In the interest of ch-ch-ch-ch-changes I’m trying something new, well I tried it before (twice), and try to bring out some of what I enjoy about Twitter to my blog. Here is an list of things that I’ve found via Twitter over the last few days. Please comment if found something you didn’t already know.
Article on the Dying Earth Genre
You can’t move in Hollywood for people clutching screenplays about the apocalypse. If you’re in a café out there there’s probably someone writing one next to you right now. These days there’s some kind of cinematographer’s fetish for destroying landmark buildings and tearing up natural monuments. So maybe because of this rise in the popularity of post-apocalyptic media, or because a younger genre audience might have little knowledge of the fictions of yesteryear, I wanted to use my first posting on Jeff’s blog to write a little more about the Dying Earth genre. Because it’s pretty cool.
link: Ecstatic Days » Blog Archive » Thoughts on the Dying Earth genre
Mark Charan Newton has been interviewed and reviewed on NR – and is it a genre that’s on the rise?
Rhian Davies reviews Three Weeks to Say Goodbye by C. J Box
It’s a ‘chase’ novel, but then, the title says it all, delivering what you expect on the label. It was as addictive as food in terms of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. It left me wondering about adoption procedures in the US and how their laws impact. Not a novel of depth psychologically, alas, but a page-turner to meet the best. You can’t help but be compelled to read more, to the very last page. And what an original premise.
link: IT’S A CRIME! (OR A MYSTERY…): Three Weeks to Say Goodbye – C. J. Box
Not sure it’s me but then how many thriller grip you until you have no choice but to nod off and carry on reading when you wake up?
Blog Reviewer’s Navel-Gazing but very interesting none the less!
Book Reviewing in a Digital World: #FollowReader Recap November 4, 2009 by Charlotte Abbott How do major book reviewers select books, and how much has social media and other technology changed the way they discover new titles? Do print galleys, pre-pub reviews and trade shows matter any more, as digital tools expand and print review outlets continue to shrink?
link: Book Reviewing in a Digital World: #FollowReader Recap « Follow The Reader
The thing is that as a reader I have to find books somewhere – yes I get a lot of contact from publicists and other bloggers and twitter so I’m awash with books but then there are always going to be books that I’d probably like if someone told me about them.
SF Signal’s MIND MELD: Speculative Fiction Books That Should Be Assigned in School
Q: If you were teaching a high school literature class, which science fiction or fantasy books first published within the past 10 years would you include on your syllabus?
SF Signal: MIND MELD: Speculative Fiction Books That Should Be Assigned in School
Really? Very interesting choices…. not sure they’d be mine though. Anyone else got any choices?
Review from The Times of Black Water Rising by Attica Locke (Serpent’s Tail)
In 1964, a young woman, Kitty Genovese, was murdered near her New York apartment. The killing was seen by many people — estimated at between 12 and 38 — but no one tried to help her, or indeed, until much later, report the event to the police.
link: Marcel Berlins reviews two crime novels and one dissection of the genre – Times Online
Something different in crime and what I like, the exploration around it.
io9 links to Keeping the Door’s interview with Greg Egan
Keeping The Door has a great interview with Greg Egan, in which he talks about his next two books, and why artificial intelligence may not be as close as you think — and that may be a good thing.
link: Greg Egan Talks Upcoming Books And The Potential Downsides Of Artificial Intelligence – Books – io9
Great insight into the “controversial” novel by WFA Winner Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan
She was inspired to write Tender Morsels, she said, “when something down in my guts responded to the way the Grimm brothers had changed Caroline Stahl’s story when they rewrote it”. “I was annoyed with the moral message they forced the story to carry,” she said. “Although my novel doesn’t necessarily offer any more hope for the women characters than theirs does, at least it’s less adamant than Snow White and Rose Red that the women’s oppression is a good and necessary thing.”
