… And speaking of great Christmas presents for readers, all three His Dark Materials books by Philip Pullman – The Golden Compass, the Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass – are now available in a single volume, put out by Everyman’s Library. And look – it’s gorgeous!
The stories of King Arthur had a special magic for me when I was growing up. I have visited the castle in Cornwall that is called Tintagel several times (even though it was built in Norman times and has nothing to do with Arthur) and it was easy to imagine the Knights of the Roundtable trooping over the drawbridge. Such adventure and drama, so many characters too.
The Arthurian stories show no sign of fading away. Arthur, Guinevere, Merlin, Mordred, Morgan le Fay and Lancelot have legendary status in literature and their adventures will probably thrill readers for another thousand years. Our latest feature stretches from Sir Thomas Malory’s genre-forming Le Morte d’Arthur to various contributions from Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, Bernard Cornwell and many other.
Legendary science fiction and fantasy author Anne McCaffrey has died in Ireland after suffering a stroke. She is famous for penning the Dragonriders of Pern series. McCaffrey was the first female to win a Hugo Award for fiction, the first woman to win a Nebula Award, and achieved popular success with her novels.
McCaffrey published Dragonflight, the first book in her Dragonriders series, in 1968. Her 1978 novel, The White Dragon, was a huge commercial success. Her works displayed men and women as heroes and heroines, and dragons were a key theme.
Terry Pratchett’s Snuff is one of the fastest-selling novels in history after just three days on sale. UK booksellers have sold more than 54,000 copies of Pratchett’s 39th Discworld novel, according to The Bookseller Magazine. It’s the fastest selling hardback since Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol in 2009.
AbeBooks still has a few signed copies available.
Demand for Pratchett’s work is remarkable. The Discworld series became with The Colour of Magic in 1983 when Mrs Thatcher was the UK’s prime minister and Ronald Reagan was soon to become US president.
The fourth Gormenghast novel
Rumors of a fourth novel circulated for years but were always just rumors. In January 2010 the granddaughter of Peake’s widow found a complete manuscript that her mother, Maeve Gilmore, had written in the 1970s based on notes Mervyn Peake had written before dying at the age of 57 from Parkinson’s Disease. The results of Gilmore’s labor have since been edited and will now appear, just in time for the centenary of the author’s birth
Read more in our feature about Mervyn Peake and the Gormenghast series
My colleague Beth offers this video review of The Princess Bride by William Goldman. Apparently, a million copies of this book have been sold. In 1941 a young boy lies bedridden from pneumonia. His perpetually disheveled a father, an immigrant with broken English, shuffles into his bedroom carrying a book. The boy wants to know if it has any sports. His father says, “Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Poison. True love. Hate. Revenge. Giants. Hunters. Bad men. Good men. Beautifulest ladies. Snakes. Spiders. Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passions. Miracles.”
This video review barely does justice to this remarkable, cult book. Codex Seraphinianus by Italian artist Luigi Serafini is one of the strangest books you will ever encounter. It’s a window on a bizarre fantasy world complete with its own unique and unreadable alphabet and numerous illustrations that depict an alien world.
It was first published in two volumes by Franco Maria Ricci in 1981. The book in this AbeBooks video are from the 1983 American edition published by Abbeville – 370 pages of the Twilight Zone. There is also a 1993 single volume edition and a revised 2006 Italian edition with new illustrations – this final edition is the most affordable version. Read more about this unusual book.
Somewhere, the ghost of J.R.R. Tolkien is screaming.
Sometimes, fans go too far. Like, for instance, when they have their ears surgically split and re-sculpted to resemble the ears of fictional elves. Don’t get me wrong, I know everyone has different comfort levels with modifications, and that some people are even baffled by tattoos, but – and I hope I’m not alone here – this really gives me the heebie-jeebies.
Diana Wynne Jones, the famous children’s fantasy and science fiction author, has died at the age of 76. The Guardian has an obituary. Signed copies of her books are moderately priced.
Her intelligent and beautifully written fantasies are of seminal importance for their bridging of the gap between “traditional” children’s fantasy, as written by CS Lewis or E Nesbit, and the more politically and socially aware children’s literature of the modern period, where authors such as Jacqueline Wilson or Melvyn Burgess explicitly confront problems of divorce, drugs and delinquency.
