NK Jemisin is Indies First Spokesperson, Firefly Lane and Gormenghast Becoming TV Shows, Obit for King of Hay on Wye, The Hunchback Assignments and The Dark Deeps by Arthur Slade, and Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

Part Two of my book reviews today starts with the wonderful author of the Broken Earth trilogy, NK Jemisin. Congratulations to her on being named a spokesperson. 

N.K. Jemisin Is This Year's Indies First Spokesperson

Science fiction and fantasy author N.K. Jemisin will be the spokesperson this year http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz41565009 for Indies First, the campaign supporting independent bookstores that takes place on Small Business Saturday, which this year is November 30, Bookselling This Week reported.

Jemisin the first author in history to win three consecutive Hugo Awards for Best Novel, all for her Broken Earth trilogy. She is also the winner of the Locus Award for Best First Novel and the Sense of Gender Award for The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, the first volume in her Inheritance Trilogy. She is published by Hachette's Orbit imprint.

In November 2018, Jemisin published How Long 'til Black Future Month?, a collection of short stories that, BTW said, "sharply examine modern society with thought-provoking narratives of destruction, rebirth, and redemption." The paperback edition was published on Tuesday.

Jemisin has already created a video http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz41565010, in which she encourages viewers to visit their local indie on November 30, the seventh annual Indies First Day. Appropriately the video was filmed at the Greenlight Bookstore in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, N.Y.

I loved both Firefly Lane and the Gormenghast trilogy, which I read about 15 or so years ago. I'm really excited to see both becoming TV series. I will avidly await their premiers!

TV: Firefly Lane; Gormenghast Books

Sarah Chalke (Friends from College) will be the co-lead opposite Katherine Heigl in Netflix's upcoming series Firefly Lane http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz41593891, based on the bestselling novel by Kristin Hannah. Maggie Friedman will write, executive produce and serve as showrunner for the project, Deadline reported. The cast also includes Ben Lawson.

Friedman executive produces with Stephanie Germain and Lee Rose. Hannah is co-executive producer. Peter O'Fallon will direct and executive produce the first episode.

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Showtime has given a script-to-series order to the planned adaption of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast book series http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz41593892 (Titus Groan, Gormenghast and Titus Alone) and will co-produce along with Fremantle, "with a writers room set to be opened soon," Variety reported. The BBC had previously adapted the first two books into a four-episode miniseries starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Christopher Lee in 2000.

Toby Whithouse (Being Human) will serve as showrunner and executive produce along with Neil Gaiman, Akiva Goldsman, Dante Di Loreto, Oliver Jones, Barry Spikings and David Stern.

"The joy of trying to describe Gormenghast to people is one where words will fail you and that's why there have been people who wanted to film Gormenghast ever since Peake wrote the first book," Gaiman said http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz41593893.

"The BBC once tried but they were all making it in times when depicting the impossible on the screen was too difficult. The great thing now is that we can make it and actually show it and take you there. We are now in a world where you can put the impossible on screen and with Gormenghast, you're not just dealing with a castle the size of a city but dealing with these incredibly glorious and memorable people."

I've wanted to visit the town of Hay on Wye for at least a decade now, it's got a top spot on my bucket list and I was saddened to hear of the death of the King of Hay himself, Richard Booth. RIP Mr Booth.

Obituary Note: Richard Booth

Bookseller and self-appointed "King of Hay" Richard Booth http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz41622109, who turned the small Welsh town of Hay-on-Wye "into a second-hand bookshop capital," died August 20, BBC News reported. He was 80. Booth opened his first bookshop in the town's former fire station in 1961. His passion for Hay-on-Wye "led him to proclaim it an independent kingdom on 1 April 1977, crowning himself as monarch and issuing passports to locals."

"This town has become what it is because of him," said Anne Addyman of Addyman's Books. "We are absolutely devastated. It feels like we have lost our father, he is such a legend. We are going to have black books in the windows and a week of mourning for the king of Hay. He was unique. He was the first person to diversify a rural economy; what he did was cutting edge in the '60s and '70s. There are now over 50 book towns in the world. Hay is still the best. He was like the emperor of the book town movement as well."

Booth was chairman of the Welsh Booksellers Association, life president of the International Organization of Book Towns, and was honored with an MBE in 2004. He sold his bookshop in 2007.

Hay Festival http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz41622110 director Peter Florence told the Bookseller: "Richard was a maverick http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz41622111, full of mischief and delight, who had an idea of genius about how to diversify a rural economy with secondhand book dealing and made a life of it. He inspired generations of bookdealers and browsers. There are many people in Hay who are here because of him. We all owe him the easygoing, happy spirit of the town.

"There was a time in the '70s and '80s when he was a tremendously charismatic, visionary entrepreneur who had great fun. He was a book man, and he loved a good deal, but I always thought he wasn't really in it for money; he was in it for the craic, for the party and the good times. And everybody treasures that image of him now."

