(Mostly) Self-Promotion

1. Ivory Apples has arrived at the publisher, as evidenced by this Instagram . I like their enthusiasm. At my old publisher it would probably be: “Another book. [Yawns] Remind me — did we do any advertising for this one? Well, go throw it off the pier and see if it floats.”

2. Unfortunately the publishing date’s been moved back, to October 17.

3. I really liked the series Carnival Row and thought about reviewing it, but the only thing I could think of to say is, Hey, this is really good! It has a sort of Victorian steampunk setting but it’s not in our world, so everything is rotated about ten or fifteen degrees from what we know. There are Pixes, who look like humans but can fly, Pucks, with hooves and spiral horns, and kobolds, who are about a foot tall, and if the series doesn’t give a back-story for all of them it has enough detail to convince us that there is a back-story somewhere, and that the writers know what it is. (I kept thinking I would read the book to find out what something-or-other meant, then remembering that there is no book. Though there should be.) Racism is as bad in this world as in ours, but it’s practiced by humans against these other forms of life, and maybe species-ism would be a better term. Almost everyone has secrets, or is plotting against someone else — characters have forbidden affairs with other species, or join hidden cults, or maneuver against their enemies in Parliament — and someone is murdering characters who seemingly have nothing to do with each other. The whole thing is believable throughout — the filmmakers seem to have created an entire world out of thin air. Oh, and Orlando Bloom can actually play something other than an elf, which was nice to see. My only problem was the scenes of violence and gore, which feature not only blood but livers and other internal organs, but it was easy enough to look away from them.

Well, hey, I guess that was a review after all.