Alaizabel Rocked

It took longer to finish than I expected (mostly because I've been crazy busy), but I really liked The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray by Chris Wooding. It reminded me at times of Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic novels. Wooding's imagining of a turn-of-the-20th Century London overrun with supernatural creatures is creepy and atmospheric, and the mystery he weaves there is sustained and deep. There is one "reveal" at the end that I almost wish he had left unexplained, but that's a minor quibble.

I've just been given a few of Alan Moore's Top Ten graphic novels that I've started, so I'll be reading outside the library collection for a few days. On Saturday, I went to the Rochester Children's Book Festival, which was pretty cool. The vast majority of authors/illustrators there were for younger kids, but I did get to meet Leander Watts (author of Beautiful City of the Dead, Stonecutter, Wild Ride to Heaven & 10,000 Charms). He signed our library copies of the latter 3 ("City" is always out, and my favorite of the bunch) and said he's got a number of things in various states of completion. There won't be anything new soon, but we'll likely see several in a short period of time when he starts to finish them. It's always interesting to meet an author. Unfortunately, things were pretty busy & I only got to speak to him for a moment.

There are lots of new things in the library in the past few weeks, and I'll be trying to tackle as many as I can. Stop down & see what we have, and let me know if you read something you really liked (or didn't like!!).