Good Stuff! The audio production of Lockwood & Co.

ByJohn Brown

I’m excited to share the Lockwood & Co. series by Jonathan Stroud. It’s a delightful audiobook experience for the whole family.

Nellie introduced me to it on our road trip to Yosemite last October.

And, oh my gosh, how we’ve enjoyed listening.

They’re young adult paranormal thrillers with a good dose of humor and English charm.

Yes, Netflix, launched a show based on the books, but Nellie and I tried it, and the Netflix productions don’t hold a candle to the audiobooks.

It’s not even close.

If you’re going to do this series, listen to the audiobooks or read them.

The story is set in England in, I’d say, the 1980s, before cell phones and the internet became a thing. The problem is that ghosts, specters, tommy knockers, etc. are appearing all over the place and causing havoc. Because, in this world, when you’re touched by a visitor from the other side, you can easily become ghost locked, basically put in coma, or die.

And while the ghosts can touch anyone, children and teens are the only ones who can see them. And so it’s children and teens who must fight them. Of course, large ghost protection agencies are formed, but our story is about Lucy Carlisle, who joins a tiny agency run by a daring young man named Anthony Lockwood.

There are five books in the series, which translates to about fifty-nine hours of delightful listening. Perfect for the long road trips, cleaning, fixing dinner, walks, etc.

Miranda Raison is the reader for the first book, Katie Lyons the second, and Emily Bevan for the final three. And they’ve all been a joy to listen to.

I’m not normally a paranormal kind of guy, but this is making me reconsider. We loved Stroud’s Bartimaeus series. And he brings the same fast action, interesting characters, and wit to these. 

If you enjoy delightful characters and derring-do leavened with some humor, give these a try. I think you’ll be glad you did.

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  • The Avengers & The Paris Grill

    ByJohn Brown

    Edit: I wrote this like a month ago and thought I posted it. But there is was in my drafts. Somebody give me some Ginko extract.

    The Avengers

    The Avengers is Marvel’s latest installment of the films in the Avenger world—Iron Man (2008), The Incredible Hulk (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2011), and Captain America: The First Avenger (2011). 

    Iron Man is, by far, the BEST of all of them.  I thought Captain America might be just as good, but the movie lost its way about half way through.  The others are okay, not anything to jump up and down on the couch about. So while I was looking forward to seeing The Avengers, I wasn’t expecting anything special. I’m happy to tell you that The Avengers is good. Not as good as Iron Man, but much better than all the others.  And certainly well-worth the price of admission.

    The earth is in possession of an artifact of immense power called the Tesseract, which isn’t a made-up name. In geometry a tesseract is a cubic prism—some four-dimensional thing which boggles the mind. But in this movie and Captain America, the tesseract is a blue cube that can open portals to different parts of the universe or run Nazi war machines.  The problem is that there are other beings in the universe.  Some of these would like to be able to run their own Nazi machines and subjugate all species on every planet.  So they get Loki, Thor’s adopted brother, to lead an army to raze the earth and retrieve the artifact.   

    Of course, earth’s forces aren’t strong enough to repel this alien force. That is, unless you call upon the Avengers—Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, and Captain America. As well as Avengers who haven’t had their own movies yet like Black Widow, Hawk, and Nick Fury.

    It all sounds a bit much, and in the hands of a lesser writer it might have been. But Joss Whedon (Serenity, Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) wrote the script and directed the movie. And he did a fantastic job. Instead of thinking we came for a barrage of special effects, he takes time to build the characters and relationships so we care about the action when it arrives. He does use the idiot chaos cinema technique for some of the action, but not nearly as much as was in Hunger Games. More importantly, he makes up for the error of his ways with a number of laugh-out-loud moments. Hilarious moments.  In fact, the humor is one of the main reasons why this movie was so good.

    If you like super hero movies, you’ll love The Avengers. Maybe not as much as you like Iron Man or Spider Man 2 or the Nolan Batman series. But close enough to have a great night out.

    The Paris Grill

    The Paris (Idaho) Grill has opened another restaurant in what used to be the Bear Lake Motor Lodge Cafe.  The cafe was okay. Nothing to write home about.  So I didn’t know what to expect with the new grill.  However, I took two of my daughters out last night for dinner.

