A boy archaeologist as the next Harry Potter?
The publisher who first signed up J.K. Rowling believes he may have found another Harry Potter—but this time it is a boy archaeologist.
In an industry that revels in hype and is always on the lookout for the next blockbuster, two unknown authors have amassed advances of over 500,000 pounds and pre-publication rights in 15 languages.
Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams were signed by Chicken House publisher Barry Cunningham after he tracked down an early version of their book Tunnels that was self-published.
“I knew from page one that Harry Potter was magic. Reading Tunnels gave me the same thrill,” said Cunningham, who has also achieved worldwide publishing success with the children’s books of German writer Cornelia Funke.
“Tunnels has it all: a boy archaeologist, merciless villains, a lost world and an extraordinary journey to the centre of the earth.” (Reuters)
Hmmm, interesting. I LOVE archaeology like Justin Timberlake loves, er, like you? *confused* Um, eheh, what I’m saying is, I don’t know if it’s because of the sleuth in me *ahem* or it stemmed from my fascination with mythology (blame Thomas Bulfinch who corrupted my mind when I was young and innocent—oh, those were the days...) but I love archaeology so much that I used to think Indiana Jones was the coolest dude ever! Well, next to Prince Phillip from Sleeping Beauty, of course. :D (Oh, shut up. *hmph*)
Anyhoodles, the thing is I’m not sure if I could trust this Cunningham bloke. I mean, he did warn the then struggling writer JKR that she’s unlikely to make any money... :/ Hopefully, with my growing lurve for YA fiction, he’s right this time. No one can replace Harry in my harloty heart, but like loving orgasms, one should always be open for new possibilities, so to speak. *g*
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Labels: bibliophile’s affair, harry potter nutter, i heart ya
Prince Phillip? :-P
Harlot, thanks for the heads up. I think Tunnels sounds good.
6/12/2007 05:43:00 PM
It's hard to compare Harry Potter with others. I don't think anyone can top HP, not right now. Anyway, the book sounds good. I hope it's good!
6/12/2007 07:15:00 PM
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6/12/2007 07:39:00 PM
I saw this from CNN! I actually got excited! lol Harry Potter series is going to end this July, sad I know but I'd like to think there will soon be another book series, a really, really good one, that the whole world will love, discuss and look impatiently forward to.
6/12/2007 07:41:00 PM
It sounds good. Especially after all that YA talk. ;)
6/12/2007 08:03:00 PM
Harlot, I think Indiana Jones is hot. lol I hope this Cunningham guy is saying Tunnels is really good, that it may be the next Harry Potter because he REALLY thinks that and not just trying to sell books by riding HP's coattails.
6/12/2007 09:13:00 PM
Sounds good ... like a young Indiana Jones and archaeology is cool. It will also need to be something very very different from Harry Potter.
6/13/2007 01:00:00 AM
I loved Prince Phillip because he was the only Disney prince with more than one line in the movie. But check out Cinderella 3 -- huge role for the prince and i really liked it.
There's a trilogy that I really liked and it's also YA fiction -- the Bartimeaus trilogy by Jonathan Stroud. It also deals with magic but in a different way than HP -- Bartimeaus is a djinn and is really funny. Most of his side comments are shown in the book as footnotes and he's hilarious. Reminds me a lot of Robin william's genie in Aladdin. You guys can check it out.
6/13/2007 01:19:00 AM
It sounds interesting. Thanks for the heads up Harlot. Deathly Hallows is a bittersweet thing. After 10 years we're finally going to know what's in store for Harry and a lot of questions will be answered. But after reading it, it's going to be sad because there are no more HP books to look forward to :(
Menchie, I have never heard of that author. Thanks for the rec!
I have Cornelia Funke's Inkheart but have not read it yet.
6/13/2007 02:11:00 AM
Thanks for the heads up! I will look for it.
6/13/2007 05:31:00 PM
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