Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

Karen Thompson Walker imagines a new kind of ecological disaster in Age of Miracles. Instead of earthquakes, a group of Californians--and the rest of the world--are noticing that days are getting longer. The earth is slowing resulting in famine, gravity sickness, disruption of the magnetic fields, and radiation poisoning.

Amidst the disaster, Walker portrays the ordinary travails and triumphs of a twelve-year-old girl, Julia. Julia has noticed that the calamity has also affected relationships with her friends and family. Once popular, she is now the odd girl out who desperately wants to be noticed by the cool boy on the bus, Seth Moreno.

As the days and nights grow longer, everything is thrown into chaos. The children have later and later school start times. Some go off the clock and live in "real time" communities.

This novel definitely made me appreciate the smaller things in life. At one point, Julia and Seth collect the last few blades of grass in the neighborhood. Sunlight, birds, fresh fruit are small "miracles" that are only noticed when they disappear.

This startling debut that raises many questions will interest both adults and teenagers.

Something Magic This Way Comes ed. Martin Greenberg

Something Magic This Way Comes ed. Martin H. Greenberg.

All of the short stories in this collection have the central theme of magic. Some are haunting, "Still Life, with Cats" (Kristine Kathryn Rusch) and "Houdini's Mirror"(Russell Davis) while others verge on the comical with feminist overtones, "Angel in the Cabbages," (Fran LaPlace).

While the magic isn't new (fairies or parallel universes), the circumstances are contemporary. In the best stories the main characters use magic as a transformative force. A jaded war correspondent gains a new perspective when he has a brush with magic in "Still Life, With Cats." An older man with dementia finds a way to convene with his dead wife in "Houdini's Mirror."

In "Winds of Change," (Linda A.B. Davis) a young girl, whose body has been ravaged by disease, saves the town by exhibiting a rare talent--the power to call the wind. In the short story, "In a DarkWood, Dreaming" (Esther Friesner), a boy saves his brother from gangs by calling upon a hunter god, Oxossi. Unfortunately, the hunter god requires "one life for another life."

In "Something Virtual This Way Comes" (Laura Resnick) a woman, who is frustrated by the gremlins in her computer is suprised to learn they can speak to her.

Less successful offerings are "Tears of Gold"(Paul Crilley), "Star Cats"(Charles Edgar Quinn), and "The Thing in the Woods" (Harry Turtledove).