Looking for YA recommendations...

[xg4bx]

for a 33 year old guy and a 32 year old girl lol.

i ask because while in B&N the wife and i were captivated by the looks of some of the YA books but were too self-conscious to take a look at them. i'm asking here so we can order them with total anonymity


i'm into epic fantasy and space opera and shes more into steampunk and urban fantasy. we know of eragon, the hunger games and the monstrumologist and thats about it.

thanks.

[Xoanon]

The Monstrumologist is a great series, you can't go wrong with that one. A few other YA recommendations off the top of my head:

The Maze Runner By James Dashner - dystopian science fiction trilogy.
Airborn By Kenneth Oppel - Jules Verne style adventure in a steampunkish setting.
I Am Not A Serial Killer By Dan Wells - A really good urban fantasy trilogy.
The Returners By Gemma Malley - Fantastic book that shows YA isn't just for kids
Time Riders By Alex Scarrow - A fun time travel series.

Have fun, there are some really good YA novels out there that can be enjoyed by adults as well as children.

[alansplace]

Alosha by Christopher Pike

* Alosha (2004)
* The Shaktra (2005)
* The Yanti (2006)
* Nemi (TBA)

[Pickering]

I really liked Scott Westerfeld's books. The Uglies series was my favorite.

[Witty Username]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

too self-conscious to take a look at them. i'm asking here so we can order them with total anonymity

Adults do buy books FOR children/adolescents - you know, birthday presents etc.

The retailers only want your money, they won't care who reads the book!

[Eskarina]

I loved Christopher Pike but I think he wrote more horror-type stuff. Terry Pratchett has also written some YA stuff too.

[xg4bx]

thanks for the recommendations, i'll have to check them out.

[xg4bx]

Originally Posted by Xoanon

The Monstrumologist is a great series, you can't go wrong with that one. A few other YA recommendations off the top of my head:

The Maze Runner By James Dashner - dystopian science fiction trilogy.
Airborn By Kenneth Oppel - Jules Verne style adventure in a steampunkish setting.
I Am Not A Serial Killer By Dan Wells - A really good urban fantasy trilogy.
The Returners By Gemma Malley - Fantastic book that shows YA isn't just for kids
Time Riders By Alex Scarrow - A fun time travel series.

Have fun, there are some really good YA novels out there that can be enjoyed by adults as well as children.

i took a look at The Returners and some of Gemma Malley's other books. wow, they seem darker than a lot of horror novels i've read.

[alansplace]

Scribner's Robert A. Heinlein juveniles
1. Rocket Ship Galileo, 1947
2. Space Cadet, 1948
3 .Red Planet, 1949
4. Farmer in the Sky, 1950
5. Between Planets, 1951
6. The Rolling Stones (Space Family Stone) 1952
7. Starman Jones, 1953
8. The Star Beast, 1954
9. Tunnel in the Sky, 1955
10. Time for the Stars, 1956
11. Citizen of the Galaxy, 1957
12. Have Space Suit—Will Travel, 1958
(below not Schribner's)
13. Starship Troopers (1959)
14. Podkayne of Mars, 1963

[OneandonlyDoc]

For your wife, specifically:

- Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series as well as Clockwork Angel (the first is urban fantasy, the second is a steampunk version of urban fantasy)
- Kady Cross's The Girl in the Steel Corset (steampunk) -- There's a loss-leader free novella about the main character in The Girl in the Steel Corset, Finley Jayne, available at the very least in the Kobo store called The Strange Case of Finley Jayne. I read it and that's how I ended up reading Steel Corset.

...I find having an e-reader has helped me discover that YA fiction is pretty much adult fiction with less sex and swearing.

[tswan]

I'm 42 and often find myself sharing fantasy books with my 14 y/o son. We've all read the Rick Riordan Percy Jackson series and are now on his 2 new series. My wife, who doesn't read much fiction, even reads these books.

Also like Terry Pratchett's YA series. Think there are 4 books now.

[morriss003]

Originally Posted by alansplace

Scribner's Robert A. Heinlein juveniles
1. Rocket Ship Galileo, 1947
2. Space Cadet, 1948
3 .Red Planet, 1949
4. Farmer in the Sky, 1950
5. Between Planets, 1951
6. The Rolling Stones (Space Family Stone) 1952
7. Starman Jones, 1953
8. The Star Beast, 1954
9. Tunnel in the Sky, 1955
10. Time for the Stars, 1956
11. Citizen of the Galaxy, 1957
12. Have Space Suit—Will Travel, 1958
(below not Schribner's)
13. Starship Troopers (1959)
14. Podkayne of Mars, 1963

I would also recommend these although they are pretty dated now. If you are looking for others in the SF genre, I suggest, Oath of Fealty, and Dreampark by Niven and Pournelle. For fantasy's try The Crystal Cave by Stewart. If you hop over to the self promotion forum, you'll find a lot of us writing YA.

[Hatgirl]

Off the top of my head...

Garth Nix - The Old Kingdom Series (Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen, The Creature in the Case) (Fantasy)
Garth Nix - Shade's Children (SF/Horror)
Philip Reeve - Mortal Engines/Hungry City Chronicles (Mortal Engines, Predator's Gold, Infernal Devices, A Darkling Plain, Traction City) (SF/Steampunk)
Susan Cooper - The Dark Is Rising Series (Over Sea Under Stone, The Dark Is Rising, Greenwitch, They Grey Kind, Silver on the Tree) (Fantasy)
Madeleine L'Engle - The Time Quintet (A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, An Acceptable Time) (SF)
Peadar Ó Guilín - The Boneworld Trilogy (The Inferior, The Deserter) (SF)
Oisín McGann - The Wildenstern Saga (Ancient Appetites, The Vile Desire to Scream, The Wisdom of Dead Men) (Steampunk)

[therealjoeblow]

-Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer
-The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series by Michael Scott
-The Lost Books (Chosen, Infidel, Renegade, Chaos, Lunatic, Elyon) by Ted Dekker (YA extension of Dekker’s best-selling Circle series for adults)
-Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan
-City of Ember series by Jeanne DuPrau

The REAL Joe

[Pickering]

I just read The Monstrumologist b/c of the recommendations here. It was very good so thanks! It definitely did not read like a YA book... very dark and in some places disturbing as well as a high lexile for YA. For example:

Spoiler:

Upon our return to the house on Harrington Lane, the doctor sent me upstairs to wash up and change out of my filthy clothes; I was covered from the soles of my feet to the top of my head with dirt and offal, the right side of my face tattooed with the dried blood, skull fragments, and gray bits of brain that had animated Erasmus Gray for more than sixty years. Pebbles and twigs dropped from my tangled hair into the basin and clogged the drain, which rapidly filled with water stained a delicate pink from his blood. Grimacing, I plunged a hand into the fouled water to clear the clog, morbid curiosity drawing my youthful eye to the gray globs of gore floating upon the surface. It was not horror that seized my imagination so much as wonder: sixty years of dreams and desires, hunger and hope, love and longing, blasted away in a single explosive instant, mind and brain. The mind of Erasmus Gray was gone; the remnants of its vessel floated, as light and insubstantial as popcorn, in the water. Which fluffy bit held your ambition, Erasmus Gray? Which speck your pride? Ah, how absurd the primping and preening of our race! Is it not the ultimate arrogance to believe we are more than is contained in our biology? What counterarguments may be put forth, what valid objections raised, to the claim of Ecclesiastes, “Vanity of vanities; all is vanity”?