I am currently going to do:
The rest of the Darkest Powers books, but not in detail.
Fanfiction, because fuck you I'm a dragon. Carapace fic is going to be posted Sundays, and January will be the month of pokehate.
In the nope not happening pile:
Mortal Instruments (Cassandra Claire):
Author's a plagiarist.
Gregor The Overlander (Suzanne Collins):
YOU CAN'T MAKE ME
Sabriel:
I love the Old Kingdom series. Love love love.
Perdido Street Station:
I also love China Mieville.
Warbreaker (Brandon Sanderson):
I've read stuff by him already and I feel I should lay my thoughts and eventual conclusions on those out before jumping into something new.
The Golden Compass:
Sorry, liked it.
Harry Potter:
http://reviewingrowling.tumblr.com/
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I DON'T HAVE TO DO THIS
The Inheritance Cycle:
Covered by the Twilight clause. If it's already getting sporked, no need for me to repeat people.
50 Shades of Grey:
Ditto.
Hush, Hush
Ditto again!
Probably not:
And Then There Were None:
I have absolutely no experience with mysteries. If you want to read the exciting adventures of Farla failing to understand how the book works, that's one thing, but don't expect anything enlightening here.
Ender's Game (OSC):
OSC is insane. I liked Ender's Game when I read it as a kid, but I'm not touching the rest of his work without a sizable bribe. And I don't mean cookies here, I mean along the lines of my weight in tiramisu. My positive memories of Ender's Game include that the writing itself was not noticeably bad, so I'm not sure how extensive my commentary would be.
Divergence:
I heard this completely sucked, and in a boring way.
The Long Walk (Stephen King):
I've never much liked Stephen King books. Also they are usually crazy long.
Name of the Wind:
I think I listened to the beginning on audiobook. It was deeply unlikeable and also long.
The Girl Who Played With Fire:
Apparently a mystery.
Artemis Fowl:
My brother read these. They were shit.
Possible:
House of Night:
Wikipedia tells me this is about an enormous sue. It's also a long series, so I'd probably only do the first book.
Eon, and the sequel Eona:
Never heard of it!
I have heard hyperbolic love and hate for this.
The Scorpio Races:
Apparently kids race on freaky water horses that hate them and some of them die, for some reason.
Matched:
Delirium:
"apparently it's set in a future where love had been declared to be a mental disorder (Keeping in mind that the year this takes place is around 2050-2075). So people get surgeries to keep them from feeling desire. Everyone gets it at 18, because that's the age the surgery will work, for some reason."
Fever:
Sequel to Wither. No more need be said, really.
Crossed:
Starters:
"all the people aged 20-60 dying in a plague, and yet the surviving 60+ crowd keeps around laws that prevent teenagers from working"
Stargirl:
I remember it being sort of like a deconstruction of manic pixie dreamgirl, with a guy narrator I hated.
Left Hand of Darkness:
Old and famous novel by Ursula Le Guin. Considered feminist lit.
Gone:
"Every human 15 and older vanishes, and the town and surrounding areas (later named the FAYZ) are encased within an impenetrable bubble. Many of the people and wildlife develop supernatural powers. "
The Pledge:
"in a fantasy country, people are divided into different classes and you must stay within your own class. Cue special girl who can speak every class language."
Troubled Waters
"Female protagonist, political plot (kings and brides), contains an alternate world with a lot of world building things"
Rebel Angels
Sequel to A Great and Terrible Beauty.
"all the people aged 20-60 dying in a plague, and yet the surviving 60+ crowd keeps around laws that prevent teenagers from working"
Stargirl:
I remember it being sort of like a deconstruction of manic pixie dreamgirl, with a guy narrator I hated.
The Host:
Left Hand of Darkness:
Old and famous novel by Ursula Le Guin. Considered feminist lit.
Gone:
"Every human 15 and older vanishes, and the town and surrounding areas (later named the FAYZ) are encased within an impenetrable bubble. Many of the people and wildlife develop supernatural powers. "
The Pledge:
"in a fantasy country, people are divided into different classes and you must stay within your own class. Cue special girl who can speak every class language."
Troubled Waters
"Female protagonist, political plot (kings and brides), contains an alternate world with a lot of world building things"
Rebel Angels
Sequel to A Great and Terrible Beauty.
Almost surely:
Wither:
Where apparently everyone dies young and the wealthy buy teenagers to keep the species going.
