Scott Westerfeld
Sep. 29th, 2011 12:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anthimeriaCompletely aside from RL issues, I've not been feeling well, but today I dragged myself out after work to see Scott Westerfeld, YA author extraordinaire, at a local indie bookshop. Due to traffic I came in a little late, but his talk was well worth the drag. (Please not to be commenting on my terrible English; I is fuzzy-brained.)
My favorite of Westerfeld's books is Peeps, because it is a fascinating new take on scientific vampires, it does that thing I love where the author did so much research that it shines through magnificently in the book, and it provided a lot of small talk for me on the subject of interesting parasites (yes, really. Parasite small talk). He's most famous for his Uglies series, and he was talking/touring today because the final book in his steampunk trilogy recently released. Unfortunately the book store did not have a copy of Peeps, so I bought Leviathan instead for him to sign (but he DID write "parasites rule!" in it when I fangirled at him about Peeps, so that was kinda awesome). Leviathan, Behemoth and Goliath are the titles, in order, of his steampunk series.
Leviathan's the first book in his YA steampunk series, which I recommend. His work is unfailingly awesome and well-research, and this triology comes with pictures, the coming about of which was the subject of his talk. It was fascinating and interesting and hilarious and he's a great speaker; he kept everybody in the audience entertained and didn't talk down to his readers, no matter their age.
I'm not really doing this justice, but this is all I have the energy for. Westerfeld is an engaging, hilarious speaker, and I learned things, and I rec all his books (well, I don't know about the rest of the Uglies series, but Uglies itself was good), especially Peeps.
My favorite of Westerfeld's books is Peeps, because it is a fascinating new take on scientific vampires, it does that thing I love where the author did so much research that it shines through magnificently in the book, and it provided a lot of small talk for me on the subject of interesting parasites (yes, really. Parasite small talk). He's most famous for his Uglies series, and he was talking/touring today because the final book in his steampunk trilogy recently released. Unfortunately the book store did not have a copy of Peeps, so I bought Leviathan instead for him to sign (but he DID write "parasites rule!" in it when I fangirled at him about Peeps, so that was kinda awesome). Leviathan, Behemoth and Goliath are the titles, in order, of his steampunk series.
Leviathan's the first book in his YA steampunk series, which I recommend. His work is unfailingly awesome and well-research, and this triology comes with pictures, the coming about of which was the subject of his talk. It was fascinating and interesting and hilarious and he's a great speaker; he kept everybody in the audience entertained and didn't talk down to his readers, no matter their age.
I'm not really doing this justice, but this is all I have the energy for. Westerfeld is an engaging, hilarious speaker, and I learned things, and I rec all his books (well, I don't know about the rest of the Uglies series, but Uglies itself was good), especially Peeps.
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-29 05:11 pm (UTC)P.S. Larissa finally read Peeps, and of course she loved it. She was also working on Feed last I spoke to her. I wonder if she's finished it yet...
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-30 07:24 pm (UTC)I haven't actually read Goliath yet; I need to see whether my library system has any copies.
Westerfeld's a really great speaker; my fuzzy-brained report does not do him justice. I dragged a friend along who's never read his books but loves children's lit, and she had a ball as well.