Book lovers take note - these are John Millen's favourites
Is there anyone currently writing for the youth fiction market who comes up quietly and consistently with more surprising reads than Marcus Sedgwick?
Every time a new Sedgwick novel appears in bookshops, fans know they are in for something they haven't experienced before. There is no repeating or recycling ideas with this classy, imaginative author and that is why his books are always fresh and entertaining.
This year, Sedgwick gave us a fact meets fiction novel, Blood Red Snow White. Back in the days of the Russian revolution, a young English journalist travels to Russia to write about the rise of the new order. But instead of staying detached from what is happening around him, Ransome falls in love with Russia and a young woman at the heart of the uprising. Part fairytale, part spy thriller, part love story, Blood Red Snow White is a multi-layered novel that satisfies on every level.
Philip Reeve's Here Lies Arthur is a well-written deconstruction of a legend. Set in 500AD England, a young peasant girl called Gwyna has to disguise herself as a boy just to survive. Running away from enemy warriors, she falls in with the retinue of King Arthur and is adopted by Arthur's magician and spin-doctor, Myrddin. Gwyna now watches a hero at work. Reeve's King Arthur is not the unblemished action-man of history and legend. He is a conniving and vicious warlord out to get power at all costs. Here lies Arthur is a different sort of historical novel and it is richly entertaining.
A powerful fantasy came from China Mieville in Un Lun Dun, a title you have to think about for a few seconds before the penny drops. Two teenagers discover an alternative city of London filled with rubbish from life in the real London. Packed with imagination and suspense, this is adult fiction writer Mieville's first book for younger readers. It is a mighty tale, bursting at the seams with interest. Fantasy novels are two-a-dollar on teenage bookshop shelves, but Un Lun Dun stands proudly above all the others.