    The Paris Grill has four menus. I don’t know why they keep them separate, but they do. One for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and another for their pizzas.  We opted for the “Burgers n Pastas n Salads” menu which I guess is the lunch menu, but was what we ordered our dinner off of.

    Confused yet?

    Luckily, the food’s good enough that the menu business doesn’t matter. The lunch menu features a number of regular sandwiches—BLT, chicken cordon bleu, French dip.  But it also offers some signature sandwiches like a kielbasa and pepper sandwich, something called the Hobo Deli (which is tasty sounding combo of sour dough bread with pepper cheese, roasted turkey, bacon, grilled tomatoes, and cilantro dressing), as well as the Monster Grill—roast beef topped with caramelized onions and peppers, mushrooms, and provolone cheese.  I opted for the Monster Grill. My girls skipped the salads and ordered a hamburger and the chicken cordon bleu with mashed potatoes.

    The first words out of my daughters’ mouth when eating the mashed potatoes were “ooh” and “yum.”  That was followed by another “ooh” and “yum.”  The potatoes were good.  And they were made from scratch.  The sandwiches were tasty as well.  Good enough that I’m going to go back to the grill to try their dinner menu with my wife.  

    We topped the dinner off by splitting one of the grill’s big, hot cinnamon rolls.  The prices for the lunch items were reasonable—around seven or eight bucks—and they were big enough that the girls took half their meal home.  

    If you’re in Garden City, Utah and looking for something besides burgers and shakes, try the grill.  I think you’ll be quite satisfied when you walk out the door.

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  • Good Stuff! 3 Remakes That Will Go Down Into Your Bones

    ByJohn Brown

    Sometimes a remake of a song is better than the original. Or if not better, different and equally as good. I have three that I think fit that bill.

    First is a mix of “The House of the Rising Sun” by The Animals and “Amazing Grace.” It was sung by Jerry Lawson and the Talk of the Town on NBC’s The Sing-Off, which used to be one of the best music competitions on TV. It was all voice, all a’capella, and the things some of the groups did were simply amazing. But then NBC decided to shorten it all into a one-night competition and basically ruined it by removing the multi-week build of the competition and, more importantly, letting us get to know the groups and hearing a range of songs. Oh, well. At least we got this. Turn up your speakers and let it fill you.

    You can get the single here on Amazon.

    The next is a remake of “Go Down, Moses” by The Lower Lights, who have taken this old choral and infused it with a new folk, soul, revival-style groove that makes me think this is probably how the song was originally sung.

    Every time I hear it, it goes down into my bones and calls forth this desire to sing. You can get it here on Amazon.

    The last is a remake of “Glorious” by Stephanie Mabey. This one was part of Meet the Mormons and sung by David Archuleta.

    You can get the exclusive free download of the single here.

     

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  • The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

    ByJohn Brown

    Have you ever gotten into the car to go to destination A and a few turns later realized you’re going to destination B and have to turn around?

    If so, you’ve experienced the power of habit.

    Have you ever told yourself you will NOT eat the cookies sitting out on the counter and two minutes later pick one up and eat it?  Or perhaps it was the cigarette.  Or the drink.

    Habit.

    Did you know that the genius behind the methods of Tony Dungy–the only coach in the NFL history to reach the play-offs ten years in a row and the one who turned a troubled Colts team around and three years later took them to win the Super Bowl in 2007–was to teach his players to be faster than everyone else.  But they wouldn’t be faster because they would focus on increasing their physical speed. They would be faster because they would learn habits that would make their moves instinct.  When his strategy worked, Dungy’s players could move with a speed that was impossible to overcome.

    According to some research, more than 40% of the actions we perform each day are not actual decisions, but habits.  And habits that we didn’t always consciously choose to start.  We have sleeping habits, shopping habits, exercise habits, eating habits.  Habits at work, at home, at school.  Habits of the mind.

    Companies have a huge interest in changing our shopping habits.  Coaches have an interest in changing the habits we use when we play. Teachers have an interest in the habits of their classroom. Families and communities have habitual ways of interacting. We all have personal habits we’d like to adopt and others we’d like to give away.  But unless you know what you’re doing, habits can be extremely intransigent and slippery things.

