Deeba and Zanna, both twelve-year-old London girls, find their way into Un Lun Dun (UnLondon). Magic works in the abcity: there's feral rubbish, the ghosts of Wraithtown, words made flesh. Most of all, there's the Smog, an enormous cloud of pollution that's become sentient and wants to consume everything.

This book is aimed at a younger audience than his Bas-Lag novels, such as Iron Council. Supporting characters do die and Deeba must undergo trials, but this book is not grim. Indeed, in places, it's positively whimsical, and Miéville owes a clear debt to …continue.

Tiffany Aching is a nine-year-old dairymaid with the First Sight and the Second Thoughts. She sees more than others do. She sees the tiny Nac Mac Feegle, the little thieving fighting pictsies, who speak with a Scottish brogue and have nae time for laird nor queen.

When the Queen of the Fairies attempts to invade the Discworld by stealing children and their dreams, it is up to Tiffany to stop them.

Ostensibly aimed at children, any adult fan of Pratch­et­t's Discworld novels should enjoy this book too.

A half-vampire vampire hunter, her half-elf partner, a human sage, and a very unusual dog travel deep into elven territory, to rescue his imprisoned elf mother. None of the (part) humans are welcome.

This is the fifth book in a series, which I didn't notice when I picked it up. I should have started with the first in the series, but I was able to follow along well enough.

A high fantasy epic leavened with vampire lore. Certain of the elves are concerned with an ancient enemy, which seems to …continue.

White Night is the latest paperback in the Dresden Files continuing on from Proven Guilty.

Harry Dresden is a wizard and private in­ves­ti­ga­tor in Chicago. Minor prac­ti­tion­ers of magic are being killed and the evidence points to his half-brother, Thomas. Harry can't accept that, even if Thomas is a vampire. Meanwhile, there's a war going on between the wizards and certain factions of vampires.

Harry is slowly starting to mature, now that he's got re­spon­si­bil­i­ties. He has an apprentice and two junior Wardens were killed on his watch. He's just a little less likely …continue.

Cursor's Fury is the third book in Jim Butcher's fantasy series, Codex Alera, and the sequel to Academ's Fury.

Tavi is now a cursor, a special agent of the First Lord. Planted undercover in a newly-formed legion, Tavi suddenly becomes its leader when all the other officers are as­sas­si­nat­ed, just as an invading force of Canim have landed nearby. Meanwhile, his aunt Isana, is trapped in a besieged city, when one of the High Lords, Kalare, attempts a coup. Isana's brother Bernard and his wife Amara lead an attack against Kalare.

Exciting and …continue.

Another urban fantasy featuring the witch, Rachel Morgan, who runs an in­ves­ti­ga­tion agency with a vampire, in a world where ordinary humans were decimated by a virus and vampires, Weres, witches, pixies, and more live openly.

Morgan is reckless and addicted to living on the edge, and her friends will pay a heavy price before the end of the book. You'd want Rachel on your side in a fight, but you'd probably be ex­as­per­at­ed with her the rest of the time. She battles demons, both metaphor­i­cal …continue.

Iron Council is Miéville's third novel set in the world of Bas-Lag, where thau­matur­gy (magic) works along with steampunk technology and humans live alongside other sentient species.

Two decades ago, the city-state of New Crobuzon started building a railroad across an enormous desert. The workers are humans, cactacae (cactus people), and Remade (criminals grotesque­ly modified by thau­matur­gy, with animal or mechanical parts grafted on). Eventually, they rebel against the heavy-handed overseers, and flee far into the badlands. Known as the Iron Council, their legend lives on in New …continue.

DCI Jack Spratt runs the Nursery Crimes Division of the Reading, Berks police. In­ves­tiga­tive reporter Goldilocks is found dead, after last being seen at the three bears' house. The Gin­ger­bread­man, a 7-foot psy­cho­path­ic cake, is rampaging around, randomly killing people. Punch and Judy have moved in next door: when they're not beating each other up, they're very good marriage coun­sel­lors. And enormous cucumbers are exploding under mysterious cir­cum­stances.

An extremely bizarre story, replete with puns, nursery rhymes, literary allusions, and shaggy dog stories.

En­ter­tain­ing, if silly.

Last week, we watched the TV adaptation of Hogfather, which got me to re-read the book. The book is a lot funnier. Pratch­et­t's written de­scrip­tions don't translate very well to the screen.

The Hogfather is the Discworld's equivalent of Santa Claus: a large, jolly fat man who delivers presents to children on the longest night of the year. The Auditors, celestial bu­reau­crats who take a dim view of the messiness of human existence, decide to have the Hogfather killed. Death takes it upon himself to deliver the presents to children instead, while setting his …continue.

For centuries, carefully selected historians have mys­te­ri­ous­ly received a book that contains only a picture of a dragon holding a placard that says, Drakulya. Three gen­er­a­tions of one family have followed the trail of those books: the narrator as a teenager in the 1970s, her graduate student parents in the 1950s, and her mother's father in the 1930s.

The trail has led them from the Pyrenees to the Balkans and Istanbul, from libraries to monas­ter­ies to remote mountain villages. The narrative moves back and forth across the three gen­er­a­tions, as …continue.