J.K. Rowling announced her new book

The creator of Harry Potter is back with her first novel for adults, The Casual Vacancy. When Barry Fairweather dies unexpectedly, the empty seat he leaves on the town's council becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the seemingly idyllic town of Pagford has ever seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

Blackly comic and constantly surprising, The Casual Vacancy arrives September 27, 2012, but you can pre-order it now on Kindle.

Sounds a bit plain and contemporary for me, but whatever. Might check it out given that I enjoyed Harry Potter, but the combination of an uninteresting plot and JK Rowling not exactly being an amazing author put me off. Not that she's bad; just not good enough to warrant me venturing out of my comfort zone.

THOUGHTS!?

I never liked Harry Potter and this sounds very..plain.

I hope it turns out good for you and her fans at least.

(Side note: What the fuck is with all the pony avatars? Have I missed the beginning of a social trend?)

honestly sounds like a less intense stephen king book; like the intro to needful things, or the first half of under the dome

Seems like something I could read. I'll wait for reviews though.

I really enjoyed the Harry Potter series, so I'll probably buy this just to see. I don't have my expectation too high.

@Still_I_Cry said:

(Side note: What the fuck is with all the pony avatars? Have I missed the beginning of a social trend?)

You don't want to know.

I'll inevitably end up getting it. Sounds like something I'd be into.

@SpikeSpiegel said:

I really enjoyed the Harry Potter series, so I'll probably buy this just to see. I don't have my expectation too high.

@Still_I_Cry said:

(Side note: What the fuck is with all the pony avatars? Have I missed the beginning of a social trend?)

You don't want to know.

Yes, yes I do. Enlighten me!

:P

I never liked Harry Potter and this sounds very..plain.

I hope it turns out good for you and her fans at least.

(Side note: What the fuck is with all the pony avatars? Have I missed the beginning of a social trend?)

@Still_I_Cry said:

Yes, yes I do. Enlighten me!

:P

Watch this and decide for yourself

@Still_I_Cry said:

@SpikeSpiegel said:

I really enjoyed the Harry Potter series, so I'll probably buy this just to see. I don't have my expectation too high.

@Still_I_Cry said:

(Side note: What the fuck is with all the pony avatars? Have I missed the beginning of a social trend?)

You don't want to know.

Yes, yes I do. Enlighten me!

:P

They brought back the My Little Ponies brand with a girly cartoon for little kids around the age of 8, but a bunch of creepy middle aged men fell in love with the show and now it's all over the internet. They like to call themselves Bronies. Trolls also feel in love with using pictures of it ironically as the meer mention of it induces rage like nothing on the internet in a long time.

@Levio said:

@Still_I_Cry said:

Yes, yes I do. Enlighten me!

:P

Watch this and decide for yourself

I know what My Little Pony is, I want to know why it is so popular amongst teenage men all of a sudden?

i liked the stories in the harry potter books, but they were terribly written. i could look over it when the books were aimed at children/early teens. But if her writing is still the same standard then meh

mute point anyone?

@shway: Moot not Mute. Education!

@Still_I_Cry said:

@Levio said:

@Still_I_Cry said:

Yes, yes I do. Enlighten me!

:P

Watch this and decide for yourself

I know what My Little Pony is, I want to know why it is so popular amongst teenage men all of a sudden?

The new show is surprisingly funny.

@crusader8463 said:

@Still_I_Cry said:

@SpikeSpiegel said:

I really enjoyed the Harry Potter series, so I'll probably buy this just to see. I don't have my expectation too high.

@Still_I_Cry said:

(Side note: What the fuck is with all the pony avatars? Have I missed the beginning of a social trend?)

You don't want to know.

Yes, yes I do. Enlighten me!

:P

They brought back the My Little Ponies brand with a girly cartoon for little kids around the age of 8, but a bunch of creepy middle aged men fell in love with the show and now it's all over the internet. They like to call themselves Bronies. Trolls also feel in love with using pictures of it ironically as the meer mention of it induces rage like nothing on the internet in a long time.

