Books set in Various
Castaways of the Flying Dutchman
Style: Average
Attitude: Unobjectionable → Positive
The galley-boy of the Flying Dutchman is set free when the Captain's blasphemy brings down God's wrath on him: while the ship and its crew must sail the seas forever, the boy and his dog are set free to roam the Earth, unageing, to do good.
Great premise, disappointing execution; Unobjectionable
Adventure, Fantasy, Spooky
Style: Good
Attitude: Unobjectionable
A set of short stories by several contemporary authors, mostly in the SciFi/Fantasy mould.
Fantasy, Short
The History Keepers: The Storm Begins
Style: Weak → Average
Attitude: Unobjectionable → Fairly Positive
Jake Djones is caught up in the work of the Bureau of History Keepers when his parents, who have secretly worked for them all these years, disappear while on a mission.
Inoffensive if uninsipired. Time-travelling family & friends with minor heroics against dastardly villains.
Adventure, Time-Travel
Style: Good
Attitude: Unobjectionable
Nat Field is a member of the Company of boys, an acting group for 11-18 year old boys who perform Shakespeare's plays traditionally.
Well-written; gives good understanding of Shakespeare's world and plays; Nat's father's suicide; Arby & Julia live together
Friendship, Time-Travel
Style: Average
Attitude: Unobjectionable
In the 1930s, Arthur Drake and his friends become involved with Professor Bessemer's sinister waxworks when he takes over the warehouse they use as a base.
Adventure, Fantasy, Time-Travel
Style: Good
Attitude: Unobjectionable
Three separate stories are told as happening in parallel around the same Cheshire locations.
Short
Style: Average
Attitude: Unobjectionable
Meg, Jonny, Filch and Art try to connect Mr Frederick's lost cat, a sudden plague of rats, and mysterious activity down in the sewer.
Adventure, SciFi
Style: Average
Attitude: Take Care
The Time Tube allows people from the 21st century to travel to the 16th to negotiate deals which will bring now unknown produce from an unpolluted world.
Adventure, Time-Travel
Style: Outstanding
Attitude: Positive
4 interlinked short stories covering one rural Macclesfield family over some 3 centuries.
Historical, Short
Style: Average
Attitude: Take Care
16-year-old Ariana is drawn to the lagoon city of Bellezza in her world, while in ours Lucien, being treated for cancer, finds himself there, whole and well, when he sleeps.
Travel between parallel worlds with correspondingly dissimilar religion. Complex issues of life and death. Accepted pre-marital relations. Coping with fatal illness. Strained loyalty between two worlds.
Fantasy, Time-Travel
Style: Average
Attitude: Take Care → Fairly Positive
Georgia, taunted by her older step-brother, finds solace in horse-riding and the friendship of the owner of a curio shop where she buys a winged horse which transports her at night to the Talia of 400 years ago.
Some crude taunts about women and horse-riding. An unjustified suggestion that an older man is a sexual predator. Casual assumptions about annulment of marriage. Morally problematic subplot involving an apparent suicide. Contrast between Georgia's difficult family and Paolo's cheerful and large one. The Duke's true love for his family despite his machiavellian attitude.
Fantasy, Time-Travel
Style: Good
Attitude: Positive
As the Light Witches prepare for the Pageant of Merlin's Sword, Wolfbane and his family are attack them to steal the Sword, forcing Abby and her friends to flee to the American Wild West a century before.
Simple Good & Bad tale with undemanding and mildly comic style.
Fantasy, Humorous, Magic