    The good news is that a lot of research has been done in the last few decades, and we now know how habits work. When we arm ourselves with this knowledge, we’ll have a much better chance of changing. Luckily for us, we don’t have to track all that information down.  In The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business, Charles Duhigg draws on hundreds of academic studies, interviews with more than three hundred scientists and executives, and research conducted at dozens of companies in his book and distills all this knowledge to its essence.

    The title might sound boring, but Duhigg follows the style of Malcom Gladwell (Outliers, Blink, The Tipping Point), and the Heath brothers (Made to Stick), and has written a book that I couldn’t put down.  For example, I couldn’t stop reading about coach Tony Dungy, or Target as it predicts who is pregnant and how far along they are, or the scientists who couldn’t figure out why Alcoholics Anonymous works, or how bad organizational habits led to thirty-one people being burned alive in London’s King’s Cross subway stop.  I couldn’t stop reading about why Rosa Parks, not the first African American to refuse to give up her bus seat, could pivot the civil rights movement.  I couldn’t stop reading the stories of individuals losing bad habits, others picking up good ones, and others who lost their minds but not their habits. Duhigg uses these and many other examples and studies to illustrate the key principles underlying how habits work.  In the appendix, he gives us a guide for examining and forming our own habits.

    I personally know the power of changing habits of the mind (which I’ve already written about). And teeth. A few years ago, I flossed once a week. It was such a pain. Now it’s a habit that I almost crave each night. I look back at how I made those changes and see it all laid out in Duhigg’s book. Can I actually change my habit of going to bed late? Stay tuned.

    If you’re interested in forming the habits of a class, team, company, or family; if you want to change some of your own habits; if you’re interested in knowing why we do what we do and enjoy the style of Malcom Gladwell and Dan and Chip Heath, then I think you’ll love this book. Let me suggest you watch the video below.  Then go to http://charlesduhigg.com/the-power-of-habit/ and click on the “Additional Resources” to watch and read more. Then just get the dang book.

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  • Top 200 YA Authors of 2010, Part 2

    ByJohn Brown

    Okay, I’ve really got to get some writing done. But since I posted the idea of seeing which authors have the highest average checkouts per book, I now feel obligated to share it because some of those on the top 200 authors list drop off while others appear. So this one shows the authors getting the most readers per book. For more information on the lists and source of the data, please see the previous two posts.

    BTW, a number of Utahans made this list that we hadn’t seen on the others.

    1. Stephenie Meyer (3)
    2. Shannon Hale (4)
    3. Lisa Mangum (8)
    4. Jessica Day George (10)
    5. Aprilynne Pike (13)
    6. James Dashner (21)
    7. Bree Despain (32)
    8. Mette Ivie Harrison (40)
    9. M.L. Forman (52)
    10. Brandon Sanderson (64)
    11. Chris Heimerdinger (112)
    12. Julie Wright (145)
    13. Ally Condie (146)
    14. Kiersten White (151)
    15. Jack Weyland (188)

    If I’ve missed any Utah (or former Utah) authors, please let me know. Holy schnitzel, look at them all.

    EDIT: 1/16/2011 9:32 AM: Informed that Bree Despain is also a Utah author.

    EDIT: 1/18/2011 6:21 PM: Turns out Kiersten White grew up in Utah, but moved to San Diego after she married. I’m still claiming her, although I often wish I could trade subzero land for beaches and 70 degrees

    EDIT: 1/18/2011 10:20 PM: just informed that M.L. Forman is a Utah author.

