Coincidental Narnia

Something's up with Narnia.

It's just come up way too many times in a coincidental way in the last few weeks. First, there's the whole Lev Grossman The Magician King connection. If you haven't read the Magician King, it's the excellent sequel to The Magicians. The series is sort of like Chronicles of Narnia meets Harry Potter meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer with a little John Dies at the End sensibility. Really enjoyed the new one. Then, of course, there's the Axe Cop tie in. Axe Cop goes to Narnia and battles the White Witch. If you haven't read Axe Cop, you are really missing something good. Axe Cop is written by 5-year-old Malachai Nicolle and illustrated by his 29-year-old brother Ethan Nicolle. And it's awesome. Kind of like a cop with an axe meets a 5-year-old's outlook on life. Anyway, both The Magician King and Axe Cop have got Narnia on my mind.

Well, they got Narnia on my mind in a different way than it already was. See, I've been reading all of the Narnia books to my five-year-old for the last several months, so Narnia was already on my mind. But The Magician King and Axe Cop messed with that. And then, last night, my daughter and I finished The Last Battle.

I don't know when the last time was that you read The Last Battle, but there's a lot of weird and intense metaphoric stuff going on in there that makes you just think, "hmmmmmm". So, I expect something Narnian is going to happen any minute now. I hope Aslan doesn't claw me for writing The Helm. He's not a tame lion, you know.

Anyway, let me know if anything Narnian happens to you over the next few days.

Some Great Books and the Helm for Christmas

I've read some really great books lately and thought I'd mention them as people dive deeply into their holiday seasonal shopping. Let me note that I am in no way affiliated with any of the writers or publishers of any of these books--I just really liked them (or in one case, I am currently in the process of really liking it).

So the first one is The Gone Away World by Nick Harkaway. Very fun, engaging and moving sci-fi/action/adventure/philosophy book with Ninjas. Do you capitalize the "N" in Ninjas?

During the break between this paragraph and the last, I looked it up and the dictionary says "often initial capital letter" which doesn't really answer the question but suggests that I wasn't wrong to do the big "N". Anyway, I loved The Gone Away World. I could barely put it down. Here's a link so you can check it out: TGAW

The next book is The Hunger Games (and its sequel, Catching Fire). I think these are supposed to be for a young adult audience, technically, but I am an adult and I thought they were great. Again, sci-fi/action/adventure. They are by Suzanne Collins. I read both books in a couple of nights each, mostly because I kept saying to myself, "I'll stop at the end of the next chapter when the tension lets up a bit." Here's a link to check them out: THG

And finally, John Dies at the End, by David Wong. I'm reading it now and I wish I'd written it. It's completely got me hooked so far. Supernatural/horror/sci-fi/action/adventure. Wow. Here's a link to check it out: JDATE

So, in closing, these are some great books you might buy for Christmas. And now the plug. While you are buying these books, you might also check out The Helm graphic novel by yours truly. And yours truly is spelled Jim Hardison--just to be really crystal clear. Here's the link: TH