Carve the Mark, Veronica Roth’s next book, is set for publication next January.  However, eager readers can get a preview of Chapter 7 here.

The series is being promoted as science fiction rather than dystopia, so the tone of the series will likely be quite different. However, the preview suggests quite a few parallels with Divergent: an orphan female narrator born with a special gift that makes her both powerful and vulnerable, fancy knife work, and a brother who’s a really nasty piece of work.

And no doubt the scores of Allegiant Abhorers will be relieved to hear that this is intended to be a two-part series rather than a trilogy.  What will be interesting to me is if this series proves to be as strongly rooted in psychology as Divergent was.  Good science fiction usually starts with at least some grounding in science, and I am hoping the behavioral neuroscience will be front and center again.

Update: Another article provides much the same information, but adds the tidbit that Ms. Roth has developed a “fascination” with North Korea, the familial political dynasty and what it means for the son to grow up with a dictator for a father.  Then she goes on to say North Korea “was not a direct line of inspiration” for her new series.

Given that she had an “obsession” with personality testing prior to writing Divergent, and the Factions wound up as perfectly analogous to the Big Five Factors–Ms Roth’s claimed lack of planning notwithstanding–I’d recommend reading up on North Korea before starting Carve the Mark.

I recently had the privilege of chaperoning a Mary Baldwin College field ornithology May term course in Costa Rica. Among the interesting critters I got to see and photograph  were real-life basilisks in the wild. I even got to see a few do their two-legged run across the water. No one got petrified, but they are fascinating creatures.

DC Comics recently announced a new series of young adult novels, penned by four top names in young adult literature. The novels will feature four of the comics giant’s leading characters: Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman and Catwoman.  No doubt the company hopes to create some synergy between the ongoing wave of YA publications and the current, well-received TV comics characters TV series like The Flash and Supergirl. While translating superhero fiction out of visual media is always tricky, they no doubt have assembled a top-notch writing team.  I am personally looking forward to Matt de la Pena’s Superman.  And of course, Harry Potter is like a superhero in many ways,

These books won’t appear until 2017, so there is plenty of time left for anticipation.  In the meantime, here is a recommended list of Matt de la Pena novels to read in the meantime.  Note that The Living. previously discussed here on Hogpro, tops the list.  And I need to figure out a way to get the Superfriends theme song out of my head.