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Quantum Physics is not usually a topic for light reading.  However, in this popular series, it's the bread and butter and very interesting.  The premise is based on a number of alternate realities, of which ours is the 1st or Prime reality.  Each reality is a strange take on our own with alternate versions of all the people in our reality.  The heroes use a variety of high-tech gadgets and certain people can control a power which works a bit like the Force in Star Wars.  This force congregates around people and places where great choices have taken place.

The plots are very clever, with the heroes having to solve a variety of strange riddles, which are enough to scratch the head, but not enough to hopelessly confound.  The characters are varied and interesting, and provide a constant stream of snappy dialog.  What I enjoyed most about the series thus far, was that the ideas seemed fresh, and I didn't feel like I had read it before.  The artwork accompanying the series is also intriguing, and adds to the overall appeal.

The series should appeal to a wide age group from Middle Grade to Young Adult (and, well, I liked it as a adult as well)

There is a fourth installment which comes out in 2011.  I'll be picking up my copy.

James Dashner, author of The Jimmy Fincher Saga, has a new book coming out called The 13th Reality. I haven't read any of Mr. Dashner's books YET (don't shoot if you're a fan), but I like the way he is promoting his next book and supporting a charity all at once.

In brief, he is donating 100% of the royalties he earns on The 13th Reality the week of its release.

Click Here to get all the Details.

Full Disclosure: Although I haven't read his books, I met him at LTUE last week and think he is first-rate.

I can't say I was ecstatically looking forward to reading Everlost by Neal Shusterman. I thought his book The Schwa Was Here had an interesting premise but didn't stay on task too well, so I'd never read anything else by him.

Then I saw him in October at the Rabbit Hill Festival of Literature, thought he was very engaging and interesting, and decided I would give his work another try. But Everlost, his newest book, is about dead people. Generally speaking, I find books about dead people tend to be a bit maudlin. The writing often manipulates readers emotionally. I don't care for being manipulated, so I avoid them.

If I hadn't stumbled upon Everlost at the library, I would have probably missed it altogether, which would definitely have been a shame. If you can get past the "Boo hoo, everybody's dead in this book" factor, Everlost is a very good adventure.

What Shusterman has done in Everlost is create a fantasy world that just happens to be in what we'd call the afterlife. Certain things as well as certain humans pass over into this fantasy world, known as Everlost. The things have to have somehow engaged intense human feelings during their 'lifetimes.' The humans have to have not 'got where they were going.' Our two main characters, for instance, were strangers who died in the same automobile accident on page two, bumped into each other in that long tunnel with the light at the end, and went careening off course into Everlost.

And then, while attempting to figure out what's going on in their new world and visit their homes in their old one to make sure their family members survived the accident that killed them, they begin to have adventures.

This world is very well done. Every character in it is just marvelous. We have powerful protagonists of both genders so this is a good read for both boys and girls. It's written in the third person with point of view characters that shift smoothly.

Everlost isn't a heavenly place by a longshot, so some younger readers might find it a little anxiety-inducing. Yet it's also clear that Everlost isn't all there is to the afterlife. There's still a potential for heaven, as well as a potential for hell. This book about the dead actually ends hopefully, even though none of our major characters have yet gotten where they're going.

Everlost came out in 2006. It's another one of those books I was only vaguely aware of, if that. I'm surprised I didn't hear a lot more about it. It's that good. However, Universal Studios has bought the screenrights and Shusterman (who is a screen and scriptwriter as well as a novelist) will be writign the screenplay. So somebody knew a lot more about it than I did.

I'm a Reading Fool got her hands on an ARC for the dead & the gone, Susan Beth Pfeffer's companion book to Life As We Knew It. She has posted a review. It sounds very, very grim, a different kind of grim from the grimness in LAWKI.

Collen Mondor of Chasing Ray has written an article on young adult adventure books for Eclectica Magazine. Adventure stories for teenagers--there's something about that that sounds very retro. Not that that's a bad thing. In fact, it's very intriguing. I just can't recall reading about that subject recently.