nina kiriki hoffman

[cimorene]

A book I haven't read in years by one of my favorite modern fantasy writers, Bram Stoker award-winner Nina Kiriki Hoffman, finally arrived yesterday! The latest sequel, A Stir of Bones, was published just a few years ago, yet A Red Heart of Memories has been out of print for a long time and apparently didn't get a reprint in association - presumably her publishers assume either that she will never get any new readers ever, or that nobody will be curious about the events of the previous books even though it's completely obvious from the later ones that parts are missing. Because it's somewhat rare, I had to order a copy from North America, and it took a month and a half to get here.

DEAR PUBLISHING WORLD, I would really like to be living in the future now! We have smartphones, netbooks, ebook readers, and tablet computers everywhere now, so please start releasing your back catalogs as ebooks!

Comments

[torachan]

Seriously. Print-on-demand or ebook versions of out-of-print books is a no-risk offer for them. They only stand to make money, not lose it. I really do not get the logic.

[cimorene]

There are people doing print-on-demand, but I'd rather buy a used book (which is cheaper and more environmentally friendly) than that, especially since they are only printing them in North America anyway. The ebook option would be WAY more desirable.

[torachan]

Yeah, I'd prefer it, too, but I think offering both would be the best way to go. Some people have difficulty reading books on a screen, and not all books that are out of print are available used at affordable prices.

[cimorene]

Yeah, true, an attachment to the paper form is totally reasonable. But even theoretically preferring paper, the potential instant gratification of downloading the book would probably sway me over the ebooks a lot of the time the same way I often end up buying digital albums instead of hard copies. (I don't even mind if the cost is the same - the speed is worth the loss of the hard copy.)

[laurajv]

I believe in my life I have read only one thing by NKH, and it was a short story that I recall as "pretty good". (_Airborn_)

Why do you enjoy her? I need to pick up some new-to-me fantasy authors.

[cimorene]

Hmmm... well... I can't really find a fault to pick with her writing. It does have a definite flavor that might not be to everyone's tastes, I suppose. But a few memorable key points are the multiple female characters; the unusual and cool types of magic she creates and the unusual and cool ways she integrates it into the modern world; the awesome places and imagery; the complex dark tones that underly even her totally age-appropriate YA stuff like Stir of Bones; the things she does with gender eg in Past the Size of Dreaming and morality in general; the affecting but fairly subtle way she handles the romantic relationships in books which are not romances.

[laurajv]

Thank you! That sounds up my alley, and also like a good friend of mine might like to check her out.

[pandarus]

Intriguing! I shall keep my eyes peeled for her books!

TANGENTIAL!FAY IS TANGENTIAL:

...so, look, would you mind awfully if I made an audiofic of your 'Singing in the Rain' story The Cream in my Coffee?

::bats eyelashes hopefully::

...by which I mean, I kind of already did record it as an audiofic as soon as I'd finished reading, just for my own amusement. If you want to have a listen in order to decide whether you're okay with letting me upload it to General Jinjur's archive, I have uploaded the file for you here:


https://download.yousendit.com/RmNEeW45UnFEa1UwTVE9PQ

It's a LOVELY story, and I'm astounded that I never realised how very VERY much I should be shipping those three. OT3alicious!

[cimorene]

No, that's totally fine! No problem.

[cimorene]

It's actually "You're the Cream in My Coffee", though!