Excerpt from The Builder

I announced last night that I have finished the first draft of my Camp Nanowrimo novel! 

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme. Read the rules at Books and a Beat. Anyone can play along!

I am currently reading The Builder (The Young Ancients Book 1) by P.S. Power. It is a young adult fantasy/magic book and has been quite interesting so far. Lots of effort has been put into explaining the ‘science’ of the magical systems in this world. I have been surprised a few times by the use of modern language in what would normally be a historical setting. No attempt has been made to find historical euphemisms for words like bathroom and sex. The main character is not a naive  eleven-year-old, but a scholarship student of three years, I would guess around fifteen years old. He is a hard-working student with a sometimes snarky tone:

Count Thomson. Freaking hell. The guy wasn’t just a giant, but one of Kolb’s best fighters. If he decided to beat Tor to death, not only could he get away with it—legally since he was a Count—but there was nothing the much smaller Tor could do to even slow him down, much less stop him.

P.S. Power, The Builder

[*update – I would not classify this as YA. It is at least mature/upper YA.]

Tor Baker is a builder. A person that creates the magic that makes the kingdom of Noram function.

At least he will be one, if his first project hasn’t failed miserably, and if he manages not to be expelled from school for taking unscheduled time off to try it.

What Tor doesn’t know is that his innocent little project has caught the attention of some very powerful people, and the world he thought he knew his whole life, is a lie.

Between his own innocence, and a world filled with royalty and power, the humble little baker’s boy from the backwoods is going to have to scramble if he doesn’t want it to all fall apart, or end up in the gallows for making a few simple mistakes.