Yes, it sounds twee, but as Barker himself said, "the Seerkind fornicate, fart - they're very far from pure". Nicola Barker has been accused of obscurity, but this Booker-shortlisted comic epic has a new lightness of touch and an almost soapy compulsiveness. Set in Ashford, Kent, the kind of everytown that has turned its back on history, the novel dips into the lives of a loosely connected cast of everyday eccentrics who find that history - in the persona of Edward IV's jester - is fighting back.
A jumble of voices and typefaces, mortal fear and sarky laughter, the novel is as true as it is truly odd, and beautifully written to boot. Justine Jordan Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. He sends him back to the far future in an attempt to save the Eloi woman Weena, only to find himself in a future timeline diverging from the one he left. Baxter's extraordinary continuation and expansion tackles the usual concerns of the time-travel story - paradox and causality - and goes on to explore many of the themes that taxed Wells: Bear combines intelligence, humour and the wonder of scientific discovery in a techno-thriller about a threat to the future of humanity.
A retro-viral plague sweeps the world, infecting women via their sexual partners and aborting their embryos. But the plague is more than it seems What might in other hands have been a mere end-of-the-world runaround is transformed by Bear's scientific knowledge into something marvellous, as reason overcomes paranoia and fear. Somehow surviving, he swiftly gets down to it. Bester's novel updates The Count of Monte Cristo with telepathy, nuclear weapons and interplanetary travel.
Those who stumble across it are inevitably surprised to find it was written half a century ago. Brite's first novel, a lush, decadent and refreshingly provocative take on vampirism told in rich, stylish prose, put her at the forefront of the s horror scene. It's the story of Nothing, an angst-filled teenager who runs away from his adoptive parents to seek out his favourite band. Along the way he joins up with a group of vampires, finds his true family and discovers what he really values, amid much blood, sex, drugs and drink.
Keith Brooke Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. Al Barker is a thrillseeking adventurer recruited to investigate an alien labyrinth on the moon. Everyone who enters the maze dies, so Barker's doppelganger is transmitted there while he remains in telepathic contact. Barker is the first person to survive the trauma of witnessing their own death, returning again and again to explore.
Rogue Moon works as both thriller and character study, a classic novel mapping out a new and sophisticated SF, just as Barker maps the alien maze. KB Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. When the Devil comes to s Moscow, his victims are pillars of the Soviet establishment: This is just a curtain-raiser for the main event, however: For his hostess, his satanic majesty chooses Margarita, a courageous young Russian whose lover is in a psychiatric hospital, traumatised by the banning of his novel.
No prizes for guessing whom Bulgakov identified with; although Stalin admired his early work, by the s he was personally banning it. This magisterial satire was not published until more than 20 years after the writer's death. In this pioneering work of British science fiction, the hero is a bumptious American mining engineer who stumbles on a subterranean civilisation. The "Vril-ya" enjoy a utopian social organisation based on "vril", a source of infinitely renewable electrical power commerce promptly produced the beef essence drink, Bovril.
Also present are ray guns, aerial travel and ESP. Ironically, the hero finds utopia too boring. He is rescued from death by the Princess Zee, who flies him to safety. The novel ends with the ominous prophecy that the superior race will invade the upper earth - "the Darwinian proposition", as Bulwer-Lytton called it.
John Sutherland Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. One of a flurry of novels written by Burgess when he was under the mistaken belief that he had only a short time to live. Set in a dystopian socialist welfare state of the future, the novel fantasises a world without religion. Alex is a "droog" - a juvenile delinquent who lives for sex, violence and subcult high fashion. The narrative takes the form of a memoir, in Alex's distinctive gang-slang.
The state "programmes" Alex into virtue; later deprogrammed, he discovers what good and evil really are. The novel, internationally popularised by Stanley Kubrick's film into what Burgess called "Clockwork Marmalade", is Burgess's tribute to his cradle Catholicism and, as a writer, to James Joyce. JS Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. In one of the first split-screen narratives, Burgess juxtaposes three key 20th-century themes: Trotsky's visit to New York is presented as a Broadway musical; a mournful Freud looks back on his life as he prepares to flee the Nazis; and in the year , as a rogue asteroid barrels towards the Earth, humanity argues over who will survive and what kind of society they will take to the stars.
JJ Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. John Carter, a Confederate veteran turned gold prospector, is hiding from Indians in an Arizona cave when he is mysteriously transported to Mars, known to the locals as Barsoom. There, surrounded by four-armed, green-skinned warriors, ferocious white apes, eight-legged horse-substitutes, legged "dogs", and so on, he falls in love with Princess Dejah Thoris, who might almost be human if she didn't lay eggs.