Sexteen/XVI:
I have heard nothing but terrible things about this.
Elantris:
The failures of this book tasted delicious.
Chosen of the Sun, Exalted:
Because sometimes you can learn more from the just barely competent than the well done. Also, because sometimes I need a break.
Unwind:
Apparently more than one person thinks this abomination was good. In fact, apparently a great number of them.
Animorphs:
Because stuff actually happened in them.
Also considering:
Doing this with Witchblade, because I read it a few years ago and jesus zombie christ was that a hot mess. The obvious thing is the whole female-empowerment-plus-cheesecake, but what I found far more interesting was the way they handled what I'm 85% sure was their attempt to appeal to female readers.
Since I have masterfully avoided it by not having time, the new pokemon game! I have only seen the opening section, but that and what I hear tell me this has actual plot. I'm planning to play through it mid-December, during the lovely birthday-to-Christmas period I used to use to frantically try to catch up on NaRe.
Since doing that reminded me of how much I loved the first generation, Pokemon Blue!
Since it exists, Pokemon BW2!
Since it's a nice theme I have going here, Pokemon Yellow!
So, that's what we've got so far. Suggest other things or make arguments for those already here.
Where apparently everyone dies young and the wealthy buy teenagers to keep the species going.
Sexteen/XVI:
I have heard nothing but terrible things about this.
Elantris:
The failures of this book tasted delicious.
Because sometimes you can learn more from the just barely competent than the well done. Also, because sometimes I need a break.
Unwind:
Apparently more than one person thinks this abomination was good. In fact, apparently a great number of them.
Animorphs:
Because stuff actually happened in them.
Also considering:
Doing this with Witchblade, because I read it a few years ago and jesus zombie christ was that a hot mess. The obvious thing is the whole female-empowerment-plus-cheesecake, but what I found far more interesting was the way they handled what I'm 85% sure was their attempt to appeal to female readers.
Since it's a nice theme I have going here, Pokemon Yellow!
So, that's what we've got so far. Suggest other things or make arguments for those already here.
67 comments:
What didn't you like about The Name of the Wind, by the way? Was it really so loathsome you couldn't get past the beginning?
By new Pokemon game, do you mean Black/White or Rumble Blast or something?
Well, some new series came about from the great Hunger Games flood. It's like how after Twilight we got all these supernatural romance books because it was so successful. Now we have dystopian future novels all over the place.
One I had the misfortune of picking up was Matched by Ally Condie. The author basically said to herself, "Let's take the Hunger Games, and delete everything but the setting and the romance, and replace everything else with more romance!" The reasons for the evil overlords doing anything is literally to keep this chick away from the boy she loves. Really. There is no greater reasoning to their actions.
I've been hearing bad things about Delirium by Lauren Oliver. I've never read it, but apparently it's set in a future where love had been declared to be a mental disorder (Keeping in mind that the year this takes place is around 2050-2075). So people get surgeries to keep them from feeling desire. Everyone gets it at 18, because that's the age the surgery will work, for some reason. I've heard good things about the prose, though.
House of Night is fairly short as far as books go, so it might be decent as a break/ warmup.
The Girl who Played with Fire is the second one in the series. (I don't know if you've read the first.) So you might not want to start with that one. However, it's long and it's also a mystery, so you might not want to do it for the same reason as and then there were none.
And you know how I'd feel about Graceling and Wither.
I'd never heard of Elantris, but the Wikipedia page makes it look hilarious. Derethi Gyorn is what they call a high-ranking priest? Apparently Orson Scott Card himself has praised it as the finest fantasy novel to come out in many years, automatically making me sure there is something insane inside those pages.
It was tiresome. Then I got to the part where the evil things appeared because the main character's dad was so super smart he'd figured out their powers and they were acting so damn stupid I ragequit.
Black/White. I have been crazy busy, in part because stuff like this eats my time like Nintendo once ate my money.
I wish more books were speculative instead of straight up distopic. Like, are we talking all positive feelings toward others, or just romantic love, or is it a euphemism for lust? Because it'd actually be interesting to ask what sort of changes that would cause, and the pros and cons.
Elantris is awesome. It's got all sorts of insane stupidity but it's actually executed pretty well, so it's right in the zone where you think "this is enjoyable" and "oh my god how can you write something so dumb".
