Tassie Dave’s Comments (group member since Mar 27, 2011)

Tassie Dave’s comments from the The Sword and Laser group.

The closest any bookstore in Tasmania had to a YA section was a "Teenage Fiction" section.

Dara wrote: "I feel like this may have been mentioned before but just in case it wasn't: SFF book sales have doubled since 2010. "

No surprise, nerds were the early adopters of iPads and Kindles etc and they read a lot of SFF.

Gotta fill those devices up :-)

Jessica wrote: "The second half of that statement might be true, but Young Adult fiction has been a thing for decades, whereas he seems to argue that YA started around the time Twilight and The Hunger Games were getting published."

It really has only become a mainstream term recently (At least in Australia). I was unfamiliar with the term before the Twilight and Hunger Games generation of books.

I may have even heard the term first in Sword and Laser book discussions.

Anne wrote: "I will write it down as laziness and ignorance and I won't care if it gets better in any sequels. "

Writers can learn from their mistakes. Believe it or not, they do listen to the complaints.

Writing a character of another gender isn't as simple as giving a male character a feminine name or vice-versa. Unless we want them as minor background characters. Taylor may have needed time to get a female character right and not as a cardboard cutout.

Bridgit is a major character in book 2 & 3. There are several other female characters as well. (view spoiler)[Including one who is an AI (hide spoiler)]

Michele wrote: "I just finished European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman - really liked it, just not quite as much as the first. Still really good and I'll definitely grab book 3 as soon as it's out. It had even more of those character interruptions - so if you didn't like those in book 1, you won't like the second any better."

I'm about half way through it. I like the asides. They are a little spoilery, but are a lot of fun.

I think it is as good as the first book so far.

Trike wrote: "I think you can do that scene well, but this wasn’t that. I get what you’re saying, but that reads as a ham-handed way for Farmer to take Burton’s side, because he sees women as second-class. "

I agree. It is a creepy scene and is meant to be. Richard Burton (in real life) was a womaniser, a misogynist, a racist, xenophobe, drunkard, drug user and everything else that was bad in a 19th century British explorer.

But to describe the scene as a rape when the author never meant it to be and the characters don't think of it as a rape scene, is reading more into the scene than there was meant to be.

We don't know what happens in between Alice running off and Burton following and them waking up together post-coitus.
Only that sometime in between there was consensual sex.

There are many scenarios that would make it a rape, but with the evidence given and Alice's own defence of Burton we have to assume it wasn't.

This thread has got way off topic. I will end by saying this is a series that enjoyed immensely, mostly.
It is a 5 book series that is 2 books too long.

Trike wrote: "You’ve convinced me. That’s super wrong, even for the era."

But which era. The 70s (when it was written) or the era from which Alice and Burton are from. Both lived most of their lives in the 19th century.

The scene is written as an "after sex regret" scene from Alice's point of view. She feels she has cheated on her husband, the only man she has had sex with. She says several times that Richard didn't force her and she did it willingly.

Remember they are both drugged out of their minds and not capable of rational decision making. It is consensual sex between 2 people who would not have acted this way if clear headed.

Yes Burton is a cad and treats Alice appallingly after they wake up from their drug induced sexual encounter. Which is totally in character for the real life man the character is drawn from. He was and continues to be an arsehole for the rest of the book.

If anyone is guilty of an offence in this scene it is the builders of Riverworld for tricking the entire population to get stoned without their knowledge.

Sean wrote: "Phil wrote: "It's been a long time since I read the Riverworld books so I just went back and reread that part. They both get accidently high. She approaches him and then says no and runs away. He follows, calli..."

If she was drugged, she didn't consent. "

Everyone was drugged without their knowledge. Everyone acts without inhibition. Men and women.

Alice is ashamed because she did what she as a Victorian raised married woman would normally not think of doing. The fact that she enjoyed it makes her even more ashamed.