    The List

    Author Times Checked Out Number of Titles Avg Check Outs per Title % Rank
    Suzanne Collins 888 3 296 2.68% 1
    Rick Riordan 989 8 124 2.98% 2
    Stephenie Meyer 529 5 106 1.60% 3
    Shannon Hale 517 6 86 1.56% 4
    J.K. Rowling 318 4 80 0.96% 5
    Cassandra Clare 309 4 77 0.93% 6
    Christopher Paolini 191 3 64 0.58% 7
    Lisa Mangum 124 2 62 0.37% 8
    P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast 393 7 56 1.19% 9
    Jessica Day George 328 6 55 0.99% 10
    Kristin Cashore 105 2 53 0.32% 11
    Cornelia Funke  51 1 51 0.15% 12
    Aprilynne Pike 101 2 51 0.30% 13
    Judy Blundell 48 1 48 0.14% 14
    John Flanagan 413 9 46 1.25% 15
    Kelley Armstrong 131 3 44 0.40% 16
    John Grisham  43 1 43 0.13% 17
    Michael Scott 165 4 41 0.50% 18
    Angie Sage 246 6 41 0.74% 19
    Maggie Stiefvater 153 4 38 0.46% 20
    James Dashner 75 2 38 0.23% 21
    Kimberly Derting 37 1 37 0.11% 22
    Frank Beddor 110 3 37 0.33% 23
    Carrie Ryan 69 2 35 0.21% 24
    Gail Carson Levine 34 1 34 0.10% 25
    Jay Asher 34 1 34 0.10% 26
    Becca Fitzpatrick 68 2 34 0.21% 27
    Libba Bray 136 4 34 0.41% 28
    Julie Berry 34 1 34 0.10% 29
    Richelle Mead 202 6 34 0.61% 30
    Elizabeth Knox 67 2 34 0.20% 31
    Bree Despain 66 2 33 0.20% 32
    James Patterson 257 8 32 0.78% 33
    Cornelia Funke 63 2 32 0.19% 34
    Lisa McMann 94 3 31 0.28% 35
    Carolyn MacCullough 31 1 31 0.09% 36
    Markus Zusak 124 4 31 0.37% 37
    Lauren Oliver 31 1 31 0.09% 38
    Emily Whitman 31 1 31 0.09% 39
    Mette Ivie Harrison 123 4 31 0.37% 40
    Ally Carter 152 5 30 0.46% 41
    Cameron Dokey 271 9 30 0.82% 42
    Jason Henderson 30 1 30 0.09% 43
    Caragh M. O’Brien 30 1 30 0.09% 44
    Scott Westerfeld 354 12 30 1.07% 45
    Carrie Jones 88 3 29 0.27% 46
    Lindsey Leavitt 29 1 29 0.09% 47
    Lois Lowry 86 3 29 0.26% 48
    Philip Pullman  57 2 29 0.17% 49
    Lauren Kate 57 2 29 0.17% 50
    Lili St. Crow 56 2 28 0.17% 51
    M.L. Forman 28 1 28 0.08% 52
    Alison Goodman 28 1 28 0.08% 53
    Marissa Doyle 55 2 28 0.17% 54
    Eoin Colfer 302 11 27 0.91% 55
    Rachel Hawkins 27 1 27 0.08% 56
    Joseph Delaney 240 9 27 0.72% 57
    Cyn Balog 26 1 26 0.08% 58
    Christine Johnson 26 1 26 0.08% 59
    Anna Godbersen 127 5 25 0.38% 60
    Shauna Cross 25 1 25 0.08% 61
    Veronica Bennett 25 1 25 0.08% 62
    Betty Smith 25 1 25 0.08% 63
    Brandon Sanderson 100 4 25 0.30% 64
    Melissa Marr 99 4 25 0.30% 65
    Tamora Pierce 634 26 24 1.91% 66
    Aubrey Mace 24 1 24 0.07% 67
    N.D. Wilson 70 3 23 0.21% 68
    Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl 46 2 23 0.14% 69
    Lesley Livingston 68 3 23 0.21% 70
    Alex Flinn 68 3 23 0.21% 71
    Sara Shepard 181 8 23 0.55% 72
    Cinda Williams Chima 113 5 23 0.34% 73
    Melissa de la Cruz 154 7 22 0.46% 74
