in addition to starcross, and forever rose, another sequel just out this hols is tom becker's lifeblood (also called, on some websites, "darkside 2," though i didn't think, when i read darkside, that the premise and characters would support the continuation of a whole series.) still, i enjoyed the first darkside, certainly more skulduggery pleasant and more than i will ever care for tunnels, which people keep raving about but is very nearly unreadable. (the story is interesting enough, but you have never seen such truly abominable prose, the sort of thing that can only lead to pandemic putting-out of eyes. it took me two days to read because it was unbearable at more than a few pages at a time, and i had to keep putting the book down for deepbreathing. and i couldn't bring myself to blog about it then for fear of saying something savage. did these people not have an editor? vanity presses are not bloody worth it for the suffering you inflict. a publishing house has real editorial staff. /end rant.)

i would quite like to see the next two books of rick riordan's percy jackson series soon. starcross, incidentally, is rumoured to be followed by a third book, working title mothstorm.

and i mention also, though this isn't a series book, that there is a new konigsburg out, called the mysterious edge of the heroic world, and goodness knows we can do with another konigsburg, i'm dying for want of intellectually precocious teenagers in fiction.