I have read the Riverworld series several times since first reading it in the lates 70s early 80s and rate it as one of my favourite series from that time period.

Phillip Jose Farmer has been accused of misogyny in his writing of women in the Riverworld series, but I have never read before of this being a rape scene :-?

Sean Lookielook wrote: "Picking unpopular flops is a proud VF tradition as well. "

I'd hate to ask what the opposite on an "unpopular flop" is for the VF bookclub :-?

;-)

Ruth (tilltab) wrote: "Okay, I might be showing my stupid here, but who on earth is this Miss Cleo everyone keeps referencing???"

Almost unknown outside the US. Which makes it highly doubtful she would become a god in a foreign city thousands of years in the future.

She was a charlatan who made money fooling gullible people by lying to them.

Sounds just like religion ;-)

Max should have a New Yorker accent.

Iain wrote: "Mericans change lots of things... Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone amongst others (really Philosophers Stone was too hard, groan...) "

"Northern Lights" into "The Golden Compass"
"Where's Wally?" into the inexplicable "Where's Waldo?" ;-?

Though we do it to US works as well ;-)

"His Majesty's Dragon" into "Temeraire"
"The boringly named (but hilarious) movie "Airplane!" into the much funnier title "Flying High"

Trike wrote: "I got kicked out of grade school for drinking at 14. True story.

Why am I not shocked? ;-) High Five.

I had that same hairstyle in 1979. :-)
Now I just dream about having that much hair :-(

Rick wrote: "Mark wrote: "Classic S+L pick from 2008/2009 Memoirs Found in a Bathtub by Stanisław Lem is on sale for $2.99"

Group RE-read!"

Reading it once was once too many times ;-)

Mark wrote: "Classic S+L pick from 2008/2009 Memoirs Found in a Bathtub by Stanisław Lem is on sale for $2.99"

Some may say infamous S&L pick ;-)

Sean wrote: "Trike wrote: "In what universe are The Hobbit, The Wizard of Earthsea and The Princess Bride considered YA?"

You wouldn't give this book to a 14 year old?"

I would. I think that is acceptable (for most 14yo). I saw worse/better than that before I was 14 ;-)

14 is fairly mature. I was in my last year of high school at 14.

Mark wrote: "My takeaway is that S+L has read more than a few books aimed at younger readers.

A Wrinkle in Time
A Wizard of Earthsea
The Hobbit
The Hunger Games
The Golden Compass
The Princess Bride"

Also "The Sword in the Stone".

It is part one of "The Once and Future King" book we read which combined 4 of T.H. White's stories.

My dad took me to see the movie when I was 8. We were both bored.

I watched it as an adult. Much better when you can understand it ;-)

"HAL, can you explain what it all means"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEu4I...

Nothing in the book or movie that an 11 yo can't handle.

Thanks for the map.

I am assuming Africa is part of a later book in the series.

Tassie is connected to Victoria in the future :-?
Makes sense, so our superior Tasmanian Traction cities can overrun and destroy those inferior mainlander cities ;-)

Jen wrote: "Tassie Dave wrote: "Clio isn't named after Miss Cleo ;-)

In Mortal Engines she is the Goddess of History.

Clio is one of the 9 Muses of Greek Mythology. She is the Muse of History."

Yes! I'm glad I'm not the only one who caught that!"

The Kindle X-Ray feature is great for that sort of info. :-)

One, of many, reasons I prefer eBooks to audiobooks

John (Taloni) wrote: "As for the Shrike, yeah, made me think of Hyperion. But it's a fairly common term. "

He named it after the bird.

Originally he had named the character Shreck after Max Schreck who played the original 1922 Nosferatu, but changed it after hearing that the animated cartoon Shrek was coming out.

Apparently he is called Grike in some US versions of the book :-?

Philip Reeve discusses some of the inspirations for his book here: (Minor spoilers)
https://www.mortalenginesmovie.com/20...