Crumbs! There’s nothing like eBay to give you a sense of perspective. An ARC of THE BIG O just went over there for $3, which is a long, long way from the heady heights of the $195.36 it was selling for on Amazon not so long ago. Talk about a credit crunch … Anyhoos, on with the more interesting stuff. Over at The Blog of Revelations, Peter Murphy reports that David Simon will be in Dublin on September 19 for a special screening of The Wire, which will be followed by a public interview. Jump on this for all the details …
Brian McGilloway’s BORDERLANDS hits the U.S. shelves this week, and Brian’s blogging his heart out over at Moments in Crime all week, with today’s instalment concerning itself with why he picked up the quill in the first place. To wit:
“It was as a fan of these series that, four or five years ago, I had a strong sense that many of them were nearing an end: Rebus was reaching retirement; Morse had died; Robicheaux thought he was taking a heart attack in LAST CAR TO ELYSIAN FIELDS. I decided that, in case these series should stop, I would need a new book to read, featuring that sense of place and central character linked. And so I wrote BORDERLANDS …”Which is nice. Meanwhile, over at the Book Witch’s impossibly glamorous lair, the Witch is talking up Oisín McGann’s SMALL-MINDED GIANTS, which Eoin Colfer recommended to her. Quoth la Witch:
“The cover of SMALL-MINDED GIANTS says this is a book for older readers, and there may be some truth in this. It’s a violent story, in a way, and the future looks bleak. Oisín has written a thriller with lots of action, and none of the clever gadgets or the backup that Alex Rider enjoys.”If it’s good enough for Eoin Colfer and the Witch, it’s good enough for us. Finally, Sam Millar gets in touch to let us all know that BLOODSTORM has reached American shores, complete with a funky new cover, and that the early reviews have been very positive indeed.
First our good friends at Publishers Weekly: “BLOODSTORM is the first in a powerful new crime series from Irish author Millar. Extremely original, it is a chillingly gripping book, and the consistently tough prose should help gain Millar more fans in the U.S. with a taste for the hard-boiled.”Nice. And then there’s the folk at Booklist:
“Irish crime writer, Sam Millar (THE REDEMPTION FACTORY) is back with a brand new anti-hero, Karl Kane … crime noir doesn’t get much darker or grittier than this shocking tale of corruption and revenge …”Nicer still. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – it’s always Millar time at Crime Always Pays.
* Providing you don’t click any of the links, of course
Finding an ARC for sale really frosts me. (And no, not just because i didn't think of it myself.) I've reviewed quite a few books for New Mystery Reader, and the only two rules the editor ever gave me were:
ReplyDelete1. Do the best you can.
2. Don't see the book. You can loan it out, give it away, donate it, burn it, bury it in your back yard, but you can't sell it.
I don't know what it says about someone who would sell a book they got for dree to write a review, but it ain't good.
Dana - I understand that certain print publications are only paying $25 per review these days, so you can't blame someone if they were to maximise their return on the reading investment. Cheers, Dec
ReplyDeleteDana, I can go $26.50. How many stars does that buy me? Cheers, Dec
ReplyDeleteIt could be worse. A couple of weeks ago I picked up an autographed hardcover of McKinty's HIDDEN RIVER on eBay for $0.99.
ReplyDeleteAh, but I've had an author try to buy back a review copy of her own book on eBay, when she had promised me one, and the publishers ran out of copies.
ReplyDeleteCraig - 99 cents for Hidden River is the bargain of the decade. Enjoy, squire.
ReplyDeleteMs Witch - I was tempted to bid $25 for my own book, just to promote the whole exclusivity angle. But I could only afford $3 ...
Cheers, Dec