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Theaters went dark in London’s West End last year, while galleries closed and concert halls stood silent. But there was one creative industry that flourished during lockdown: the reading and publishing of books.
Many in the industry, as well as parents and educators, are now hoping the habit will stick around post-Covid. My guess is it just might.
HarperCollins, one of the big five publishers dominating the Anglo-Saxon market on both sides of the Atlantic, had a “historic” final quarter of 2020. Then it posted a 45% jump in profits and a 19% increase in revenue in the quarter ending March 31, 2021, compared with the year-earlier period. Chief Executive Officer Charlie Redmayne points to profitable backlist sales: Favorite fantasy writers like J. R. R. Tolkien and George R. R. Martin provided escapist thrills, while Agatha Christie’s murder mysteries provided isolation comfort food.
Festival Bloomsday Montréal — the largest Bloomsday Festival outside Dublin with events spread over five days — for the second year in a row has moved online. Forty percent of
In this bi-weekly series reviewing classic science fiction and fantasy books, Alan Brown looks at the front lines and frontiers of the field; books about soldiers and spacers, scientists and engineers, explorers and adventurers. Stories full of what Shakespeare used to refer to as “alarums and excursions”: battles, chases, clashes, and the stuff of excitement.
Author Roger Zelazny loved to use unlikely characters as protagonists. In
Nine Princes in Amber, Corwin, a prince from a land of magic, talked and acted like someone out of a Dashiell Hammett detective novel. In
Lord of Light, the powerful Enlightened One preferred to be called Sam. And in