The Diabolic

The Diabolic by S.J. Kincaid, 2016 Simon & Schuster

     In the distant future humanity has fled Earth and our solar system has destroyed itself while we travel the stars. The Grandiloquy have worked to keep themselves at the top of the social structure. Society has fallen into decadence while the common people, the Excess, struggle to support their lifestyles.
     The rich and powerful have developed humanoid beings to serve many functions: brainless servitor, innocent sacrifices,k dangerous diabolics. The general population has been shoved aside as fodder. The Senator Von Impyrean purchases as diabolic for his shy daughter. Nemesis is a companion for Sidonia Impyrean designed to protect the heir. the two are bonded and grow together to become the best of friends.
     After several years Sidonia has been taught how to fit into court life, Nemesis has learned the threats against her charge. Sometimes even parents could be a threat to a diabolic's charge and as families are torn apart by diabolics the emperor outlaws them. Sidonia refuses to kill Nemesis - her only true friend. The Senator and his wife decide to replace the diabolics corpse with a land-dweller dying from a plague.
     The emperor becomes a threat to Sidonia and Nemesis latches into his recent actions as leading toward either his demise or that of Sidonia. When the emperor summons Sidonia to the capital in her parents' place the Senator and his wife see a danger in the summons. They send Nemesis in her place - against her own wishes and Sidonia's.
     At the capital, Nemesis struggles to blend into the cruel and frivolous children of the nobility. Taking her cue from Sidonia and her compassionate nature. She befriends the daughter of another disgraced senator unintentionally when she is drawn into engineering a beast to compete. Rather than allow her creature to be murdered Nemesis saves him and keeps him as a pet. Her unconventional compassion catches the eye of the emperor's nephew and heir. The Crown Prince feigns madness in the hope of saving his own life: rumor indicates the Dowager Empress has engineered the deaths of all potential challengers to her son's rule.
     Bringing Nemesis into his orbit brings her closer to the Dowager and her machinations. When Nemesis believes Sidonia has been killed by the emperor her training pushes her to avenge the loss or die trying. Something is not right in the diabolics which protect the emperor, but the prince steps in to draw Nemesis to his side and toward an ultimate confrontation with either his uncle or his grandmother.
     The Empire is on the edge of annihilation and rebellion. Science has been outlawed in favor of religion, but the technology is dying without the ability to repair it. This results in rips in the fabric of space and further unrest. Nemesis enters the political game at the top with little understanding of how to play, but a desire to change the very rules.
     Written for older teens and adults with rampant disregard for human life The Diabolic raises questions of what it means to be human. Nemesis questions her very purpose: if she isn't designed to protect why does she exist? This is a great read for those who enjoy elaborate world-building and sci-fi with a touch of romance.

Trial by Fire

Trial by Fire by Josephine Angelini, 2014 Feiwel & Friends

     Lily Procter is allergic to her life. She usually runs a temperature over 100° F, but something as simple as lunch can send her into convulsions and result in a coma. Her childhood best friend, Tristan, has helped her through everything up to high school. And Lily has had a crush on him as long as she can remember, as high school seniors in Salem Massachusetts they are only just exploring the idea of a romantic relationship.
    At her first high school party, Tristan has to deal with an ex-girlfriend and leaves Lily with a fellow classmate. The boy spikes Lily's drink which causes a seizure and her abject humiliation. At the edge of consciousness, Lily discovers her lifelong friend has as little regard for her as a romantic partner as he had for previous girlfriends. When a voice in her head asks Lily if she wants to leave her world for a world where she would have power, Lily accepts and is torn into another plane where magic exist and she has a mirror image ruling the world.
     The lost girl finds that Lilian wants to use her for some secret purpose and flees into the city. Salem Massachusetts of Lillian's universe is a cross between medieval and modern technology. What science has spent centuries learning in Lily's world was discovered through magic over the course of decades. Lily appears to have been pulled into a brewing conflict. Lillian directs Lily to her most powerful Mechanic and Rowan reluctantly trains the mirror of Lillian.
     Lily is not Lillian: she believes in the basic American tenets of equality and success through work ethic, exploration, and development. Lily believes in helping Lillian's world as she finds friendship and romance, but her ultimate dream is to return home to her family and the world she grew up in.
     With some mature content and vivid violence Trial by Fire is intended for teen and young adult readers. It is the first of the novels: Lily struggles with her beliefs and experiences in a new world, very similar to her own. Will she ever make it home? Does she really want to?