    Kay Cassidy 22 1 22 0.07% 75
    Louis Sachar 44 2 22 0.13% 76
    D.J. MacHale 328 15 22 0.99% 77
    Heather Brewer 108 5 22 0.33% 78
    Beth Fantaskey 43 2 22 0.13% 79
    Kimberly Pauley 43 2 22 0.13% 80
    Diana Wynne Jones 128 6 21 0.39% 81
    Herbie Brennan 106 5 21 0.32% 82
    Dia Reeves 21 1 21 0.06% 83
    Heather Hepler 21 1 21 0.06% 84
    Susanne Dunlap 21 1 21 0.06% 85
    Erica S. Perl 21 1 21 0.06% 86
    Linda Buckley-Archer 63 3 21 0.19% 87
    Lise Haines 21 1 21 0.06% 88
    Alyson Noel 188 9 21 0.57% 89
    Eva Ibbotson 41 2 21 0.12% 90
    Anne Osterlund 41 2 21 0.12% 91
    Sherrilyn Kenyon 20 1 20 0.06% 92
    Kenneth Oppel 80 4 20 0.24% 93
    story by Tohru Kai  20 1 20 0.06% 94
    M.R. Bunderson 20 1 20 0.06% 95
    Robin Palmer 59 3 20 0.18% 96
    Claudia Gray 59 3 20 0.18% 97
    Frewin Jones 155 8 19 0.47% 98
    Carl Hiaasen 58 3 19 0.17% 99
    Lisa Greenwald 19 1 19 0.06% 100
    Catherine Gilbert Murdock 76 4 19 0.23% 101
    Suzanne Harper 19 1 19 0.06% 102
    Suzanne Weyn 150 8 19 0.45% 103
    Rosalind Wiseman 18 1 18 0.05% 104
    Jen Nadol 18 1 18 0.05% 105
    Thomas W harton 18 1 18 0.05% 106
    Margaret Peterson Haddix 144 8 18 0.43% 107
    Ellen Schreiber 160 9 18 0.48% 108
    Patricia C. Wrede 158 9 18 0.48% 109
    Robin McKinley 105 6 18 0.32% 110
    Zoèe Marriott 35 2 18 0.11% 111
    Chris Heimerdinger 280 16 18 0.84% 112
    Amy Huntley 17 1 17 0.05% 113
    Rachel Ward 17 1 17 0.05% 114
    Sarwat Chadda 17 1 17 0.05% 115
    Nina Malkin 17 1 17 0.05% 116
    Chris Heimerd 17 1 17 0.05% 117
    Elizabeth Eulberg 17 1 17 0.05% 118
    Kathi Oram Peterson 17 1 17 0.05% 119
    Megan Whalen Turner 68 4 17 0.21% 120
    Chelsea M. Campbell 17 1 17 0.05% 121
    Rachel Vail 51 3 17 0.15% 122
    Becca Wilhite 34 2 17 0.10% 123
    Sarah Dessen 150 9 17 0.45% 124
    Debbie Viguie 100 6 17 0.30% 125
    Garth Nix 182 11 17 0.55% 126
    Michael Grant 49 3 16 0.15% 127
    Rachel Vincent 49 3 16 0.15% 128
    Jonathan Stroud 97 6 16 0.29% 129
    Lucy Christopher 16 1 16 0.05% 130
    Kay Lynn Mangum 48 3 16 0.14% 131
    Anna Jarzab 16 1 16 0.05% 132
    Sarah MacLean 16 1 16 0.05% 133
    Josh Berk 16 1 16 0.05% 134
    Lisa Klein 16 1 16 0.05% 135
    Jackson Pearce 16 1 16 0.05% 136
    Jacqueline Kelly 16 1 16 0.05% 137
    Caroline Goode 16 1 16 0.05% 138
    Kirby Larson 16 1 16 0.05% 139
    Lisa Shanahan 16 1 16 0.05% 140
    Katherine Applegate 16 1 16 0.05% 141
    Marthe Jocelyn 16 1 16 0.05% 142
    Ann Brashares 64 4 16 0.19% 143
    Holly Black 78 5 16 0.24% 144
    Julie Wright 31 2 16 0.09% 145
    Ally Condie 93 6 16 0.28% 146
    Juliet Marillier 31 2 16 0.09% 147
    Janet Lee Carey 46 3 15 0.14% 148
    Donita K. Paul 90 6 15 0.27% 149
    Tera Lynn Childs 45 3 15 0.14% 150
    Kiersten White 15 1 15 0.05% 151
