This sounds awesome. Non-fluffy Arthurian themes? Yes please.

I think on the whole the YA market over the past ten years has had a better deal with fantasy than the adult section. Less titles, obviously, but I rarely found a bad one back when I followed them more closely. I guess part of that is the bias towards single volumes that you mentioned, but maybe there are more risks being taken too. Probably being able to cross genres under the overall heading of YA helps.

I am absolutely infatuated with the YA market. I think it's partially because when I was growing up you went straight from children's books (which were about talking mice) to adult books (like Jane Eyre). I think there was Judy Bloom but she was always writing about periods and I found them excrutiating (the Judy Bloom books, not periods, although those aren't great either). The point of this ramble is that: the YA market feels fresh to me, and YA-fantasy isn't subject to all the ludicrous expectations/assumptions of the fantasy genre (you must write a trilogy and your book must be thick enough to bludgeon a walrus to death and you cannot have any plot until 200 pages from the end, and only then if you absolutely can't help yourself). Also YA/children's book are sometimes so courageous it blows my mind.

I'm absolutely in love with Catherine Fisher - I can't believe I've only just discovered her.

It's a shame, really, that there's so much emphasis within schools about reading 'worthwhile' things that they forget that the kids are the target market for the 'unworthwhile' teenage books. I remember a constant pressure to be reading challenging and grown-up books that inevitably worked its way across into my reading for pleasure, and it was pretty late in my education that I went back and saw what I'd missed.

And you're right - there's a lot of enchanting stuff out there. I know Harry Potter is a contentious subject here at FB, but I think it did kids one massive favour - a lot of people now think it's okay to read books written for young people. Because usually it's young people themselves who are told otherwise, and made to feel childish for reading books written specifically for them.

I looked in Border for Catherine Fisher and couldn't find her, but I'll keep my eyes open. You've got me all intrigued :-)

I would take real issue with the distinction between "worthy and unworthy" books - but then I am a shameless populist. And you're dead right about Harry Potter , although I do remember there was a weird trend for versions of the books with "adult covers."

Yeah, you can only get Catherine Fisher off Amazon (it's a CRIME!) - and she's well worth the ordering, believe me.

Oh absolutely, I wasn't trying to make such a distinction myself. I just remember being in high school around 2000ish and being embarrassed that I was reading Philip Pullman. I'd like to think things are moving in the right direction now, at least.

I also bitterly remember being pressured to read classics before I was ready for them - having to struggle through part one of Wuthering Heights in year 8 left me averse to it for years - and I don't think it benefits anyone to be too pushy with the 'worthy' books. There's enough of a tick-list mentality for classics in the adult world (that eternal LJ meme for one), without infecting kids with it. I'd much rather spend the library budget on good literature written for the age group than yet another set of perfectly bound essential reads that never get touched.

Er... I mean yeah, I'll check out amazon.

Okay, I too spent my penny on Amazon and thank you for the recommendation. I took a while to warm to the book but at some point it hooked me, and there was a lot about it I really liked. I think the uneasiness of Cal's guilt about not visiting his mother comes across really well, making it an uncomfortable read at times without going on about it. I think you're spot on about Fisher's light touch there, and I agree that the ambiguity of the text was very well done.

(I wasn't keen on the mother's mental illness tying into Cal's visit to the Corbonic, mind. Accepting that things are what they seem and Corbonic is real, that seemed to me to be rather weak. But I'm not generally a fan of the mystic mental illness type of book.)

I thought the supporting characters were wonderful too. Particularly Therese, in a role a lot of books would have cast rather negatively. And I did love the bucket of Arthurian coolness, especially the way the sword nags at Cal. Great book.

Hurrah - I'm genuinely touched you took up a recommendation. I'm always hopeless at it. I read glowing reviews and I think to myself "I really should read that" but somehow I never get round to it as often as I'd like. I'm also kind of relieved you enjoyed the book - I'd have been guilty as hell otherwise :)

I've noticed Catherine Fisher tends not to write books that are instantly easy to get into and warm to - as you say - but they're usually very much worth it.