This Season’s Best Fantasy and Adventure Books for Teens

Talon, by Julie Kagawa
How do you inject romance into a dragon-slaying saga? By creating dragons able to hide out in human form in modern-day California! After mastering fairy and vampire tales, Kagawa begins this new series with Ember and Dante Hill, twin dragons living out their summer as humans before taking on grownup responsibilities of their species. Garrett, a member of the dragon-hunting order of St. George, is sent to kill them, but Ember might just change his mind about that mission.

Visitors, by Orson Scott Card
As with his Ender’s Saga, Card weaves science fiction with philosophy and coming-of-age drama in his Pathfinder trilogy. On the planet Garden, colonized by Earth, Rigg, his sister, and his friend all have the ability to manipulate time and past events. Readers have been waiting two years for this conclusion, to see how (or if) Rigg will change the past to prevent his planet from being destroyed.

The Walled City, by Ryan Graudin
The setting of this novel is based on Hong Kong’s real-life walled city of Kowloon (taken down in the 1980s). This book’s gritty criminal underworld and its characters make it an appealing read for fans of dystopian and fantasy fiction. Dai, a boy with 18 days to escape the city; Mei Yee, a girl kidnapped and forced to work in a brothel; and her sister, Jin, who passes as a boy to get by on the streets, all have to work together to free themselves.

The Sorcerer Heir, by Cinda Williams Chima
Chima has created a complicated world of wizards, warriors, seers, enchanters, and sorcerers in her Heir Chronicles series. In this eagerly-awaited series conclusion, musician Emma and assassin Jonah have to overcome their differences to clear their names and maintain peace between the guilds.

Ruin and Rising, by Leigh Bardugo
In her Grisha trilogy, Bardugo makes you believe that the mythology she’s created (the Grisha are people with rare magical talents) has existed since ancient times, and Ravka, the country in which it all takes place, must be some long-lost iteration of Russia. The Barnes & Noble exclusive edition of Ruin and Rising, the trilogy’s conclusion, includes an exclusive short story about the Darkling, the villain bent on using Alina’s powers as the Sun Summoner to rule the world.

In the Afterlight, by Alexandra Bracken
The Darkest Minds trilogy has all the hallmarks of a great sci-fi dystopia: a disease that has given its youthful survivors special powers (telekinesis, mind-control, fire-starting), a corrupt government hellbent on using/destroying/hiding those kids, a heroine at the center of it all who must overcome her self-doubt to save others, and, of course, a love story. In this concluding novel, that heroine, Ruby, is still working to free the rest of the children with special powers from government concentration camps, but the stakes are even higher than she thought.

The Shadow Throne, by Jennifer A. Nielsen
The Ascendance trilogy is structured around a delicious royal conspiracy plot we’ve seen before (long-lost heirs, impostors, would-be puppet-masters). The clever, confident hero at the novel’s center—smart-mouthed Sage, a.k.a. King Jaron—makes these books truly memorable.

Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen, by Garth Nix
Nix wrote the first three books in his Old Kingdom series before YA fantasy was cool again. Now, 12 years after Abhorsen comes this prequel, which can also serve as an introduction to a complex kingdom, as it takes place 600 years before the events of the first book, Sabriel. Clariel is one of those heroines who’d really rather live a normal life, but because she’s related to the king and his Abhorsen (the man who keeps death and wild magic in line), she can do no such thing.

Alliance, by Mark Frost
In Frost’s first book, Will West stopped trying so hard to be mediocre, as his parents always encouraged him to be, and accidentally revealed his off-the-charts mental abilities. In book 2, Alliance, Will and other especially gifted students hang out for the summer at their boarding school, where they uncover new secrets about themselves as well as about their old enemies, the Knights of Charlemagne.

Heir of Fire, by Sarah J. Maas 
Celaena, a criminal-turned-prince’s assassin, made a big discovery about her own heritage in Book 2 of the Throne of Glass series, but it won’t help the fact that her best friend is dead and her boyfriend betrayed her. Maybe learning the magic that is her birthright will ease her pain. This is the halfway point in an ongoing series, so expect the action to keep ratcheting up.
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