The Hunchback Assignments and The Dark Deeps by Arthur Slade are the first two books in the Hunchback Assignments series. I loved that the first and second books in this series were carried by the library, only to discover, as is often the case, that the next two books in the series aren't available at my local KCLS location. So I will, unfortunately, have to purchase them in order to explore the further adventures of Modo and Octavia.  These are YA steampunk adventure tales based on the classic novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo in 1831. Though they take place at a later date in the 19th century, Slade manages to keep Hugos flavor of Victorian England and Europe intact while adding the futuristic steampunk inventions and creepy evil scientists ala Frankenstein. The prose is easy, breezy and fun, which keeps the more frightening characters and plot points from bogging down the entire novel.  Here are the blurbs: A gripping new series combines Steampunk, spying, and a fantastic Victorian London.
The mysterious Mr. Socrates rescues Modo, a child in a traveling freak show. Modo is a hunchback with an amazing ability to transform his appearance, and Mr. Socrates raises him in isolation as an agent for the Permanent Association, a spy agency behind Brittania’s efforts to rule the empire. At 14, Modo is left on the streets of London to fend for himself. When he encounters Octavia Milkweed, another Association agent, the two uncover a plot by the Clockword Guild behind the murders of important men. Furthermore, a mad scientist is turning orphan children into automatons to further the goals of the Guild. Modo and Octavia journey deep into the tunnels under London and discover a terrifying plot against the British government. It’s up to them to save their country.
The Dark Deeps: A fantastic Steampunk adventure in the deeps
Transforming his appearance and stealing secret documents from the French is all in a day’s work for fourteen-year-old Modo, a British secret agent. But his latest mission—to uncover the underwater mystery of something called the Ictíneo—seems impossible. There are rumors of a sea monster and a fish as big as a ship. French spies are after it, and Mr. Socrates, Modo’s master, wants to find it first. Modo and his fellow secret agent, Octavia, begin their mission in New York City, then take a steamship across the North Atlantic. During the voyage, Modo uncovers an astounding secret.The Dark Deeps, the second book in Arthur Slade’s Hunchback Assignments series, is set in a fascinating Steampunk Victorian world. Modo’s underwater adventures and his encounters with the young French spy Colette Brunet, the fearless Captain Monturiol, and the dreaded Clockwork Guild guarantee a gripping read filled with danger, suspense, and brilliant inventions.
Modo is a steampunk version of Quasimodo, the original hunchback, and yet here he has more agency as a character, and is able to change his appearance for short periods of time, which helps him as a spy and detective, to be able to move about in the world without a mask to cover his disfigured face and a cloak to cover his twisted spine and hump. Modo is wily and yet innocent, and though his age might be an excuse (he's either 14 or 15 years old, we aren't sure, and neither is he) he seems to 'fall in love' or 'crush' on the women he encounters with alarming regularity. Modo wants so badly to be 'normal,' to be loved and cared for in ways both maternal and carnal, that its almost tragic to witness his despair whenever his good looking disguises begin to degrade and he becomes the 'monster' he believes his disfigurement makes him. The two young women in these books who work with Modo are, meanwhile, catty, shallow and cruel in their constant quest to see his 'real' face. Once one of them does, and acts with revulsion, we are shown yet again how Modo fights against a prejudice that will never end, at least for thoughtless and stupid young women, apparently. Though I didn't like either Colette or Octavia, I did like the way the books soared to a "happy for now" ending where Modo is once again able to use his gifts for the good of his nation's security. A definite A for both books with a recommendation to anyone who likes reboots of classic stories and steampunk retellings in particular.

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells is the second book in her "Murderbot Diaries" series.  I read and enjoyed the first book, though the plot stalled a bit once or twice. Wells prose is surprisingly delicate and glossy, which makes her tiny plot potholes all the more jarring. Still, I found this short novel fascinating. Here's the blurb:

Artificial Condition is the follow-up to Martha Wells's Hugo, Nebula, Alex, and Locus Award-winning, New York Times bestselling All Systems Red
It has a dark past―one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself “Murderbot”. But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more.
Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don’t want to know what the “A” stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue.
What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks…"The Murderbot series is a heart-pounding thriller that never lets up, but it's also one of the most humane portraits of a nonhuman I've ever read. Come for the gunfights on other planets, but stay for the finely drawn portrait of a deadly robot whose smartass goodness will give you hope for the future of humanity." ―Annalee Newitz, author of Autonomous

I loved the back and forth quips and dialog between Murderbot and ART, who really is an a**hole AI, and I continue to love the way that Mbot can't help but save the stupid humans from harm or death. Its horror and disgust at the very idea of the sexbot and her use by humanity is hilariously prudish. This series grows more interesting with each book. I'd give this one a B+ and recommend it to anyone who enjoys AI stories and science fiction mysteries.