Confession. We didn’t go to a single book panel at San Diego Comic Con this year.
I am so ashamed.
It wasn’t like we made a decision not to, it was just whenever we had time, we decided we’d rather be sleeping.
We did do some book things. I shall try to keep the following recap on book only things, but some general nerdiness might sneak in.
We started off the Con with an Exhibit Hall game plan. Go in. Buy the exclusives we wanted, then move into the publishers and see what they were doing this year.
Exclusive buying went off without a hitch (yay Doctor Who and Game of Thrones!), and then we went to the publishers.
Simon and Schuster never really seemed to be giving anything out. The booth people were nice and chatty and asked us if we wanted to know any more about any of their books but as I’ve only had bad experiences with them in the past, I never feel comfortable talking to them.
Penguin. Oh Penguin. I was both happy and unhappy with them this year. Though I will say, I don’t think any of it was their own fault. This year they decided to only do one booth for both their adult imprints and their YA imprints. And it was kind of a small booth. Penguin is a Comic Con sponser and…I don’t know, I expected them to have a bigger presence. Also, and this wont make any sense if you’ve never been to Comic Con, but the movement of the video game booths to that side of the Hall, I really think screwed things up for Penguin in particular. There was much higher traffic than previous years through that area and as such Penguin always had an intense line going.
Even when there wasn’t a signing or anything. When it was just general giveaways. And, unlike last year, they didn’t say what time they would be doing certain giveaways. So, you could see them put out a book you were excited for, then get in line and the book would be gone by the time to you got to the booth. Sometimes another book would have replaced it and sometimes it would just be samplers. Again, none of this was Penguin’s fault at all, but I liked the way they did things last year better.
I would like to give mad props to Colleen (last name???) who was fabulous at keeping the line going and not letting people cut in, and just generally keeping it together in a crazy crowd of crazy nerds.
Macmillan this year seemed to only have YA booth. Oh, I guess there was a Tor booth as well. But I don’t remember seeing anything for their other imprints. I just realized that now. Interesting. On Thursday we picked up their signing/swag giveaway schedule and a Fierce Reads bag, which became my food bag for the weekend.
Then we went to Little Brown and gave the password to pick up our copies of Curtsies and Conspiracies. And we chatted to them a little bit. And then we went to Random House who were really awesome about talking to you about what type of book you like and then giving you one that they thought would fit your preferences. Sadly on Thursday they were out of Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson. But I was told to come back Friday morning to get it.
Though, I saw someone else with a copy of Of Beast and Beauty, which I really wanted but for some reason could not remember if it was Penguin or Random House so I spend the whole weekend talking to the Random House people telling them what I liked to read, hoping they would give me that, and they kept trying to give me Lauren Kate. I felt like I couldn’t just come out and ask for it in case it WAS Penguin and then I would just look like an idiot.1
After visiting the publishers Christine and I decided we’d try to get into Hall H for the Divergent and Ender’s Game panel.
Which we did. It was the easiest getting into Hall H of all time. It took like…two minutes. This, sadly, was not a trend that was repeated throughout the weekend.
So, the Divergent Panel. Well. I should preface this with how I do not like Shailene as Tris. She looks like they were trying to cast Jennifer Lawrence without being able to cast Jennifer Lawrence. You know? And she is not at all how I pictured Tris. Not at all. I’m witholding judgement on Theo as Four. We did get to see some footage and it looked better than the stills that they’ve released but still kind of cheesy and cheap looking. I’m not letting myself got my hopes up for this movie. I’d really rather be pleasantly surprised then horribly let down.
Snarkles-Clone looking on my swag from Day One.
The Ender’s Game footage looked…well, like less of a wreck then the trailer they’ve released? I still think they’ve completely turned it into a sci-fi action movie instead of a psychological journey. But whatever. Harrison Ford was there. That was awesome! Whenever he spoke the room, full of thousands of people, got all quiet.
So. Friday. I had to make a very difficult decision on Friday. Go into Hall H with Christine and sit through a whole bunch of panels I didn’t care about in order to see the Game of Thrones panel…or go into the Exhibit Hall with Michelle and Stacee and get a copy of Cress. Knowing how the Hall H line and Game of Thrones worked, I knew I wouldn’t be able to do both.
Michelle, Stacee and I! The first in line for Cress!
Ultimately I decided on Cress. And I’m very happy I did. I finished it that weekend and wasn’t even home for an hour before went out on lend. I don’t think I’ll be seeing it again for quite some time. We ended up being first in line at the Fierce Reads booth. It’s kind of hard to describe how much fun standing in line can be if you’ve never been to Comic Con but sometimes it’s the only chance you have to just relax and chat with the people you’re hanging out with. And sometimes you get to meet awesome people around you. And this was a line of Marissa Meyer fans. So it was a lot of fun!
