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The Geomancer's Compass
This futuristic novel has all the elements YA fiction needs to draw critical attention from reviewers, and to elicit award-nominations. It is thematically interesting, culturally diverse, well-written, futuristic, and very funny.
Set in the year 2021, this fantastic YA novel explores the tension between a young woman's future building infrastructure for Augmented Reality, and the commitment she makes to her dying grandmother to honour ancient Chinese magic. The Geomancer's Compass imagines a world in the near future while exploring the Chinese immigrant experience and the expanding, elastic and shifting nature of reality.
Set in the year 2021, this fantastic YA novel explores the tension between a young woman's future building infrastructure for Augmented Reality, and the commitment she makes to her dying grandmother to honour ancient Chinese magic. The Geomancer's Compass imagines a world in the near future while exploring the Chinese immigrant experience and the expanding, elastic and shifting nature of reality.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published September 11, 2012
1 person is currently reading
425 people want to read
About the author
Melissa Hardy
14 books9 followersI was born and raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Beginning in 1966 and for the next thirty years my father, novelist William Hardy, worked for the Cherokee Historical Association, first as Director of the symphonic drama Unto These Hills, which chronicles the events leading up to the Trail of Tears, the removal of the Cherokee to Oklahoma, then as its Producer. As a result I spent seven summers on the Qualla boundary, the reservation of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation. My 1995 short story collection, Constant Fire (Oberon) was set there and draws heavily on the history and mythology of that area.
Viking Press published my first novel, A Cry of Bees, in 1970 when I was a mere 17 years old. Don't ask me how that happened. Cry of Bees is the story of a little girl growing up in a Southern Indiana boarding house full of decrepit old ladies. It's definitely what I'd call black humor. Out of print for many years, it can be found in most libraries and occasionally online at such sites as www.abebooks.com.
In the twenty-five year publishing hiatus which followed, I:
• took a BA in English with Honors in Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• learned French, Latin, Italian, Greek and German
• earned an MA and All-But-Dissertation for a PhD in post classical history at the University of Toronto's Centre for Medieval Studies, writing on that fourth-century, neoclassical powerhouse, Athanasius of Alexandria.
• was awarded many scholarships, among them the Dumbarton Oakes Fellowship, Massey College Junior Fellowship, AAUW Fellowship, Connaught Fellowship and a Fullbright to Rome which I didn't take, but, hey, they gave it to me!
• became a Catholic and lapsed
• became an Italiophile and never lapsed
• suffered catastrophic illness in the form of Guillian-Barre Syndrome, which left me paralyzed and in hospital for a very long time
• learned to walk again
• raised three kids (Sabrina, Alice and William Miller), and acquired two more (Shanah and Raina Trevenna) when I married Ken Trevenna, a professional musician and Executive Director of Operations at the Ontario Institute of Audio Recording Technology (OIART). Ken hales from Northern Ontario, which provided me with both the inspiration and the setting for The Uncharted Heart and Surface Rights.
• worked as a journalist and business communicator, logging twenty one years and counting as the Director of Communications for the London and St. Thomas Association of REALTORS®.
In 1994 I won the Journey Prize for the most accomplished work to appear in a Canadian literary journal for Long Man the River, an excerpt from Constant Fire, originally published in Exile, then republished in both The Journey Prize Anthology (McClelland & Stewart) and Best Canadian Short Stories (Oberon, 1994). That was a blast. I was also nominated for the finalist for the Western Magazine Awards Program for fiction for The Ice Woman and my work has been anthologized in Best American Short Stories of 1999, Best American Short Stories of 2001, Houghton-Mifflin and The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, St. Martin's Press.
My most recent collection of short stories, The Uncharted Heart, is set in the Porcupine region of Northern Ontario around the time of the Gold Rush and was published in 2001 by Knopf Canada. It received the Canadian Authors Association Jubilee Award. My most recent novel is Broken Road, set against the historical backdrop of the events leading up to the Trail of Tears. It was published in October 2009 by Exile Editions.
The Geomancer’s Compass, published in 2012 by Tundra, is a young adult novel in which ancient Chinese cosmology and Augmented Reality work in conjunction to lay a generations-long curse.
Surface Rights, slated for publication with Dundurn Press in December 2013, is a contemporary novel about a middle-aged woman who travels to the family cottage to scatter the ashes of her husband, father and twin sister, onl
Viking Press published my first novel, A Cry of Bees, in 1970 when I was a mere 17 years old. Don't ask me how that happened. Cry of Bees is the story of a little girl growing up in a Southern Indiana boarding house full of decrepit old ladies. It's definitely what I'd call black humor. Out of print for many years, it can be found in most libraries and occasionally online at such sites as www.abebooks.com.
