Brian Jacques, 1939-2011
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?Fantasy author Brian Jacques died this weekend of a heart attack at the age of 71. He’s best known for his lengthy Redwall series, which had 21 books in it which have sold over 20 million copies world-wide. I never read them, but I know they’re much loved, and Jacques will be intensely missed by his readers. BBC News says that Jacques was once caned in school after turning in a short fiction story because his teacher couldn’t believe that a 10-year-old could write possibly write so well, and must somehow be cheating. That’s horrible, but it does help showcase his immense talents, even at an early age.
About The Author
Robert Bricken is one of the original co-founders of the site formerly known as Topless Robot, and its first editor-in-chief, serving from 2008-12. He brought the site to prominence with “nerd news, humor and self-loathing” as its motto, raising it from total internet obscurity to a readership in the millions, with help from his savage “FAQ” movie reviews and Fan Fiction Fridays. Under his tenure Topless Robot was covered by Gawker, Wired, Defamer, New York magazine, ABC News, and others, and his articles have been praised by Roger Ebert, Avengers actor Clark Gregg, comedian and The Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman, the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax, and others. He is currently the managing editor of io9.com. Despite decades as both an amateur and professional nerd, he continues to be completely unprepared for either the zombie apocalypse or the robot uprising.