There's always time for a book

Some great sequels have starred in my recent reading. First up was Jasper Fforde's The fourth bear. I didn't buy this one in trade paperback because I didn't think it was going to be great for some reason. But why did I doubt Fforde? Although I still don't like the nursery crimes series as much as the Thursday Next books, this was a really fun read. Full of fairy tale and nursery rhyme allusions with the added bonus of Ashley the alien.

Justine Larbalestier's Magic lessons was an action packed sequel to Magic or madness and continued examining the interesting conflict between using magic (and dying) or not (and going mad). There wasn't much space given to some of the characters but Reason's grandmother became more rounded. The story was slightly rushed towards the end, so I'm waiting for the last book before I judge the developments! And despite my recent fondness for books set in New York, I think Larbalestier describes Sydney really well so I enjoyed those parts of the book as well.

Scott Westerfeld's Specials was a fantastic finale to the Uglies trilogy that alleviated some of my earlier concerns(spoilers in the link). To avoid spoilers I'll talk about this in a separate post.

I need more book related icons; I'm getting tired of how quickly I'm rotating the two I have!

Tags: books, fantasy, fforde, humour, larbalestier, mystery, science fiction, westerfeld, young adult