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Post by wordweaver3 on Nov 30, 2018 23:03:57 GMT
Yes, you are. Unfortunately The Unquiet is just so bad I don't think I'll be able to find anything that matches it.
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Post by TempestFennac on Dec 1, 2018 5:53:33 GMT
I don't know if you read my review for it when I posted it but en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Miracles is terrible due to bland characters and an implausible scenario (the Guardian's reviewer really hit the nail on the head in the review which is mentioned here).
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Post by wordweaver3 on Dec 1, 2018 6:52:23 GMT
Do you have a link to your review?
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Post by Horsie on Dec 1, 2018 7:29:43 GMT
Of course they need to pit the kids against each other for no reason, it's a dystopian YA novel. Did they get split up into pointless teams too?
Why are the people from the dystopian Earth so unhealthy? If they're taking some kind of pill to deal with it you'd think it's because they're not getting enough potassium or vitamin C or whatever the fuck you get from a cod liver. If the people of alternative Earth are healthy, you'd think that sleeper agents living among them would be just as healthy, they'd be getting the same amount of cod liver and other good things.
And they need to be cared for by other sleepers if they're hurt or sick? This would make sense if there was something fundamentally different about them that only risked being found out if they went to a doctor. That doesn't sound like the case, besides, it just sounds like her whole job dealing with CF was just going over to his place and hanging out.
It doesn't sound like much of a war either, I have a hard time buying the idea that they got enough sleeper agents in place to just go from house to house, city to city, killing everyone in Britain until they'd almost completely wiped out the people from alternative England. I mean, you'd need have had an army of sleeper agents in place, but apparently they didn't because they were able to invite them all to a party to celebrate their success, and then kill them all with a remote controlled poison.
I'll have to read about that second book when I get home from the range.
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Post by Canuovea on Dec 1, 2018 8:03:33 GMT
I have to read books for my work. Many of them are for teens and folks like that. Some of them are awful.
Kira Kira is about a Japanese family who moves to the deep South in the 1950s. Now yes, the book won some medal or other, which is why I ended up having to read this tripe, but I knew what it would be immediately. Extremely obvious foreshadowing about an elder sister's demise made it even more obvious than the back of the book. If I wanted to read a story about a family dealing with, frankly, mild levels of racism, while the oldest daughter slowly dies from lymphoma, all of this told through the eyes of the younger sister, then I would read this book. However that begs the question: Why would I want to read about that? And what is it about young Japanese literature that features death by cancer? Or is that just a thing in Japanese literature in general? Because this is the second time I've seen it for kids and the third time overall. Okay so nukes, I guess, but this book felt trite and bluntly manipulative.
Ooooh ooooh and how about another book called After that manages to be about as subtle as a hammer to the intestines? Now I start to foam at the mouth whenever I encounter didactic nonsense, so that might explain part of my distaste for this book, but the rest comes from it being just... shark jumpingly bad. You had suspension of disbelief? Nope. Sorry. But here is a short summary: There is a school. A different school nearby gets shot up by kids (though by the end of this I wouldn't be surprised if it was all a government plot!) and this means everyone panics and start implementing new safety measures. Our hero's school gets a new Grief Counselor who turns up and slowly starts taking over the school. He puts certain rules in force and people start losing their privileges and they start drug testing the kids in extracurriculars. They also don't like certain books and music, like rap and The Catcher In The Rye. Okay, plausible, right? But then people who break the rules start to... vanish. Now by people I mean the students at first, but then also one of the teachers. The students, at least, are sent to these Dr. Phillian reform camps for troubled teens (and yes, shit like that does exist). One of the kids is sent for wearing a red ribbon to commemorate her brother's death from AIDS. Another for failing a drug test. Etc. Though we don't actually see the camps because the main character never gets sent there. Now you might be wondering... what about the parents? Shouldn't they have to sign off on this? And yes, yes they should. And they do. Why? Because... they are being brainwashed by the emails the school puts out so that they toe the party line. Sounded like I just made a communism reference, eh? Well, Leninism reference anyway. Think that was too obviously on the nose? Because if you do, oh boy, that Grief Counselor, despite looking like Abraham Lincoln, gets directly compared with Stalin. As in, the main character looks Stalin up and the book basically declares: "This is just like THAT!"
So Stalin eventually does away with the Principal and becomes Principal as well. By the end of the book it has been revealed that this is happening nationwide, that the kids are being sent to camps indeed but they just take the kids out and shoot them if they rebel (which is what happens to red ribbon girl), that there are cameras everywhere, and that somehow this actually happened! Like this could even happen at all! And then... at the very end... the main character, his newly acquired (by surprise sudden awkward kiss) girlfriend, his dad, his dad's girlfriend (his mom is dead), his one remaining friend, and his girlfriend's mom, all drive away to escape and... and the story ends there. There is no further resolution.
