Young Readers Fantasy

A lot has changed for Kate in a year. She and Tom are now full-fledged conductors of the steam-powered, animal-saving Great Secret Intercontinental Railway. Life is good! Or good-ish, anyway. Her uncle Herbert has gone missing, and the worsening climate means that there are more and more animals that need help all the time. How many times does Kate have to save the world before it stays saved?

After bouncing around in foster homes for most of her childhood, 17-year-old Tessa Jacobs doesn’t believe she deserves love. But everything changes when she has a chance encounter with Skylar, a senior from a neighboring town who’s a true romantic. Their budding relationship quickly leads to the kind of passion you only see in the movies. As her heart begins to open, Tessa starts to believe she might be deserving of love after all. When tragedy strikes, Tessa wakes up alone in a hospital room with no memory of how she got there.

After fighting in the Trojan War against her own people, Daphne is plagued by memories—of her family, of her shortcomings, of her lover, Apollo, and of the secrets he and the gods keep. As she reels from the horrendous sacrifice she had to make and her own failure in the battle for Troy, she knows the Titans are out there—just beyond the island of Aeaea where she has taken refuge—raging a war against the world. As Daphne struggles to regain her will to fight as well as rein in the new abilities that have been thrust upon her, the gods call for her help once more.

In a time of fear and danger, will Merlin's magic, Lancelot's bravery, and Arthur's wisdom be enough to unite the kingdom and bring peace? Beloved storyteller Jim Weiss brings tales of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table to life with action, wonder, and humor.

Twelve-year-old Joe Warden isn’t happy. Sure, he’s rich, but his parents don’t care about him. His grandmother should make everything better, except that Joe’s granny is a nightmare. She’s not just physically repulsive, she’s horribly mean. Everyone thinks she’s just a dotty old woman, but Joe knows the truth. He’s seen behind her mask and glimpsed the wicked glimmer in her eyes – she is pure evil.

The best of the year's science fiction and fantasy stories as selected by the multiple award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan. Distant worlds, time travel, epic adventure, unseen wonders, and much more! The best, most original and brightest science fiction and fantasy stories from around the globe from the past 12 months are brought together in one collection by multiple award winning editor Jonathan Strahan.

Science fiction is a portal that opens doors onto futures too rich and strange to imagine. Fantasy takes us through doorways of magic and wonder. For more than a decade award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan has sifted through tens of thousands of stories to select the best, the most interesting, the most engaging science fiction and fantasy to thrill and delight readers.

Tony Stark is known throughout the world as many things: billionaire, inventor, Avenger. But mainly for being the invincible Iron Man. Just when Tony is about to add his pizzazz to an international eco-summit in Ireland, someone close to him forces him to question his role in making the world a more dangerous place with his high-tech weaponry. But Stark doesn't have much time to reflect before an old enemy presents him with an even greater challenge: the assassination of all the eco-ministers, and Iron Man himself.

Thirteen-year-olds Matt, Laurie, and Fen have beaten near-impossible odds to assemble their fellow descendants of the Norse Gods and complete epic quests. Their biggest challenge lies ahead: battling the fierce monsters working to bring about the apocalypse. But when they learn that Matt must fight the Midgard Serpent alone and Fen and Laurie are pulled in other directions, the friends realize they can't take every step of this journey together.

Fifi was one of the kindest fairies in all of Sunflower Grove. She would do anything in her power to help maintain the magic of the home that she loved so much. When something - or someone - appears to be stealing precious water from the soil, Fifi and her fairy friends will stop at nothing to restore the nature around them, even if it means going up against one of their own.

Abel only has one mission left that matters: save the life of Noemi Vidal. To do that, he not only has to escape the Genesis authorities, he also must face the one person in the galaxy who still has the means to destroy him. Burton Mansfield's consciousness lives on, desperate for a home, and Abel's own body is his last bargaining chip.

