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Feb. 16th, 2015 11:32 amI escaped from Portland! More specifically, I escaped from Powell's bookstore. With ... nine books in tow. IT'S NOT THAT MUCH OKAY. IT COULD REALLY EASILY HAVE BEEN MORE.
One of my finds was Pamela F. Service's Tomorrow's Magic, a two-in-one reprint compilation of Winter of Magic's Return and Tomorrow's Magic, which I will forever remember fondly from my childhood as "THE POST-APOCALYPTIC TEENAGE MERLIN BOOKS." Although definitely not the weirdest Arthuriana I've ever encountered, but they were some of my first introduction to Weird Arthuriana and I have a huge fondness for them, which holds true in the reread!
The books start out in a standard British boarding school, except the boarding school is in dystopian nuclear FOREVER WINTER future Britain. (At this point in time, this ... rings a little unfortunately close to home. BUT MOVING ON.)
Our Heroes are, of course, plucky outcasts: sensible Welly, who wants to be a great warrior but is fat and wears glasses, and Heather, who is plain and whose parents don't love her and who reads all the time and thinks pre-dystopian Gothic novels might reveal news of SECRET TREASURE hidden in the ruins. At one point when Heather and Welly are out exploring dangerous ruins looking for fictional SECRET TREASURE, they run into cool mysterious older student Earl Bedwas, who is able to rescue them from a pack of wild dogs ... somehow! With totally normal non-magical things!
Earl also has no memory of his past, screaming nightmares, and pasty pale skin. (I did not notice when I read these books as a kid that everyone in post-apocalyptic future Britain is explicitly dark-skinned except for pasty Earl, which is actually kind of cool albeit SUPER not reflected on the book covers.)
Anyway, one day a mysterious and sinister woman shows up and claims she's Earl's aunt! Earl runs away, hits his head, and REMEMBERS ALL.
( Spoilers for the Adventures of Emo Teen Merlin )
...except? There are two more books apparently???? Which came out like five years ago, well beyond the age when I found these in the library, and which now apparently I'm going to have to read, god damn it Pamela F. Service!
One of my finds was Pamela F. Service's Tomorrow's Magic, a two-in-one reprint compilation of Winter of Magic's Return and Tomorrow's Magic, which I will forever remember fondly from my childhood as "THE POST-APOCALYPTIC TEENAGE MERLIN BOOKS." Although definitely not the weirdest Arthuriana I've ever encountered, but they were some of my first introduction to Weird Arthuriana and I have a huge fondness for them, which holds true in the reread!
The books start out in a standard British boarding school, except the boarding school is in dystopian nuclear FOREVER WINTER future Britain. (At this point in time, this ... rings a little unfortunately close to home. BUT MOVING ON.)
Our Heroes are, of course, plucky outcasts: sensible Welly, who wants to be a great warrior but is fat and wears glasses, and Heather, who is plain and whose parents don't love her and who reads all the time and thinks pre-dystopian Gothic novels might reveal news of SECRET TREASURE hidden in the ruins. At one point when Heather and Welly are out exploring dangerous ruins looking for fictional SECRET TREASURE, they run into cool mysterious older student Earl Bedwas, who is able to rescue them from a pack of wild dogs ... somehow! With totally normal non-magical things!
Earl also has no memory of his past, screaming nightmares, and pasty pale skin. (I did not notice when I read these books as a kid that everyone in post-apocalyptic future Britain is explicitly dark-skinned except for pasty Earl, which is actually kind of cool albeit SUPER not reflected on the book covers.)
Anyway, one day a mysterious and sinister woman shows up and claims she's Earl's aunt! Earl runs away, hits his head, and REMEMBERS ALL.
( Spoilers for the Adventures of Emo Teen Merlin )
...except? There are two more books apparently???? Which came out like five years ago, well beyond the age when I found these in the library, and which now apparently I'm going to have to read, god damn it Pamela F. Service!