There are, of course, several insightful things that the main character realizes throughout the book that we should all realize, like the standard "you don't know what you've got till it's gone." Just bleck.
And you know what? The icing on the cake? One of the reviews on the back of this piece of trash had the shear gall to call it all "Chillingly Plausible." Plausible? Fucking no. About as plausible as Tiny Tim being fucked by a time traveling Ankylosaurus from the Jurassic period tomorrow morning at 10:59am... and liking it! Its a goddamn allegory with the subtlety of the couple next door to you in the hotel vigorously fucking against the wall an inch from your head.
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Post by TempestFennac on Dec 1, 2018 8:37:31 GMT
Here's my review, Word (it would be longer but I wanted to keep spoilers to a bare minimum):
The Age of Miracles:
The Age of Miracles is the debut novel of Karen Thompson Walker. It takes place in California in the present day and is written from the perspective of an 11 year old named Julia at a time when the planet's rotation starts to slow down, with predictably bad consequences. While you'd expect the concept to be interesting, the whole thing ends up being incredibly dull due to Julia having the charisma of a damp washcloth*. The 1st person perspective is also unhelpful because she barely seems to react to things. For instance, a friend decides to runaway to join a commune in the desert which is attempting to live their life based on the increasingly long days and night rather than sticking with the 24 hour clock, and Julia doesn't make any sort of internal or vocal comment in response to this at all. Then at another point, her grandfather (who is one of the only characters in the book who isn't either bland or irritating due to his conspiracy theorist tendencies and habit of reminiscing about past disasters) comments that he should teach Julia how to use a gun (for obvious reasons due to the inevitable societal collapse) and her only reply is "A gun, grandpa?", as if he'd suggested something completely random like teaching her how to hunt wallabies or make balloon sculptures.
Julia's tween melodramas seem to be the main focus, and the unfolding disaster is often just a catalyst for these. No explanation of what suddenly made the Earth's rotation slow down is ever given in the book (the closest we get to that is a couple of separate Hippy types suggesting it's something humans did or the Earth cleansing itself of humanity, which seems like using a bazooka to kill a fly considering how the longer days and nights, as well as gravity getting stronger, lead to plants which aren't being grown in greenhouses, and as a result wild animals, also going extinct). An attempt to colonise Mars is mentioned a couple of times but no details regarding why it failed are mentioned, even though the epilogue took place about 10 years after the most of the book (this is still probably the best part of the story due to being as depressing and nihilistic as it should be given that one day/night cycle is several weeks long by this point and the power sources humanity relies on for food are either useless or running out). Even then, it's not worth sitting through the one-dimensional characters, overly elaborate descriptions ^ of mundane things and lack of emphasis on anything that seems really interesting.
Writing Style: 3/10. Originality: 5/10. Characterisation: 2/10. Plot: 6/10.
*As far as I can gather, she at least doesn't have the appearance of a low-grade bank clerk, which I suppose is something in her favour.
^ The book's title comes from an inane paragraph where the author describes Junior High as being this just because of the rapid physical changes which puberty causes to students at this point in their lives. ___________________________________________________ Don't forget that we're not allowed to own guns here, Renard, so the sleepers would have an easier time of things than they'd have in other places.
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Post by Canuovea on Dec 1, 2018 8:46:11 GMT
Oh, and that reminds me! Harry fucking Potter.
Harry Potter.
Potter.
So had to reread the first book recently and... okay so fine its pretty good overall, but some shit just sticks out. And frankly? I know JK Rowling was a teacher and all that but I think there are some realities she just doesn't understand... or maybe she just hates children, which... well she was a teacher.
And no, I'm not going to talk about the pedagogical deficiencies almost everywhere at Hogwarts. Fuckers don't even teach math, I swear, I suppose they learn calculus by following the insanely shitty wizarding currency exchange... C'mon Rowling! You yourself said you were bad at math! You should have sympathy for the math failures that we are! How many knuts are in a gold galleon again? But no no, I'm not talking about that. Nor the safety problems. Nor the obvious "put everyone with the same general type of motivation and behaviour in the same bloody groups" thing that results in a place for hardworking, loyal, fair, but not very bright folks; a place for nerds; a place for brash idiots; and a place for evil bastards... all except for when they put the nerdiest of nerds into the brash idiot place because the plot demands it. None of that.
