Friday, December 14, 2007

An Internet Event of Stupendous Proportions!




In the recent uproar over the Guardian article by Julie Bindel and Daisy Cummins about the centenary of Mills & Boon, Bindel mentions Louise Allen's Virgin Slave, Barbarian King as indicative of "misogynistic hate speech." Louise Allen responded to the comments in another article in the Guardian. We at TMT thought this was interesting enough that we spent a lot of time exhaustively analyzing Bindel's argument.

Here at TMT, we though it might be fun to do a "Dueling Literary Analysis" of Allen's novel, a la Dear Author's Dueling Reviews. And then we saw Jane at Dear Author saying that she was going to do Dueling Reviews of Allen. So we all invited Smart Bitch Sarah, and we're going to have a review event!

So, at the beginning of January, TMT will post four (count them!) literary analyses of Allen's novel (myself, Eric, Laura, and Robin). Jane and Jayne will review the novel at Dear Author, and Smart Bitch Sarah will review it at Smart Bitches Who Read Trashy Books. If you'd like to join us all, run, don't walk, to your local bookstore to buy Virgin Slave, Barbarian King and read it by the beginning of January. You can also buy it as an ebook from eHarlequin.

Louise Allen can thank us later! You can't buy publicity like this! :)

A warning: while Jane, Jayne, and SB Sarah will probably not give away spoilers, because they write reviews, we here at TMT will write analyses and will provide spoilers galore.

13 comments:

  1. Woot! Enjoying the wealth of yummy, thoughful reviews and analysis in January is going to be like a late Christmas present to all the TMT fangirls and boys, I think. I know it will be for me.

    Now, to go purchase the book...

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  2. The novel's not yet on the shelves in the UK, but it's possible to obtain it either direct from the Mills & Boon website, or in the American, Harlequin edition, from Amazon.co.uk.

    And as Sarah said, it's also available as an ebook.

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  3. This is a great idea!

    I am hoping someday she'll write the sequel, BARBARIAN SLAVE, VIRGIN KING....

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  4. Ooo. I LIKE that, even better!

    [ponders what analysis would make of such a novel]

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  5. Henceforth, I wish to be known as the Barbarian Virgin.

    Just sayin'.

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  6. I can almost picture the Virgin barbarian slave-king.

    Yum.

    Perhaps he is kidnapped by pirates.

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  7. By late January, the publishing industry is going to be scratching it's collective head, trying to figure out why this book became the single greatest publishing sensation since Harry Potter in the week before Christmas. Sigh . . .

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  8. As a publishing industry insider who's been enjoying this discussion, I'm going to contribute to our collective industry confusion by buying a copy, then if/when a WTF article runs in PW, I'll cackle madly.

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  9. No kidding! Oh to be Louise Allen this month. Hope she did her best... ;)
    JulieB

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  10. Wasn't Slave King Sky King's submissive kid brother?

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  11. People should be able to order the book from eHarlequin.com. However, I don't know if they ship overseas.
    Kay

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