In the twenty-five year publishing hiatus which followed, I:
• took a BA in English with Honors in Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• learned French, Latin, Italian, Greek and German
• earned an MA and All-But-Dissertation for a PhD in post classical history at the University of Toronto's Centre for Medieval Studies, writing on that fourth-century, neoclassical powerhouse, Athanasius of Alexandria.
• was awarded many scholarships, among them the Dumbarton Oakes Fellowship, Massey College Junior Fellowship, AAUW Fellowship, Connaught Fellowship and a Fullbright to Rome which I didn't take, but, hey, they gave it to me!
• became a Catholic and lapsed
• became an Italiophile and never lapsed
• suffered catastrophic illness in the form of Guillian-Barre Syndrome, which left me paralyzed and in hospital for a very long time
• learned to walk again
• raised three kids (Sabrina, Alice and William Miller), and acquired two more (Shanah and Raina Trevenna) when I married Ken Trevenna, a professional musician and Executive Director of Operations at the Ontario Institute of Audio Recording Technology (OIART). Ken hales from Northern Ontario, which provided me with both the inspiration and the setting for The Uncharted Heart and Surface Rights.
• worked as a journalist and business communicator, logging twenty one years and counting as the Director of Communications for the London and St. Thomas Association of REALTORS®.
In 1994 I won the Journey Prize for the most accomplished work to appear in a Canadian literary journal for Long Man the River, an excerpt from Constant Fire, originally published in Exile, then republished in both The Journey Prize Anthology (McClelland & Stewart) and Best Canadian Short Stories (Oberon, 1994). That was a blast. I was also nominated for the finalist for the Western Magazine Awards Program for fiction for The Ice Woman and my work has been anthologized in Best American Short Stories of 1999, Best American Short Stories of 2001, Houghton-Mifflin and The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, St. Martin's Press.
My most recent collection of short stories, The Uncharted Heart, is set in the Porcupine region of Northern Ontario around the time of the Gold Rush and was published in 2001 by Knopf Canada. It received the Canadian Authors Association Jubilee Award. My most recent novel is Broken Road, set against the historical backdrop of the events leading up to the Trail of Tears. It was published in October 2009 by Exile Editions.
The Geomancer’s Compass, published in 2012 by Tundra, is a young adult novel in which ancient Chinese cosmology and Augmented Reality work in conjunction to lay a generations-long curse.
Surface Rights, slated for publication with Dundurn Press in December 2013, is a contemporary novel about a middle-aged woman who travels to the family cottage to scatter the ashes of her husband, father and twin sister, onl
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 25, 2012
The Geomancer’s Compass has an interesting enough premise, namely to lift a curse from a Canadian-Chinese family using an ancient device called a Geomancer’s compass. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t do much with the premise.
The protagonist, teenager Miranda is mostly unlikeable. She is smart and somewhat nerdy, but mostly an annoying germaphobe who is constantly petulant and bratty. She also has surprising gaps in her knowledge, particularly given her Chinese ancestry and very traditional family. Concepts like “feng shui” are completely unknown to her, even though they seem like something that most 16 year olds would have at least heard of. Her dyslexic cousin Brian is a much more likeable character.
The solution to the “mystery” they are supposed to solve pretty much falls into their laps, even though they seem to think that their “sleuthing” played a part into it. A few tidbits of information about the Canadian-chinese experience are dropped in and the characters complete lack of knowledge of concepts like feng shui are excuses to present a not-very-deep explanation of the concept. The geomancer’s compass itself is never really explained and remains simply an odd magical device almost tangential to the plot.
The book is a quick read. None of the characters have any real depth and are mostly defined by their various quirks and medical conditions. There are a lot better young adult novels out there than this one. Not recommended.
I received an advance copy of this book.
The protagonist, teenager Miranda is mostly unlikeable. She is smart and somewhat nerdy, but mostly an annoying germaphobe who is constantly petulant and bratty. She also has surprising gaps in her knowledge, particularly given her Chinese ancestry and very traditional family. Concepts like “feng shui” are completely unknown to her, even though they seem like something that most 16 year olds would have at least heard of. Her dyslexic cousin Brian is a much more likeable character.