First point: Dudley is a bully. Dudley is also a fat overweight kid who the author of the book constantly makes fun of for being fat and overweight. Yes yes, he's fat and overweight because his parents spoil him rotten. But as a fat overweight kid myself once upon a this very moment, let me tell you, that lifestyle a) ain't gonna make him very fit and b) makes you a prime candidate for being bullied. Yeah, fat kids get bullied. I know this. I'm just glad that Malfoy turns out to be a skinny good looking blondy boy rather than subject us to another bunch of humorous fat jokes at the expense of a little kid who is, if anything, a victim of his parents' idiocy.
And gods are the Dursleys awful. Like... people who want to take the books more seriously, just as the books themselves seem to want you to do so when you hit the third book but especially the fourth, have to make up reasons that the Dursleys are so bad. In universe explanations. "Well, Harry is a horcrux and those bring out the worst in people so the Dursleys are awful because they've been living with Harry for 11 years at the start of the series!"
Second Point: The good guys? The ones you're supposed to like? I'm pretty sure they're evil. Okay, so maybe not all of them. Dumbledore is shady as fuck though... but there is one particularly good example from the first book. It features everyone's favourite lovable idiot half-giant: Hagrid.
Now Hagrid definitely is portrayed as pretty bumbling, but endearingly so. Nothing really wrong with that. Sure, he gives away secrets worse than that dragon character in that one RP thing I did with Tiberia ages ago... but when has he actually caused harm? Oh. How about the third book when he brings an animal known for being arrogant and aggressive to anyone who insults them into a class that is half populated by the assholic spawn of almost-literal wizard Nazis! No way that could go wrong, but he didn't mean anything malicious by it. Also it's okay because Malfoy, a 13 year old, deserves to be violently hurt. Or what about in the first book where he takes students into the obviously dangerous forest that is currently host to something evil and dangerous enough to murder unicorns and drink their blood. Okay, so it mightn't have been his idea to do that, but he probably saw no trouble with it. They were to be punished after all. BUT then he goes and does the bumbling thing: He splits the party. One half of the party goes with him nice and safely... the other half takes the massive bloodhound who seems great and all but is really a coward and quite useless. Naturally one of the kids gets attacked by Voldemort (pronounced all French like: Vol-de-more because mort is French for death and so you don't pronounce the t). But again, he didn't mean for that to happen, he's just oblivious. Also, remember that Dumbledore actually hires this guy to teach. To be responsible for students. Like he also hired someone he knew was incompetent to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts in book two. Anyway, enough Dumbledore...
There is something that Hagrid does that is absolutely evil. When he first appears he frightens the Dursleys to trembling and explains everything to Harry over some sausage and cake. No no, that's fine, not good for Harry's cholesterol but I'm pretty sure Wizards don't know about that, let alone Hagrid. But then Vernon Dursley up and has to do it. He insults Dumbledore.
Oh no, not Dumbledore!
"NOBODY INSULTS ALBUS DUMBLEDORE IN FRONT OF ME!" Shouts the angry Hagrid. What horrible and terrible thing will he do to Vernon Dursley for daring to stand up to him? Nothing to Vernon, actually, nothing directly. No no, he goes and tries to turn the Dursleys' eleven year old son into a pig. Because that's how the lovable bumbling good guy behaves. He attacks the loved ones of someone to get back at them. Holy shit.
Furthermore, the massive half giant man goes and makes a fat joke about Dudley, saying that the only reason that it only gave Dudley a curly pig tail is because Dudley was already pig-like enough. Now since Hagrid is just shit at magic generally speaking, and shouldn't be doing it at all anyway because he isn't certified due to being expelled and all, that could have gone really poorly. Oh, and all he does is chuckle and say that he shouldn't have done that because he isn't supposed to. This is funny. This is played for laughs. But dude has the impulse control of a toddler and his first thought is to attack a child. And the author seems to think this is hilarious. Oh ha ha.
Fun fact, they have to take Dudley in to get the tail surgically removed. Now that is going to cause some pretty funny questions. But hey, its okay to traumatize the kid because he's fat and he's a bully! Ho ho ho!
But hey, he's coded as a good guy, and that means he is one, because the villains are coded so comically evil that one of the inbred fools just bitches about how bad halfbreeds or such are while also bitching about how bad poor people are. Its a good thing Hogwarts has a house for obvious evil douchebags! Oh sure, it subverts this by having Snape not be the actual villain in the end, but Snape is still a massive asshole.
And then there is... no no, I'm just not going to bother.
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Post by Canuovea on Dec 1, 2018 8:57:24 GMT
Wait, so if The Age of Miracles is Junior High because of puberty... but it also refers to the change in the planet's day/night cycle... maybe the planet was actually just going through puberty? Maybe if they hold on long enough it will stabilize and settle down into a normal!
