Why Read Red Hood?
Jim is on vacation this week, and is blogging from the past! He has very little Internet access, but will read and catch up on comments eventually. Fun fact: Monday’s blog post was written three days in the past. But this one was written seven days in the past! That’s right, Jim is moving backward in time!!! He promises to bring you back a dinosaur.
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So Red Hood’s Revenge [B&N | Mysterious Galaxy | Amazon] has been out for most of a week now. It’s a bit strange to think back to … I think it was 2004 or 2005, when I started playing around with the idea of turning these fairy tale princesses into action heroines. I remember the excitement as I realized Sleeping Beauty’s fairy gifts made her the ideal ninja, or that Snow White could be a master of mirror magic.
Then here we are, half a decade later. The third book is out, and readers everywhere are rushing to read it. (At least, that’s the vision I’m choosing to hold on to!)
So today’s blog question is:
Hey Jim, why should I join the dozens millions billions of people reading Red Hood’s Revenge?
Good question, made-up reader! Here are my completely objective and unbiased answers, many of which are actually true.
1. Talia’s fairy curse. I’m not going to spoil this, but the writers out there know the feeling you get when you come up with a twist that just feels right, something that blows you away. The “truth” behind Sleeping Beauty’s curse did that for me, and I’m hopeful readers will feel the same way.
2. There will be smooching! (No, it’s not a kissing book. It has plenty of fencing and fighting, too.)
3. Hey, what ever happened to _______? I answer this question, for a certain value of ______.
4. All of the cool kids are reading it.
5. If you rearrange the words in the right order, you get a secret message from the president of Zenbox VII.
6. Two words: sewer goblins.
7. Certain elements in this book are guaranteed to offend twice as many people as previous books.
8. The pages are pine scented, so you can use the book as an air freshener for your car after you finish reading.
9. Gazebo.
10. Because kick-ass princesses are awesome, that’s why!
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July 9, 2010 @ 10:40 am
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Steve - Kestrel's Aerie
July 9, 2010 @ 2:35 pm
Reason #10 is all I needed! (Well, #1 is quite a grabber too!)
The only question I have is, Why is Amazon taking so long to ship my PREORDER?
Max
July 10, 2010 @ 11:33 am
Reasons 2 and 7 are good enough for me, ‘specially if one affects the other. But offending twice as many people as previous books is nothing, since you now have billions of readers. That’s a lot less offending per capita now, I think.
Got the book, saving it for my trip to North Carolina in a few days.
Jim C. Hines
July 11, 2010 @ 10:22 am
That’s odd … usually Amazon times it so the book shows up on the release day, when possible. Was it ordered with anything else? There’s that “Group my items into one shipment to save on shipping costs” option that might be a factor…
Jim C. Hines
July 11, 2010 @ 10:23 am
Billions of readers … if only 🙂 But so far, this one does seem to be gathering more readers. Fingers crossed that trend continues.
And enjoy your trip!
Steve – Kestrel's Aerie
July 11, 2010 @ 11:06 am
Ummm…yeah; I checked. I bundled it with Todd McCaffery’s latest Pern novel, which isn’t due out till next month. (Free shipping.) /regret.
R.S.
July 12, 2010 @ 7:42 pm
Ok, I’ve been sniffing the hell out of the pages all weekend bro, and I don’t think there’s any pine scent in there at all. I’ll be posting my disappointment with this on Amazon very shortly.
Seriously though, thanks for another good read.
Jim C. Hines
July 13, 2010 @ 7:47 am
I’m sorry, but all complaints about production problems with the physical book must be directed to the publisher. In triplicate. Using a TX-4138 form, faxed to the complaints department. In order for me to give you the fax number, you must first defeat Guido the Barbarian in single combat.
(Actually, DAW is awesome about replacing books that have missing pages or other production deficits … but in this case, you’ve got to go through Guido.)