Friday, August 16, 2013

A call out for different

I'm going on a hunt. Not a bear hunt, which is the title of a great kids book, but a hunt for different, unique, maybe not perfect, but inspired.

It's been a summer of sequels, remakes and superheroes when it comes to movies and the box office has been disappointing for a lot of these ginormous, budget bloated spectacles. We've remade Spiderman, Superman and Batman twice each in the past twenty years. Movie studios played it safe and some got bit in the ass as a result.

In books, one billionaire falling in love with the ingenue virgin and then spanking her is probably enough for me. Same with the conflicted college student who can't choose between the tatooed bad boy and the golden football player. A duke falling love with the spinster is awesome, but I've read that story now in so many reincarnations.

I'm ready for new and different. I want to read a grand fantasy and then find an awesome thriller, and then a romance with a heroine who has a 37 inch waist and perhaps even a new urban fantasy where the world gets destroyed. I'd love to read a historical that has action and adventure and romance.

I want movies and books to follow the route of cable TV, where they seem to understand that variety and new ideas expand their audience. Where the best shows are about Fantasy worlds, or ad men, or a meth maker. Where ancient Italy seemed like a good location for a great show and where zombies are the new normal.

I'm looking for new books and I'm searching for self-published and regularly published and I'm hoping to find some new authors that stretch, or even re-imagine the boundaries of genre.

And I'll report back when I find some really incredible books. And if you know of any, let me know and I'll read them. All recommendations will be gratefully received. I'm going on a book hunt, and I'm going to catch a great one... (That story's going to be in my head all day.)

5 comments:

Maureen McGowan said...

I'd love to find something really new too. More accurate: I'd love to *write* something really new... Most books I've written felt really fresh and new and different when I started them, but then by the time they're on shelves it seems like dozens of people have done the same thing....
And one of my fav cool things in my new WIP... I just saw done in Elysium. Sigh.

Eileen said...

Maybe that's why I'm feeling book ennui. I want some strange. ;-)

Anonymous said...

There is no new, really, just new ways to tell a story, but sometimes publishing acts like movie studios, jumping on safe trends rather than great books.
But with self-publishing I'm hoping to find those great books that didn't quite fit in and now may find a home.
I'm with you Eileen, i have book ennui.

Karen Whiddon said...

For Fantasy, I recommend anything by N.K. Jemisin http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Moon-Dreamblood-N-Jemisin/dp/B00CNKQ70M/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376671702&sr=1-1&keywords=n.k.+jemisin

Awesome reading. I'm with you - I want different.

Another Truly different - and awesome YA I read on vacation was called GORGEOUS by Paul Rudnick. Also different. And fabulous.

Oh, and Wool by Hugh Howery.



Karen Whiddon said...

For Fantasy, I recommend anything by N.K. Jemisin http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Moon-Dreamblood-N-Jemisin/dp/B00CNKQ70M/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376671702&sr=1-1&keywords=n.k.+jemisin

Awesome reading. I'm with you - I want different.

Another Truly different - and awesome YA I read on vacation was called GORGEOUS by Paul Rudnick. Also different. And fabulous.

Oh, and Wool by Hugh Howery.

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