The solution to the “mystery” they are supposed to solve pretty much falls into their laps, even though they seem to think that their “sleuthing” played a part into it. A few tidbits of information about the Canadian-chinese experience are dropped in and the characters complete lack of knowledge of concepts like feng shui are excuses to present a not-very-deep explanation of the concept. The geomancer’s compass itself is never really explained and remains simply an odd magical device almost tangential to the plot.
The book is a quick read. None of the characters have any real depth and are mostly defined by their various quirks and medical conditions. There are a lot better young adult novels out there than this one. Not recommended.
I received an advance copy of this book.
August 16, 2013
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In the year 2021, virtual reality has become the norm with people often injuring themselves while walking around in the physical world and looking at the virtual one.
But that isn't really the problem for Miranda and her family. Their problem is more ancient.
Her family is cursed by an ancestor who'd been murdered and then buried somewhere very wrong. Everyone in their family for the last couple generations has suffered and Miranda is believed to be the key to finding the remains of the ancestor and bringing his bones to a more peaceful resting place.
Unfortunately, she has to bring her ADHD cousin along with her for the quest.
Final thoughts: Not even going into how this is for a limited audience of Canadian-Chinese, or even the long, drawn-out, in-depth discussions of both technology and Chinese traditions, this is a poorly written book. Miranda is flat and annoying. She whines over every little thing and is just basically unlikeable. Without Brian, the whole book would have been a waste. Too much of it was unbelievable (an ancestor with very little tech experience manages to become a ghostly avatar in a VR computer program years after his death???), the rest was just badly written, and the ending just arrived with no real closure. Avoid.
In the year 2021, virtual reality has become the norm with people often injuring themselves while walking around in the physical world and looking at the virtual one.
But that isn't really the problem for Miranda and her family. Their problem is more ancient.
Her family is cursed by an ancestor who'd been murdered and then buried somewhere very wrong. Everyone in their family for the last couple generations has suffered and Miranda is believed to be the key to finding the remains of the ancestor and bringing his bones to a more peaceful resting place.
Unfortunately, she has to bring her ADHD cousin along with her for the quest.
Final thoughts: Not even going into how this is for a limited audience of Canadian-Chinese, or even the long, drawn-out, in-depth discussions of both technology and Chinese traditions, this is a poorly written book. Miranda is flat and annoying. She whines over every little thing and is just basically unlikeable. Without Brian, the whole book would have been a waste. Too much of it was unbelievable (an ancestor with very little tech experience manages to become a ghostly avatar in a VR computer program years after his death???), the rest was just badly written, and the ending just arrived with no real closure. Avoid.
October 30, 2012
I was beginning to put two and two together - curse, disgruntled ancestor, missing bones. "Let me get this straight; your theory is that Qianfu's ghost is hounding us from an unmarked grave somewhere on the Prairies? That he's the one responsible for all our problems?"
"It isn't a theory," she replied. "It's a fact... Clearly he is buried in a place with very bad feng shui," A-Ma replied. "And he doesn't like it one bit."
Science fiction with roots! A family curse that has decimated the Liu family for over 100 years can only be lifted through the cooperation of brainy teenage tech guru Miranda, her bottomless pit of a severely dyslexic cousin, Brian, and the avatar of their revered grandfather's ghost who needs the 17th century geomancer's compass which was given to Miranda on the night that their grandmother A-Ma died. The Grandfather is depending upon his living grandchildren to discover the long-lost grave of his twin brother, Qianfu, who was murdered in 1908, and whose bones were stolen in 1915. Qianfu's ghost has been causing the family illness, bad luck and misfortune for years, and the only way to save the family is to dig up the bones and rebury them in a place with good feng shui -- right next to The Grandfather's grave in Vancouver. The cousins have to employ every database and online trick in the book to figure out what happened in 1908 and 1915, and where the bones of Qianfu might be located outside of Moose Jaw, Canada. For this, they make use of Miranda's recent internship at a tech company, and the military-level i-spex, or the eyeglass-sized virtual reality headsets that were a gift to all of the interns. While searching, the cousins have to deal with Miranda's near-obsession with avoiding germs and needing to find the restroom in any given location, and Brian's constant need to eat due to his hyperactivity. Their differences seem to be stumbling blocks at first, but nothing is quite what is seems in this adventurous tale. The Grandfather has warned them about how violent Qianfu's unhappy ghost has become... and that information just makes Miranda run for the nearest bathroom (with her disinfecting handi-wipes at the ready) while Brian inhales more junk food. Lots of humor in this utterly original multicultural scifi/fantasy mystery! 6th grade and up. Review copy received through LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
"It isn't a theory," she replied. "It's a fact... Clearly he is buried in a place with very bad feng shui," A-Ma replied. "And he doesn't like it one bit."