This isn't really about future books; I'm sure you'll pick something fine. But I was wondering about your statements on Cassandra Claire. Now she is not a very good writer to say the least, but I was wondering what makes you so vehemently call her a plagiarist when you like fanfiction so much.
Now I get the idea that fanfiction writers aren't making any money, etc, etc, but is it that bad when an author uses elements of their past fanfiction in a published work? Maybe she just plagiarized worse than I know of, I've only read the first chapter of her first book before giving it up and read the TV Tropes article.
Either way I was just curious.
I call her one because she committed plagiarism: she copied large parts from unrelated works and claimed it as her own writing.
Still, at least things actually happen in it, unlike this book. It sounds like it would be good rage material, and that's the purpose of this blog, isn't it? Or was it literally so bad you couldn't keep reading?
Ooh, I do remember spending March expecting a rant from you on BW and forgetting that it never happened. It definitely does have a plot, between the usual gyms/pokedex stuff. It's so wonderfully terrible. It's like they became aware of the concept of your Pokemon Revolution and wanted to bring up some of those plot points in a game... and could not even begin to handle this plot. Occasional good points are brought up by villains in between the nonsense, but they're never really addressed. Everything's horribly hypocritical on both sides and half the people are lying about what they really want and things made so much more sense once I figured out that some of that was supposed to be on purpose. On the other hand, I think I enjoyed it quite a bit more than DPP or RSE because it gave me more material and potential to rewrite in my head into a world with real true people. Man, I really should rewrite some of the reaction fic I have into a more cohesive narrative.
Quiet you! I've successfully avoided any real spoilers because people talking about videogames tend to make whatever's going on sound completely different. I just have two more weeks to go!
She stole tons. I'd say less than 25% of her terrible Draco-Sue series was original. You can read the whole debacle here:http://www.journalfen.net/community/bad_penny/8985.html#cutid1
Sorry, sorry.
What do you feel about the game so far? It's one of my favorites. I felt that it was better than R/S/E and D/P/P.
Rampant holey video game plot. I tried not to think about it too hard. I usually don't with Pokemon games.
I liked the characters better. The gym leaders especially felt like they had more personality than in previous generations. I liked the new Pokemon. I also liked the technical aspects – the scenery and music of this game was absolutely wonderful.
I have no good argument for you doing Wither. I just want to see you do it because I myself am not brave enough to take up the task of reading it.
As for a suggestion, though, might I suggest the Charlie Bone series? To be honest, I like the books enough to continue reading them (I'm on the sixth one currently) and the ideas are great. But the characterization.....well....... if I wasn't constantly reminded of the kids ages I'd think they were about five years older that they actually are, they have all these SUPER EPIC POWERS OF COOLNESS (and some of them are really interesting) but there's this thing about "you can't use your endowments for fun" said like it's just arbitrarily immoral to have fun with them. It's rather inconsistent with whether or not the outside world knows about the endowed kids (Charlie was surprised to find he had powers but for some reason everyone forever after that is like "What? Red King? Oh yeah, dat guy and his magic kids whatevs" Half the good guys strike me as horribly neglectful, and the characters all seem so.....dispassionate about everything forever. Also, any happy moment is ruined by the author's need to go "but little did they know the Horrible Thing Of Super Horribleness Was About To Occur And Ruin Their Fun Forever" or "but little did they know The Fun They Were Having Now Would Be Their Downfall"
I really think the author has something against happiness, actually.
She stole passages from a Pamela Dean novel and quotes from Buffy, Blackadder, Red Dwarf, and a couple other shows I’ve never watched. She did get found out, but she has never apologized or acknowledged what she’s done, pretending that it never happened. Google up “cassandra clare plagiarism” and you’ll be able to find examples.
She also did make off money off her fanfic readers. There was one incident where she got a new laptop and another where I think she got a new iPod. Again, you can google it.
I wasn't even reading, I was listening. Tedious. It's within the boundaries of the blog, but there's more interesting stuff around.
No, I haven't played it. I'm planning to in December.
Eh, Amazon tells me Charlie Bone is 4th grade and up, and I tend to loathe those - and a lot of what I'd loathe isn't a fair criticism, because books that are supposed to be readable for younger kids will have to make some compromises no matter how well written.
Ah, thanks. I wasn't aware of how bad it was. All TV Tropes mentioned at the time I read the article was that she used elements from her Harry Potter fanfic, which is what I thought everyone was talking about. I didn't know it was this extreme.