She is, naturally, both beautiful and extremely scantily clad Burroughs's first novel, published in serial form, is the purest pulp, and its lack of pretension is its greatest charm. Disjointed, hallucinatory cut-ups form a collage of, as Burroughs explained of the title, "a frozen moment when everyone sees what is on the end of every fork". A junkie's picaresque adventures in both the real world and the fantastical "Interzone", this is satire using the most savage of distorting mirrors: Only Cronenberg could have filmed it in , and even he recreated Burroughs's biography rather than his interior world.
Butler's fourth novel throws African American Dana Franklin back in time to the early s, where she is pitched into the reality of slavery and the individual struggle to survive its horrors. Butler single-handedly brought to the SF genre the concerns of gender politics, racial conflict and slavery. Several of her novels are groundbreaking, but none is more compelling or shocking than Kindred. A brilliant work on many levels, it ingeniously uses the device of time travel to explore the iniquity of slavery through Dana's modern sensibilities.
The wittiest of Victorian dystopias by the period's arch anti-Victorian. The hero Higgs finds himself in New Zealand as, for a while, did the chronic misfit Butler. Assisted by a native, Chowbok, he makes a perilous journey across a mountain range to Erewhon say it backwards , an upside-down world in which crime is "cured" and illness "punished", where universities are institutions of "Unreason" and technology is banned.
The state religion is worship of the goddess Ydgrun ie "Mrs Grundy" - bourgeois morality. Does it sound familiar? Higgs escapes by balloon, with the sweetheart he has found there.
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He ends up keeping his promise, witnessing the French revolution and its Napoleonic aftermath from the perspective of the Italian treetops. Drafted soon after Calvino's break with communism over the invasion of Hungary, the novel can be read as a fable about intellectual commitments. At the same time, it's a perfectly turned fantasy, densely imagined but lightly written in a style modelled on Voltaire and Robert Louis Stevenson. Chris Tayler Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. Campbell has long been one of the masters of psychological horror, proving again and again that what's in our heads is far scarier than any monster lurking in the shadows.
You might get eaten, and other childhood lessons.
In this novel, the domineering old spinster Queenie dies - a relief to those around her. Her niece Alison inherits the house, but soon starts to suspect that the old woman is taking over her eight-year-old daughter Rowan. A paranoid, disturbing masterpiece. The intellectuals' favourite children's story began as an improvised tale told by an Oxford mathematics don to a colleague's daughters; later readers have found absurdism, political satire and linguistic philosophy in a work that, years on, remains fertile and fresh, crisp yet mysterious, and endlessly open to intepretation.
Alice, while reading in a meadow, sees a white rabbit rush by, feverishly consulting a watch. She follows him down a hole Freudian analysis, as elsewhere in the story, is all too easy , where she grows and shrinks in size and encounters creatures mythological, extinct and invented. Morbid jokes and gleeful subversion abound. The trippier sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and, like its predecessor, illustrated by John Tenniel. More donnish in tone, this fantasy follows Alice into a mirror world in which everything is reversed. Her journey is based on chess moves, during the course of which she meets such figures as Humpty Dumpty and the riddling twins Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
More challenging intellectually than the first instalment, it explores loneliness, language and the logic of dreams.
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The year is - and other times. Another classic book that features a story for all ages and genders. Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up. Peter Pan is one of those stories that stays with you forever; its written for a child, but theres a message behind the words for adults too, another layer to the story. What makes Peter Pan particularly interesting is that there is a tiny wee bit of darkness to it; the story features real characters who are flawed.
Peter is quite selfish and this has consequences, even in the perfect never-grow-up world he lives in. The tale of Peter Pan is the perfect childhood story and one thats hit on an essential element of the human psyche.
With a Martin-esque plot and Jim Butcher pace, The Axe and the Throne is a definite "must read" for even the pickiest fantasy fans. In his stunning debut, Ireman has built the type of world so vivid and engrossing that leaving it at the end is agony. In spite of leaning toward grimdark, where authors often enshroud every scene in depressing darkness, there is no lack of cheerful moments or brilliant scenery.
Yet the pangs of near-instant nostalgia that come after you put down a book like this have less to do with the inspired setting, and far more to do with those who inhabit it. From savage, unremorseful heroes, to deep, introspective villains, the cast of this story is comprised of believable characters capable of unthinkable actions. And it is these characters -- the ones you wish you could share a drink with or end up wanting to kill -- that forge the connection between fantasy and reality. Keethro, Titon, Ethel, Annora. These are names you will never forget, and each belongs to a man or woman as unique as they are memorable.
