Sci-fi and fantasy

‘I loved you from the beginning,’ reads the love letter from the future that shapes Emma’s final year of high school and sets her on a new trajectory in all facets of her life.

The explosive third instalment in Dungan’s series plunges readers straight into the chaos left by book two’s revelations. Alex Wintour, already stretched to her limits, now finds herself imprisoned in a timeless underground cage built to disorient and erode identity itself. Cut off from the flow and surrounded by other captive temporals losing their grip of where and who they are – Alex is forced to confront a new kind of hell.

Should you require a comprehensive guide to mythical and magical creatures, Believe’s knowledgeable narrator, Sage Brightwing, is here to help! Doyle’s obvious affection for fantasy characters in combination with Hartas’s vivid, colourful illustrations results in a book with an absorbing level of detail.

At the start of this book an important question is posed – do you believe in magic? However, what follows does not try to convince the reader one way or the other. Instead, the book opens up the rich history of magic. It is a truly wide-ranging exploration, with beliefs and magic systems from every continent discussed.

Bob and Archie are back for book two of the fun-filled Koalas in Capes series. Our heroes are hoping to have a day off at the annual Pawtonia Music Festival but alas, it is not to be, as there are rogue robot spiders on the loose! Quickly it becomes clear that their arch enemy Dr Colossus the supervillain ostrich is behind the evil plan to hypnotise everyone and trick them into donating their prized possessions to the fictious Baby Bunnyz Orphanage.

Set in a South Asian-inspired world, The Ivory Key opens in a tangle of family and political tensions. Told from the point-of-view of four royal siblings: Vira, the self-doubting queen who needs to return magic to her failing kingdom; Riya, the sister who defected to a band of vigilantes; Ronak, the brother who wants to run away; and Kaleb, the brother who was framed for their mother’s death.

Kurara has spent her entire life as a servant aboard the Midori, a flying ship serving the military elite of the Mikoshiman Empire, a world comprised of floating cities. Kurara has also been hiding a secret, she possesses a unique ability: the power to make folded paper figures come to life. When the Midori is attacked Kurara’s secret is revealed as a highly valued power throughout the empire and she is forced into a perilous escape.

Whirby is a robot who loves school. His favourite subject is gadgeteering because he gets to compete in bot battles. However, Whirby gets so excited the night before a contest that he can’t stop thinking about it. Instead of plugging himself in and recharging his battery, he practices all night long. But the following day his battery runs out – how will he compete in the contest?

Daria has transformed her bedroom into an unlikely secret sanctuary for a group of tiny living dinosaurs. She is convinced she has everything under control until the creatures begin multiplying and escaping into the neighbourhood. With the help of her loyal friends, Oleg and Rory, Daria must track down the runaway dinosaurs before a nosy professor uncovers her extraordinary secret.

Hercules Braver (modern-day son of Zeus) returns in the fourth instalment of Vaughan’s quick-paced, light-hearted tales of a young boy struggling to live a normal life and being the son of a Greek god at the same time.