Looks like we're all YA all the time here at Damned Scribbling Women this week. While Kate awaits the delivery of her now two weeks late "advance" copy of The Sweet Far Thing, I can't spill too much about the book. Having finished the read at 3 am yesterday however, I am moved to give a little teaser about my thoughts and feelings (I was also moved to post a fawning fangirl note on Libba Bray's livejournal at 3 in the morning, but that's neither here nor there).Anyone mourning the loss of Harry Potter needs to pick up this series now, because--much as I love the Pott--Libba Bray kicks JK Rowling's ass. This is how you finish a series. This is how you take all the amazing work on character/plot/mythology that you set up in previous books and ratchet it up a notch. I thought the conclusion to the Potter series was fine, but Bray's just a much braver writer than Rowling. Her concerns are so much larger, more significant, more meaningful, and the lessons her character learn or try to learn are much more painful and more important. Truly, I'm in awe over this series and wishing desperately I'd been the one to think of it.
This isn't meant to be a diss against J.K. Rowling. I think she's great and love her work. It's more a public service announcement about how unbelievably wonderful I think Libba Bray is.
More substantive comments (including my very few reservations) to follow in a dialog once Kate gets a chance to read the book.
Posts
4 comments:
Sounds great!
Have you heard that Rowling is considering doing an 8th book in the HP series (not the encylopedia everyone keeps talking about)?
so many so many amazing things i've heard about this book. will have to indulge...
moonrat, I highly recommend reading the first two in the series if you're going to pick it up.
ladytink-- I had heard that. Don't know how I feel about it. Shouldn't the series be done? I don't know what's left to say.
Of course, if she wanted to write another book set in the same world but with different characters, I could get behind that.
I thought I heard the 8th HP book would be more like a collection of short stories, about side characters... am I just crazy?
JK will always get props from me because she made reading such a thing. Such an event. I have students who say things like, "Do you remember where you were when Book 4 came out?" And that is truly awesome.
As for the postal service... don't even get me started on the saga. I just got a bill today that was DUE on December 21st. And, oddly enough, my mail was supposed to be coming to the apartment until December 22nd.
I think I'm going to go buy another copy of "Sweet Far Thing." But I will probably feel bitter the whole time I'm doing it.
Post a Comment