As a suggestion how about The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern? I personally found it to be okay, but it would be interesting to see a devoted critic's thorough opinions.
Or, how about the Maximum Ride or Percy Jackson books? There both aimed towards middle schoolers, but I don't know...
I'm hoping the House of Night is bashed. I enjoyed reading rants on Goodreads, so I'll probably love rants on here.
If we're going "Hunger Games ripoffs," I really reccommend "The Scorpio Races" by Maggie Stiefvater. She's written both a Twilight ripoff and a HG ripoff, and she's an idiot. It's awesome.
Well, I'd really prefer something at or above Hunger Games quality rather than below, since this is all about hating on stuff that doesn't get its due hate.
On the other hand I tried looking up the book and the summary didn't even explain why they were racing, which intrigues me for all the wrong reasons.
I think those came up already and my reason for avoiding them was that I don't want to do an extended series.
I'd really rather read books aimed a bit older, too. I'm snappish enough about the lack of subtlety as it is.
If people already know House of Night sucks, maybe I shouldn't do it...I mean, no need to preach to a choir.
Ooh, Pokemon Let's Play sounds interesting actually.
Ooh, Percy Jackson. I read a few of those and they were like Harry Potter only they got all the good bits of HP wrong.
(Sorry I didn't see this because I haven't been following Summoning >_<)
I would LOVE to see your reaction to the new Pokémon game. I didn't realize you hadn't played it yet. It is just so very full of things for you to tear into, it's amazing.
Oh hey, you can see this again? Does that mean I don't need to crosspost reviews?
The more I think, the better an idea a Let's Play becomes. Otherwise I'd have to write up separate posts while trying to play.
oh god
Oh, yeah! I guess I forgot to tell you, sorry!
I know I'm a little late to the punch, but have you have you considered doing a manga review? Maybe something like this: http://lparchive.org/Final-Fantasy-VII-Dirge-of-Cerberus/ but with Battle Royale and such.
????????
That's a videogame. Do you mean "do more visual media, and have pictures"? Because that's what doing Witchblade would be.
I don't want to do the Battle Royale manga unless there's a real translation somewhere on the internet. The official version is a rewrite instead.
Fair enough.
Ooh, ooh, I come bearing suggestions both old and new!
Kimberly Derting - the Pledge
Even the whole premise seems a bit shaky: in a fantasy country, people are divided into different classes and you must stay within your own class. Cue special girl who can speak every class language.
Becca Fitzpatric - Hush, Hush
Twilight with ANGELS!!!1
Eoin Colder - Artemis Fowl
While the author is way better than, say, Susan Collins, the anviliciousness and heavy-handedness of these books really drag them down. If you want to tackle these, well, I hope you love extremely smug characters all around.
Do a rant on Delirium and it's upcoming sequel Pandemonium!
You can't just say a title, you have to tell me why!
I'm a little late to this post, but I heard that Matched completely ignores the homophobia issue of the setup, something that is my rage button. I mean, you have a society where people are matched with opposite-sex partners. Where are the gay people? Nope, never answered!
I'd love for you to do Battle Royale. The novel is my favorite book currently. I was actually thinking of doing a read-through myself, but time would be an issue and I'm still a teenager so my criticism wouldn't be as good. It would be cool for you to do the novel and then watch the movie and compare, because the movie is fun but it messes a lot of things up.
Anyway, no matter what you review, I'll probably love it! :D
You should take a look at The Unidentified. More shitty YA. It is in the future where corporate companies pay for kids schooling. The schooling has turned into games/levels, everyone is sorted into and everything is monitored. Companies now get feedback on their precious teenage interests and feed them advertisements.
New poll is already up, so perhaps next time.
In five-minutes-ago retrospect, this might not be that great of a choice. Doesn't seem like anyone actually thinks it's good. It has an appropriately mediocre score on Amazon and only has 28 reviews.
I've been really enjoying your observations about Pokémon Blue, not only the criticisms but also the comments on stuff you liked and enjoyed, and now I'm wondering if you'd consider doing more in-depth reviews on works you actually like. I don't think it would actually be any less interesting (to read, anyway) than the vicious critiques, and it has the advantage of calling attention to good things.
Thanks!
Part of the problem is it's harder to explain what I liked than what I didn't. With Blue, I played the games to death. I explored every cranny of the world I could get to without a gameshark and followed every rumor and story about it. I had a decade to think about what I liked.
