Sign of the Crescent by Debbie Federici © 2005

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Sign of the Crescent  by  Debbie Federici  © 2005  Llewellyn Worldwide  ISBN  0-7387-0808-9  Paperback  Ages 14 and up  302 pages   $8.95 (U.S.)  $11.95 (Canada)

Debbie Federici is rapidly becoming one of my favorite fiction authors.  She writes for middle to older teen markets, and she has a real feel for teen angst.  Her characters feel real, no matter how unreal a situation they find themselves in..  Her heroes are not invincible.  Nor are they always obedient.  Her villains are frequently megalomaniacs, but that is a common short-coming of literary baddies.

Her stories (including the L.O.S.T. series she is co-authoring) have a commonality in that they rely on cross-dimensional settings (although not the same universe), with the more mundane, earth-bound segment showing a lack of awareness of the existence of extra-dimensional contact.  And that rings true, as well.  How often have you seen or heard something totally out of place and shrugged it off with a “That can’t be.  I must have imagined it.”

The experiences of Taryn in the other worlds are, obviously, out-of-this-world.  For all of that, it is easy to relate to what she is going through.  Her heroine has problems to deal with – both physically (Menier’s disease) and emotionally.  Some of the things she must deal with are pretty much part of the process of growing up (insecurity, doubts, etc.), but some of them are not things faced by the average teen (betrayal, death, etc.)

The story is told from alternating  points of view; between Taryn (a youngster raised on Earth) and Erick (raised in a world where magic and sorcery are daily occurrences; between that of a youngster  who has no idea of what to expect from a world which is very different from what she has experienced all of her life and that of a young man who has trained to be a warrior for all of his life.

There is a connection between the young people where there should be no points in common.  There are problems too.  Hey, it’s a book with teens as the main protagonists, what would you expect?

Without getting into the plot (you should read the book, already), it is obvious that this is the intended start of another series of books.  This book is aimed at those 14 and up, and should hold their interest.

There are fewer errors than I have come to expect in books today, and thus the book is easy to read

 

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