No book would be complete without a its fair share of intrigue, however, and there is no lack of it here. Each chapter leaves you wanting more, and Ireman's masterful use of misdirection leads to an abundance of "oh shit" moments. Do not be fooled or do -- perhaps that's part of the fun by storylines that may appear trope-ish at first. This is no fairytale. The Chronicles of Narnia. This is the ultimate series for younger readers.
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- Douglas Adams: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979).
It's got talking animals, children protagonists, evil witches, adventures galore, and the clash between good and evil. This classic is completely safe for the kiddies and can be appreciated by all ages. I grew up on this series as a kid and I've been a fantasy book reader ever since. These are the ultimate children's fantasy books, packed with unforgettable characters and a moral if hidden religious message.
You certainly can't go wrong giving these or reading these to your kids. When it comes to childrens classics and fantasy classics at that , its hard not to include this book at or near the top. Like Dahls other seminal classic, James and the Giant Peach, this is a story full of imagination, adventure, zany characters, and a moral lesson for children and adults alike.
Young Adult and Children's Books by Shirley Rousseau Murphy
Its a novel thats inspired not one movie, but two. This is a surely one of the best childrens books ever written and deserves a prominent spot on every childs reading list. A well written and imaginative adventure yarn that will keep both the kids and adults captivated. You can read this as a child, then read it as an adult and experience a completely different tale. There is a subtle message here to the reader: This is one of those series that appeals to all ages.
For the one person out there who has not read it, do yourself a favor and find out just what all that hype was about.
100 Must-Read Fairytale Retellings For Adults And YA Readers
The series starts off pretty light-hearted, but gradually gets darker as Harry ages. This is a great series for all ages, from young children to adults. Children under 8 will appreciate listening to the books read out loud -- either by you or the audiobook which really brings the story to life. An awesome movie, but an even better book. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. If there is one childrens classic your kids should read and only one, than it should be Alice in Wonderland. Its a book thats influenced an entire generation of pop culture including movies, video games, books, language, and more.
To NOT read this book is to deprive yourself of a strong cultural point of reference. What is there to say about the story other than a girl goes through a rabbit hole and finds herself in a wonderland.
Fantasy to Reality: The History of Young Adult Literature
Like many of the best childrens classics, this book can be read on two different levels entirely a simple childs adventure story in a magical land or a metaphorical journey of double meanings, symbolisms and clever wordplays. There is a hidden story behind the story itself. This is why the book is so brilliant. It offers something to everyone; as a child you enjoy the wonderful and imaginative tale of a girl saving a magical kingdom, and as an adult you read into a story thats more than a story.
A Wrinkle In Time. A children's fantasy that explores the idea of human limitations through the adventure of the two children protagonists. This is a kid's tale through and through; it's intelligent, complex, and there are a lot of relevant themes explored in the book. Of course, all that stuff is for the adults. On the kid's side of things, it's got all the requirements for a five-star read: This is a classic that you might read when in 4th grade but you will still remember 50 years later.
The Keys to the Kingdom. One mysterious house is the doorway to a very mysterious world -- where one boy is about to venture and unlock a number of fantastical secrets. Garth Nix in his Abhorsen, tells the chilling story of a girl's search for her father, a search that will take her into the very heart of death's realm. The Keys to the Kingdom is a very different sort of tale, a wild adventure that spans the very fabric of space and time. In this tale, an year old boy accidentally becomes master of the universe and wild adventures proceed.
Other similar categories include Teen Fiction, which is supposed to be for ages ranging ten to fifteen. But, in general, the terms young-adult novel, juvenile novel, and young-adult book all refer to texts in the YA literature category. In general, these fictional novels share one thing in common: In , Reading at Risk: Reading programs for young adults sprouted up all over the nation as flowers in spring, showering their incentives on all who would accept them.
Many of these stories were created with young adults in mind, but they had a very different style and purpose than young adult novels today have. One year that stands out is , the year that some say YA Literature unofficially began with the publication of Books and the Teenage Reader: The s signaled a return to romances and series books, which The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew had begun in From the s to today, many YA books focus on realism, but recently fantasy and dystopian series like The Maze Runner , Twilight , and The Hunger Games have made a return.
Whatever the case, many would agree that this is a category- not a definitive literary genre- and as such, many books fit within it. The audience for YA literature is steadily increasing with more and more options on bookshelves everywhere, but some literary critics are issuing an outcry that some of the audience for these books are adults in their 30s and 40s who have followed the hype from their children and begun reading these seemingly adolescent texts.
With more and more YA books being published, some believe that quality adult novels get pushed to the side in favor of their younger, more naive counterparts. Although, people like Tracy van Straaten , vice president at Scholastic, have a very different take on the situation: Some of the best books being published are in the Y.