Ugh. I’ve been hit with a nasty flu, so I will be out of commission today and probably for several more as this thing runs its course.
Which is a pity not only because I feel like crap but also because there’s lots of stuff going on. It’s (Not My) Presidet’s day, and there are anti-Trump protests around the US (and in London too, but for different anti-Trump reasons).
Meanwhle, our old friend fiend MILO was scheduled to be one of the keynote speakers at CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) but, oops, conservatives discovered that their favorite hateful bigot has, on a number of occasions, explicitly defended pedophilia oh sorry “ephebophilia.” And now he’s been un-scheduled. See the latest here!
Anyway, I’m going to go lie down. Feel free to use this as an open thread of course.
Throwing in a vote for Please Don’t Tell My Parents I’m a Supervillain. Starts out good, and the books get more complex as the series goes on, definitely.
Aw I hope you’re feeling better now, David. Remember to drink lots and rest, okay 🙂
So apparently Matt Forney wants to nuke Japan a third time because he hates anime.
http://www.fstdt.com/QuoteComment.aspx?QID=124823
Given a lot of alt-rightists like anime, is this going to provoke another split just like Milo-gate did?
CPPhazor:
I’d never heard of mini-puberty before! Thanks for bringing it up, I’ve learned a lot so far:
http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2016/07/humans_experience_two_distinct_puberties.html
I sometimes wonder if there aren’t more than two puberties. I mean, I’m a guy and when I was 25, I could have sworn I was going through a second puberty. Not sure if that’s what it was, but it was certainly an odd experience. It might have also been brought on by experience rather than being innately programmed (after all, hormone surges can occur for environmental reasons too).
@PrettyPrettyPegasus
my local library hasn’t got that one, but that reminds me to suggest Brandon Sanderson’s Reckoners series, in which some people gain superpowers at the expense of their better nature. Steelheart ,the first book, opens with the protagonist seeking revenge on the eponymous super, who killed his fatheron the way to ruling Chicago with an iron fist.
@Hu’s on first
I’m definitely having a second puberty, but that’s thanks to science.
I’d list some YA books but the only ones I read these days are in Japanese. But Japan has some good YA that includes a lot of fantasy elements which are integral to the plot, but with stories that ultimately revolve around coming of age, finding oneself, and resolving internal conflicts.
What I like is that most authors either try to give reasonable explanations for why the fantasy elements were never anything supernatural to begin with or they just have the fantasy elements be a normal part of the world. They don’t usually do that annoying thing where they try to imply, in the last few pages, that the fantasy elements were possibly just someone’s delusion all along.
I am not 100% sure if all of them are YA, but here are my recommendations from the top of my mind that I didn’t see mention yet :
The Delhpi Effect and the Chronos Files series by Rysa Walker
Crudrat and the Finishing School series by Gail Carriger
Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older
The Illuminae Files series by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
The Starbound series by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
Every Heart a Doorway, Sparrow Hill Road and Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day by Seanan McGuire
For my two penn’orth on YA I’d recommend Terry Pratchett’s ‘Tiffany Aching’ stories, his earlier novel ‘Equal Rites’ and possibly ‘Monstrous Regiment.’ They seem to have a YA vibe to them, but I admit some are over ten years old.
-sees all this talk about YA works-
-just remembers a past full of Animorphs-
@Dalillama
I’ve only kinda sorta read the first book, but I believe it should include a (TW: Sexual Assault)
@Schnookums
You’re right, I missed that one.
@Troubelle
Same, except for me it was Goosebumps. I read a few Animorphs books and they were pretty awesome, but I had a veritable library of Goosebumps.
@WWTH
Not sure how common it is, but I took to reading very early and tended to just read whatever could get my hands on, so I had a fairly similar experience growing up. Though I was more into Sci-Fi/Fantasy, which meant alongside my stacks of Goosebumps books I also had Tolkien, Dragonlance, Star Wars EU novels, etc. Also, I seemed to have a penchant for checking out wildly age-inappropriate books from the library.
Hope you feel better soon, David.
I can’t think of any YA books to recommend. I read the Sweet Valley High series as a teenager, and I adored the Horses of Half Moon Ranch series when I was a pre-teen (I think?).