Wait every time that video is posted on a forum at least one person ends up converted. You posted the episode with that knowledge didn't you?

It's impossible to top Harry Potter, whatever her new book is will be compared to Harry Potter and it probably be looked down upon.

@crusader8463:

Well that was cute to the point of being disgusting..

@Still_I_Cry:

@kashif1 said:

@Still_I_Cry:

No, when I say "disgusting" I mean I found it repulsive.

seems like a really good premise to me. kinda reminds me of like hot fuzz or soemthing

@Still_I_Cry: You posted your response while I was looking for that picture. Oh well that's unfortunate.

@Still_I_Cry said:

@Levio said:

@Still_I_Cry said:

Yes, yes I do. Enlighten me!

:P

Watch this and decide for yourself

I know what My Little Pony is, I want to know why it is so popular amongst teenage men all of a sudden?

Hey! I'm not a teenage man! I'm 24 years of age! This thread isn't about ponies, anyway. Start your own topic for that.

@GunslingerPanda said:

@Still_I_Cry said:

@Levio said:

@Still_I_Cry said:

Yes, yes I do. Enlighten me!

:P

Watch this and decide for yourself

I know what My Little Pony is, I want to know why it is so popular amongst teenage men all of a sudden?

Hey! I'm not a teenage man! I'm 24 years of age! This thread isn't about ponies, anyway. Start your own topic for that.

While where on the subject does anyone see an inherent problem with the term "teenage man"?

@GunslingerPanda said:

Hey! I'm not a teenage man! I'm 24 years of age! This thread isn't about ponies, anyway. Start your own topic for that.

YOU MADE YOUR CHOICE WHEN YOU CHOSE YOUR AVATAR YOU SICK BASTARD!

In all seriousness though, the Harry Potter books are great, so I'll probably end up buying this just to see what else J K Rowling can write. Hopefully it will be good!

Sounds okay. It won't set the world on fire, but it seems like a nice read.

J.K. Rowling is not a good writer. She just wrote a good story for kids.

This is not the same as writing for adults, as that requires good writing, so no thanks.

Also, the premise sounds boring and dry as fuck. This will do well with middle aged women on buses.

@Canteu said:

J.K. Rowling is not a good writer. She just wrote a good story for kids.

This is not the same as writing for adults, as that requires good writing, so no thanks.

Writing for kids is different from writing for adults, one of them is harder than the other and its not the one you think.

I don't know if this will be as successful as Harry Potter. Also,  @GunslingerPanda said:

Hey! I'm not a teenage man! I'm 24 years of age! This thread isn't about ponies, anyway. Start your own topic for that.

Wait, wait, wait. J.K. Rowling is writing a book about ponies?

@Still_I_Cry said:

@Levio said:

@Still_I_Cry said:

Yes, yes I do. Enlighten me!

:P

Watch this and decide for yourself

I know what My Little Pony is, I want to know why it is so popular amongst teenage men all of a sudden?

...because it's fucking awesome and hilarious.

Can we get the topic back on...topic? Wait...no, no. Forget that. Scratch that remark. J.K. Rowling isn't that good of a writer, and I have no interest in anything she writes outside of Harry Potter.

It sounds extremely British.

@Still_I_Cry said:

No, when I say "disgusting" I mean I found it repulsive.

Yes, it is.

Now, I'm generally the kind of person who says "watch what you want", and if someone wants to watch MLP, that's up to them. But... yeah, I'm not going to give them any respect for it. At all. In fact, it might go down a bit. A little hypocritical of me but I find it hard to change that stance.

...oh, wait, Harry Potter. Yes, I read all the books over the past twelve years or so, all of them at least twice. Yes, they're fairly good. But at this point I am sick of hearing about Harry fucking Potter. I was the resident book nerd already in my family, so when the movie came out everyone all of a sudden wanted to talk to me about it and ask me about it. The sudden attention was interesting at first but now I don't care to discuss it. Ever again.

