Schlubby Hero Gets Vixen in Shteyngart’s Dystopian Love Story
By Craig Seligman at Bloomberg
A down-at-heels U.S. badly in hock to China; a trigger-happy “bipartisan” administration that herds its low-net-worth individuals (LNWIs) out of affluent city centers and, on occasion, shoots them; a culture of subliterate, sexually shameless young people who live attached to their smartphones and look on books as stinky artifacts of the past.
The future or now?
As in [Gary] Shteyngart’s other books, the protagonist is a less attractive, less successful version of the author. Lenny Abramov, the schlubby, pudgy, middle-aged son of poor Russian immigrants, has a job reeling in high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) for an expensive immortality procedure. It appears to be going south.
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Three Popular Tales Go Graphic
By Sally Lodge at Publisher’s Weekly
Fans of demigod Percy Jackson, djinni Bartimaeus, and the planet-hopping Little Prince will be able to revisit these characters in new graphic novels this fall.
Due in October from Disney-Hyperion is a graphic novel adaptation of Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Book One: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan and Robert Venditti, creator of The Surrogates and its prequel, Flesh and Bone. The novel features pencil and ink art by Budapest illustrator Attila Futaki, with coloring by José Villarrubia. This illustrated version of the inaugural title has a simultaneous first printing of 75,000 copies in hardcover and 200,000 in paperback.
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HarperCollins Acquires Magnificent Twelve…because Sometimes One Hero Is Not Enough
via Book Trade
HarperCollins Children’s books have concluded a four book deal for a fantastic new fantasy 9+ series by bestselling author Michael Grant. Rachel Denwood, Publishing Director of HarperCollins Children’s books, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from HarperCollins US.
A fantasy packed with action and spiked with humour, Magnificent Twelve: The Call begins the story of Mack McAvoy, an unlikely hero whose only outstanding feature is the number of phobias he has. But when a fast-talking golem delivers the news that an evil force is rising after centuries of rest, it’s time for Mack to step up. Cue a globetrotting adventure that requires Mack to gather a team of twelve extraordinary children who could hold the key to saving Earth. He hopes.
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Old Soldiers Never Die, They Just Write Military Science Fiction
by paulgoatallen at Barnes and Noble
With all due respect to General Douglas MacArthur, who, in 1951 concluded his farewell address to Congress with these words, “I am closing my 52 years of military service. When I joined the Army, even before the turn of the century, it was the fulfillment of all of my boyish hopes and dreams. The world has turned over many times since I took the oath at West Point, and the hopes and dreams have all since vanished, but I still remember the refrain of one of the most popular barracks ballads of that day which proclaimed most proudly that old soldiers never die; they just fade away. And like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty.” I beg to differ. Old soldiers don’t just fade away—some of them write military science fiction!
Baen Books recently released Citizens, an anthology of military science fiction stories by military veterans, and just listen to some of the genre legends featured within: Arthur C. Clarke, Robert A. Heinlein, Gene Wolfe, Jerry Pournelle, Joe W. Haldeman, Hal Clement, David Drake, and John Ringo, to name a few!
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What do you think of Percy Jackson becoming a graphic novel? Do you read Military Sci Fi?
