Worth Waking Up For....
Sep. 16th, 2009 01:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lagilmanAs I was coming out of the subway on my way to the S&S building (where I was going to be taping a quick interview), I got an e-mail from Awesome Publicist Sarah. I grabbed lunch, sat down to read it, and my squeeeeee was heard throughout Rock Center.
Flesh and Fire was chosen as BookPage's Fantasy Pick of the Month!
(for those who don't know BookPage, it goes to libraries and bookstores across the country -- around 450,000 copies. It's like getting a gilded invitation placed on the desk of Serious Readers.
But the awesomesauce on the awesome cake, as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
booraven22 puts it, is that the reviewer GOT it. I mean, I think he got it even more than I did. And he said really nice things about what he got.
Money shot: "...The patient reader is rewarded with the skillful unfolding of a richly developed world... [with} well-developed characters and first-class world-building."
The full excerpt: "The narrative develops slowly, but the patient reader is rewarded with the skillful unfolding of a richly developed world heavily dependent on religious interpretation—a delightful discovery especially as the novel eschews slavish imitation of Grecian mythology or thinly veiled criticism of Christianity, instead presenting a history and mythology which informs and guides the powerless and the powerful. Laura Anne Gilman also approaches the issue of slavery from an alternate viewpoint; Jerzy sees slavery as a natural and moral behavior, is unable to recognize any other option, and questions the meaning of “freedom” through an examination of what it means to be guided by a dead deity’s Commandments. Moral questions are deeply embedded in the novel, with a brilliantly limited authorial intervention, and presented through well-developed characters and first-class world-building."
Eta: this? "a brilliantly limited authorial intervention"? Made me whoop. Because that POV kicked. my. ass.
Okay. Despite the heel of my boots breaking while I was on the subway and an expected call that didn't come, this day's Pretty Damn Happy-Making. Also, I think I presented myself well in the interview -- Madam'selle Editrix didn't flinch, and the cameraman was doing the head-nod uh-huh thing people do when they like what they're listening to, which is a relief....
Flesh and Fire was chosen as BookPage's Fantasy Pick of the Month!
(for those who don't know BookPage, it goes to libraries and bookstores across the country -- around 450,000 copies. It's like getting a gilded invitation placed on the desk of Serious Readers.
But the awesomesauce on the awesome cake, as
booraven22 puts it, is that the reviewer GOT it. I mean, I think he got it even more than I did. And he said really nice things about what he got.Money shot: "...The patient reader is rewarded with the skillful unfolding of a richly developed world... [with} well-developed characters and first-class world-building."
The full excerpt: "The narrative develops slowly, but the patient reader is rewarded with the skillful unfolding of a richly developed world heavily dependent on religious interpretation—a delightful discovery especially as the novel eschews slavish imitation of Grecian mythology or thinly veiled criticism of Christianity, instead presenting a history and mythology which informs and guides the powerless and the powerful. Laura Anne Gilman also approaches the issue of slavery from an alternate viewpoint; Jerzy sees slavery as a natural and moral behavior, is unable to recognize any other option, and questions the meaning of “freedom” through an examination of what it means to be guided by a dead deity’s Commandments. Moral questions are deeply embedded in the novel, with a brilliantly limited authorial intervention, and presented through well-developed characters and first-class world-building."
Eta: this? "a brilliantly limited authorial intervention"? Made me whoop. Because that POV kicked. my. ass.
Okay. Despite the heel of my boots breaking while I was on the subway and an expected call that didn't come, this day's Pretty Damn Happy-Making. Also, I think I presented myself well in the interview -- Madam'selle Editrix didn't flinch, and the cameraman was doing the head-nod uh-huh thing people do when they like what they're listening to, which is a relief....
