For Fantasy I read
The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde. Fforde is best known for his Thursday
Next novels and their spin-off series Nursery Crimes. I love those series!
They’re some of my favorites. When I found out his YA fantasy novel had come out
in paperback, I couldn’t resist. I’ve found a great deal of YA/Teen fiction to
have some of the best new worlds and voices as far as urban fantasy goes.
The story takes place
in the Ununited Kingdoms with Jennifer Strange looking after a home full of wizards.
Magic, once a abundant resource, is dwindling making work harder to come by.
Strange is not magical so no one is more surprised than she is when the death
of the last dragon is prophesized and she’s part of it.
Much like Fforde’s
other worlds, it uses contemporary England and Wales as a backdrop but changes
them for the level of fantasy necessary. With wizards, quarkbeasts, and
dragons, Fforde definitely added something to this world. I enjoyed the twists
you’d see on things but I wanted something a little bit more. Maybe more
exposition about the dragon or a bit more of the wizards of Kazam. I think
because it’s YA/Teen Fforde didn’t include as many details as he usually does.
I know it’s part of a trilogy so maybe I’ll get more later. It was good but not
Fforde’s best.
1)
Fiction – A Once Crowded Sky by Tom King
2) Nonfiction – The
Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett
3) Sci-Fi – Redshirts
by John Scalzi
4) Fantasy – The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde
5) Mystery – Book
of Lies by Brad Meltzer
6) Horror
7)
Memoir/Biography – Data, A Love Story by Amy Webb
8) Chick Lit – Me
and Mr. Darcy by Alexandra Potter
9) Feminist – Commencement
by J. Courtney Sullivan
10) Teen – What
Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen
11) Holiday
12) Essays – What
Was I Thinking? ed. by Barbara Davilman & Liz Dubelman
13) Short
Stories
14) Library
15) Animal
16) Book about
Books – Judging a Book By Its Lover by Lauren Leto
17) New – Pitch
Perfect by Mickey Rapkin
18) Old – Dark
and Stormy Knights edited by P. N. Elrod
19) Pop Science –
Why Men Fake It by Abraham Morgentaler, MD
20) Near
21) Far
22) Graphic Novel –
Love and Capes: Do You Want to Know a Secret? by Thomas F. Zahler
23) Reread – Ready
Player One by Ernest Cline
24) Wild Card
25) Otherworldly
Creature
26) Free – Point
Your Face at This by Demetri Martin
27) Noteworthy
28) Bestseller –
How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
29) Themed
Anthology – Red edited by Kris Goldsmith
30) Steampunk – The Immersion Book of
Steampunk edited by Gareth Jones and Carmelo Rafala
31) Movie-Book
32) Media – Doctor
Who: Touched By an Angel by Jonathan Morris
33) Travel – Love
with a Chance of Drowning by Torre DeRoche
34) Food
35) Classic –
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
36) Humor – Sleep
Talkin’ Man by Karen Slavick-Lennard
37) Poetry
38) Past – Stasiland
by Anna Funder
39) Future
40)
Dystopia/Post-Apocalyptic
41) Zombie
42) Sports – Red
Rising by Ted Starkey
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