It’s ‘Dress Up as Your Favourite Fictional Character Day’ at my eldest daughter’s elementary school this morning. She went as Lucy from the Narnia novels, specifically from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which she saw recently at the movies. Like me, she’s a big fan of C.S. Lewis. As we went into school, I saw an excellent Mad Hatter and the school librarian was the Wicked Witch of the West.
If adults had a ‘Dress Up as Your Favourite Fictional Character Day’, I would come as either Bigwig from Watership Down or Dr Who (Jon Pertwee incarnation) or Alan Breck from Kidnapped or Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird. My colleague Beth would come as either Anne of Green Gables or Enid from the graphic novel Ghost World. My fellow AbeBooks’ marketer Scott would come as Zaphod Beeblebrox from The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
Who would you go as?
**editor’s note: It has come to my attention that I may be.. *ahem*…a little late in my prediction, and many folk are already well aware of the trilogy. But they’re still great, and still a big thing! So for those of you NOT aware, read on and enjoy**
I’m a grown woman. I should know better than to stay up far past my bed time reading, by this age. The book will still be there tomorrow, and I don’t want to be exhausted. Really, it’s just a matter of discipline and common sense.
Which promptly goes out the window sometimes, like last night, when I finally allowed my slack-jawed, almost-already-snoring head to hit the pillow at 2:30 a.m. or so.
A friend lent me a book called The Hunger Games by a woman named Suzanne Collins. She told me it was the first in the Hunger Games Trilogy. She basically just thrust it into my hands and said “read it”.
Okeedokee.
After finishing the book I was partway through (Lloyd Jones’ Mister Pip – liked it, didn’t love it), I started The Hunger Games on Monday night. And finished it on Tuesday night (last night).
If I were a betting woman, my money would be on these books being a Very Big Thing. Maybe not Harry Potter big, or Twilight big, but they might be Stieg Larsson big. Regardless, we’re starting to see the names creep up the lists and show up in more places. I’ve only heard a moderate amount of buzz around them so far, and I expect that to grow, given how un-put-downable the book was.
Reminiscent of Shirley Jackson’s disturbing and macabre short story The Lottery and of Richard Bachman (Stephen King)’s novel The Running Man, The Hunger Games tells the story of a practical and independent teenaged girl named Katniss who lives in District 12, the least wealthy and respected of all the districts.
And each year, the Capital holds the annual hunger games, in which one girl and one boy from each district are selected by random draw to compete for their lives in an arena with landscape and terrain unknown until the games begin. Some years it’s desert, some years ice, some years forest. The contestants are well fed and trained in the weeks leading up to the games. Their personalities and skills can earn them sponsors who can choose to send helpful items throughout the game, but at the end of the game, of the 24 contestants, only one can survive.
The book’s writing is not sophisticated or complex, but it’s solid. The story is creative and detailed enough to be fascinating. The characters are interesting and multi-dimensional, and the pacing of the story is spot-on. I was hooked from the get-go and have definitely found another two-sitting read to add to my list.
I am on my way to beg, borrow or steal (or buy, I suppose) the remaining two books of the trilogy – Catching Fire and Mockingjay, and am looking forward to exhausting myself again. If you haven’t read them already, and you like an exciting, fast-paced, creative story, Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy is definitely worth picking up.
Signed copies are already fetching a pretty penny, particularly of the first book, and are likely to go up. A signed copy would make a fantastic gift, but make sure you know what you’re getting, as some are stamped by the author, rather than signed. Still special, but not as valuable.
Deluxe Edition of George R.R. Martin's A Feast for Crows
The nominations list has been announced, nice to see some Canadians in there too.
The Caryatids by Bruce Sterling
Finally, something useful and important on the internet.
Thank you, Ali Rense, for creating Hot Guys Reading Books. I hope it goes on to flourish and thrive and be bigger than Google.
If ever a photo involves a hot guy AND a book AND one of the following:
-a kitten, puppy, baby panda or other cute, juvenile animal;
-chocolate or red wine or a nice pint of beer or a bit of good cheese;
I may swoon.
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