I attended readings by China Mieville yesterday (Sunday, 4/4) and Joe Hill this evening. Both were fantastic, although I had met and listened to China at Readercon 17 last year, so had an idea of what to expect from him. China was promoting his new novel for younger audiences called Un Lun Dun; the reading was fantastic (it’s always fun to see a really built bald guy reading and gesticulating for a 12 year old female protagonist) and China was entertaining and very pleasant. We’ll have a signed copy of Un Lun Du up on the site in the next few days, along with a signed paperback of The Scar. I’d post a link to China’s web site, but he hasn’t got one (yet). I inquired why not at the reading yesterday, and he said (and tried really hard not to be defensive 😉 ) he just hadn’t gotten to it yet. He seemed resigned to the fact that he’ll probably have one eventually – possibly by the end of the year. We’ll keep an eye out.
I started Joe Hill’s debut novel Heart-Shaped Box yesterday afternoon, and was completely unable to part with it until I had made my way half-way through, and was too tired to keep my eyes open any longer. I haven’t been this excited about a book since the last Harry Potter novel came out, and I recommend it without reservation. Wow. Really – it’s fantastic! And it was great fun meeting Joe and asking him about the wonderful dogs in his book (he failed to mention their breed until about half-way through when they played a major role – a bit disconcerting from a dog-lover’s view but he said it wasn’t an intentional omission). Off to bed. Happy reading!! – Cynthia