...wait, this is a JK Rowling thread not about Harry Potter? Well, that's twice I've gone off topic and now I'm rambling. Suffice it to say that I think that premise sounds boring, but then she might pull something out of her ass and write something really interesting. I'm not betting on it though.

@Still_I_Cry said:

@SpikeSpiegel said:

I really enjoyed the Harry Potter series, so I'll probably buy this just to see. I don't have my expectation too high.

@Still_I_Cry said:

(Side note: What the fuck is with all the pony avatars? Have I missed the beginning of a social trend?)

You don't want to know.

Yes, yes I do. Enlighten me!

:P

This video explains it a bit:

Granted, the voice actresses on the show are older than I am, but they're attractive, IMO. ><

Wow, this turned into a brony thread pretty quickly.

Anyway, I'm not sure how I feel about this.

Harry Potter and the Casual Vacancy. It's all just a cover up.

A book about municipal politics? No thanks, I derive enough entertainment from my own city's governance.

Should have started up some Harry Potter Erotica series instead, say what you will about it, but it would sell like hotcakes, except more, because not everyone likes hotcakes, but porn is universal.

@Aronman789 said:

Should have started up some Harry Potter Erotica series instead, say what you will about it, but it would sell like hotcakes, except more, because not everyone likes hotcakes, but porn is universal.

Fanfiction.net has you covered disturbingly well.

It'll sell infinite copies so it doesn't really matter what it's about I suppose, but she'll only get one chance to ride that wave, her second non potter book'll have to actually be decent.

I guess EA is already working on the game for The Casual Vacancy... with Gears of War style gameplay, of course.

@Dalai said:

I guess EA is already working on the game for The Casual Vacancy... with Gears of War style gameplay, of course.

The idea was not intrinsically bad, the first three games were heavily inspired by zelda and that worked out pretty well.

@kashif1 said:

@Dalai said:

I guess EA is already working on the game for The Casual Vacancy... with Gears of War style gameplay, of course.

The idea was not intrinsically bad, the first three games were heavily inspired by zelda and that worked out pretty well.

uh, no they did not (those games were terrible)

@Animasta said:

@kashif1 said:

@Dalai said:

I guess EA is already working on the game for The Casual Vacancy... with Gears of War style gameplay, of course.

The idea was not intrinsically bad, the first three games were heavily inspired by zelda and that worked out pretty well.

uh, no they did not (those games were terrible)

First one was kinda bad. Second one worked out alright since its plot lended itself to a game but the stealth mechanics were crap and the castle was confusingly designed. Third game was easy but played really well and had some competently made levels. Plus I was 12 at the time, let me have my nostalgia.

We've had quite the thread derail in here. Let's not see that carry on past this point, okay? Okay.

I for one am probably going to skip past this book since the ideas behind it don't really have that same pull as the Potter books. (Also helps that I started reading those books when I was about 8 or 9 and was immediately sucked in. This will not have the same impact, I'm sure.)

Hopefully this will expose her as a talentless hack who just got lucky.

Her writing sucks.

@Still_I_Cry said:

(Side note: What the fuck is with all the pony avatars? Have I missed the beginning of a social trend?)

Less social, more unrealistically pathetic.

Oh and for the topic at hand, I never liked Harry Potter and have not even a sliver of interest in this.

@Still_I_Cry said:

I know what My Little Pony is, I want to know why it is so popular amongst teenage men all of a sudden?

Rule 34 of the internet.

I thought the last few books really struggled to find a balance between mature content and an immature audience. I don't think Rowling ever really got it right, the result was the characters had grown up but the writing was still trying to connect with younger readers which, in the context of relationships and death, is difficult. I think the films struggled with this as well, to a certain degree, which is how we ended up with all the ridiculous melodrama and angst. It will be interesting to see how she writes for a different audience. It's pretty apparent by the subject of the book that she wants to move away from the fantasy nonsense she is best known for which could either work in her favour if people take her more seriously, or merely prove that when removed from her comfort zone she is actually a terrible writer.