Hiromi Goto Guest Blogging on Amazon’s Omnivoracious Book Blog

Hiromi Goto, Tiptree Award winner and author of the cross-over YA/adult novel Half World from earlier this year is guest blogging on Amazon’s book blog—and it’s great stuff.

Her first post is about romance or lack thereof in dark fantasy, specifically that her novel doesn’t have that element. (Just one of the things Half World doesn’t do that makes me like it so much.)

Goto’s second post is about a realistic approach to fantasy, which in some ways goes hand-in-hand with the first post. I agree with everything she says there. It’s one of the issues facing fantasists writing today—which is to say there’s this kind of escapist view of how things should happen that tends to destabilize some novels and introduce gaping plot holes as well, or to cover up plot holes with some fantasy element. Anyway, great post.

Check in over at the book blog on Monday and Tuesday when Goto talks about how fantasy is horror’s BBF and some really wonderful and poetic parting thoughts on the genesis of Half World.

Some readers may have missed Half World when it came out in the spring. Now’s your chance to pick up this unique and powerful novel, which also comes with pretty darn cool illustrations.

If you’re so inclined, give these posts some signal boost—I think they’re definitely worth it.

5 comments on “Hiromi Goto Guest Blogging on Amazon’s Omnivoracious Book Blog

  1. Sam M-B says:

    I keep trying to post on Omni, but I keep getting a popup that the site is sorry but it cannot accept my data. Anyway, on romance:

    “Melanie has no special magical powers. And her boyfriend or girlfriend is not going to save her. She must be her own best hero. And I think that’s pretty fantastic.”

    This sounds very much like a protagonist whose story I’d like my daughter to read in about a dozen years. I’m not sure what to think about the fact that I have not thought about the lack of daughter-mother relationships; it’s only upon reflection that I can count the few books that have this as a key element, and notice the pattern you’ve presented here.

    On realism:

    “I wanted to explore how anyone, even the most humble, could become a hero, through small acts of bravery and determination.”

    This is reminiscent (to me) of Frodo from The Lord of the Rings: surrounded by the powerful, the magical, the demonic… In Galadriel’s words: “Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.”

  2. Ben Jones says:

    Goto’s swimming against the tide, it sounds like. More power to her. Half World sounds like something I may like to read.

  3. What a coincidence! I just picked up Half World today before seeing this post. Definitely looking forward to reading it, and I loved those posts.

  4. The trick is to swim diagonally toward the shore, not directly against the current…. It takes longer, there’s more distance to cross, but it doesn’t exhaust you, so that you drown.

    Thank you, all, for reading the posts and commenting! The Galadriel quote is just lovely. J, I hope you enjoy.

    Odaijini.
    Hiromi

  5. Thanks for posting this, Jeff. Gonna go out and get it.

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