another question for the class

What's the spookiest thing that's ever happened to you? Ghosts, demons, NDEs? Lay it on me.

The Athena Factor by W. Michael Gear

I saw this book on PBS and decided I wanted to give it a try. The premise is that someone is stealing celebrity DNA for nefarious purposes (in this case, cloning, which you find out in the first five pages). This book could have been a shocking expose of the lengths we'll go through to get close to the stars. Or a thoughtful commentary on what our society defines as beautiful. Or a fast-paced thriller. I'm sorry to say it was none of those things.

It had plot holes you could drive a truck through. The cover was the most interesting part. I wish I had just read the reviews, which made it seem more interesting than it was. But then I would have always wondered if I would have loved it if I had picked it up. Nothing for it, I suppose.

Two stars. If you're wondering what a one-star book looks like, that's the book I don't even finish.

my love affair with Diana Wynne Jones

So, Diana Wynne Jones was one of my favorite fantasy writers when I was a kid. Yes, I read Tolkien, Lewis, and lots of others. But most of the children's fantasy writers at that time didn't do much in the way of strong female characters. There would be a love interest, maybe a wicked witch, and that would be it. Jones was different. Also, her books didn't make everyone magically nice at the end. Which, to my mind, is good. Lots of children's books have everyone getting along at the end, and often, that's just not how life works out.

As a teenager, I lost my way. It's true. I stopped reading her, after my second (or was it third?) time trying to read the very strange Fire and Hemlock. (The fourth time, after having my wisdom teeth out, was a success. It makes more sense if you're on painkillers.)

I found her again a few years ago - I found her adult work, like A Sudden Wild Magic, and the sequel, which I can't remember the name of right now. I also read the hilarious Dark Lord of Derkholm and its sequel Year of the Griffin. However, somehow I missed the fact that she was still writing books in the Chrestomanci series - the same series that I had loved as a child, my personal favorite being The Lives of Christopher Chant.

But I saw that she had a new book out, and requested it, without knowing what it was. And certainly without knowing that there were several books (several!) between the last Chrestomanci book I had read, and this one. I'm really looking forward to catching up.

A recent conversation:

Me: Because, seriously, she writes the pants off JK Rowling!
7j : I'm not sure those writing pants were attached all that firmly to begin with.

Oh, you're waiting to hear about how The Pinhoe Egg actually was? Sorry. It was great! Perhaps because of the success of Rowling, it was much longer than Jones used to write - 515 pages, to my delight. (If you're wondering why I keep mentioning Rowling, it's because they're both female British authors who write fantasy for children and young adults. I hope some of Rowlings' success rubs off on Jones - she deserves it!) However, if you haven't read any of the other books in the series, you might be a bit confused. Try starting with Charmed Life - that's where it all begins. Some of her one-offs, like Archer's Goon, are also quite excellent.