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David Zindell's Neverness, A Requiem for Homo Sapiens and all things Science Fiction and Fantasy
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 Post subject: Frederic S. Durbin ~ Dragonfly
PostPosted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 6:10 am 
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Lady Scryer
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Location: Michigan, USA
Recently I have been reading - and greatly enjoying - a little first novel by Frederic Durbin called Dragonfly.

Bridget Anne (that's Dragonfly to her friends) is a ten year old girl who lives in a mortuary with her Uncle Henry, who is a small town mortician.

As Halloween approaches, strange sounds start coming up from the basement. The sounds are of construction, and there are voices speaking of a stairway which is nearly completed.

Uncle Henry calls upon a mysterious friend named Mothkin for help. Apparently something like this has happened before and Mothkin took care of things.

Mothkin goes down the laundry shoot to check things out...and the adventurous Dragonfly follows him, to find herself in a mysterious and treacherous Halloween world called Harvest Moon.

Harvest Moon reminds me a bit of the Halloween Town in Nightmare Before Christmas but its a much darker place. Parts also remind me of Lovecraft!

This is a very unusual and unexpectedly fun read!

******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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 Post subject: Re: Frederic S. Durbin ~ Dragonfly
PostPosted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 3:30 pm 
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Lady Scryer
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Location: Michigan, USA
Even though the main character is only ten, this is not a book for children - it is a story for adults - it is pretty dark!!!

Danlo - you would love the brave cats! ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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 Post subject: Re: Frederic S. Durbin ~ Dragonfly
PostPosted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 5:30 pm 
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Lady Scryer
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Location: Michigan, USA
Finished up Dragonfly this morning. It is without question one of the weirdest books I have read in a long time (the last truly odd book I read was by Lovecraft). However, it is both interesting and engaging, despite - or perhaps because of - its very unusualness.

From the page in the back of the book about the author:
Quote:
Frederic S. Durbin spent his childhood in the deep oak shade and sun-baked dust near Taylorsville, Illinois, climbing trees and avoiding shoes. His parents opened the town's first bookstore. While still in elementary school, he discovered the works of H. P. Lovecraft and J. R. R. Tolkien, his earliest literary influences.

He spent most of his spare time writing throughout high school and college; writing draft after draft of an epic fantasy novel, best described, he says, as "a learning experience." He majored in classical languages at Concordia College, River Forest, Illinois, where he edited the fine arts section of the college newspaper.

After graduating summa cum laude in 1988, he traveled to Japan as a Lutheran volunteer missionary teacher. In 1995, he became a full-time instructor of creative writing and English at Niigata University. It was here, among the pine groves and pounding surf of Japan's northweestern coast, that Durbin began to see the faces and hear the voices that became Dragonfly.


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Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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