Sunday 23 September 2012

More Diverse Universe Blog Tour

Aarti at BookLust is hosting A More Diverse Universe blog tour which celebrates speculative fiction written by people of colour.

Malorie Blackman: Noughts & Crosses
 
For my post, I've chosen Malorie Blackman's Noughts & Crosses. Noughts & Crosses was Malorie Blackman's first direct treatment of racism in her novels. It is based on an alternative history which pretty much amounts to a flipped apartheid. It's a harsh and brutal story that doesn't hold back its punches. And it's great for teens today.

The reason I've chosen Noughts & Crosses is for three reasons:

1) It's a book that really gets under my skin because although speculative, much of the material in the book is based on past and current happenings (just switched);

2) No matter how often I remind myself that Noughts are white and Crosses are black, in my mind's eye, I flip them back. Just an observation......;

3) New editions for the four book sequence have just been published in the UK and the new jackets are still quite stark but with a splash of colour and more grit. Covers that, in my opinion, reflect the content of the novels perfectly.

Here is the link to my earlier review of Noughts & Crosses, the first book in the sequence (you'll see how the cover has changed too).

The new covers for the Noughts & Crosses sequence
 
 
You can find out more about Malorie Blackman on her website.
 
Raimy-Rawr has been running a Noughts & Crosses week on her blog, Readaraptor.
This the schedule for A More Diverse Universe Blog Tour 23-29 September 2012.
 
Thanks to Corgi (Random House UK) for sending me copies of the sequence.
 
 

14 comments:

  1. I've had this series on my radar for a while! I forgot about it, though, until your comment about the switching of blacks and whites really connected for me. Thanks for jogging my memory and for participating!

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    1. Aarti, so many people over here love this series - and they do it in schools too. I don't find it a comfortable read but, being speculative, it's able to drive home what most of us already know (or experience) in reverse. And for those us of who don't recognise it, well, then it's a timely eye opener. And thanks for doing the blog tour.

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  2. I've been meaning to read this series for years. I've heard nothing but good things, but haven't gotten to it yet.

    Man, I love those covers. Wish I lived in the UK.

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    1. Haha Liviania, I know of some people who wished they sometimes lived in the US because of book covers. It swings around though :)

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    2. That's true. Maybe if i could just pick up whatever cover I wanted no matter where I was.

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  3. I read your interview with the author Martyn Bedford and that sparked my interest in his books, now I am even more curious about them. Thanks for this review and I'm glad you were able to participate in this blog tour.

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    1. Thanks Alex for pointing the tour out to me. I think it's a fabulous idea and looking forward to reading some of the other posts - and then maybe books. ( And Martyn's book Flip is very good).

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  4. This is the first time I've heard of this series and it sounds so good - definitely adding it to my reading list.

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    1. I only found out about this series this year too :)

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  5. I read Noughts and Crosses a couple of years ago. I liked it, but never went on to read the rest of the books. Maybe I'll get back to them now that you've reminded me!

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    1. I hadn't read the rest either. But I'm currently reading Knife Edge - that's why the pic of it has a bookmark in it :)

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  6. I read this series fairly recently, in the last year I think *goes off to check own blog* huh, back in 2012 well, I wasn't too far off :)

    I really loved the series. I did have some issues with it, but as a whole I really got a lot out of the books, although, yes, depressing and dark.

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  7. Four books out already? That's promising (as I don't like to read a book and then wait a long time for the next in the series ;-)) It's a good series to highlight for a Diverse Universe. For one, I wasn't familiar with the series at all, before reading your blog posts about it!

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  8. Those editions are sure striking: no wonder they caught your reader's eye! I made a note of the first book in the series awhile ago, but I hadn't realized there was more to the story. Thanks for nudging them onto my reading radar!

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