Looking for Alaska

Looking for Alaska by John Green, 2005 Speak

     When Miles Cavalry decides to attend his father's boarding school in southern Alabama it is driven home to his parents how disconnected he is from his high school in Florida. At Culver Creek, Miles meets the Colonel, his new roommate, Alaska, the girl who lives down the way, and Takumi, the third leg of their stool and an Asian-American rapper. The Colonel absorbs Miles into their social group and re-christens him, Pudge.
     In contrast to his focus on studies Pudge and his new friends are in competition and conflict with the "Weekday Warriors". The rich kids from Birmingham are stereotypical popular kids, and the friends are the pranksters. Though the groups hold a good-natured war their greater enemy is the Eagle, who runs the school. A couple brushes with authority teach Pudge the importance of planning ahead and brazen confidence to get out of trouble.
     With Alaska and her mysteriously fascinating knowledge of all things contraband leading him, Pudge becomes adept at balancing the rigorous acadamia at Culver Creek with smoking, drinking, and attempting to find a girlfriend. Slowly Pudge facts for the unattainable Alaska Young while she self-destructs.
     Just as everything seems to be falling into place Pudge, Takumi, and the Colonel's lives fall apart. Alaska dies in a car accident after a night of heavy drinking. After a period of incredulity the three young men and a sophomore, Lara, search for answers. The search coincides with the syllabus of their religious class and as the four students search for Alaska's truth they find camaraderie and that she managed to tie them even closer together.
     With some graphic promiscuity Looking for Alaska was written for late high school and college readers. It tackles issues of intention and fate with honesty and humor. Readers who enjoyed The Fault in Our Stars will enjoy John Green's first novel.

Winter

Winter by Marissa Meyer, 2015 Feiwel & Friends

   The plan to kidnap Emperor Kai succeeded; sort of. After rescuing Cress and going back to the Eastern Commonwealth to stop the wedding between Levana and Kai, Cinder and her remaining friends are hiding in space - thanks to Cress's magic with technology.
     Without Scarlet, Wolf pines and the friends struggle to remain positive. Cinder and Kai are on rocky terms since he was forcibly removed from his empire but their relationship gains traction. Cress and Thorne are dancing around one another as the captain slowly regains his sight. And Iko is still in love with her (somewhat worse for the wear) human body. Levana has immediately declared war on the Earthen Union and used her mutated wolf-soldiers to engage the planet in global war.
     Earth is unprepared for the assault after 126 years of world peace. As the Union scrambles to mount a defense Levana plans world domination. The focus has shifted from Earth to Luna as Cinder makes plans to take back the throne as Princess Selene. Her cousin, Princess Winter, has been tortured by her own Lunar Gift for its lack of use. When the people love and show their deep affection for Winter, Levana sees the girl as a threat. The Queen orders Jacin, a guard who has loved Winter since childhood, to kill the girl. Jacin cannot complete his mission and, with Cress, helps Winter and Scarlet escape to the outer domes of Luna's protected population.
     Scarlet and Winter locate Wolf's childhood home and the rest of their ragtag rebellion. With Cress working from Artemisia, Luna's capital, and Cinder gaining support around the moon's isolated outer domes the friends struggle to maintain contact and lead their rebellion. When Cinder is captured and paraded around Kai and Levana's wedding feast it appears they may be finished, but the ever-resourceful Princess Selene manages to become both the leader and the martyr her revolution needs.
     Cinder's transformation from the cyborg mechanic who helped repair Crown-Prince Kai's android into Princess Selene has been long and arduous, but with new friends and the support of her people the shy young woman has become a leader hoping to make the universe a better place. Cinder doesn't want to be a princess: she wants to end her aunt's tyranny and the social conventions which oppress different classes of person. Meyer's tale incorporates classic fairytales, political wargames, and science fiction to push Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and Snow White into the future and prepare their stories for young adult readers.