2009 November 22 » Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog

APFOL: November 15-21

Posted by Anastasia on November 22, 2009 No Responses »

Nov 222009

Interesting posts and other things that have caught my eye this week. It isn’t actually everything, since I didn’t want to kill myself copy-pasting, so for the entire link collection check out my Delicious page.

And now, I present to you, my readers: Awesome Post Full of Links #12: November 15-21!

It’s been a pretty quiet week, actually, but there’s some very good recommendation lists.

Books in General

Young Adult Science Fiction: A Reading Guide / Tor.com
Young Adult Fantasy: A Reading Guide / Tor.com
“Some of you already read YA. Some maybe have only checked out the really big titles, like The Hunger Games and Graceling, but aren’t sure where to go from there. Some have probably considered picking up something from the teen section but don’t know where to start. And if you haven’t thought about giving YA fiction a shot yet, I suggest you do now! There are great things happening in YA speculative fiction, and I think any of you could find new books to love.”
Why SF fans (and authors) can benefit from reading other genres / Tor.com
“Read beyond the SFF genres? Insanity, I know. But play with me for a bit. I think our community can greatly benefit from exposure to these foreign elements.”
Bookworms Carnival #40: Urban Fantasy/Gothic Literature Post-2000 | Literary Escapism
Loads of interesting reviews and links, including a few of my own.

Authors & Publishers

Brooklyn Arden: On Protests and Publishing
“But we readers can create positive economic pressure in a way that actually benefits the publishing industry and the authors we support. And that’s by buying books with gay characters — either the book in question if it’s in a Fair, which will prove desire for such books outweighs the repressive effects of the Christianists, or other books in the bookstores, which does the same in the trade.”
When will hardcovers be retired? « Follow The Reader
“I understand the economics of publishing: hardcovers are more profitable. But where is the value to the consumer? How can I, in good conscience, direct any child to purchase the same product in different binding for 3 times more when the reading experience will be exactly the same (maybe better for the softcover if you consider the fold-out insert)?”

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The Sunday Salon: Poison by Chris Wooding

Posted by Anastasia on November 22, 2009 1 Response »

Nov 222009

Decided to do my Sunday Salon post a little differently this week, and actually talk about a book I’ve read recently! So, it’s kind of a review, and kind of a meme, and I hope it works out okay.

235. Poison by Chris Wooding

Publication: Orchard Books (September 1, 2005), Hardback, 288pp / ISBN 0439755700

Genre: Dark Fantasy, Horror, YA/Teen

Rating:

Read: November 15-21, 2009 (*cough*)

Source: Library

Review

Warning: There’ll be some spoilers in this review. It’s unavoidable, because I want to talk about the things surrounding the spoilers but then I have to mention the spoilers to make those things understandable, and for once I don’t want to be vague about things.

This is also extremely long, for some reason.

Poison is about a girl named, well, Poison, who lives in a marsh and is constantly bored. But then one day, her sister is stolen by faeries (or phaeries, as it’s spelled in the book) and replaced with a changeling. Poison sets off on a quest to get her back, and along the way learns some things that are horrible to her but made me squeal like a toddler high on Pixie Stix. She also makes friends, etc.

(This is what happens when I try to write my own summary, you see.)

Poison starts off like your standard faerie tale, but with little twists. Poison isn’t a princess, or a scrappy young person seeking adventure. She’s not even a hobgoblin or anything like that. But neither is she a normal kid that adventure gets foisted on to. Poison is unhappy with where she is in her life, both physically and metaphysically, but she contents herself with annoying everyone around her with uncomfortable questions and a mean anti-authoritarian streak. Her parents dislike her, the rest of the town can’t stand her, and her only friend is an old man named Fleet, who gives her faerie/phaerie stories she loses herself in.

And then her sister gets stolen, and Poison decides to get her back. She leaves the marsh, fights her way into the phaerie realm, and then Things Happen. She doesn’t get her sister back, at least not in the way she was hoping too, and some unpleasant revelations get, um, revealed. But she turns out all right at the end, and so does most everyone else.

What’s different about Poison is that the protagonist isn’t a standard hero, but neither is she an anti-hero. She doesn’t blindly go along with whatever her adventure throws at her. She questions everything, and when she doesn’t get answers she questions that, too. However, neither does she just sit at home and wait for something to happen to her. When her sister is stolen she immediately goes out to get her back.

I liked Poison. She’s a little hard to like, sometimes, but she’s an admirable heroine. She’s extremely stubborn. She doesn’t like most people but she manages to make at least two new friends (three if you count a magic cat). She doesn’t fight physically but she’s very clever, and she doesn’t balk from killing if it needs to be done. She’s very practical, all things told, and she doesn’t lose her head in tough situations.
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