Maybe we should finally start up the long awaited Gormands bookclub so that we can all talk about how amazing Diane Wynne Jones' books are. Or maybe we should start with a less sad topic :-/
[I have a copy of Hexwood you can borrow if you'd like]
The new University of Warwick SF&F Society librarian is quite keen to start up some sort of reading/discussion group, and I'm sure it'll be at least partly open to non-students. But there's also nothing stopping us starting up one of our own, as an offshoot of Literati. I do quite like the idea of "Gourmands" or "Gourmets" as a working title - since Literati is primarily concerned with the regular eating of nice food.
[I have a copy of Hexwood you can borrow if you'd like]
You're welcome. Let me know if you'd like any particular recommendations, although to be honest they're all brilliant.
I don't quite understand why the Harry Potter books are so popular, when there are people (Alan Garner, Joan Aiken and DWJ herself, as well as newer writers like Garth Nix and Frances Hardinge) who write much more original and interesting children's and young-adult fantasy fiction. I mean, the Harry Potter books are kind of fun to read, and I do respect J K Rowling for what she's achieved, both in terms of her own success (which she's worked extremely hard for), and also in encouraging children to read. But as a writer, she's just not in the same league as DWJ, whose books have more originality, characterisation and plot in a single page than you find in all of the Harry Potter books put together.
(I'd been caught out by misleading titles before: J Meade Faulkner's otherwise enthralling classic adventure story Moonfleet had turned out to involve no spaceships whatsoever)
Yes! This, exactly! (My copy had a three-master on the cover, at night, and I was utterly certain she was going to sail to the moon. And then she didn't, and I never really liked the book after that.)
Also, everything else here. Except that Eight Days of Luke was my first DWJ (and I was a grown-up), and The Homeward Bounders was and is and ever shall be my favourite.
I do really like The Homeward Bounders too, although it was one of the ones I missed when I was younger and only got to read it later on, when everything came back into print.
I always felt a bit guilty for not making more of an effort with Moonfleet, and intend to have another go at it sometime. I did quite enjoy the tv adaptation the BBC broadcast in the mid-1980s, and the lack of spaceships seemed to be at least mostly made up for by the smuggling, adventures, stolen diamonds, and so on.
DWJ was, until last week, one of my three favourite living authors who were still writing, where I could look forward to there being a new book some time soon. Sadly, she's now written her last. I have one that I haven't read yet - Enchanted Glass - and I'm sort of saving it, because once I've read that I won't have any I've not yet read. (Unless there's some I've not come across - ooh, I do hope so).
I've been a fan since I picked up Charmed Life, probably aged eight or nine. I still remember the joy when I first read Magicians of Caprona and realised that my beloved Chrestomanci had just turned up. Time Of The Ghost was read and re-read, which probably tells you too much about me as a kid, since it's one of the weirder, darker and nastier of her books (and still one of my favourites). When some of my friends got into D&D I foisted Homeward Bounders on to them. Eight Days Of Luke let me introduce a friend to Norse mythology
( ... )
It's definitely time I reread Hexwood then - although I'm a bit too sad this week, so I'll put it on the list for later. I haven't read Deep Secret, although I have read The Merlin Conspiracy which features some of the same characters, so I shall have to get hold of a copy and read them both together.
Sharyn McCrumb's murder mystery story Bimbos of the Death Sun also has quite a well-observed depiction of an SF convention, and affectionate but spot-on examples of several different subtypes of SF fans (the costumers, the roleplayers, the techies, etc); also the murder victim bears some uncanny similarities to Harlan Ellison.
Hexwood is brilliant and definitely stands up to re-reading. (I've probably read it ten times by now). Do, do read Deep Secret. I've read and enjoyed Bimbos of the Death Sun, but personally I think Deep Secret is much better. And the references are so much more applicable to my convention-going experience - for a start, it's a British convention, specifically an Eastercon (it never uses the word Eastercon, but it does take place over the Easter weekend) and you will recognise so much in it. Not to mention people, both generic and specific - for example there's a bloke with a deaf-aid, a fantasy artist who paints very naughty pictures of human females with aliens, a large bearded bloke with a gilet and a walkie-talkie, and basically everyone you've ever met at a convention. Oh, and I challenge you not to fall about laughing at the scene where Nick (who's in The Merlin Conspiracy) eats breakfast while half asleep, especially when you realise that the entire scene is based on Neil Gaiman eating breakfast.
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Maybe we should finally start up the long awaited Gormands bookclub so that we can all talk about how amazing Diane Wynne Jones' books are. Or maybe we should start with a less sad topic :-/
[I have a copy of Hexwood you can borrow if you'd like]
Reply
[I have a copy of Hexwood you can borrow if you'd like]
Thanks very much for the offer, but I've already got a copy (of Hexwood, dedicated to Neil Gaiman, by Diana Wynne Jones).
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I don't quite understand why the Harry Potter books are so popular, when there are people (Alan Garner, Joan Aiken and DWJ herself, as well as newer writers like Garth Nix and Frances Hardinge) who write much more original and interesting children's and young-adult fantasy fiction. I mean, the Harry Potter books are kind of fun to read, and I do respect J K Rowling for what she's achieved, both in terms of her own success (which she's worked extremely hard for), and also in encouraging children to read. But as a writer, she's just not in the same league as DWJ, whose books have more originality, characterisation and plot in a single page than you find in all of the Harry Potter books put together.
Reply
Yes! This, exactly! (My copy had a three-master on the cover, at night, and I was utterly certain she was going to sail to the moon. And then she didn't, and I never really liked the book after that.)
Also, everything else here. Except that Eight Days of Luke was my first DWJ (and I was a grown-up), and The Homeward Bounders was and is and ever shall be my favourite.
Reply
I always felt a bit guilty for not making more of an effort with Moonfleet, and intend to have another go at it sometime. I did quite enjoy the tv adaptation the BBC broadcast in the mid-1980s, and the lack of spaceships seemed to be at least mostly made up for by the smuggling, adventures, stolen diamonds, and so on.
Reply
I've been a fan since I picked up Charmed Life, probably aged eight or nine. I still remember the joy when I first read Magicians of Caprona and realised that my beloved Chrestomanci had just turned up. Time Of The Ghost was read and re-read, which probably tells you too much about me as a kid, since it's one of the weirder, darker and nastier of her books (and still one of my favourites). When some of my friends got into D&D I foisted Homeward Bounders on to them. Eight Days Of Luke let me introduce a friend to Norse mythology ( ... )
Reply
Sharyn McCrumb's murder mystery story Bimbos of the Death Sun also has quite a well-observed depiction of an SF convention, and affectionate but spot-on examples of several different subtypes of SF fans (the costumers, the roleplayers, the techies, etc); also the murder victim bears some uncanny similarities to Harlan Ellison.
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