    Jane Eagland 15 1 15 0.05% 152
    Sophie Jordan 15 1 15 0.05% 153
    Maureen Daly 15 1 15 0.05% 154
    Debbie Vguie 15 1 15 0.05% 155
    Leah Cypess 15 1 15 0.05% 156
    Jessica Brody 15 1 15 0.05% 157
    Rosie Rushton 15 1 15 0.05% 158
    Rachel Caine 134 9 15 0.40% 159
    R.D. Henham 104 7 15 0.31% 160
    Hilari Bell 178 12 15 0.54% 161
    L.J. Smith 326 22 15 0.98% 162
    Carol Lynch Williams 44 3 15 0.13% 163
    Laini Taylor 44 3 15 0.13% 164
    John Boyne 29 2 15 0.09% 165
    Victoria Hanley 58 4 15 0.17% 166
    Guillaume Prevost 43 3 14 0.13% 167
    Michelle Zink 28 2 14 0.08% 168
    Andrea R. Cremer 14 1 14 0.04% 169
    Lynn Weingarten 14 1 14 0.04% 170
    Kristopher Reisz 14 1 14 0.04% 171
    Andrew Klavan 28 2 14 0.08% 172
    Jessica Verday 14 1 14 0.04% 173
    Kim Harrison 14 1 14 0.04% 174
    L.K. Madigan 14 1 14 0.04% 175
    Heather Davis 14 1 14 0.04% 176
    Lauren Conrad 42 3 14 0.13% 177
    Sherman Ale 14 1 14 0.04% 178
    Alexandra Adornetto 14 1 14 0.04% 179
    Martine Leavitt 14 1 14 0.04% 180
    Morris Gleitzman 14 1 14 0.04% 181
    Charmian Hussey  14 1 14 0.04% 182
    Douglas Rees 14 1 14 0.04% 183
    Stephanie Hem 14 1 14 0.04% 184
    C.J. Omololu 14 1 14 0.04% 185
    Aimee Friedman 42 3 14 0.13% 186
    Kate Coombs 28 2 14 0.08% 187
    Jack Weyland 151 11 14 0.46% 188
    Michael Carroll 41 3 14 0.12% 189
    Philip Caveney 41 3 14 0.12% 190
    Pamela Wells 27 2 14 0.08% 191
    Grace Cavendish 27 2 14 0.08% 192
    Elizabeth Scott 54 4 14 0.16% 193
    Ridley Pearson 54 4 14 0.16% 194
    Laurie Halse Anderson 108 8 14 0.33% 195
    Gillian Shields 40 3 13 0.12% 196
    Simone Elkeles 93 7 13 0.28% 197
    Lisi Harrison 304 23 13 0.92% 198
    Patrick Carman 66 5 13 0.20% 199
    Darren Shan 313 24 13 0.94% 200
    Gary D. Schmidt 26 2 13 0.08% 201
    Gena Showalter 26 2 13 0.08% 202
    Michael Young 13 1 13 0.04% 203
    Miyuki Miyabe  13 1 13 0.04% 204
    J.V. Hart  13 1 13 0.04% 205
    Dandi Daley Mackall 13 1 13 0.04% 206
    Beatrice Gormley 13 1 13 0.04% 207
    Dodie Smith 13 1 13 0.04% 208
    Jaclyn Moriarty 52 4 13 0.16% 209
    Angela Morrison 26 2 13 0.08% 210
    James A. Owen 52 4 13 0.16% 211
    Nick Lake 13 1 13 0.04% 212
    E.E. Richardson 13 1 13 0.04% 213
    Fern Schumer Chapman 13 1 13 0.04% 214
    Priscilla Cummings 13 1 13 0.04% 215
    Stuart Hill 39 3 13 0.12% 216
    Jen Calonita 78 6 13 0.24% 217
    Valerie O. Patterson 13 1 13 0.04% 218
    Julie Kagawa 26 2 13 0.08% 219
    William golding 13 1 13 0.04% 220
    Lisa M. Klein 13 1 13 0.04% 221
    Lisa Mantchev 26 2 13 0.08% 222
    Gerald Morris 129 10 13 0.39% 223
    Cory Doctorow 25 2 13 0.08% 224
    Janette Rallison 125 10 13 0.38% 225
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  • Correia’s Son of the Black Sword