The thing about After is less that it isn't accurate vis a vis government shit. I mean, we do have examples of that historically speaking. Rather the problem is that the author tries to put this into a school context. A High School context. It just comes across poorly to me. But like with all of these, I'm not the target audience.
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Post by TempestFennac on Dec 1, 2018 9:55:09 GMT
I hadn't considered that, Can (it makes as much sense as why the Earth's rotation is suddenly 6 minutes slower at the start). As for the subjects at Hogwarts, Arithmancy is kind of maths, but that's an optional subject and it's a kind of divination which is somehow different to the Divination class so it's probably got very limited practical applications. Have you read The Cursed Child? That has similar issues regarding how the alleged protagonists act at times.
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Post by Canuovea on Dec 1, 2018 10:22:58 GMT
No, I've not read The Cursed Child. Seems most folks don't actually consider it canon.
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Post by TempestFennac on Dec 1, 2018 13:37:28 GMT
I can't say I blame them; as well as having Harry ignore one important moral from the main series, one criticism is that it doesn't really feel like a Harry Potter book due to how time travel works in it.
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Post by Canuovea on Dec 1, 2018 20:25:07 GMT
The time turner was a problem all the time.
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Post by StyxD on Dec 1, 2018 23:32:04 GMT
Now I start to foam at the mouth whenever I encounter didactic nonsense, so that might explain part of my distaste for this book What didactic nonsense did that book contain? You listed pretty many stupidities in that book, but none of them seemed "didactic" to me (unless you mean the portrayal of school was nonsense ). They also don't like certain books and music, like rap and The Catcher In The Rye. Isn't "Catcher in the Rye" the most stereotypical edgy intellectual teenager's favourite book? No disrespect meant. I never read that book. I'm just curious about it's cultural significance. what about the parents? Shouldn't they have to sign off on this? And yes, yes they should. And they do. Why? Because... they are being brainwashed by the emails the school puts out so that they toe the party line. That's nothing. I've read a story where parents were brainwashed by posts on Facebook and Youtube videos into refusing to vaccinate their children, and then an epidemic broke out and… Oh. Oh no. ^ The book's title comes from an inane paragraph where the author describes Junior High as being this just because of the rapid physical changes which puberty causes to students at this point in their lives. Maybe there's some dark statement here. If both puberty and the time when Earth is slowing down rotation are referred to as "Age of Miracles", doesn't that mean that puberty is a drab time of preparing for an inevitable catastrophe that will destroy the life you know and however you may hope to survive in what comes next, everything will just get worse and worse, all the time… Man, the author must be hating being a grown-up! Oh, and all he does is chuckle and say that he shouldn't have done that because he isn't supposed to. This is funny. This is played for laughs. But dude has the impulse control of a toddler and his first thought is to attack a child. And the author seems to think this is hilarious. Oh ha ha. Maybe Rowling just knows children more than it seems. When I recall reading that fragment years ago, I saw nothing at all wrong with it. I mean, I was bullied too, and my bullies' humanity or dignity was the farthest thing from my mind. Would have felt great to make them pigs. I feel dirty now, having said that. The time turner was a problem all the time. Yeah. Time travel never made sense in HP books. Why start complaining now? I never read the Cursed Child because I've heard it's not actually a novel, and also because there really isn't anything left to say in that world. But they just keep trying… by why start like 8 years after the last book of the series?
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Post by Canuovea on Dec 2, 2018 0:01:26 GMT
Regarding After's didacticism, the allegory was pretty blunt and with that came the rather traumatic hammering home of the idea of always being vigilant for tyranny. See, you've got to be aware man, for all you know some maniac is going to try to take away your god given rights! You don't know what you've got till it's gone! You can't trust authority! See what I mean? Though I don't actually think it is necessarily a bad lesson, it just annoys me that it was so... obviously moral of the story. Its like Narnia, or the latter books of the "His Dark Materials" series.
As for feeling fine with Hagrid's actions towards the Dursleys... yeah I did too when I read it. Its pretty cathartic for someone who had been bullied to see bullies suffer, and frankly it is very hard to empathize with Dudley even if I was overweight at the time (and am now I suppose). I've actually seen Youtube videos dedicated to showing bullies get beaten up! But then you realize that even book one is supposed to fit into a grittier, more adult, rest of the series. And coming back from reading the more mature (sometimes too mature, fucking whiney brat Harry in book 4, god) latter books really reveals the disparity. Not that I think Rowling really did a bad thing overall, she needed an audience and so she wrote for that audience... and that audience slowly matured.
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Post by TempestFennac on Dec 2, 2018 5:47:49 GMT
Interesting theory, Styx. It just seemed so pointless out out-of-place that I put it down to the author attempting to be philosophical. I could tell you more things about it which annoyed me if you don't mind spoilers.
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