and deals with troubling issues including: torture, characters possessed by an evil alien (really), murder, and odd spiritual beliefs.

I'd recommend for parents to read this book first as the plot takes these darker turns after a dull section at about page 422. My 10-year-old, who loved the first two books, lost interest during the dull part and I will not be encouraging him to finish this book.

I thought Midnight and Moonrise were much better than Dawn. The whole point of the book was for the clans to leave the forest but for the firt 200+ pages they were just sitting around watching the forest get destroyed.In Midnight the whole book was about traveling, but in Dawn the clans make a longer journey in a smaller amount of pages.Once the clans left the forest the book got better.

All of the Erin Hunter books are great! I just love them and have read them many times over. I am not a reader, I hate to read!!! But give me a Warrior series book and leave me alone for a few days. They are the best. Thanks Erin for opening up a new world for me.

Nice how the Clans could come together, and not rip each others throat out.
My fave bit would have to be when Crowpaw/feather said he wasn't afraid of dying because Feathertail would be waiting for him.
Kind of longish, but still good.

Pre-teen and early teen girls love the series. It has my 10 year olds attention. She is reading like never before.

This is the third installment of the New Prophecy series, the books based on Firestar's ( the hero of our Erin Hunter's first series )and Sandstorm's children, and Tigerclaw's children. ( Tigerclaw was the bloodthirsty villian on the last series ). In this book, our characters Brambleclaw, Squirrelflight, Crowfeather, Stormfur, and Tawnypelt all return from the long, sorrowful, and dangerous journey. They are missing a gentle soul though- Stormfur's sister, Feathertail, died in the second book.
If you haven't read any of these nooks yet, they are superbly written and star cats- my favorite animal! These cats live in four Clans, or tribes. They do not live with humans, but live in the forest.
Life is dangerous in the forest, as not all the Clans are always friendly. Especially now, since the humans are ripping up the Clan's territory and killing and capruring cats. When or heroes return to their home, each must cinvince their Clans to move out of the woods- and into a safe territory.
I suggest that you but every book in the series and devour them within 24 hours.I absoulutely love these books, though they contain heart breaking parts.
This review should have helped you decide to buy this book and every other one is each series. No matter the price, these books are solid gold to me!!!
Just another Amazon reader and reviewer,
Moonwhisker

Some people maybe too critical of the books they read. Maybe I am not critical enough. I don't know what some of the other reviewers were expecting from this book, but apparently they did not get it. I judge a book on whether or not I want to finish it. There are just too many books to slog through one that I hate. I liked this book and would suggest it to a friend. I would, however, suggest "Life As We Knew It" first. The reason that the book only gets three stars with me is that the topic gets a bit depressing at times. The end of the world and all ....go figure.

After seeing the reviews on Amazon I was a bit worried about ordering this novel as I was worried that I would be sorely dissapointed with the successor to the amazing "Life As We Knew It." However I was still in that world so I wanted to stay in it so-to-speak so I decided to go ahead and order the companion novel and see what I thought.

Thank goodness I was not put off by the nay-sayers because this novel is a decent read and should not be missed by people that truely liked the first book. This book takes the darker route of the story and I believe that is what many people were put off by.

This novel takes place in New York City where massive flooding occured after the asteriod hit the moon. Alex and his two younger sisters must figure out a way to survive in the midst of the flooding, the looting and the dwindling rations as they wait at home hoping that one of their parents eventually show up. As faith dwindles that either of them is alive, Alex must make some tough decisions to make sure that what family is left will survive to tell future generations about what happened.

Although this tale is MUCH darker and depressing than its predecessor, there is not always roses and sugar in the real world. I was really glad to read what happened where things were worse than in rural PA in this fictional world. This story isn't without hope though and there is always a rainbow (albeit maybe not a bright one) to be seen throughout the story.

While this novel is about the same events as was Life As We Knew It, The Dead and the Gone is a much different book. It is darker, scarier, and feels more real. Even though I really enjoyed the first one, I have to say that I think this companion is even better. Even though it is a lot more haunting and troubling, I think it follows more closely what would actually happen if something like this did occur in real life. Something I really liked about this book that wasn't present in the first one is Pfeffer's discussion of class. The Morales family lived in an apartment building that the father maintained, but because Alex had received some sort of scholarship (I think), he went to a private Catholic high school, so the majority of his friends had plenty of money. Therefore, many of the people he knew had no problem getting out of New York (it was stated quite explicitly that money and connections can get you anywhere), while Alex and his sisters were forced to stay behind. Class differences aren't often mentioned in fiction, and I definitely think that if this nightmare were to happen in real life, class differences would make a HUGE difference in whether you lived or died. So it was nice to see Pfeffer recognize something like that.

