Oh my

Nov. 4th, 2007 10:02 am
highlyeccentric: Sign on Little Queen St - One Way both directions (shock!)
[personal profile] highlyeccentric
Neil Gaiman, our favourite and least-trusted author, when it comes to playing around in the medieval field, has just posted the first few paragraphs of his new children's book, Odd and the Frost Giants.


There was a boy called Odd, and there was nothing strange or unusual about that, not in that time or place. Odd meant the tip of a blade, and it was a lucky name.

He was odd though. At least, the other villagers thought so. But if there was one thing that he wasn't, it was lucky.

His father had been killed during a sea-raid, two years before, when Odd was ten. It was not unknown for people to get killed in sea-raids, but his father wasn't killed by a Scotsman, dying in glory in the heat of battle as a Viking should. He had jumped overboard to rescue one of the stocky little ponies that they took with them on their raids as pack animals.

Exerpts from chapter three can be found here.

Odd and the Frost Giants is being released in the UK only :( for World Book Day:

It was written for something called World Book Day in the UK, where a bunch of authors write books for nothing, and publishers publish them for nothing, and they get sold for £1 each to kids who have been given
£1 Book Tokens, and the whole thing exists purely in order to get kids reading. They describe it on their website as the biggest annual event promoting the enjoyment of books and reading.

As to how you'd get a copy if you aren't in the UK, I'd suggest either get someone in the UK to buy one for you, or simply order one from an online retailer. You'll be paying postage but it's still a 14,500 word book for $2 (that's about half the length of CORALINE) so it's not going to set you back much.


I wants it, precious.

Date: 2007-11-04 07:37 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] highlyeccentric.livejournal.com
ee! daddy orders it for me!

Date: 2007-11-04 07:41 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] goblinpaladin.livejournal.com
Your father is awesome. When Gaiman posted an excerpt the other day, I trawled over to Amazon, but decided I couldn't afford postage.

You MUST let me read it. You MUST.

Date: 2007-11-04 07:43 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] highlyeccentric.livejournal.com
christmas present, it is. since proper academic vulgate / english bibles cost too much.

provided i'm still talking to you in april, of course :D

Date: 2007-11-04 07:45 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] goblinpaladin.livejournal.com
April? What's April got to do with it, precious?

Date: 2007-11-04 07:47 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] highlyeccentric.livejournal.com
that's when it's due out, i believe

Date: 2007-11-04 07:49 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] goblinpaladin.livejournal.com
Then I will be patient, like a patient thing. Biding one's time, awaiting the moment to strike. *gnashes his teeth* Preciousss.

Date: 2007-11-04 07:50 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] highlyeccentric.livejournal.com
and i will manipulate you viciously by threatening to withold gaiman!

Date: 2007-11-04 03:44 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] phrasemuffin.livejournal.com
have you ordered it?

Date: 2007-11-04 07:37 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] highlyeccentric.livejournal.com
dad's ordering it for me :D

Date: 2007-11-04 08:05 am (UTC)
ext_3638: I'm in ur history, emphasising ur wimminz (Default)
From: [identity profile] kayloulee.livejournal.com
I'll swap you Making Money for this! Y/Y?

Date: 2007-11-04 08:06 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] highlyeccentric.livejournal.com
YES!

except i won't have this until next semester. but, y'know. principle of the thing.

Date: 2007-11-04 08:09 am (UTC)
ext_3638: I'm in ur history, emphasising ur wimminz (Default)
From: [identity profile] kayloulee.livejournal.com
Doesn't matter - anyway you can read MM first, I was going to lend it you anyway.

Date: 2007-11-04 08:11 am (UTC)
ext_3638: I'm in ur history, emphasising ur wimminz (Default)
From: [identity profile] kayloulee.livejournal.com
Um. I mean, I was going to lend it to you anyway. Above looks like I'm planning on lending you out to books!

Which wouldn't really work, in practice. (Practise? I never know this one.)

