Planesrunner is a first class teen SF novel, but I worry about this book's ability to reach its potential readers, especially if the ARC is any indicator of how the novel will look in its final version. The cover is weird and the text inside is so small, it hurt my eyes. Great covers and packaging of and were able to seduce a fair number of female readers who otherwise wouldn't really give a chance to those essentially boy-oriented books. I wish the same was done for Planesrunner too.

(Note: this review is now also up at Far Beyond Reality, my new science fiction and fantasy website!)I’m a pretty big fan of Ian McDonald, so when I learned that a brand new novel by the author was on the way, I got suitably excited. Then, when I found out that the new novel would be the start of a series, and that this series would deal with alternate dimensions and multiverse-type ideas (very different from his last few books), I got really excited. And then, when I discovered that the series

Good YA novel, especially in its last third. But I don't think I will read the next one. Maybe if I was younger...

Today’s post is on Planesrunner by Ian McDonald. It is 268 pages long including a dictionary at the end. It is published by PYR. The cover has two of the main characters one running towards the reader from an iPad and other has her hands thrown out with cards coming from them. The intended reader is young adult but I do not think that YA’s have the attention span for this novel. There is no language, no sex, and all the action is pretty tame. There Be Spoilers Ahead.From the dust jacket- There i...

Everett Singh's father is kidnapped right in front of him. Turns out, Papa Singh was working on a project involving parallel universes and has left Everett the Infundibulum, the map of 10 to the 80th power parallel universes. Only other people are after it and Everett leaps through the Heisenberg Gate to another world, a world of airships where electricity was discovered much earlier. Can Everett evade the bad apples in the Plenitude long enough to bring back his father home? I love wibbly wobbl...

I just couldn't. You'd think a concept like this would be super interesting, but this just didn't do it for me.

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)Regular readers know that I do not usually review Young Adult novels here; but I made an exception this month with the new Planesrunner, not just because it was specifically sent to me by the publishing company but because it's the YA debut of sci-fi veteran Ian McDonald, and I'm a big slavish fan of Ian M...

Well..... The book was great. It was well plotted, held my attention, had more interesting side characters then I'd read about in a LONG time, and just made me want to know more. But (and this is a really big but) the author chose to write a good chunk of the dialogue in something he calls Pilari, which is actually an underground language in Europe. Put on top of the fact that the writer is British and the words aren't 'translated' and this book was almost illegible. That got more then a little

4 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum http://bibliosanctum.blogspot.com/201...Add Ian McDonald's Planesrunner to the list of the most interesting and well-written young adult novels I've read this year. With the third book coming out soon, I'd initially picked this up to get caught up with the series, but in doing so I also finally discovered why so many readers have been raving about Everness. Adventurous and fun but also fresh and clever, if you're looking for a YA offering that's a little differe...

Finally done with Planesrunner - but it has nothing to do with the quality of the book. Quite the opposite. However, I was so swamped with work that I simply could not have more than ten or fifteen minutes of joy-reading a day. Still, Ian's first installment of this YA steampunk saga is a pure joy and, in my humble opinion, should be included in school reading for junior high classes as a worthy sample of contemporary adventure fiction. Kudos to Ian - as usual, I would give my left arm to be abl...

http://www.mybookishways.com/2011/12/...When 14 year old Everett Singh watches his father’s kidnapping in front of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, he doesn’t quite know what to do. He’s very sure of what he saw, but the police don’t seem to believe him and his own mother is not even quite sure what to believe. See, Everett’s dad is a theoretical physicist, and it’s possible that he’s discovered something that some people will do anything to get their hands on. When Everett receives a mysteri...

Planesrunner is action packed from cover to cover. Fast action coupled with McDonald’s stunning world building, character development, as well as flowing writing will appeal to a younger audience and will make Planesrunner an instant hit with youth and adults alike. While the ideas might sound weighty, McDonald handles them with incredible finesse and manages to not only make these ideas interesting and accessible, but will strike wonder in almost anyone.That’s probably what is the most amazing

OMG, you must read this book!! Did I sound like a teen then? Even though this is YA, this is a mature SF book with a fantastic premise, and oh boy, what a ride. My only niggle (and it is a little one) is that at 14 I found the protagonist's knowledge of quantum mathematics to be a little out there for someone who is still in his normal grade at high school. Why wasn't he at uni if he was such a genius? Anyway, just something to pick at in an otherwise perfect book.

NOTE: This review originally appeared at The King of Elfland's 2nd Cousin on December 13th, 2011. If you enjoy it, please come check us out!As I've mentioned before, I am a huge fan of Ian McDonald's adult science fiction. His complex, multi-layered plots and penchant for near-future science fiction set in non-western cultures (Africa, India, Brazil, Turkey, etc.) have always struck me as interesting, engaging, ambitious, and structurally complex. So when I heard that Pyr was going to be rel...

One of the best children's books about parallel universes I've read, and I've read most of them. The little nods to Star Trek and Doctor Who also appealed to me :)

You know him for his Science Fiction like THE DERVISH HOUSE and others, but now Ian McDonald invades YA territory with PLANESRUNNER and a world where the Earth exists in almost limitless parallel universes.Our PoV character is teenage Everett Singh, soccer goalie, science smarty-pants, and son of the brilliant Tejendra Singh, who created the infundibulum--a sort of map to the parallel universes, or "planes". Before now only the ten Earths that have been able to create gateways can visit each oth...

You'll have to forgive me, but I don't think I've ever gone from Adult to YA with an author before and its a fascinating transition. I’m not sure how many people who enjoy YA would also like Ian McDonald’s adult books. There's an added value though in being aware of his earlier stuff when reading Planesrunner. I kept noticing things like how the nanoblade was reminiscent of the Q-blades of Brasyl, the street brawl that smelled faintly like a scene in River of Gods. Then there’s the overall geeki...

Ian McDonald’s “Planesrunner” (Pyr, $16.95, 268 pages) is more traditional, and more young adult than “The Emperor’s Knife” (which actually has some erotic moments), but it too comes to a conclusion at the end of the first book of the Everness series.But McDonald has plenty of options, as the premise is that there are essentially an infinite number of earths, even though only 10 have been explored, and our adolescent heroes are going to be fighting off the powerful villains wherever they might g...

How the heck did I miss this one? Ian McDonald, one of my favorite SF authors, writes about one of my favorite sfnal topics, the multiverse (parallel universes, alternate dimensions, multiple timelines, the Wheels of If, the Panoply of Worlds... whatever you may call it—there are almost as many names for the concept as there are universes to explore). How on all the many Earths did I miss this novel when it came out in 2011, to find out about it only when io9 (or was it bOINGbOING?) reviewed its...

This was another librarian recommendation. However, this time she hadn't read it, but she liked the look of the cover and was lamenting how she was hoping someone would choose it to tell her if it is any good. I volunteered. Long story short. It wasn't very good. Long story - I should have loved this. Science Fiction parallel universes mixed with steampunk and airship. Idea? Brilliant. Execution? Boring as hell. Most people who have read this and given it very high ratings start off by saying th...