Uncategorized 27 Jan 2007 06:39 pm
A Rae of Sunshine
I know what you are thinking, “ANOTHER vampire novel?” But this one is possibly the best yet. Robin McKinley, whom many know from “The Blue Sword” has written an adult fantasy in a world where humans are fighting a losing battle against the Others, with Vamps leading the way.
Her main character, Sunshine (aka Rae Seddon) is kidnapped on an impulse walk out to the lake, and is held as bait for a vampire, Con. She turns her pocket-knife into a key, frees them both and then takes the vampire out into full sunlight, oh wait, you can’t do that!!! Sunshine discovers that not only has she definitely inherited magical powers from her father’s side of the family, but also that her element is not water, air, fire, or another normal element. Nope, her element is Sunshine.
A quote for you,
Buffyesque baker Rae “Sunshine” Seddon meets Count Dracula’s hunky Byronic cousin in Newbery-Award-winner McKinley’s… adult-and-then-some romp through the darkling streets of a spooky post-Voodoo Wars world…. Most of the charm of this long venture into magic maturation derives from McKinley’s keen ear and sensitive atmospherics, deft characterizations and clever juxtapositions of reality and the supernatural that might, just might, be lurking out there in “bad spots” right around a creepy urban corner or next to a deserted lake cabin. McKinley knows very well — and makes her readers believe — that “the insides of our own minds are the scariest things there are.”
— Publishers Weekly
and… ANOTHER from the man with a wonderful voice, Neil Gaiman,
A gripping, funny, page-turning pretty much perfect work of magical literature that exists more or less at the unlikely crossroads of Chocolat, Interview With a Vampire, Misery and the tale of Beauty and the Beast. It’s not quite SF, and it’s not really horror, and only kind of a love story, and it’s all three while still being solidly Fantastique. It also does that nice thing where the author assumes the readers are smart, and she treats us like we’re smart, and we purr and get smarter and work harder for all that. It’ll be nominated for awards, and win them; in the meantime I really hope it finds its audience, which is, potentially, huge.
The top image is the US cover (in both hardcover and paperback) and this second image here is the UK version. Have no fear dear readers, I have this book in US Hardcover and UK Paperback.
It really is a phenomenal read and at your local independent bookshop, you should pick it up!
And as it ends…
He held out his hand. “Come then,” he said.
I went with him into the night.
Tags: adult, baking, blaise, blue sword, Book, books, charlie's coffeeshop, cinnamon rolls, editions, fantasy, fiction, hardcover, love story, mckinley, others, paperback, rae seddon, raven blaise, robin mckinley, science fiction, seddon, sunshine, uk, us, vampires