Another blogger mentioned that he/she (can't remember who it was...) felt that the overall premise of these two books was somewhat lacking because if this were to happen in real life, most likely some scientist somewhere would have predicted that an asteroid hitting the moon would have consequences for the earth, and precautions would have been taken before the catastrophe could occur. I do think that blogger is correct, so I was somewhat bugged by that while reading this book, but I forced myself not to think about it and just focus on the story. Awesome story, somewhat shaky premise, excellent writing, great characters... overall a really solid book, one that I'm happy to recommend.

This is a companion book to "Life As We Knew It" by Susan Beth Pfeffer. A meteor has hit the moon, knocking it out of orbit and as a result, chaos reigns in earth. Major weather disturbances...tidal waves, earthquakes, volcanos, etc. have caused havoc. All systems are down... communications, utilities, agriculture, etc. In this story, three young Puerto-American teens living in New York City must learn to survive on their own when both parents are unable to get back home after the crisis. This is a survival, dystopic kind of book, written for teens. At the same time the children are figuring out how to survive, they are also going through the usual struggles of adolesence...who am I? I'm not good enough? What will my future be? This book and it's companion, Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer are compelling and hard to put down. A must-read for teens and adults alike!

The Dead and the Gone
The Dead and the Gone is a very interesting concept. A young boy, named Alex, lives a normal life in New York. He works at a Pizza shop and goes to an all-Christian male school called Vincent De Paul. One day while working there is a large commotion outside and chaos seems to have taken some people over. It turns out that something crashed into the moon and caused it to fall out of orbit, and closer to the earth. The puts more gravitational force on the earth and causes many problems over a long period of time.

Alex doesn't seem concerned at the time. He goes home and attends to his two sisters, Bri and Julie. His mother is has been called to the hospital that she works at, and his father is in Puerto Rico attending a funeral. Alex has a brother named Carlos, but he is in the Marines. They are all alone and the world is falling apart.

Most of the book is based around them surviving. The world is rapidly changing and they have to adapt to it. Tides are rising and could overflow into New York. Volcanoes are erupting all over the world causing the sky to turn black. The darkened sky produces freezing weather, even in the summer. Food is becoming scarce and they begin only eating once a day, and it is only a spoonful of beans or something similar.

The other portion of the book is them living their daily life. This is the part I do not like. Within 6 pages of the book, the Moon has been hit. From there Alex and his family just go about their business. They go to school, church, and go through their daily routine. They constantly try to convince you the world is falling apart, but not that much anarchy occurs in Alex's life until the near end of the book. The characters never make it feel like their lives are threatened that much.

Alex is extremely religious too. He seems to pray every other line in this book. He is also Puerto Rican, so he speaks in Spanish while saying things every now and then. This is annoying to someone like me who doesn't speak Spanish. The religious Spanish speaking kid just came off to me as too fake.

The story does get very good in the last 50 or so pages. I felt like it was a worthwhile book. The author seems to use the words said, replied, and other generic endings for what her characters are saying. Still, I felt like this was a worthwhile book, despite being a little bland through some of the book.

Ray Bradbury'
s book was something that I've wanted to read for quite some time. Unfortunately, I had already seen the film so I had a plot in mind as well as a mood. Bradbury as always strings metaphores together like we do popcorn on the Christmas tree. It's his main setup for atmosphere and that is the books great strength. Unfortunately for me, the characters of Will, Jim and Will's Dad are flat, underdeveloped and dull. Without a back story, I really don't have a sense of caring for the characters and as hard as I tried that didn't change. This was typical of Dickens at times. He created characters and then threw them into the story for development. I never found this technique particularly inviting for me.
The story is simple enough -- a carnival comes to town creating strange and bizarre situations that invite temptation. Jim wants to be older -- but we aren't given a good enough reason why. Will's Dad wants to be younger and the idea feels more universal than centered on the character in question and it falls short. The carnival can do this of course but at a price. That alone feels as rundown an idea as I've ever read. Everyone has that statement. The ending feels more of a fable than anything else and perhaps that's what Ray wanted out of the story. Perhaps he would have put 'once upon a time' and 'happily ever after' were it a different time.
The message -- don't fall into temptation and don't let misery eat away your soul. I don't know, the book has great mood and atmosphere but had the same feel for me as 'Tale of Two Cities' -- I couldn't want to finish it and move on to something else.

