Robert Jackson Bennett is a two-time award winner of the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel, an Edgar Award winner for Best Paperback Original, and is also the 2010 recipient of the Sydney J Bounds Award for Best Newcomer, and a Philip K Dick Award Citation of Excellence. His fifth novel,
City of Stairs, which earned a rare 10/10 in our review, is in stores now. Today he is here to share his "6 books" with us...
1. What book are you currently reading 
by Joe Abercrombie. Liked it quite a bit.
2. What upcoming book you are really excited about?
I don't quite know, to be frank. Nearly all of my purchases are impulse buys these days.
I don't quite know, to be frank. Nearly all of my purchases are impulse buys these days.
3. Is there a book you're currently itching to re-read?
I would say Nabokov's Pale Fire
or The Blind Assassin
by Margaret Atwood. Both are masterclasses in writing. Also Mythago Wood
.
4. How about a book you've changed your mind about over time--either positively or negatively?
One of the things that sucks about getting older and reading more is that you realize a lot of what makes certain young adult books really sing for you is that, frequently, you've never seen these tricks done before. You have nothing to compare it to. So when I went back and reread Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising
, it was a bit like going back to a place you thought was a giant palace as a kid, and now find it to be a bit cramped and ordinary.
One of the things that sucks about getting older and reading more is that you realize a lot of what makes certain young adult books really sing for you is that, frequently, you've never seen these tricks done before. You have nothing to compare it to. So when I went back and reread Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising
, it was a bit like going back to a place you thought was a giant palace as a kid, and now find it to be a bit cramped and ordinary.
5. What's one book, which you read as a child or young adult, that has had a lasting influence on your writing?
I think a lot about Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave
, and its romantic depiction of magic and myth. Gosh that was good. 
6. And speaking of that, what's *your* latest book, and why is it awesome?
City of Blades
. Comes out in January of 2016. It brims over with explosions and whatnot.
-Robert Jackson Bennett
City of Blades
. Comes out in January of 2016. It brims over with explosions and whatnot.-Robert Jackson Bennett