Date: 2007-11-04 08:12 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] highlyeccentric.livejournal.com
erf, whatever. so long as i get to read it :P

Date: 2007-11-04 08:13 am (UTC)
ext_3638: I'm in ur history, emphasising ur wimminz (Default)
From: [identity profile] kayloulee.livejournal.com
Well, yeah! Definitely. Although, if you want to read it before the holidays, you better move fast, because I've been packing away my books, and even though the hardcover ones are last, it's still close to being packed up.

Date: 2007-11-04 08:16 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] highlyeccentric.livejournal.com
*big, distressed eyes*

but i have to write an essay!

thursday. i come steal it from you on thursday night :D

Date: 2007-11-04 08:19 am (UTC)
ext_3638: I'm in ur history, emphasising ur wimminz (Default)
From: [identity profile] kayloulee.livejournal.com
OK! I will have an English exam Friday morning, so I will want to be distracted away from Gulliver's Travels and Hero & Leander (Christopher Marlowe was very sarcastic in an allusive Elizabethan way, but still...).

And G'sT is just completely ODD. Very odd indeed.

Now I think about it, the oddness of GT and H&L is probably the reason why I have an exam on them!

Date: 2007-11-04 08:20 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] highlyeccentric.livejournal.com
DONT MENTION THE E WORD!

OR THE OTHER E WORD!

OR THE *OTHER* E WORD!

*breathes into paper bag*

Date: 2007-11-04 08:23 am (UTC)
ext_3638: I'm in ur history, emphasising ur wimminz (Default)
From: [identity profile] kayloulee.livejournal.com
I think I actually know what you mean? But I will not use them so: You know that I know that you know what you mean by that.

I agree, such E words are not to be used in this comment thread or my lj until AFTER the 15th, which is when I finish.

Date: 2007-11-04 08:17 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] highlyeccentric.livejournal.com
no, that's a perfectly acceptable grammatical construction.

YAY FOR DATIVE PRONOUNS!

"lend you it" sounds more akward to me, although it's the usual these days.

Date: 2007-11-04 08:20 am (UTC)
ext_3638: I'm in ur history, emphasising ur wimminz (Default)
From: [identity profile] kayloulee.livejournal.com
I know that "lend it you" is right and so on, it just looks weird when I actually write it down. I've seen it a lot in things like, oh, the Anne of Green Gables books and other books from that time.

Date: 2007-11-04 08:21 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] highlyeccentric.livejournal.com
yay, dative pronouns!

you make me happy, you used a dative pronoun!

Date: 2007-11-04 08:22 am (UTC)
ext_3638: I'm in ur history, emphasising ur wimminz (Default)
From: [identity profile] kayloulee.livejournal.com
I like them! They sound sort of Victorian or something, it's very cool.

Date: 2007-11-04 08:24 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] highlyeccentric.livejournal.com
say the word methinks to yourself a few times. YAY DATIVE PRONOUNS!

*sighs* i think i need to get over the word methinks.

Date: 2007-11-04 08:28 am (UTC)
ext_3638: I'm in ur history, emphasising ur wimminz (Default)
From: [identity profile] kayloulee.livejournal.com
Methinks that you do *not* need to do such a thing. NOT NOT NOT.







NOT.

I could use to get over doing the rhetorical-question-and-answering-self thing, because now I think it sounds like Kevin Rudd, which is not particularly appealing. Methinks. *evil grin*

Date: 2007-11-04 08:30 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] highlyeccentric.livejournal.com
oh no! sounding like K-Rudd!

could be worse. you could sound like Mark ease the squeeeeeze Latham.

Date: 2007-11-04 08:33 am (UTC)
ext_3638: I'm in ur history, emphasising ur wimminz (Default)
From: [identity profile] kayloulee.livejournal.com
OK. So. This is like you and the E words. *plaintively* Why did you bring up Latham? Why?

Uck, sounding like Latham is on my list of things not to do ever.

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