Alma Alexander: Writing the Other

[jimhines]

Alma Alexander ( Twitter, LJ) is a Pacific Northwest novelist, short story writer, and anthologist. Her books include “The Secrets of Jin Shei”, “Embers of Heaven”, “The Hidden Queen”, “Changer of Days”, the YA Worldweavers series, and “2012: Midnight at Spanish Gardens”; short stories have appeared in a number of recent anthologies, and “River”,

Comments

[tylik]

It interests me that these things are coming up regarding Blackout and All Clear - because Firewatch and the Doomsday Book, placed in the same world, were both so much focused on the idea that however abstract the study of history might seem to be, we are talking about people, every bit as real as you and me, mattering as much as we do.

(And yet, I'll admit Blackout and All Clear, while I enjoyed them greatly, had a slightly odd after taste. The stories of the characters I enjoyed rather a lot, but the construction of the world and the time-travelling was not, in the end, satisfying. Which is worth mentioning because time-travelling is a perilous conceit at best, but The Doomsday Book pulled it off as well as any I've seen.)

Regarding Jin-Shei... since it's been referred to in this journal, I've been thinking of re-reading it. I enjoyed it, but it didn't really stand out. The sorta Chinese culture - and even more the sorta Chinese language - was a distraction, for me. But then, I do have a degree in Chinese language and literature.

OTOH, I think I read it when I was home with the flu, so that might have muted my impressions of it.