Karl Schroeder’s five-book Virga series was a spectacular mash-up of popular trends and memes: buccaneers, the courts of Europe, steampunk, AI — all dropped into a breathtakingly visual, theoretically viable science fictional universe. The books are smart and fun with a great cast of characters — and, although the series wasn’t expressly written for a young audience, its sense of adventure, eclecticism and familiarity gained Schroeder an enthusiastic YA following.