I'm thinking of putting together a recs post and doing single posts on stuff I like, since good things do deserve attention. But that'll have to wait until I get on top of what I'm doing currently.
I would love to see you do Gone, if only because it's one of my favorite series for trainwreck value. It has a lot of fantastic set-up, and the author's actually willing to deliver on the fridge horror of a town without adults. A lot of the details he chooses to highlight are really chilling. Unfortunately, the series gets sidelined by a protagonist so unlikable he makes Katniss look like a care bear.
I would also recommend Feed, which left me feeling moved and inspired and yet not fully grasping the author's intent. I feel like it may appeal to you as it does the teens in dystopia angle in a way that never lets you forget they're teenagers, and yet examines some pretty complex philosophical issues.
If you ever want to read something mindblowingly, stunningly awful, try Remnants (by the authors of Animorphs).
I wasn't sure where to put this so...may I suggest Troubled Waters by Sharon Shinn? Female protagonist, political plot (kings and brides), contains an alternate world with a lot of world building things that you seem to enjoy exploring and picking apart at what doesn't make sense and what does. Also magic and elements and things. I enjoyed the book and I'd be interested to see what you think of the characters and especially the world itself.
Also just wanted to say that I really enjoy your reviews, especially your criticism of world building, it's certainly taught me to learn my history before attempting a world of my own. Thanks!
Pokemon Snap.
50 Shades of Grey :DDD. I know lots of people know it's bad, but still.
I read Feed and loved it. Every time I read something with unlikeable protagonist and the writer defends it by saying it's supposed to be like that LOL, I want to smack the author in the face with it. I remember it being short so maybe I could do something quick with that.
Unfortunately, the series gets sidelined by a protagonist so unlikable he makes Katniss look like a care bear.
You know how to attrract my interest!
It's being quite extensively sporked by others already!
What about the other Ursula Le Guin books?
Maybe? I'm just doing what people suggest would be a good idea, and then which one they end up voting for.
Have you heard of the Hollow Kingdom series? I remember picking the first book up, thinking it looked interesting... and then picking up the sequels, hoping it would improve...
It didn't...
Oh god, I read those! A fanfic writer recommended them. That was during my period of learning to think twice before following other people's advice. They might be interesting to revisit...
FYI, there's already a lovely readthrough of Hush, Hush, which is actually worse than Twilight on the rape and abuse front if you can believe it.
http://zelda-queen.livejournal.com/95548.html
Excellent. I can get that off my list!
Hey Farla!
Hope this doesn't sound weird or anything, but would you mind affiliating with us? We really enjoy your reviews!
http://dodgingtheanvil.blogspot.se/
Do you mean linking to you, or is there more involve in affiliation?
Linking, more or less. We'll also link to you, if that's alright?
Another suggestion; Serpahina by Rachel Hartman.
Basic Plot: Girl who's half-dragon in a world where dragons can disguise themselves at humans and currently hold a treaty with humans.
I found dit to be a pretty decent book, considering the other shit churned out of the publishing industry. The heroine was actually pretty likeable, I freaking loved a good portion of the supporting cast, and the romance didn't feel as tacked on as most YA romances tend to. In fact, the love interest was pretty likeable and had an actual personality. So, yeah.
This is mostly a hate-based enterprise, but I'm always down for dragons, so I'll check it out.
Sure.
I wonder what you would think of John Dies at the End by David Wong. It's not really YA but it's pretty interesting.
How about Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve? I'd describe it as post-apocalyptic steampunk. Cities have become moving vehicles and must consume one another in order to maintain themselves in a world deprived of natural resources. Although the protagonists are teenagers, it's not really YA.
If it's anywhere near as smug and self-important as his writing on Cracked, you should probably stay away.
Both of those are genres I find intriguing, so sounds good.
I know you said no to Sabriel, but would you be interested in covering any of Garth Nix's work? He did have that sci-fi novel Shade's Children which, if I recall, was very interesting (be it good or bad) in its worldbuilding and premise. It also features really weird disturbing stuff with teenagers that might be handled better or differently than some of the other stuff you read. I can't remember much about it but I do know that it would, at the very least, provide an interesting counterpoint to your current set of subject matter.
I read that ages ago, although I just remember it as lackluster compared to the Old Kingdom stuff. It might be worth a post, but I'm not sure it'd need a chapter-by-chapter treatment.
Post a Comment