Squee, and a free book!

I've just seen that Adam Roberts has included Lightborn on his top ten SF novels of 2010!  Yay!  He mentions that he hesitated to read it because he thought it would be just another zombie novel.

Aaargghhh!  Lightborn was never intended to have anything to do with zombie novels and it is so painful every time I see that sort of thing in a review or reference, partly because it reminds me how bloody slow I was to finish the book.  There weren't even any zombie novels about when I started it in 2005 and I've never actually read a zombie novel, story nor even watched a zombie movie (maybe when I was 8?).  It took me so many years to write (and then to publish) the book that I ended up sticking in some zombie references in a jokey way because the phenomeon came on like a wave during the writing process, and it was too late by then to turn back.  But honestly,  if I'd known the whole zombie phenomenon was going to happen I'd have set it in the distant future, as the idea first began.

Sorry about that, just a wee tiny vent of my frustrations.  Anyway,  I'm so pleased that Adam liked the book.  The other thing I wanted to say is that Adam's post reminded me that  I've had a copy of C by Tom McCarthy for several months and you know what?  I bought it because it looked really cool, and Adam's review confirms that it probably is.  But I'm not going to read it, not with my schedule being as it is.  Does anybody on my UK f-list want it?  First come first served--it's a lovely hardcover, just gorgeous actually.  But I have to be realistic about how my time is going to be spent.