RIP, Iain Banks [link]
Fuck cancer.
'Lessons'
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Yes.
::raises a glass to him::
Sad beyond word that Ian Banks is gone, though it was expected. May The Culture live forever, and someday become reality.
Hey, Knut the Difficult got some good press today: [link]
Oh, good! And well deserved, Gooseberry Bluff is a great serial.
I loved Brandon Sanderson's Hugo-nominated novella, The Emperor's Soul, so now I am really interested in finally checking him out. The novella is set in the world of Elantris, which is a stand-alone, so I'm looking at that one first (although from what I read of the description, I'm not sure how much of what I liked in the novella comes from that book). Warbreaker is also stand-alone. I know his famous series is Mistborn, but maybe I'll do the two stand-alones first, especially since Sanderson says they complement each other.
I love post-apocalyptic stuff, but I may have burned out. I read a couple recently and was like "no more! Too depressing!" (I mean actual "oh crap the moon exploded/flu went epidemic", not dystopian "sex is banned and the government controls your hairstyle"ones, I still like those)
Other random rant: read an interesting book ("Golden Boy") about an intersex kid. But the synopsis did not mention part of the whole book is about (made it sound like its about the kids dad running for office, and the drama....but it's NOT. I mean, that happens, but more the book starts out with stuff that needs a serious trigger warning and gets fucked up from there. Which, it was still interesting but I felt a bit traumatized myself, and I don't have triggers like that. Ick.
You say this as I'm about to start The Way We Fall.
I'm glad to see you're differentiating between post-apocalyptic and dystopian. I am irritated every time someone lumps both under dystopian.
(Did you see that Susan Beth Pfeffer has written a fourth "oh crap the moon exploded" book?)
She did? Geez, I just yesterday finished the first one! (I did not start on the "gee everyone is dead of some illness" one that's in my queue). Instead I am reading a book about a gay boy who goes to boarding school and decides to re-closet himself. It's interesting so far, if not super amazing. I am enjoying that there's gay YA these days that isn't just "oh shit I'm gay wtf ahhhh"