After that I wandered around by myself for awhile picked up a few more books and eventually just sat down in a corner and started reading Cress because that’s what I really wanted to do. And then Christine left Hall H early because she was bored by herself and we made the valiant decision to leave then so we could get up early for Hall H the next day.
The entirety of Saturday was spent either in line for Hall H or in Hall H. The only thing book related was the Catching Fire panel. Which was awesome. I love Jennifer Lawrence. And we got to see the trailer…and then I was super upset when it was released to the rest of the world ten minutes later. Ugh. Hall H generally means exclusive footage. Oh well. I think we can all agree the trailer looks good. And Jennifer Lawrence was real and hilarious and awesome, as per usual.
The rest of the day was spent geeking out over the awesome stuff. I read Cress in between panels and ate a lot food to keep myself awake. If you want to know the details of the day I can go over it in the comments.
Snarkles-Clone does not like waking up at 11:45pm on Friday to get in line
Snarkles Clone is read to get into Hall H already.
Snarkles Clone in Hall H!
Rainbow Rowell!
Sunday was the big book day. It started out with some last minute exclusive getting, then I got in line for an advance copy of Altered by Gennifer Albin, while I had Michelle get my copy of Falling Kingdoms signed by Morgan Rhodes. I was very upset that I didn’t get to meet Morgan Rhodes but I wasn’t sure if there’d be an copies of Altered left if I did it the other way around. Sadly there was still copies left when Michelle came to get her own copy signed. Oh well. Better safe than sorry.
And then we headed up to the Sails pavalion for the big YA panel signing and they were selling Infinityglass early so I bought a copy of that and got it signed. I just love having complete hardcover sets, signed and all the covers matching. This is rare and beautiful. Also they had ARCs of Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins which she signed with the BEST INSCRIPTION EVER, and I’m about half done right now and I just love it.
Seriously. Legally Blond meets the Terminator. It’s fabulous.
And and and and and!!! Rainbow Rowell was there!!! And I got my copy of Eleanor and Park signed and she had these awesome bookplates for Fangirl and I got one those WHICH I HAVE NOW TRAGICALLY LOST!!! And I’ve since read Fangirl and it was sosososososososo good and I’M JUST HEARTBROKEN. I can no longer talk about this. Here’s a picture of Michelle’s bookplate. *sobsob*
I want to find mine SO BAD!
After that we had some time to kill before the next signing, so I gave my copy of Enclave to Stacee to get signed for me and I went back down to the Exhibit Hall to see if I could get my picture taken in a big pile of cold coins…don’t ask. But the line was crazy so we just wandered around a bit. Then Chrisitne abandoned me and I had to wait until 4pm for the last signing. Where I got my copy of Reboot by Amy Tintera signed. And my ARC of Tandem by Anna jarzab, and my ARC of Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson.
And. I think that’s everything? All in all it was a great weekend. I am sad I missed Ally Condie and Rick Yancey. Ally Condie especially as Matched was the first ever ARC I got at Comic Con, and I was really excited about the prospect of getting my hardcover signed by her there. But that happened Saturday while we were in Hall H so I can’t regret it too much. And really Comic Con is all about making hard choices and standing in line.
I stole two pictures from Stacee’s Comic Con Wrap Up post. Thanks Stacee!
Here are a couple more fun pictures:
Christine and Donatello!
Party on the Pirate Ship!….while we were trying to sleep.
Snarkles Clone Last Day!
Marissa Meyer signs Cress!
All the Swag!
And after much conversation and dilly-dallying about, we have remembered that Christine had planned a giveaway to post with this post! And there are TWO prize packs! Though I don’t think any of these prizes were gotten at Comic Con? They’re giveaways Christine has been meaning to do for awhile. Maybe she’s planning to throw in some SDCC swag? I do not know.
As there isn’t a GRAND PRIZE type of thing, the first winner I pick will get to choose which prize pack they want, and the second will get the leftover prize pack.
PRIZE PACK ONE – Contemporary: How Zoe Made Her Dreams (mostly) Come True by Sarah Strohmeyer, You Look Different In Real Life by Jennifer Castle, Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan, Nantucket Blue by Leila Howland, Thousand Words by Jennifer Brown, The Rules for Disappearing by Ashley Elston, When You Were Here by Daisy Whitney
PRIZE PACK TWO – Paranormal/Sci-Fi/Stuff: Blood Magic by Tessa Gratton (signed), Blood Keeper by Tessa Gratton (signed), The Lost Sun by Tessa Gratton (signed), Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake (signed), Chasing Shadows by Swati Avasthi, Parallel by Lauren Miller, The Wall by William Sutcliffe