Majorly OT: Since this is an open thread, I want to mention a “right-wing conservative” (his words) commenter named “Dead1” over at the Angry Metal Guy blog forums. The AMG community is mostly progressive and troll-free. There’s a thread on Donald Trump, with a bunch of comments from Dead1. He seems to know everything about everything lol. I feel like I’d have to read for a 100 years just to catch up with him (he studied history and the American constitution at varsity, btw). I almost feel guilty for being a leftist, since the left seems to have ruined the environment, Western countries and social cohesion (i.e. “we” allowed too many immigrants in for his tastes).
A sample of his writing:
He starts on about immigrants (especially muslims) later in the thread; here’s the link to page 15 onwards: https://www.metal-fi.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=525&start=140
(Sorry for a teal deer).
Off topic of book discussion, but someone posted an older article on Tumblr, and I felt like it could be a good resource for trolls who happen by.
The U.N. Sent 3 Foreign Women To The U.S. To Assess Gender Equality. They Were Horrified.
So, the next time we get a troll saying that women want special rights and they’re not doing enough in THE MIDDLE EAST and how women aren’t oppressed, I’m just gonna link this.
From 2016, T. Kingfisher (aka Ursula Vernon) “The Raven and the Reindeer“.
One thing about Tiger’s Curse… it’s got a pretty strong white saviour vibe going on. (link goes to the goodreads page with reviews)
@Troubelle
Heh, I read those too, maybe three of them. Back then I was more into fantasy than SF so I didn’t really enjoy them all that much though.
BUT the author also wrote the Everworld trilogy, which is aimed at somewhat older readers and left me with some pretty good memories. Not sure if I’d still like it a decade and a half later, but then that goes for everything.
I’m a bit ashamed to have liked Terry Goodkind at some point when I was 13 or something. Though even back then there were things that really annoyed me, and they’re the same things that annoy me today, I guess I just have a lot less tolerance to it now.
I don’t read much anymore these days, though it pains me. I used to be an absolute bookworm, but that changed about five years ago for some reason, about the time I started writing the current iteration of my old big-ass fantasy project. Guess it’s taking up all my mental bookshelves and there’s not much room left for anything else ? Go figure. At any rate, progress is slow and not too steady on that front, but at least I’ve gone five years without deciding to burn all my papers and start over yet again, so that’s a start.
Kevin:
The last two Tiffany Aching books seem fairly dark and veering into Celtic mysticism, with some pretty obscure jokes. Like referring to Gytha Ogg’s house as “Tir Nani Ogg”. I’m so lucky I got that.
@Artic Ape
All the Discworld books are like that. Practically every time I reread one I catch one I’d missed before.
That one’s a standing joke, IIRC first used in Witches Abroad
@Sinkable John
I read Mr. Goodkind as well, all the way up to Chainfire. I almost never give up on a series, just out of stubbornness, but I realized if I wanted to read an implausible fantasy book that espouses odious political values I’d just read the original, Atlas Shrugged (Zing!).
What makes it sad is that the books could have been good. I think he does have some writing strengths, but it reached a point where I realized the only way I’d be happy with the ending of the series was if Richard was revealed to be a villain protaganist all along, and that wasn’t going to happen.
Pratchett and hidden jokes:
I think the one that hit me the most was in Hogsfather, when Death visits the computer Hex, and Hex asks (paraphrased) “Big Red Lever Time?” I didn’t realize it at first, but it hit me later that Hex just asked Death if he was going to be turned off i.e die. It was clever as well as rather chilling. (I can be a bit obtuse at times, so this might have been something everyone but me got the first time reading it.)
@Schnookums
I’d have gone with the Bible as the original, but that’d been cliché, so I approve this zing.
To be fair I didn’t read the series to the end, mainly cause my “fuck it” moment happened before the french translations were published – but the stubbornness (and OCD) definitely had something to do with me keeping at it past the first book.
By the way, I hadn’t seen the “GloboThermoNuclearHomo” addition to your name until now but it is glorious.
Haven’t seen this linked yet:
https://psmag.com/on-the-milo-bus-with-the-lost-boys-of-americas-new-right-629a77e87986
It’s by the writer who did “I’m with the banned.”
OT:
Next time I see something about how liberals are r-strategists, I’m going to remember this strip:
http://i.imgur.com/TELt6T9.png
@PoM
Yes ! I love Laurie Penny’s work and this article is excellent.