Science fiction with roots! A family curse that has decimated the Liu family for over 100 years can only be lifted through the cooperation of brainy teenage tech guru Miranda, her bottomless pit of a severely dyslexic cousin, Brian, and the avatar of their revered grandfather's ghost who needs the 17th century geomancer's compass which was given to Miranda on the night that their grandmother A-Ma died. The Grandfather is depending upon his living grandchildren to discover the long-lost grave of his twin brother, Qianfu, who was murdered in 1908, and whose bones were stolen in 1915. Qianfu's ghost has been causing the family illness, bad luck and misfortune for years, and the only way to save the family is to dig up the bones and rebury them in a place with good feng shui -- right next to The Grandfather's grave in Vancouver. The cousins have to employ every database and online trick in the book to figure out what happened in 1908 and 1915, and where the bones of Qianfu might be located outside of Moose Jaw, Canada. For this, they make use of Miranda's recent internship at a tech company, and the military-level i-spex, or the eyeglass-sized virtual reality headsets that were a gift to all of the interns. While searching, the cousins have to deal with Miranda's near-obsession with avoiding germs and needing to find the restroom in any given location, and Brian's constant need to eat due to his hyperactivity. Their differences seem to be stumbling blocks at first, but nothing is quite what is seems in this adventurous tale. The Grandfather has warned them about how violent Qianfu's unhappy ghost has become... and that information just makes Miranda run for the nearest bathroom (with her disinfecting handi-wipes at the ready) while Brian inhales more junk food. Lots of humor in this utterly original multicultural scifi/fantasy mystery! 6th grade and up. Review copy received through LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
November 29, 2012
From the get-go, Geomancer’s Compass soars with an energy that never lets up. Set in the future, two engaging, funny, phobic-ridden characters lead us on a mission to unearth the bones of a Chinese ancestor, their great uncle, whose unfortunate final resting spot, and attendant ghost, has brought curses on subsequent generations. The search takes Miranda and Brian to the underground tunnels in Moose Jaw where they learn of their great uncle’s part in Canada’s early development and his brutal murder. Along for the ride, and to help with the search, an avatar takes the shape of a wise, and wise-cracking grandfather who can’t rest easy until his twin brother receives a final burial with the appropriate feng shui. The story culminates one scary, funny and rollicking night on a golf course as a globular ghost and an elderly avatar duke it out in one King Kong of a scene, complete with a nasty Doberman and a port-o-potty. Elijah, a loveable character we meet earlier in the story, adds poignancy to the story’s end as he makes a long trip home on a bicycle in search of a more promising future. There is so some much going on here one wonders if the plot might collapse under its own weight, but Hardy deftly sustains a highly imaginative story that combines disparate times, ideas and characters into a very convincing tale and provides a whole lot of fun along the way.
November 24, 2012
The idea behind The Geomancer's Compass was right up my alley, an interesting blend of sci-fi/fantasy with historical and cultural details. I greatly enjoyed how the author mixed together traditional Chinese (and even a little bit of First Nations) customs and beliefs, stories of the Chinese immigrant experience in Victorian Saskatchewan, and futuristic technology.
In other ways, however, this novel fell a bit flat. At times, the pacing of the storyline felt a little slow and tedious. I found the main character's original utter disdain for her cultural heritage - including rude comments made during discussions with her elders - irritating and overdone. The speculative fiction elements surrounding the geomancer's compass didn't seem to come entirely together, making the ending feel rushed and underdeveloped. Overall, this was an enjoyable read, but there were parts that I found slightly irritating.
Disclaimer: I received my copy of this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program in exchange for an honest review.
In other ways, however, this novel fell a bit flat. At times, the pacing of the storyline felt a little slow and tedious. I found the main character's original utter disdain for her cultural heritage - including rude comments made during discussions with her elders - irritating and overdone. The speculative fiction elements surrounding the geomancer's compass didn't seem to come entirely together, making the ending feel rushed and underdeveloped. Overall, this was an enjoyable read, but there were parts that I found slightly irritating.
Disclaimer: I received my copy of this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program in exchange for an honest review.