Usually I connect Ray Bradbury with weird enough stories that always seem to have plenty of heart. And I am not saying that this does not have plenty of heart, but rather than the usual strange sci-fi Ray Bradbury makes something truly horrific that has actually caused me nightmares. Through the innocence of children and a traveling carnival Bradbury makes an intelligent and creative story that deals with the hidden desires of humanity itself. It's weird, terrifying, and altogether Bradbury classic.

I read this book for the first time about 16 years ago, when I was 10 or 11 years old. I was so impressed by the book, which had gripped me with its enchanting prose, that I immediately re-read it. Over the next couple years, I read several other works by Ray Bradbury and I periodically tried to imitate his style for school projects. I loved the book.

I just re-read it for the third time, and I was still bewitched. Ray Bradbury's writing is impressive! He is poetic, and his writing perfectly fits the spooky subject of the book. In the book, there are dark characters whose bodies are covered with tattooed illustrations or who have been squashed down to resemble dwarves, and Ray Bradbury's writing, which is full of images, metaphors, and poetry, captured these characters and provided a great accompaniment for the book's story.

Rereading it, now, after many years, I understood the book in a different way. The book's repeated discussion of immortality stuck with me, and has a different significance for me now. Also, between the first reading and this third, I had learned a bit more about Ray Bradbury's life. Did you know that Bradbury claims that, at a young age, he met a circus performer called Mr. Electrico? According to Bradbury, this performer, who had electric current pumped through him in front of a crowd of people, pointed his sword at Bradbury and declared: "You will live forever!" Knowing this story had a significant, and I think positive, impact on my reading!

Finally, I'm glad that so many reviewers have liked this book. That's great. At times, I wondered whether other people would like Bradbury's wild writing, which jumps around, and calls forth images, and which captures the dark magic of the performing freaks. On a few rare instances, the prose felt forced, or seemed vaguely pretentious, or felt too overdrawn . . . But, when the writing seemed like this, the sour impression would only last for a moment before the story once again swallowed me whole.

I was very glad that so many readers have found Bradbury's prose appealing.

This is Bradbury's finest novel, in my opinion. All of Bradbury's fiction is lyrical in nature, but in this work his prose flows quickly and magically from the first page to the last.

The book is closer to horror than sci-fi, but I regard it as simply a great novel and believe that its universal theme of good vs. evil qualify it as literary fiction of the highest order. It is a book I read every few years to remind me of what language is capable of doing and to listen to the voices of Bradbury's unique small town characters as they attempt to deal with the mystifying forces of Cooger and Dark's Pandemonium Show, a traveling carnival.

The one-star reviews appear to be from the usual students who were forced to read the book. Don't be deterred. If you like a scary tale that also examines love and the human heart, you can't go wrong with SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES.

Thirty-five years after its initial release, this magical and mesmerizing story still carries a punch. The opening pages are more like a thriller where you know something is out there...waiting. You can hear it; you can feel it getting closer. And it's not going to be pleasant.

You follow a pair of young boys on their pre-Halloween adventure until you realize there is a lot more at stake than just going to the carnival. And the father of one of the boys, a meek and beaten down man, has a great decision to make. Others in the town face a temptation that could and does change each person's life.

A small town story with universal truths about life and what you make of it. This is a true masterpiece using Bradbury's poetic phrasing and the hypnotic pictures he paints with words.

Read it again.

Mignight Tides was probably the most polished book of the series so far. It had a tight well laid out plot structure that defied all the "Erickson needs an editor" comments.

Sadly, Bonehunters is a probably the worst edited book of the bunch. Plotlines are often dealt with in 2 page chunks and after reading 5 different plotlines in 15 pages, there is just no emotional payoff for a lot of the book. In this way, much of the book is very disjointed and you wonder why the author and editor didn't simply combine ten of the two page chunks into one 20 page chunk to give the reader some continuity.

Erikson also invents 15 or so characters with no purpose and gives them a perspective. So instead of reading about a particular plot point from Fiddler's point of view, you get the plot from 10 different just introduced sodiers that you never hear from again. I guess Erikson was trying to experiment by showing the events from varias points of view, but it did not work. I did not care what these throw away characters had to say or what happened to them.

This brings me to the last 200 pages of the book which were just fantastic. Finally, we get a continuous sequence of events with familar characters including a deadly chase through a major city in the empire.

Why Erikson couldn't write the whole book like this, I have no idea.

Anyway this is a very flawed book, but if you've made it this far in the series you will read it as I did because you love the world Erikson has built. Stick with it through the low points as the end of the book is a huge payoff for slogging through the worst edited book of the series.

