Un Lun Dun, by China
Mieville is his first Y/A book. If you have a young teen reader on your list, or, if like me, you would rather read a great Y/A than a bad adult novel, get this book. Most of the action takes place in an alternate London, a very Alice in Wonderland place.
Deeba Resham, a girl from our London, and a friend get transported there in the midst of a struggle against a malevolent cloud of noxious gasses. There is fantastic word play in
Un Lon Don, in fact some words, when spoken, take form and come to life.
There is lots to laugh about, but
Deeba finds herself up against some very wicked opponents. When considering this book, remember it's Young Adult, not a children's book.
In this book,
Deeba and all the people of
Un Lun Dun have to learn to face facts, turn away from the easy lies of those who would manipulate them, and take charge of their own lives. Not a bad lesson for the rest of us.
Mary Rosenblum's workshops were great, as usual. I almost didn't go to any, as she's my on-line teacher through the Longridge Writer's Group, but she always has the best workshops, and it was good to see her in person. Longridge is an email course. It was fun just chatting in the bar, and I can't wait for her next book. NOW she tells me she has a novel course that comes after the short story class I'm taking with her.
There was Lee Lofland, an ex-cop, doing a police procedures lecture with slide show that was very interesting. Then, he showed a man robbing a bank, and said "this is the first man I killed." He followed that with more slides and story about the man, and how he put five bullets into him. The next day the chief made him go to the morgue and take pictures. Yikes. No wonder he left the force to be a consultant on Monk.
Elizabeth Engstrom gave a workshop on How to Write a Sizzling Sex Scene. Not only entertaining, but a lot of fun. We had to write an afterglow scene and then read it in class. From the other gender's point of view. I did the only post-human wet-spot scene. :)
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