It’s up to four Earthly siblings to vanquish a ruler tyrannizing otherworldly islands in Akers’ YA debut and series launch.

The Ollivaros family, late for a flight, sprints through an Atlanta airport. As teenager Nachton, younger sisters Amélie and Cécilie, and baby brother Ewan run through Gate 3, they enter the mysterious interdimensional portal right next to it. The kids land in Overtwixt, a group of nilands (floating islands) connected by bridges—an entire realm that sits between parallel worlds. “The Guide,” a centaur-like “centman,” greets the kids and insists that, as humans, they have the ability to oppose this world’s only other human, the Vizier, who’s seized power in Overtwixt. The siblings choose their “paths” from options that the Guide gives them, each with a corresponding role to play and quest to complete. Amélie, for example, as the Empress, “must build trust and loyalty” among the various races in Overtwixt, from the gnomen to the merpeople. The Vizier, meanwhile, is destroying bridges to trap people in this world, including the bridge to the Ollivaros children’s home. This opening series installment teems with impressive worldbuilding: Akers introduces the nilands and supporting characters without saturating the narrative in details. It helps that nearly all of the Overtwixt beings are recognizable fantasy types, including the horselike eqmen, female unicorns, and dragonlike drachmen. The kids have striking personalities; energetic 5-year-old Ewan has a distinctive speech impediment (calling someone named Berserker “Bazooka”), and foolhardy Nachton incessantly complains about being a not-so-active “Loremaster.” While action scenes occasionally crop up, this story primarily consists of Nachton and the others plotting to confront the cloaked-in-black Vizier, who makes relatively few appearances. Still, the exciting final act concludes with a worthy cliffhanger. Lewis’ sketchy illustrations boldly define myriad individuals; most of the images are akin to profile pics.

A huge, colorful cast gives this superb fantasy kickoff a hearty boost.

This impressive debut novel—the first installment of the Gryphens duology—is a highly palatable blend of alien invasion thriller, apocalyptic fiction, and military sci-fi.

Set in modern-day America, the story revolves largely around Kara Dunn, a former video game developer who is now teaching computer programming at a university and finishing up her doctorate degree. But when she and her housemate, Viviane, are attacked while jogging in a park—an assault Kara was warned of by a mysterious cellphone call minutes before it happened—her entire life is turned upside down, and everything she believed to be true is suddenly put into question. Soon after the attempted assault, the government essentially kidnaps and coerces her into joining the Air Force to work on a top-secret project known as Prometheus. Now based in the Nevada desert, Dunn soon realizes that much of her work on a space combat video game called “Rampant” is the foundation for the Air Force’s covert training of pilots to do battle with an alien orbital attack, which was prophesied by a wounded alien the government captured decades earlier. But that’s just the beginning of an audacious storyline that includes more than a few bombshell plot twists. Everything about this novel is polished to a shine, particularly the tightly plotted narrative. Although some of the middle chapters drag a bit as the author attempts to simultaneously move forward several plotlines, sci-fi fans will find this page-turner utterly readable.

Powered by a courageous and endearing heroine at world’s end, like Ender’s Game for the 21st century.