I am utterly amazed at how well Erikson pulled this book off. It has many avenues to lose focus and to make it hard for the reader, such as the multiple plot lines and huge cast of characters. Despite all this Erikson pulls it off amazingly. He was able to keep the story flowing and there was a ton of stuff going on as the plot lines are slowly converging, just as the God's and their mortal counterparts are in this book.

His world is so complete, bringing the reader into a history rich and self sustainable world. At first the world is very unbelievable, especially in Book 2. But Erikson sold his world, created a world where the anything can happen at any time, and it is expected to happen and believable within the structure of his world. Amazing. The characters are unique and the conversation and dialogue is real and believable.

With this the 6th book in the series we see a convergence of a bunch of storylines. We get to see Icarium and Mappo Runt in action. Karsa Orlong has a steady presence, as well as the typical Malaz figures such as Quick Ben, Kalam, Tavore, Ganoes and so on. Of the Gods we see many of them become more involved with the story, which makes sense since their role in Erikson's world is becoming ever more prominent.

You will certainly not be disappointed with this book, and you will probably find that this book is above and beyond all his previous books. I would highly recommend.

5 stars.

I am really in love with this series. I have not had such fun reading it since I first started reading Martins Song of Ice and Fire series. The book is deep into the series and its nice to finally see all the various characters start to meet and interact with one another. Erikson is truly a master at hiding what a character is truly doing and this book has lots of that again. I am looking forward to the next book!

Steven Erikson, The Bonehunters (Tor, 2007)

Erikson weighs in with the sixth full-length novel (of a projected ten) in the huge Malazan Book of the Fallen series. We're now over halfway into the story, and as is to be expected, the ends of all these many threads start getting tied up. As much as I adore these books, I have to admit that Erikson's switching back and forth between storylines for a thousand pages at a time did get on my nerves a bit (and this is probably why my favorite books in the series have been the odd-numbered volumes), and seeing these plot threads getting woven together in one book is very welcome. That said, Erikson's social consciousness has never been closer to the surface than it is here; while he's successful in keeping everything within the bounds of the story here (unlike, say, Goodkind's Sword of Truth series from book eight onwards), one wonders if he'll be able to keep up the pace.

While there are many, many plot threads wandering through the book, the main thread that haunts most of the characters we meet is one of historical revisionism. (The second main thread has to do with the two unkillable characters we've met-- Icarium and Karsa Orlong-- and what is revealed as their fate. I'm surprised I didn't see this coming about halfway through Midnight Tides.) There are two major pieces of revisionism that happen here. The first concerns the Fourteenth Army, which was banded together after the Chain of Dogs and the massacre at Aren (in Deadhouse Gates, way back in book two) in order to go after the Army of Sha'ik (the confrontation we saw in House of Chains). With Sha'ik's army destroyed, and indeed the desert Raraku turned into a sea, the last vestiges of the rebellion, led by Shaik's right-hand man, Leoman of the Flails, flees the Fourteenth towards Y'Ghatan, a legendary stronghold said to have been the death of Dassem Ultor, the first great hero of the Malazan Empire. Adjunct Tavore is still looked upon with suspicion-- is she as much a leader as was Dassem Ultor? This is only part of the problem, though-- the second piece of history-revising is much larger in scope, and concerns the entire Chain of Dogs. It's possible that this particular plot-thread will be the most important we've come across so far; it certainly seems to be leading to events which could, in Erikson's wonderful writing, take us through four more doorstop-sized novels.

A few characters from earlier novels are conspicuous in their absence (especially Bauchelain and Korbal Broach), but despite the book being eight hundred pages long, there's more than enough for the dedicated Malazan fan to occupy his or her time here. Erikson's writing is as wonderful as always. If you haven't found your way into this series yet, I can't recommend it highly enough. ****

A truly worthless story and what could have been a good story, winds up being what could only be called psychopathic's bad acid trip.

I am utterly amazed at how awful Erikson writes. He has no focus making it hard for any reader to follow. I've an idea...GET A PLOT! GET A CLUE! No wonder no one knows who you are or buy's this rubbish. The multiple senseless plot lines, a vast cast of meaningless characters whit no cohesive rhyme or reason... Despite his lame attempts Erikson pulls off another book of mindless go no where drivel. What is truly amazing is that someone actually prints this stuff. He was UNable to keep the story flowing, UNable to have a plot, UNable to pull any kind of meaning out of this entire book.

His world is so completely unbelievable, he seems to have fallen into Jordan's trap of forgetting to get to an ending or why.
You will most certainly be disappointed with this book, and you will probably find that this book is the worst kind of fantasy ever found in print. Worth only as lining for the cat's litter box.

Don't waste your money!