ann_leckie (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ann_leckie) wrote2010-05-19 09:54 am
ann_leckie) wrote2010-05-19 09:54 am
(no subject)
Thanks, everyone, for your kind words on my BCS sale! I have to admit I'm chuffed about it. It's a cool magazine.
I'm also chuffed about being a Hugo voter this year. I should have done this years ago! If you can spare the fifty or so bucks, and you care about things like awards and award shortlists, by all means get a supporting Worldcon membership. Or maybe it's just me--I confess I get a little thrill putting my ballot in the box on election day, even if it's just a tiny election for Chief Dogcatcher, so maybe I've just got a vote-casting kink.
So anyway, since I'm a Hugo voter I got my Hugo Voter's Pack, which is chock full of literary goodness, and as a result I finally read The City and the City, which I've been meaning to read. I've run across a sort of similar premise before, of course, but Mieville uses the basic idea to rather different ends, and it sounded really intriguing.
I really, really, really liked it. A lot. Go read it immediately if you haven't already. I'm still chewing over what I liked so much about it, and why, and I'm actually a really bad reviewer--I tend to blink stupidly when someone asks me what a given book or movie is about, because the answer is obviously the book or the movie in question, and that would be a very long and complicated answer. So, you know, I'm bad at the one or two sentence summary, and not particularly good at articulating my further thoughts about it. So I'll just say, you've probably already heard the quickie summary, and it's great, so go read it.
I've been listening to Galactic Suburbia lately, and last episode but one they were talking about The City and the City and whoever had read it--I still don't really have a good sense of which voice belongs to who--said she didn't think it was really spec. And when I'd finished, I said to myself, "No, she's wrong (though understandably so), this is spec."
But I'm not going to explain why I think that, because you might not have read it yet. The reason the contrary opinion is understandable should be obvious--the spec element (beyond the obvious double city premise, which doesn't require any weird tech or supernatural elements to exist even though it's bizzare) is very, very understated, and overwhelmed by the whole unseeing the other city thing.
Go read it! I won't yet say I'm voting for it, because I haven't read all the candidates yet, but this is a tough act to follow.
I'm also chuffed about being a Hugo voter this year. I should have done this years ago! If you can spare the fifty or so bucks, and you care about things like awards and award shortlists, by all means get a supporting Worldcon membership. Or maybe it's just me--I confess I get a little thrill putting my ballot in the box on election day, even if it's just a tiny election for Chief Dogcatcher, so maybe I've just got a vote-casting kink.
So anyway, since I'm a Hugo voter I got my Hugo Voter's Pack, which is chock full of literary goodness, and as a result I finally read The City and the City, which I've been meaning to read. I've run across a sort of similar premise before, of course, but Mieville uses the basic idea to rather different ends, and it sounded really intriguing.
I really, really, really liked it. A lot. Go read it immediately if you haven't already. I'm still chewing over what I liked so much about it, and why, and I'm actually a really bad reviewer--I tend to blink stupidly when someone asks me what a given book or movie is about, because the answer is obviously the book or the movie in question, and that would be a very long and complicated answer. So, you know, I'm bad at the one or two sentence summary, and not particularly good at articulating my further thoughts about it. So I'll just say, you've probably already heard the quickie summary, and it's great, so go read it.
I've been listening to Galactic Suburbia lately, and last episode but one they were talking about The City and the City and whoever had read it--I still don't really have a good sense of which voice belongs to who--said she didn't think it was really spec. And when I'd finished, I said to myself, "No, she's wrong (though understandably so), this is spec."
But I'm not going to explain why I think that, because you might not have read it yet. The reason the contrary opinion is understandable should be obvious--the spec element (beyond the obvious double city premise, which doesn't require any weird tech or supernatural elements to exist even though it's bizzare) is very, very understated, and overwhelmed by the whole unseeing the other city thing.
Go read it! I won't yet say I'm voting for it, because I haven't read all the candidates yet, but this is a tough act to follow.