July 20, 2014
Combine an ancient Chinese curse with modern virtual reality tech, and throw in the subjugation of Chinese workers at the turn of the century in Canada, and you get a sharp, well-written fantasy/sci-fi book with sparkling characters, a delightful sense of whimsy, and scary bits that will make your skin crawl. Miranda Liu discovers her Chinese-Canadian family is cursed because an ancestor’s bones lie buried incorrectly and his ghost is literally sucking the life out of them. She and her ADHD cousin, Brian, are off to find the bones, save the family, and try to keep from being arrested in the process. It is refreshing to read a YA book without romance as the cousins—Miranda with her germaphobe rigidness, and Brian with his gregarious nature and bottomless stomach, (and let’s not forget an ancestor’s ghost, appearing in avatar form) take readers on a wild ride. The plot is great, and you end up learning a lot about the history of the Chinese in Canada, without even realizing that you're being educated. Crisp, compelling, hilarious—this is a fabulous book that is hard to put down.
January 20, 2014
Melissa Hardy’s YA fantasy novel, The Geomancer’s Compass, is a nice blend of Canadian history and Chinese mythology. The short book follows two inventive Chinese-Canadian cousins on a quest to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan to recover something that is lost, and break the curse of bad luck that haunts their wealthy family.
Miranda Liu is a brilliant computer whiz and a bundle of nervous tics. At sixteen, she is on her way to making a name for herself in the world of computer generated Augmented Reality, when a frantic phone call from her mother in Vancouver brings her home. Her grandmother is dying. She gives Miranda an antique feng shui compass and a mission to save the family.
Miranda is hyper-rational and says she doesn’t believe in curses, but the evidence of her family’s bad luck is pretty hard to refute. While the Lius are very ... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
Miranda Liu is a brilliant computer whiz and a bundle of nervous tics. At sixteen, she is on her way to making a name for herself in the world of computer generated Augmented Reality, when a frantic phone call from her mother in Vancouver brings her home. Her grandmother is dying. She gives Miranda an antique feng shui compass and a mission to save the family.
Miranda is hyper-rational and says she doesn’t believe in curses, but the evidence of her family’s bad luck is pretty hard to refute. While the Lius are very ... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
April 1, 2013
When Miranda's grandmother dies, she inherits the "geomancer's compass", a mystical device that will aid her in removing the curse that has caused much strife and dysfunction within her family.
Through the device of the geomancer's compass, the author examines a Chinese-American family from familial expectations and traditional values, through moving into and forward to the future. This well written novel shows how the relationships that Miranda develops with her cousin and deceased grandfather allow her to find herself. In many ways this is a coming of age novel with serious, mystical overtones. Characters are fleshed out and the plot moves quickly. Teen girls and boys alike will become engrossed in the mystery, action and fantasy. This book was a one sitting read; couldn't put it down.
Through the device of the geomancer's compass, the author examines a Chinese-American family from familial expectations and traditional values, through moving into and forward to the future. This well written novel shows how the relationships that Miranda develops with her cousin and deceased grandfather allow her to find herself. In many ways this is a coming of age novel with serious, mystical overtones. Characters are fleshed out and the plot moves quickly. Teen girls and boys alike will become engrossed in the mystery, action and fantasy. This book was a one sitting read; couldn't put it down.
January 17, 2014
The year is 2021 and Miranda Liu has an internship at Canboard, that has involved her with the rapidly developing new technology of Augmented Reality: all high tech and cutting edge. Then she is called home to her grandmother's deathbed and receives a family heirloom, a geomancer's compass and a mission: with her annoying and dyslexic cousin, Brian, find a way to lift the old curse on their Chinese-Canadian family. If not: disaster. Can they lift the curse, using the compass and old Chinese magic and the new technology of Augmented and Virtual Reality in time to save their family? I liked this sometimes funny and clever YA adult mystery/adventure/coming of age novel.
February 16, 2014
This was a quick enjoyable read. I liked that the two teenage characters were cousins and there was no instant romance to deal with. The author manages to work in some bits of Canadian history which was interesting. This is the second book I've read which dealt with the steam tunnels, I may have to go do some research. I don't know if there will be a sequel, but I will check back every so often to see. I'd love to see what happens when they get older and what adventures the compass could lead them into.
November 30, 2015
Lots of fun with a main that isn't the best person and begins to realize it. With ghosts and Chinese traditions and a few funny bits too.
I believe this is a standalone but should the author write more, I'd read more.
I believe this is a standalone but should the author write more, I'd read more.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews