Lately, whenever I visit the bookstore (got to do it while this endangered species still exists!), I’m struck by how completely fantasy has taken over the Young Adult section. For years I dismissed the YA fantasy boom as at best, a fad, at worst, a shameless attempt to cash in while the holly and phoenix feather wand was hot! Okay, I admit it, I was wrong. Without a doubt, the YA shelves are now the destination for fantasy fans of all ages, leaving the “traditional” fantasy shelves as a sort of ghetto for pervy elf-fanciers and Robert Jordan fans (as if there were a difference). I figured it was time for me to get with the times and see what this new crew of scribes was up to.

I gravitated to a book called Flora Segunda by Ysabeau Wilce, not because of the overly verbose subtitle (”Being the Magickal Mishaps of a Girl of Spirit, Her Glass-Gazing Sidekick, Two Ominous Butlers (One Blue), a House with Eleven Thousand Rooms, and a Red Dog”), but because I’d heard that it takes place in an alternate San Francisco, my home (I live “South of the Slot,” where Flora gets mugged!). Also, at 400 pages, I could read it in public and still feel like a “grown up.”

The first paragraph grabbed me:

Blasted heck, I’m supposed to be writing my Catorcena speech, where I am supposed to be celebrating the fabulousness of my House, the glory of my family, the fantasticness of my future. But I can’t think of what to write because Crackpot hall isn’t fabulous, and the Fydraaca family is not much glorious anymore and my future is hardly going to be fantastic. In my speech, I’m supposed to write the thruth.

From there, Wilce shares some truth about Flora’s world, a sort of benevolent military dictatorship where the once noble nation of Califa is in a compromised state, at the mercy of a fearsome and monstrous race of “Huitzels,” who worship a hummingbird demon and practice human sacrifice, eek! Flora herself was born into a dying aristocratic house (literally), her mother being the top general in the warlord’s army. It’s an intense and creepy world, and a very compelling backdrop against which young flora’s rebellion can begin.

Despite the epic setting, and a plot that will take Flora face-to-face with every major player in that world, the story is surprisingly intimate. As is proper for the first novel in a series, Flora never does get around to saving the world (although there’s no doubt she’s eager to!), but rather just barely manages to dig her self out of a hole of her own making. Because of this structure, we never do learn quite as much about the goings on of Califa and Huitzel as we might like, but as volume 2 is recently released, I’m eager to return for more.

The most compelling part of Wilce’s world: the houses. Specifically, the Four Great Houses, of which Flora’s is one. These houses are living things which manifest as a Butler, a genie-like being who is both servant and master of these magical places. Meeting her house’s Butler for the first time gets the story rolling, and it is the Butlers, after Flora herself, who make Flora Segunda a memorable read. I’m not sure if Wilce’s going to take it there, but there is a bit of a Peter Pan and Wendy relationship between Flora and her Butler. Will their “kissing” lead to more, or would the Butler’s role as a family head make that somewhat incestuous? Anyway, there’s always fan fic to fill in the gaps.

On to Flora herself. She’s a real firecracker of a girl, with curly red hair, a bit of a temper and a few extra pounds. She’s also slated to join the military, although she’d rather be a swashbuckling ranger like her hero Nini Mo (minor irksome element #1, Flora invokes Nini Mo more often than Brainy Smurf name drops Papa Smurf! “Nini Mo always says…”). Definitely not your typical fantasy heroine, but at the same time, Wilce makes her feel genuine enough that she doesn’t become “not your typical fantasy heroine! (TM)” I like her. She’s a good egg.

Wilce’s prose is witty and fun, with heavy doses of made up words and unorthodox sentences. There are a few swashbuckling moments when I would have tradded some snappy prose for snappy pacing, but that’s only because I was eager to find out how Flora would extricate herself from certain doom.

The only other nitpick I have is in the balance between the adult world and childhood. Flora’s world is filled with death and grisly details, and Flora herself is a very mature young lady. What doesn’t quite work for me is how childish the adults sometimes act. Her Poppy I’ll forgive seeing as he’s mad, but the scene with the Warlord, as well as a few other encounters with grown ups, feel phony. The great exception is Flora’s mom, who is still largely mysterious, but what we see of her paints a very true picture of one burdened by responsibility and distant from familial love.

If you’re looking for a ripping yarn with equal dashes of military, magic and moxie, Flora Segunda satisfies. Volume 2, Flora’s Dare, is also out now.

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