    ByJohn Brown

    I just finished reading Larry Correia’s Son of the Black Sword, and enjoyed it immensely.

    It takes memes from King Arthur’s sword, Moses, the Shaolin monks, special operations forces, ancient India, prophets, and freedom and mixes them into an epic fantasy that’s simply tremendous.

    It has all the action and entertainment you expect from a Correia production. There are monsters. There are battles and wonderful scenes of sword fighting. There are magic and wizards, but it’s not the magic and wizards you’ve seen before (magic from demon body parts?!) And unlike many fantasies, which revolve around the magic—discovering how it works and some chosen person growing in its power—this story revolves around matters of justice and mercy and law and truth.

    This isn’t a story about magic. It’s a story about a man in terrible conflict.

    The main character, Ashok, is not just a Lord Protector, one trained in battle to kill demons and administer death to those who break the law, he’s the most fearsome of them all. And the most pure in his devotion to the law. There’s just one problem—he finds out that he himself is a terrible affront to the law.

    Discovering why that is and how it occurred is part of the enjoyment, so I won’t give it away. But along with that and all the action, you’ll be transported to a new world based on the old Indian caste system with a number of twists. You’ll encounter the court intrigue found in so many fantasies. But probably what was most delicious to me was a central mystery shrouded in the ancient past and a whole cast of wonderful characters. There’s Ashok, but we also get a courageous librarian/legal assistant, a tough female boat captain, a funny black market smuggler, and a veteran soldier who wants to restore the honor that was unjustly taken from him.

    As a reader, I was delighted. As an author, I found many things to admire (and some to be envious of), including the fact that when you’re in the point of view of a character, you’re with that character, caring about what they care about and seeing the world through their eyes.

    Son of the Black Sword is a book chock-full of delights. If you like fantasy and action, I think you’ll love it. As for me, I can’t wait for the second in the series.

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  • |

    Ender’s World: Fresh Perspectives on the SF Classic Ender’s Game

    ByJohn Brown

    Smart Pop publishes smart, fresh, and engaging articles on the best of pop culture TV, books, and film, with a particular focus on science fiction and fantasy television and literature.

    You want to hear what Scott Westerfield (Uglies, Pretties, etc.) has to say about Buffy?  Go to Smart Pop.

    What about Orson Card’s thoughts on Joss Whedon’s Firefly universe? Smart Pop.

    What about the venerable Lawrence Block on Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series? Um, Smart Pop.

    Strange.  Do you see a pattern emerging? 

    Whether it’s Mad Men, House, Hunger Games, George Martin’s epic fantasies, Halo, True Blood, or Alias, Smart Pop gathers together New York Times bestselling authors, television writers, psychologists, philosophers, and others–folks who love of pop culture and have something worth sharing about it–and asks them to share their insights.   

    Recently, they’ve been putting together just such a collection on Ender’s Game.  It’s called Ender’s World: Fresh Perspectives on the SF Classic Ender’s Game. It’s coming out February 2013.  You can read more about it here.

    I’m announcing this now because The Man was fortunate enough to be invited to contribute.  I love Ender’s Game.  LOVE IT.  How cool is it that I get to write about it in an anthology edited by the folks at Smart Pop and Card himself? And then get to read what everyone else has to say, including military strategists Colonel Tom Ruby and Captain John Schmitt.  As well as the little bits they’ll include on things like why the battle room is the shape it is and why they were recruiting kids.

    But I’m also announcing this because in addition to the essays all we Ender-lovers get to write, Smart Pop is also going to include a series of Q&As with Scott Card, and they are currently soliciting the question from readers. FROM YOU. Right now.

    You ever wonder about a character or part of the setting or event in Ender’s Game?  Ever wanted to know what inspired Card? Ever wanted to ask any question at all about Ender’s Game?  Now’s your chance. Just submit you question here: http://www.smartpopbooks.com/ask-orson-scott-card-a-question-about-enders-game/

    You can see questions already submitted at Smart Pop’s Tumblr.

    From a writer’s pov, I have to tell you that the folks at Smart Pop have been nothing but enjoyable and insightful to work with. I’m looking forward to this book!

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