fantasy

Pandora’s Box

ByMichael Thal December 31, 2019December 31, 2019

When we first met Becky Mellor and her little brother Joe, they were sent away for summer vacation to Uncle Percy’s home. What they originally thought would be a boring summer turned into an adventure of a lifetime as the siblings experienced unbelievable time travel adventures as they hunted with Percy for the mythic Golden…

YA Time Travel Romance: The Class of ’83

ByMichael Thal September 5, 2019September 5, 2019

Magz, a senior at Saint Christopher’s High School, can’t wait to graduate and leave Santolsa, a sleepy desert town in the middle of nowhere. Her parents are never around, busy running from one business trip to another. Her best friend Jack is like a brother to her as they fend off bullies and a boring…

Middle Grade Ghost Story

ByMichael Thal July 10, 2019

Frannie James and twin brother Jeff have been uprooted from their Iowa home to a farmhouse in rural Oregon. Their father, a bank executive has been transferred to a more lucrative job, and their mother ran away when the twins were very young. One night, a gray veiled ghost appears to Frannie in her bedroom….

The Last Starbase: The Search for a Home

ByMichael Thal May 21, 2019

The Last Starbase is book 3 in the Sons of Neptune series. Shane, Sam, and company discover an ancient starship, the Praihawk, buried in the Artic and plan to use it to get help from their ancestors of long ago. The Peak, a refugee stronghold established by Shane and Sam, is attracting survivors of the alien…

Apocalypse Now

ByMichael Thal April 9, 2019April 9, 2019

In the science fiction fantasy, Earthweeds,Shane and Sam are brothers. Shane is in college and Sam is about to finish high school. Each summer the boys escape for a few weeks into the wilderness outside of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania to hunt and evade the hustle and bustle of the real world. This year, when the boys…

Pop’s 6 Favorite Books of 2018

ByMichael Thal February 6, 2019

In 2018 Pop read and reviewed 36 young adult novels. All of the books received 5 pops because they were thought provoking, imaginative, and the author’s writing style exemplary. Below you’ll find seven of his favorites plus his award-winning novel, Koolura and the Mayans. Title: Koolura and the Mayans Author: Michael Thal Awards: 2018 eLit…

YA Fantasy into a Medieval World

ByMichael Thal January 29, 2019

Elai Nelson and the Prophecy of the Child is book one of the Fire on the Clouds Trilogy. The novel begins when Elai’s home is broken into by two goons who kill his adoptive parents and attempt to kidnap him. But with the help of his talking toothbrush (you read that right) the sixteen-year old manages…

The Quest of the Empty Tomb: A Supernatural Mystery

ByMichael Thal December 3, 2018

The Hunt for Xanadu recently received a 5 pops review from this blog. Elyse Salpeter’s second book in her Kelsey Porter Series, The Quest of the Empty Tomb, was also an exciting ride, but didn’t exactly live up to the high bar Salpeter’s first book established. In The Quest of the Empty Tomb, Salpeter brings back many…

The Thirteenth Princess: A Gripping YA Fairytale

ByMichael Thal November 29, 2018November 29, 2018

History must have order and some symmetry of meaning so its students can process its content in an organized fashion. Consequently, history only records twelve princesses, a highly composite number, when in truth, there were thirteen of them. History also records those princesses going to sleep every night and waking up to find their slippers…

The Hunt for Xanadu: A YA Thriller

ByMichael Thal October 29, 2018October 29, 2018

We’ve all heard of the mythical city of Xanadu appearing in literature and movies. It’s an exotic utopia first described by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a nineteenth century English poet, in his 1816 poem, “Kubla Khan.” Author Elyse Salpeter has embraced the myth and expanded the concept of Xanadu to a higher plane in her first…