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queensthiefBooks of Wonder's panel on Brave New Worlds was pretty much devoted to the tough ladies of dystopian fantasy.
Justine Larbalestier gave us a surprisingly spoiler-free introduction to compulsive liar Micah, who's had a "pretty bad year." Like Buffy and her Scooby Gang, Micah's about to learn that the changes of adolescence are even worse when they're literalized in quasi-supernatural forms. But if Micah and her dead ex(?)-boyfriend are an experiment in social realism, I want in! This is so much more interesting than my high school!
Asked why dystopia was hot in YA right now, JL said calmly that "high school is a dystopia." True for you, lady.
Kristin Cashore talked to us about the mind-reading "monster" heroine of Fire and told us she wanted to hang out with the heroine of her current work in progress. Asked about names she had, alas, no good explanation as to why her dashing hero had to be named Po. I mean, really? He's unquestionably hot, but I still am not buying that as a heroic name.
Scott Westerfeld played techno-geek for the night. He brought a slide-show of the illustrations in Leviathan and projected them on the ceiling for us while giving a talk that made me wish I'd bought his book instead of Graceling. He also introduced us to charmingly depressed hero Alek and spunky, cross-dressing, gun-toting heroine Darryn, both of whom sound entertaining. Plus, they have walking tank-beings. How cool is that?
Libba Bray cracked a lot of jokes and introduced Going Bovine, which seems to be more about the secondary characters than depressed, mad-cow-stricken Cameron. Unfortunately, she spoke right after SW's smoke and mirrors show and right before SC's "omg you are so amazing" manifestation so she made slightly less of an impression than she might have otherwise.
If I could read the audience right, 75% of them came to see Suzanne Collins, who hasn't been doing signings or talks this fall. Since I am not the biggest fan of The Hunger Games series, this wasn't exactly the selling point for me - but there were a lot of Mockingjay pins and badges in that crowd. She graciously answered a number of questions (including the perennial "where do you get your ideas?" "where do you get your names?" and the embarrassing, "I write fantasy myself and..." lead), assured us we would never see a complete map of Panem because Katniss doesn't know where everything is, declined to play favorites between Gale and Peeta, and talked a bit about bread and circuses (that's panem et circenses to you Latin-speakers).
In any case, Catching Fire's bad-tempered Katniss was in good company with some of the hottest and most bad-tempered fantasy girls on the market today. Definitely interesting.
Anybody else who made it care to weigh in?
Justine Larbalestier gave us a surprisingly spoiler-free introduction to compulsive liar Micah, who's had a "pretty bad year." Like Buffy and her Scooby Gang, Micah's about to learn that the changes of adolescence are even worse when they're literalized in quasi-supernatural forms. But if Micah and her dead ex(?)-boyfriend are an experiment in social realism, I want in! This is so much more interesting than my high school!
Asked why dystopia was hot in YA right now, JL said calmly that "high school is a dystopia." True for you, lady.
Kristin Cashore talked to us about the mind-reading "monster" heroine of Fire and told us she wanted to hang out with the heroine of her current work in progress. Asked about names she had, alas, no good explanation as to why her dashing hero had to be named Po. I mean, really? He's unquestionably hot, but I still am not buying that as a heroic name.
Scott Westerfeld played techno-geek for the night. He brought a slide-show of the illustrations in Leviathan and projected them on the ceiling for us while giving a talk that made me wish I'd bought his book instead of Graceling. He also introduced us to charmingly depressed hero Alek and spunky, cross-dressing, gun-toting heroine Darryn, both of whom sound entertaining. Plus, they have walking tank-beings. How cool is that?
Libba Bray cracked a lot of jokes and introduced Going Bovine, which seems to be more about the secondary characters than depressed, mad-cow-stricken Cameron. Unfortunately, she spoke right after SW's smoke and mirrors show and right before SC's "omg you are so amazing" manifestation so she made slightly less of an impression than she might have otherwise.
If I could read the audience right, 75% of them came to see Suzanne Collins, who hasn't been doing signings or talks this fall. Since I am not the biggest fan of The Hunger Games series, this wasn't exactly the selling point for me - but there were a lot of Mockingjay pins and badges in that crowd. She graciously answered a number of questions (including the perennial "where do you get your ideas?" "where do you get your names?" and the embarrassing, "I write fantasy myself and..." lead), assured us we would never see a complete map of Panem because Katniss doesn't know where everything is, declined to play favorites between Gale and Peeta, and talked a bit about bread and circuses (that's panem et circenses to you Latin-speakers).
In any case, Catching Fire's bad-tempered Katniss was in good company with some of the hottest and most bad-tempered fantasy girls on the market today. Definitely interesting.
Anybody else who made it care to weigh in?
no subject
Date: 11/12/09 05:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 11/12/09 07:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 11/12/09 08:26 am (UTC)< OFF TOPIC >
So I'd seen that Harriet Vane userpic around used by a few people (You, Elizabeth Wein has it, maybe others) but I just figured it was a writer-person type userpic and I didn't think that the person in the photo was actually significant in any way. I finally made the connection when I was watching Gaudy Night, and then THAT PICTURE was right there on the screen. OMG WHERE HAVE I SEEN THAT BEFORE? I know! Its that userpic! EVERYTHING IS BECOMING CLEAR.
This also happened with Firefly Userpics. It's nice to have Moments of Revelation like this. I rather enjoy them.
no subject
Date: 11/12/09 12:35 pm (UTC)No but seriously, have you been to Ogeecons? The girl who made it is a genius; about 60% of my icons come from her comm...Follow the links back from my profile (cause I'm too lazy to put then in here) and check out her stuff. She does gorgeous Peter/Harriet things.
no subject
Date: 11/12/09 01:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 11/12/09 07:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 11/12/09 11:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 11/13/09 01:16 pm (UTC)It's a trilogy, though, so maybe this is par for the course (at least for sloppy and imperfect trilogies).
Good to know!
no subject
Date: 11/12/09 03:27 pm (UTC)Oh! Now it all makes sense. I seriously spent twenty minutes trying to figure out where Panem came from. And now it not only makes sense, it works perfectly (although if you know the translation it may be a little heavy-handed).
no subject
Date: 11/12/09 07:53 pm (UTC)Suzanne Collins, heavy-handed? Never! She also told us, and I bet you didn't know this, that the Capitol has very strong Roman influences.
Gee, really?
no subject
Date: 11/12/09 09:42 pm (UTC)*cough*
I am actually in all seriousness glad that Panem has a meaning and isn't just a made-up name. Even if its meaning does induce some eye-rolling.
And if you think about it, the Mockingjay in its own way is a bit like Roman eagle.
no subject
Date: 11/13/09 01:15 pm (UTC)