I’m a big fan of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series. They’re classics and if you haven’t read them then, seriously, our friendship is in jeopardy. After Douglas Adams’ death in 2001, it was assumed that the series ended with the fifth book. The BBC also excellently adapted audio dramas based on the five books. Since we are becoming a generation that lacks original ideas and likes to beat franchisees to death, a sixth book in the series entitled “And Another Thing…” is set to be published in October 2009. The book will be written by Eoin Colfer, the author of the Artemis Fowl series. I’m unfamiliar with his writing style and humor so this news is a little unnerving for me. I’m worried that Arthur Dent might go the way of Jason Bourne and be beaten to death by some seemingly random author. While a new HHG2TG books sounds fantastic, I don’t know if I am capable of trusting somebody I don’t know with such a precious series. But maybe I should just consider the words of Douglas Adams and not panic.

You can catch up with the official press release and hear what Arthur Dent thinks about coming out of retirement.

Did you know that Neil Gaiman (Coraline, Good Omens) also writes songs? He teamed up with Amanda Palmer (of The Dresden Dolls) on her new solo album to write a song called “I Google You”. Currently, it looks like the only way to get your hands on “I Google You” is to pre-order the CD on the Who Killer Amanda Palmer website. I, personally, love The Dresden Dolls and will probably get around to picking up the album.

Blurb for the back cover:
“Ingeniously drawn, helplessly immature, and a delight to read.”

Sam and Max freelance police originally appeared in comic form back in 1987. Since then the duo has appeared in many more comics, a television cartoon series, and computer games. Surfin’ The Highway was published in the ’90s but had since gone to that dreadful place known as “out of print”. Luckily, to capitalize on the recent increase in interest thanks to their newer computer adventures, Sam and Max Surfin’ The Highway has been republished for all to enjoy!

The due is made up of Sam, the suit wearing dog, and Max, a bunny-looking lagomorph. Together they fight crime and injustice (and pirates and a restless spirit that haunts the cereal aisle and rats and a fish named Mack Salmon, to name a few). Since they are freelance police, they get their assignments straight from the commissioner himself who is never seen. Since this is a collection of all the published Sam and Max cartoons so far, there is no story arch which keeps things moving at a fast pace and prevents any situation from getting stale.

Really the thing that stands out here is the humor in the dialog. Often times it is Max who will offer up a witty quip to break the tension. There are also instants when the fourth wall is broken and the humor is self referring such as the time Sam and Max go to the Philippines which is a cross between a tribal voodoo village with the pyramids in the background. Max points out that it was apparently drawn without reference material. Max will also point out when speech bubbles are blocking his vision. It’s this type of humor that makes Surfin’ The Highway worth reading. It’s ingeniously drawn, helplessly immature, and a delight to read.

Also, I recommend the cartoon series as well.

The Book Pirate’s Musings on… Midnight Sun

I mention Wednesday about an incomplete draft of Stephenie Meyer’s Midnight Sun being leaked on to the internet and how she was so distraught that she placed the book on “infinite hold” which is often a euphemism for “canceled”. Well, I’ve had more time to think about it and I have a couple more thoughts on the subject.

First off, was it really worth it to “infinitively hold” a book just because part of it was leaked? This seems like punishing everyone for a mistake that only one person made. Last time I check the Twilight Saga had sold over 50 million copies worldwide. By “infinitively holding” the book, Meyer has essentially bitch slapped 50 million readers right across the face.

This brings me to the readers, the fans, the people who have started comparing Stephenie Meyer to the likes of J.K. Rowling and who will be lining up to see the midnight showing of the movie based of the first book in the Twilight Saga. These readers have stuck with her for four books and made Meyer popular. I’m dumbfounded as to how an author could just ignore her fan base. Imagine if you will that prior to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’s release someone reveled that Dumbledore died. Would J.K. stand up and say “Alright, it’s been spoiled. There is no need for me to release any more Harry Potter books.” There would be riots I imagine and a state of martial law would have to be enforced until things calmed down.

“But wait,” you, the reader, say. “Isn’t it her right as an author, no as an artist, to control her art as she sees fit?” Good point. To answer your question, yes. As a writer I feel that I have complete control over what I write, how I write, and when I write. Naturally, I am unpublished so the world of deadlines and editors is not something I am dealing with right now. Meyer can do whatever she wants to in her story. She is the author, she has the control.

But consider this, would you watch a movie with the last fifteen minutes missing? How would you feel if went in to the film not knowing that the ending was removed? Would you read a novel that had the last chapters removed? That is how I feel about the decision to cancel Midnight Sun.

To my understanding, the four currently released Twilight books complete the main story arch and the fifth and final book, Midnight Sun, was to be through the perspective of another character. I can’t say for sure if Midnight Sun does constitute additional content for the main story of the Twilight Saga. But something apparently struck with Meyer and she, at one point, felt compelled to write an entire book that would compliment the previous four. Writing a book is no easy task yet to canceling it seemed to be rather simple.

Meyer is viewing the leak of her book as a bad thing while I view it as something that could help make Midnight Sun an awesome book. Writers tend to show their drafts to a handful of people who give feed. I enjoy receiving feedback and welcome all of it. What Meyer has is the opportunity to collect vast amounts of feedback from fans who are engrossed in the world of Twilight. Who better to help make the book be the best it could be? From what I’ve gathered from people who read the latest book, Breaking Dawn, it wasn’t as good as the three previous books. One of my friends said that it felt like it was written by an entirely different person. Midnight Sun is a chance to end the Twilight Saga on a high note and go out with a bang.