Fearless Thea has never known life outside of war. As the favorite daughter of the Sylvan King, she's a relentless fighter who longs to lead his army as First Huntsman, ignoring the pretty clothes and fanciful notions others enjoy. But when a mysterious dress full of dark magic appears on her hearth one evening, Thea doesn’t know how to fight an enemy she can't see or touch. Still, her curiosity builds as a new gown appears each night—until she gives in to temptation and is whisked to a forgotten land of shadows.

In the post-apocalyptic, neo-medieval city of Ark, speech is constrained to 500 sanctioned words. If somewhere were to speak outside that approved lexicon, they'd face banishment. The only exceptions to this rule are the Wordsmith and his apprentice, Letta. Together, they are the keepers and archivists of all language. But when Letta's master dies, she is suddenly promoted to Wordsmith and finds the situation more complicated than she knew.

Eleven-year-old Nicholas Vargas thinks his sucky life has been turned upside down. His developer father has remarried and moved his new wife and daughter into his home in the soon-to-be-completed Melgrove Hollow. So, not only has Nick lost his bedroom to his wacko new step-sister, Laurie (who lugs around this huge book about faeries and wishes her name was Lauranathana...C'mon! How lame is that?!), but his father actually wants him to spend time with her.

Twelve-year-old Elliott Harkness wants nothing more than to join his family as part of the Freedom Force, the world's greatest superhero team. There's only one problem, he's a "Zero;" that's super-speak for powerless. Frequently abandoned by his crime-fighting family, teased by his older super-sister, and picked on at school, Elliott is miserably ordinary in his heroically extraordinary family. All of that changes when a mysterious new girl comes to town. She believes Elliott is far from ordinary.

Mermaid Zephyra of the Syl dreams of freedom. On the run from a dangerous captor and years of abuse, she’s shed her tail, grown legs, and hidden herself on land in the merrow-loathing kingdom of Mortia, left to steal and barter on the dirty streets. But her freedom is short-lived when she’s caught and sentenced to death by the brutal warlock, Arion Stone. Arion is as beautiful as he is cold and deadly, only interested in punishing the merrow he views as evil.

Sefia knows what it means to survive. After her father is brutally murdered, she flees into the wilderness with her aunt Nin, who teaches her to hunt, track, and steal. But when Nin is kidnapped, leaving Sefia completely alone, none of her survival skills can help her discover where Nin's been taken, or if she's even alive. The only clue to both her aunt's disappearance and her father's murder is the odd rectangular object her father left behind, an object she comes to realize is a book - an item unheard of in her illiterate society.

Goel, their spiritual leader, has sent the Seven Sleepers on yet another adventure. The Dark Lord is threatening the Kingdom of Camelot, and Joshua Adams and his six companions seek to aid the king in fighting off the invaders. Bob Lee Jackson, "Reb" to his friends, finds himself a key player in this frightening game. Having become expert with shield and sword, Reb takes the fate of the kingdom upon his shoulders. But the situation grows grim as the physical dangers make way for spiritual dangers. The Sleepers must call upon the power of Goel to combat the servants of the Dark Lord.

Even and Odd are sisters who share magic. Lately, though, it seems like that’s the only thing they have in common. Odd doesn’t like magic, and Even practices it every chance she gets, dreaming of the day she’ll be ready to be a hero. When the hidden border between the mundane world the sisters live in and the magical land they were born in shuts abruptly, the girls are trapped, unable to return home. With the help of a unicorn named Jeremy, they discover a wizard is diverting magic from the border to bolster her own power.

Resuming normal life isn't exactly an option for Myreen after finding out she's a freak chimera and the daughter of a villainous vampire leader. But she can't forget about that kiss she shared with dragon shifter Kol, even if he's still acting hot one minute and cold the next. Juliet's love life isn't looking so great, either, while Kenzie's may be too hot to handle. And Leif's feeling the heat of his subterfuge with the vampires, while Oberon is struggling to keep the school together.