Rindis's comments (member since Sep 21, 2007)

Rindis's comments from the Young Adult Fiction for Adults group.

I discovered them at... oh about 10, a few years before the disastrous Disney movie (what other word can you use to describe a movie that went through 10 directors?). They are very good, though I found the fourth book tedious. I picked up the Science Fiction Book Club combined edition a few years back for cheap, and just recently discovered that it includes a couple of short stories, so I'm going to have to go read those....

When I saw the reviews for the movie, the question I had was, "If the book is so good (hadn't read it yet), why is the movie so bad?" Of course none of the reviewers gave any hint they knew what a book was, much less having read this one, so it was very frustrating. So, not having seen the movie, what did they do to it?

Four books would be the current plan. With the term 'cycle' he is technically free to split Book 4 into two....

>.<

Let us sincerely hope it holds at four....

Hmm. "Growing plot syndrome", I know it all too well. (As did Robert Jordan. ~_^)

Need to check if the regular paperback version of Eldest has come out yet....

Books are eternal. Discussions about them even more so.

Hmm. Missed all that. Yes, that does seem to be a good way to get bad publicity. Did he at least have a good argument?

Female... I think there is. It's been two decades since the last time I read it, and I'm just getting up to the point where any major characters beyond the main character will get introduced.

Another suggestion for epic fantasy I was reminded of yesterday is The Crown of Stars (starting with (The King's Dragon) which is set in an analog of central Europe ~AD 1000. Definitely has a good female central character.

"YA" = Young Adult = late grade school through high school, and is what this group is technically about. I'm just sometimes uncertain as to what actually falls within the definition, writing-wise.

Blanca, you may just want to go on to the third book (The Dragon Reborn? or that book four? been too long).

If you like epic fantasy, you may want to consider what I'm currently (re)reading, The Dragonbone Chair - book 1 of Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. Tad Williams is a very good author, though possibly moving out of YA range. (I have trouble understanding where YA begins and ends outside of books decidedly meant for such.) The trilogy began before WoT started, but by the time the third book came out, WoT had its first 2-3 books out, which I think hurt recognition of it.

Books 2 and 3 seem to be the best, and which one is your favorite probably depends on how big a geek you are. Being a pretty big geek, High Wizardry (book 3) was my favorite. ^_^

By the way, what magazine are you doing reviews for? It'd be nice to see what you've already covered.

Some older authors that you may want to look into for "forgotten authors" columns:

Joseph Altsheller wrote several fairly nice YA historical novel series nearly a century ago. I've only read the first, second, and fourth books of his Civil War series; and the last book of a frontiersman series (I believe The Border Watch, thought it was the French and Indian war though), and an earlier book in the series that I don't remember.

As I recall, they're all reasonably solid boy's-adventure stories with decent history and characters that have to stand on their own two feet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Alex...

Robert Bowen wrote a similar (though far more pulp) "Dave Dawson" series on World War II, while the war was still going on (15 volumes from 1941-46). Not nearly as historically redeeming, but with fun action and an interesting 'during the fighting' viewpoint.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Sidn...

More current - I've just started reading a Tamora Pierce novel. So far so good. ^_^

Diane Duane's Young Wizard's series is great contemporary Fantasy with SF underpinnings. Kind of a 'geek's Harry Potter', (the main character is a bookworm, and is hiding from bullies at the beginning of the first novel) the various books stand on their own, and are one of my favorite series.

It's a nice series. The author committed what I consider a big no-no at the end of the final book (making most of the main characters forget everything), which put me severely off of it.

Still going through old Star Trek novels. Will be keeping Mutiny, and figure I will be keeping the current one, Vulcan!, which is one of the better Bantam ST-books I've come across.

I'm going to have to give Pullman another try. I liked the first book, but it didn't quite grab me and I've never gotten around to the rest. But, there's so much out there 'to read', it may be quite a while.

Currently reading Mutiny on the Enterprise. Old Star Trek novel. Okay, not great, which isn't surprising, it's an early one, and it took a while for the quality come up from 'decent fan fiction'. Unlike a couple others I've read recently, I'm thinking about keeping it, and it will come down to how good the ending is.

I recommend getting it on the 'doing' list. Finished it yesterday and am quite happy.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/443...

By "only like it as one book", do you mean reading the entire trilogy in one go? Or that you only like the first book? I admit I've read the first book, and thought it was good, but not as good as the reviews I read made it seem. Still, it is on the list of series to finish off 'someday'.

Eragon. And quite enjoying it.

I should be reading some old Star Trek novels I inherited from a friend soon. Since she didn't want them anymore, not many promises on quality, but I want to see for myself before letting them go to the used book store.