Either way, I wont be losing sleep over the fact that I may never get to read Midnight Sun. What I am upset about is Stephenie Meyer’s attitude towards the leak and how she feels that she must punish her entire fan base because of it.

Blurb for the back cover:
“It’s amusing to see just how much Denis will put up with in an attempt to get the girl who turns out to be, slightly crazy.”

In I Love You, Beth Cooper, Beth Cooper is the perfect girl in Denis Cooverman’s mind which is why, while giving the valedictorian speech for his graduating high school class, he declares his love for her in front of everybody. This bold decision is the catalysis that sets of a chain of events that leads Denis and his would-be-gay-if-only-he-could-figure-out-what-everybody-else-already-knew best friend, Richard Munsch, on a night out that just progressively gets worse and worse for them. Beth Cooper enters the picture by using Denis as an excuse to make her army, and in dire need of anger management, boyfriend jealous. As things progress Beth and her two female companions lead the two boys on a wacky adventure through their hometown of Buffalo Grove, breaking numerous laws in the process as well as putting Denis in as many awkward situations.

The whole time Denis spends with Beth, his dream girl, he is shocked to discover just how little he knew about her after sitting behind her for four years. He learns that she may not be all that he thought she was and that she may be something much worse. This is the aspect of the book that really helped draw me in, that Beth Cooper is not as good as girl as we expect her to be. She keeps getting progressively worse as the book goes on to the point where I started wonder how could Denis be so blind and why didn’t he just get up and leave her. He is often put in a situation where he is physically harmed or in a situation that is just so awkward that he has no idea how to get out of it. But it’s a crush that Denis has had for four years. Sometimes with a love so blind and strong, it is hard to admit defeat and give up on it. It’s amusing to see just how much Denis will put up with in an attempt to get the girl who turns out to be, slightly crazy.

This book reminded me of high school and how stupid we all were back then which is one of the reasons I found it charming in a way. For the most part I think it is safe to say that most of us had one of those crushes on that one person who probably didn’t give you much attention.

I wasn’t expecting this to be one of those coming-of-age stories that I tend to frown upon (more on that late, maybe). But one night can change a lot of things and all the characters come out grown, or at the very least different, in the end.

This book is one of the books that I found hard to put down and regretted waiting so long to read it. I bought it back when it first came out because the author Larry Doyle is a former writer for The Simpsons. It has since been released in paperback and made in to a movie.

I haven’t been reading the Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer. Or The Host. She’s just a little too popular for my tastes (which really should be a deciding factor when selecting a book to read, I know). Anyway, part of Midnight Sun, the next book in the Twilight Series, had been leaked on the internet and Stephenie Meyer is so distraught over it that she has placed the book “on hold indefinitely” which is pretty much the same as canceling it. On her web site, she has posted the leaked draft to help keep her fans honest so they don’t have to crawl to the darker corners of the internet to download it.

On one hand I can understand her frustration. As a writer I don’t like people reading my rough drafts. Only after my third or fourth attempt at a piece do I feel comfortable showing it to people. But to go as far as to cancel a book? That’s a little dramatic in my opinion. Part of me thinks this might have something to do with the generally negative response to Breaking Dawn.

Blurb for the back cover:
“This is a kids book and it is painfully cliché ridden”

Another graphic novel, this time Amulet is aimed at the younger set of kids. Well, not super young, but maybe age 10 or somewhere along those lines. I dunno. I don’t have kids so it is kind of hard to gage what age group would enjoy this book. It reminded me of The Spiderwick Chronicles in the sense that one of the parents dies at the very start of the book and Emily, Navin and their mom go off it to the forest to live in a mysterious old house in an attempt to start over. As with all kids books nowadays, this house hides secrets and Emily soon finds herself in possession of a mysterious stone that grants her magical abilities. Naturally, the mother is soon kidnapped and it’s up to the kids to rescue her. Since their new house is mysterious, a portal of some sorts that takes them to an equally mysterious land where they meet their grandfather who has been missing for quite a while.

When push comes to shove, this is a kids book and it is painfully cliché ridden. We have magical passage ways, magical powers, relatives long thought dead, kids without parents, robots, and a talking pink bunny. Wait, sorry. That last one isn’t so much cliché as it is slightly odd. The only thing that sets this apart from other books of the similar genre is the fact that this one is illustrated. For the most part I like the drawings. They are colorful and sometimes neat to look at. Unfortunately, I find the character design of the humans to be a little too cartoonish for my tastes. I think it has to do with their heads being a little too tall. Everyone else though, from the pink bunny to the sinister villain, look fine.

I would recommend this book for the young adult crowd, but any serious graphic novel junkie will probably overlook this easily. Amulet is set up to be a series from what I can tell and this is only book one. There are some interesting plot points that I think can and will be taken further to add more depth to the series and take it in a much darker direction which is what I think this book series needs to stand out. But until then I’m going to have to mention the pink bunny for the third time and say that as is this book doesn’t add anything to the genre other than borrow from other successful works.