Comments on: The Big Idea: Margaret Ronald

By: Rachel Swirsky

Rachel Swirsky — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:54:48 +0000

Hatred for urban fantasy warring with adoration for Margaret Ronald.

The latter will almost certainly win out. *marks book for purchase once book budget has recovered from the dozen books purchased this week*

By: bensdad00

bensdad00 — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:02:54 +0000

I couldn’t get into the first one and so will skip this too. Can’t wait for the next big idea, though.

By: John Chu

John Chu — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:09:38 +0000

Wild Hunt is just plain knock-out wonderful. It’s filled with boundless imagination and it has a taut plot that grips you and never lets you go.

Just read it! Well, if you haven’t read Spiral Hunt yet, read that first. (Then also read everything else she’s written. For example, she currently has a steampunk story up right now at Beneath Ceaseless Skies.)

By: ookpik

ookpik — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:59:10 +0000

I picked up both books at Arisia, based solely on the author’s appearance on a panel. Now I’m really looking forward to reading them! (Among other things, as a newcomer to Boston I recently visited the Gardner Museum for the first time.)

By: Bearpaw

Bearpaw — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:46:51 +0000

I kinda burnt out on urban fantasy a while back, after a spate of reading nearly every damn Charles de Lint I could find. But I’m going to have to pick up these two.

A couple of years ago I moved out of the Boston area after having lived there for over twenty years, which is roughly ten times as long as I could have lived in any other urban area I’ve ever been in. (With the possible exception of Halifax.)

I’m a sucker for stories set in Boston.

(Mystery buffs: Check out Linda Barnes’ Carlotta Carlyle series.)

By: Simon S.

Simon S. — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:43:28 +0000

If you like the Gardner Museum because it’s individual and eccentric, then when in London be sure to visit Sir John Soane’s Museum, which if anything is even more so.

By: Nik

Nik — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:18:29 +0000

I love The Big Idea, the insight it gives is amazing. It certainly helps remove the mystery that people place into writing, and simply show that it’s just effort mixed with creativity and you end with something great.

By: Nick C

Nick C — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:17:36 +0000

The empty frames are a result of one of the largest art thefts.

(http://www.gardnermuseum.org/information/theft.asp)

If I recall correctly, the terms of her will stipulated that the curators can’t change anything in the museum, so that’s why the frames are still empty.

By: Tumbleweed

Tumbleweed — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:15:37 +0000

I just finished the second one a few days ago – very well done! It kind of reminds me of Laura Anne Gilman’s Retrievers novels. *grasping hand* More, please!

I’d love to see a mashup of these with Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series. I wonder what the Hound would think of Hawk. :)

By: Natalie L.

Natalie L. — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:46:15 +0000

I absolutely adore these books–and I would have thought that Margaret Ronald was a Boston native, because she gets the city so right. I am not a native, but my mother was and I’ve spent a lot of time there over the years–it is my favorite city. And the Gardner is my favorite art museum–the empty frames are certainly mysterious, but they’re also tragic.