2010/53: Verdigris Deep -- Frances Hardinge

Verdigris Deep -- Frances Hardinge

Ryan pulled out one of the sweetcorn cans and hefted it to shoulder height, but the muscles in his arms seemed to have gone slack. What was he hoping to do, scare them away like stray dogs? The trolleys juddered their plastic child seats with a wet paddling sound and jangled their chains. Ryan was reminded of a snake's rattle. Feeling sick, he decided to come quietly.
Ryan's mother and father noticed nothing as their only son was taken into custody by a host of supermarket trolleys and herded to the far side of the car park. (p. 158)

( non-spoilery review )

2010/54: Still She Wished For Company -- Margaret Irwin

Still She Wished For Company -- Margaret Irwin

"But London," said Lucian, "is a sad, irreligious place, where there is no longer any true respect for the Infernal Majesty. And that is an important power to conciliate in invoking shades of the dead, since the only shades one would ever desire in company must necessarily come from below. You should visit Paris, cousin -- with your understanding of history you would find it entertaining, as many a French Court lady has done, to dine with the shade of Lucretius or Petronius at Count Cagliostro's house in the Rue St. Claude." (p. 68)

( non-spoilery review )

Linkage

Zombie tennis players from, er, Wimbledon (most entertaining sports commentary I have read in a long time: The Isner-Mahut battle is a bizarre mix of the gripping and the deadly dull. It's tennis's equivalent of Waiting For Godot, in which two lowly journeymen comedians are forced to remain on an outside court until hell freezes over and the sun falls from the sky. Isner and Mahut are dying a thousand deaths out there on Court 18 and yet nobody cares, because they're watching the football.)

two-axis fiction analysis grid. Via fanficcish places, but wholly valid for every work of fiction ever, for X=intellectual appeal and Y=emotional appeal.

on difficult characters (post from 2007 by Doris Egan, found while looking for something completely different) Just for the hell of it, I once began a novel by having my protagonist murder an innocent, and I was overjoyed when people told me, "I didn't think it would happen, but by the end of chapter two I was completely on his side." That, I thought, was earned; I wasn't slipping anything past anyone, or using a light tone to mask deeper matters.

A single parent writes about what the Budget has meant for her I have woken up to find I am society’s garbage. And with increasing regularity, people feel free to tell me that. I suppose it feels easier to do so if the Prime Minister tells you I am part of the reason Britain is broken.. This made me feel fortunate, guilty and outraged.