CMIS Evaluation Fiction Focus

There’s more on Stephenie Meyer, creator of Bella and Edward, in the Review section of today’s Weekend Australian. The Rowling comparisons just won’t go away.

Breaking Dawn, the fourth title in the vampire ‘trilogy’, will be published simultaneously around the world in just over a week. Big parties, HP-style, are being talked about on the US lists.

Stephenie Meyer’s incredibly successful vampire series that began with Twilight and moved onto Eclipse and New Moon, has become a much anticipated film and the cover story of Entertainment Weekly.

This is a publishing phenomenon being likened to the J. K. Rowling empire.

For a few days in May, the YALSA listserv was having a spirited discussion about Mormon readings of these works, so it’s interesting that The Guardian has picked up on the influence of Meyer’s beliefs on the series.

For those wanting to pursue the discussion, look in the the YALSA archives under the thread ‘Issues with Twilight’.  If you subscribe to this active but informative ALA list, be prepared for quite a few additional emails.

There are Australian writers an illustrators other than Shaun Tan of course, but Shaun is such a man of the moment that he can’t be ignored when there is news.

This news is not so much about Shaun however, but about one of the many people he has collaborated with to take his creations to new heights in adaptations. With The Red Tree set for its performances in Sydney this weekend, Radio National’s Book Show has interviewed Michael Yezerski on Radio National. Michael Yezerski is the composer of the music that the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Gondwana Voices will perform in an interpretation of the book. As a long-term admirer of Shaun’s work, Yezerski talks about the challenges he faced in doing justice to the images. Tantalising snatches of the music in the background whet the appetite. (Note to the ACO: Those of us living in Shaun’s hometown of Perth would love to experience this work. Please.)

Listen or catch the podcast here. This particular interview is approximately 22 minutes into the program and lasts for 15 minutes.

Unlike Zoe in the previous post, this performance will be happening at the Sydney Opera House - on 20 July. And elsewhere in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, too, throughout the month.

Shaun Tan’s The Red Tree has been realised in performance at last. The Australian Chamber Orchestra and youth choir Gondwana Voices are on tour to those cities with this new production that also has the powerful combination of Shostakovich and The Arrival on the program.  Tour dates and venues here and you can also watch Richard Tognetti talk about the production and view stills from the book.

Shaun’s latest nominations for The Arrival are for two Hugo Awards: Best Related Book and Best Professional Artist. These Science Fiction awards will be presented in Denver, Colorado early next month.