Reviews and Interviews, 2/20/07
Posted on February 20, 2007 Posted by John Scalzi 5 Comments
A small clutch of Scalzi-related scribblings coming at you:
* Rick Kleffel has nice things to say about “The Sagan Diary” over at The Agony Column, calling it “a must-have book for just about any serious reader of science fiction and certainly for any serious collector of science fiction.” He also heaps love on Bob Eggleton for the cover and inside art, which I think is entirely appropriate. The review is dated 2/21/07, so it actually comes to us from the future. And you know how exciting that is.
* Professor Bainbridge devours his advance reader’s copy of The Last Colony, and is happy with the meal, and also picks up on something I’m 100% in agreement with:
Despite its SF trappings, for example, TLC reminds me more of Allen Drury’s novels of political suspense, with a little Robert Ludlum-style wheels within wheels conspiracy theory story thrown in too, than it does most SF. Indeed, to continue the analogy to political thrillers, there’s even a subplot that’s a variant on the good old sleeping killer story. All of which means that, if Tor can manage the marketing trick, the OMW to TLC trilogy ought to reach readers who ordinarily would never be caught dead in the sci fi section of their bookstore.
It’s the New Comprehensible! In full effect! Seriously, however, I’m delighted Professor Bainbridge liked this series all the way through.
* And for those of you who don’t get enough of me here, Abebooks is running an interview with me, and for good measure they’re running a contest in which they’re giving away a signed, limited edition of “The Sagan Diary.” I don’t mind if you click through for the loot rather than my musings. But you have to enter by 9:59 on March 1. So get to it.
I’m looking forward to reading TLC myself. Where’s my patience when i need it?
(banging sounds) Damn macro, not working yet.
Hey, John, congrats on the good reviews. Personally I think “Gripping characters blow big shit up in space,” would be a great inside dust jacket quote, but hey, that’s what turns my dials to 11, YMMV. And I’m still giggling over the professors comment about Rand al’Thor. Having people lose productive time to read your book, mighty praise indeed.
Awesome reviews! Can’t wait to get my books!
HAHAHAHAH — Don’t kill me for taking a quote, but I figured it would entice more people to actually reading the rather articulate interview.
Yes, eventually they would declare war on us and we’d be strapped into pods with tubes in our heads (that is, if we weren’t exterminated outright), but until then, robots would probably be a lot of fun.
Follow the link above for more gems like that one. Great interview John! Although you didn’t say there would be a pop quiz on who might be your biggest stalker at the end. :P
It’s one of those things where I sorta hope I win, but at what cost? At what cost!?
Congratulations on the great reviews ! Just finished reading TSD last night and it is great ! I had listened to bits of the audio version but found that I could really appreciate it more when I actually read the text. In fact I was reading really slow to savour all the words and their meaning and nuance; it was like melting a nice dark chocolate bar in my mouth enjoying the taste and wishing it never ended.
Great interview.
Hey, what is a blog anyway? Can you give me a good example of one I could see?