link: Controversial teenage novel wins World Fantasy award | Books | guardian.co.uk
TheBookBag’s review of the excellent It’s a Don’s Life by Mary Beard (Profile)
rammed with speculations, she fascinates on matters such as what Romans might have worn under their togas, Tacitus on his father-in-law, Enoch Powell’s apparent failure to think through the full implications his classical quotation from the sixth book on the Aeneid about rivers of blood and even did St Valentine really exist? She shows her concern over issues, from menstruating Kenyan schoolgirls being exposed to exploitation from multinational tampon manufacturers, to the condition of Guantanamo detainees. She deserves applause for her vigorous support of Amnesty. She joins her students in protest, puts on an uncomfortable and tight fitting orange jumpsuit and rattles her tin, between lectures in the cobbled streets of Cambridge.
link: It’s A Don’s Life by Mary Beard – TheBookbag.co.uk book review
I’m about halfway through it and there is a lot to digest which is why the promised review isn’t up yet. Her blog articles are brilliantly mixed and insightful – if you’re interested in current affairs you should read this to see how little we’ve changed…
Jeffrey Brown explores the shifting world of book publishing, and examines how technology and readers are changing the industry
It’s basically, “come for the books, stay for the tankless water heater” strategy. And I’m not sure it’s going to work. The problem for the industry at large is, if these wars take, and consumers really start to see — start to shift from their independent booksellers — and booksellers are telling us that that’s not likely to happen, because their customer base is different — then the publishing industry needs to look at its pricing strategies, and rethink how they sell books to — throughout the food chain.
link: Kindle, Price War Changing the Way We Read | Online NewsHour | Nov. 2, 2009 | PBS
As an ebook reader I’m really passionate about seeing this develop but I don’t want to see bookshops disappear or publishers – and hopefully there is room for all sorts of options as long as people read, which is the most important thing.
Maxine interviews Don Bartlett, crime fiction translator
At CrimeFest in May, the Euro Crime representatives (Maxine pictured left, Norman and myself*) got to spend a few minutes with the very affable Don Bartlett, perhaps best known to crime fiction readers as the translator of Jo Nesbo’s and K O Dahl’s books, from the Norwegian to English.
link: Euro Crime: Don Bartlett: Interview of a Translator (part 1)
An interview with a different perspective!
Five Authors: One Event – Forbidden Planet, London
FORBIDDEN PLANET and Gollancz Publishing are delighted to be hosting an open-format, multi-author signing. Five authors, one event – at 6pm on Thursday November 26th, Forbidden Planet 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London will be playing host to: – • David Devereux • Paul McAuley • Justina Robson • Adam Roberts • Chris Wooding
link: Five Authors: One Event @ Forbidden Planet
Anyone else going? I have the day off and my tickets – so excited!!
Peter James signing in Newport, Bristol and Cardiff
2nd December @ 6.30pm Cardiff Central Library, The Hayes, Cardiff. Tickets £2. To reserve tickets please call: 02920 780920
link: Midas PR – Best-selling crime author Peter James on tour
I need to get tickets I think…
Penguin accused of ‘flogging’ its past
Penguin has been accused of “flogging its illustrious history” in an article appearing in today’s Guardian. According to the author, TLS contributor and academic Anthony Cummins
link: Penguin accused of ‘flogging’ its past | theBookseller.com
Everyone knows the publisher and imprints are brands right? I have an Royal Shakespeare Society Mug – doesn’t mean that I don’t think that they do bloody brilliant Shakespeare!
Walker of Worlds reviews The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert VS Redick (Gollancz)
Some of the other things I found I enjoyed with The Red Wolf Conspiracy were the more typical fantasy elements. Magic is practiced and spells are imparted with great effort involved, while the hint at another world elsewhere is made clear when relating to one particular character. We also have many creatures, from the tiny Ixchel to the huge Augrong, that populate this world which Redick has created. We also have ‘woken’ animals, those that have gained sentience, and although this is interesting, it does raise some questions on how and why this happens. Still, the world of The Red Wolf Conspiracy is truly amazing and has much to admire.
Walker of Worlds: Review | The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert VS Redick (Gollancz)
I’ve read so many good reviews of this book… where are those extra hours when you need them?
House of Books? Dominoes?
And I’m finally…
That’s just a couple of days worth of highlights from Twitter….
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