[QuickTidal]

...Hm, I knew she was going to not be writing in genre for this one, though early word of mouth had it she was writing a mystery. This sounds more like Emmerdale or the like, with a town full of intrigues, and a broad cast of characters.

I'll read it. Who knows if it will be any good though. It will be the acid test as to whether it was Rowling's prose and stories we liked...or the HP world we liked...

The Casual Vacancy

When Barry Fairweather dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is left in shock.

Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils...Pagford is not what it first seems.

And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

Blackly comic, thought-provoking and constantly surprising, The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling’s first novel for adults.

[Terez]

Interesting. I will also read it.

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

Zero interest, and I loved HP. The world does not need another murder mystery.

[Aptorian]

I just want her to do what ever she needs to make her happy about writing books so that eventually she will churn out a new YA series set in the Harry potter universe. It doesn't have to focus on Harry Potter or Hogwartz, I just need more stories like the first 4 or 5 books when it was still silly and fun.

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

That's how I feel. Not much left to be said about Harry and company, but more in that universe would be great. Why not the kids of the original characters? One could get sent to one of the other magic schools. Or, completely unrelated characters would be fine. It is too fun of a world not to ever use again though.

[QuickTidal]

It's actually DECIDEDLY shrewd and savvy of her to choose to write in this genre.

Think about it, with HP she garnered kids, teens and even adults who could even REMOTELY be convinced to read what are ostensibly YA fantasy books. She parlayed the whole thing into an empire of gold.

Now, who might NOT have gotten into the HP craze, and which adults might not have bitten the apple that was HP? Older folk who don't really care much for fantasy (my grandmother is one of these). That demographic largely reads mysteries, contemporary mysteries. Which are the best of those (again, according to me grandmother)? The ones set in idyllic English towns. Both books and TV have made a fortune on this sub-genre (MIDSOMER MURDERS, AGATHA CHRISTIE, ALEXANDER MCAUL SMITH, SUSAN HILL ect.)...so Rowling sets out to write a book aimed squarely at one of the only demographics that might not have been reading HARRY POTTER...

...brilliant.

I mean here she will get a LOT of the adult HARRY POTTER fanbase (who are willing to try her in a different mode) reading it, she might get some of the teens who grew up on HP and are in their 20's now...and lastly she'll get the mystery fans.

She's super smart to have done it this way. It just makes so much sense in my head.

So for that, whether folk read it or not, I admire the hell out of Rowling!

[Abyss]

i would bet tall dollars that we'll see a new HP spawn series within a decade, when the current fans haven't quite outgrown it and a new batch are about ready.
I'll bet further tall dollars that in the first book the lead character, related to an HP series character, is inducted into Slytherin and thus goes on a character building quest towards the redemption
of all the sad and misunderstood students of that much maligned institution.

And/or sex in the bathroom with the whiny ghost.

[worry]

I just hope it's erotic as hell.

[LadyMTL]

worrywort, on 13 June 2012 - 08:31 PM, said:

I just hope it's erotic as hell.

Hahahaha...50 Shades of Pagford? No thanks.
In all seriousness though, I'm reserving judgement. I loved HP but as our luxurious yachty friend declared, I couldn't care less about a murder mystery. I suppose I'll wait and see what the reviews say before deciding one way or the other.

This post has been edited by Maia Irraz: 13 June 2012 - 08:51 PM

[Slow Ben]

Abyss said:

1339619251[/url]' post='969627']
i would bet tall dollars that we'll see a new HP spawn series within a decade, when the current fans haven't quite outgrown it and a new batch are about ready.
I'll bet further tall dollars that in the first book the lead character, related to an HP series character, is inducted into Slytherin and thus goes on a character building quest towards the redemption
of all the sad and misunderstood students of that much maligned institution.

And/or sex in the bathroom with the whiny ghost.

Moaning Myrtle, the name fits. ZING!
I'm sure I'll wait and see what everyone on here thinks about it before I pick it up.

[Macros]

Am I the only one predicting Hardy's parents at Hogwarts as the next potter universe series?

[Aptorian]

I hope not, from the memories of Snape we know that Harry's father, Sirius and Co were a bunch of assholes when they were Harry's age. I don't want her to do some story revisionism that makes them good and just occasionally mean to Snape because he deserved it.

I'd be more interested in a series set at another school somewhere in Europe where she introduce new ideas, new good guys and bad guys that we haven't already heard about.

[Macros]

I didn't say it would be good, it would make for easy work for her, and more moolah.
Gotta love the moolah

A chance to portray a potter as something other than a hero, and somewho portray their douchebaggyness and slowly change him into the character that lily ( it is lily isn't it?) loved would be a massive challenge, id almost want to read that to see if she could remotely pull it off

[QuickTidal]

Macros, on 14 June 2012 - 04:57 AM, said:

I didn't say it would be good, it would make for easy work for her, and more moolah.
Gotta love the moolah

A chance to portray a potter as something other than a hero, and somewho portray their douchebaggyness and slowly change him into the character that lily ( it is lily isn't it?) loved would be a massive challenge, id almost want to read that to see if she could remotely pull it off

Actually, this is a good point. To counterpoint the first series (where Harry and his friends serve to not make the same mistakes as his father and his buddies and basically redeem them and take the proper path), it would be kind of interesting to see them portrayed as the bullies they essentially were, and show someone else in the hero light instead.

That said, if she writes more in the Potterverse I agree with Apt, let it be another school in another part of the world with a whole new set of characters and problems...perhaps in another time? past or future?

[Kruppe's snacky cakes]

worrywort, on 13 June 2012 - 08:31 PM, said:

I just hope it's erotic as hell.

Didn't they already make the naughty sequel?


 C8C28EA2468B4C90B274DC3C1E8AC325.jpg (74.82K)
Number of downloads: 0

[QuickTidal]

Cover art has been released...and BOY is it shitty.



Sorry, but this is awful. These are McDonalds colours. The publisher has set out to accomplish only one thing...make this stand out...and so it will...but I can't help feeling that other books in this genre are so much better looking.

I realize nitpicking about cover art is a silly thing to do, but this is bargain basement garbage with zero design sense. Also, what's with the lower case "i"? Dafuq?

Hipster crapola. Poor Rowling having to deal with Little Brown picking this design.

[Aptorian]

Maybe the cover is an homage to some classic book cover? That's the only reason I can think of for a publisher to chose something like this as a cover.

[QuickTidal]

Aptorius, on 03 July 2012 - 05:55 PM, said:

Maybe the cover is an homage to some classic book cover? That's the only reason I can think of for a publisher to chose something like this as a cover.

I don't think so...but so far the response has been an almost overwhelming "What the fuck?" so perhaps it's early enough on to commission something else.

At any rate yeah, I can't fathom who at Little Brown & Co. actually thought this was a GOOD cover...hell it's not even a mediocre cover. It's just plain bad.

[worry]

It reminds me of that time I had a casual vacancy.

[Salt-Man Z]

I think it's kind of cute. (Then again, I've never read anything by Rowling and know next to nothing of this book.)