John Stephens, "Age of Fury"

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The kids who were handed a fat fantasy paperback at the right age did not read it so much as move into it, and they are adults now with the sequels still outstanding in their heads. Stephens writes that kind of book - the enormous, plot-dense, siblings-against-an-unfair-cosmos kind - and he came to it after a career writing television, which shows in the pacing and in how little patience he has for a slow chapter. The Pasadena crowd for this skews younger and more enthusiastic than the usual weeknight author event, which changes the texture of the questions entirely: fewer people asking about process, more people asking what happens to a particular character and refusing to accept a non-answer. Vroman's has been in business since 1894 and has the oldest bookstore charter in Southern California, and the second-floor room where this happens still has the feel of a place where the staff decide the programming rather than a publisher. Free, open to anyone, seven o'clock on a Tuesday. Bring the kid who will not stop talking about the first one, or come alone and admit it is for you.