I love John Scalzi's "Big Idea" series. It is really interesting reading about what was going through someone's head when they wrote something. It is really really different than reading a blurb on the back of a novel, and I find it gives me a better idea of whether or not I'll actually like a book. Generally they're getting posted on the blog long before they show up in my local library, so I just put them on my Amazon wish list, and ever so often I'll go through that list and see what the library has acquired. Or I'll start feeling rich and just buy them. But that generally requires someone in the house being gainfully employed.

What caught my attention about this one (aside from the cover which is awesome) was this:

... has prompted no less than George R.R. Martin (who knows from fantasy) to declare that it “is to Harry Potter as a shot of Irish whiskey is to weak tea.”

followed by

Yeah, on the face of it this doesn’t sound like an especially big idea. It more sounds like the idea I had every day for about 10 years, between the ages of 7 and 17, before I gave up on my prospects of ever getting to Narnia.

It doesn't sound like the world's most uplifting book, and it probably won't be a fun romp through fantasy land...but it does sound like something I'll enjoy and that will make me think. And so it is going on my list.