Yay for YA Lit!

[amanuensis1]

Anybody here read Tamora Pierce?

The Circle of Magic books? The latest one, The Will of the Empress?


She's got one of the Circle in a same-sex romance.

:squeeble!:

Comments

[cheshyre]

Yup. I'm a big fan of hers.

YA lit is often impressively progressive.
Kel and Alanna both had premarital sex, and one of the Kel books mentioned homosexuality as a taboo (though Kel didn't understand why).

[pauraque]

When I was a kid, one of my friends was best internet buddies with Tammy Pierce, and beta-read her books. She got her to come to our school and talk to the class about writing.

I did read her books, though they weren't entirely my cuppa. She is totally cool as a person, though, especially when you're 12 and it's way cool to have grown-ups befriend you at all. :)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Yup. I was reading the Trickster books and was startled (pleasantly) all over again by the premarital sex.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I was less enthralled with her Alanna books, though I thought they were decent, but her more recent series have really won me. She's starting to feel a little bit like Diana Wynne Jones to me--they're complex, fun, and when they're over, one week later, I can't quite remember what the plot was supposed to be. ^_^

[pauraque]

Diana Wynne Jones, now there's a YA author I love!

It sort of bewilders me thinking about kids who are growing up now, with the HP books as their Lioness Rampant or Dogsbody. Adults can really never see a book the way a 13-year-old sees it for the first time.

[cheshyre]

I started reading YA books heavily about five years ago or so.
I remember my shock in Sean Stewart's Nobody's Son (a fairytale-ish beginning in which the poor orphan defeats the magical quest and wins the princess's hand in marriage... and what comes after) where the lead character thinks to himself that he's swived plenty of farmgirls, but that was often quick tumbles so they wouldn't get pregnant.

Shocked me for a moment, then I thought about it, realized it was totally in character, and since then I've generally been quite impressed with YA fic for its absence of gratuitous sex. There's sex aplenty, but it's necessary for plot or character.

[When I want gratuitious sex, I seek out fanfic. ;D ]

[cheshyre]

The Alanna books are the weakest, but then again, they're also the earliest. She's only gotten better since then, and you must admit, that's the right direction for an author to be going.

For a while, I considered Alanna to be a blatant Mary Sue. Then (a) I looked at Tamora Pierce fanfic on ffn (she's a wildmage, knight and princess!) and (b) I read somewhere on Tammy Pierce's website (I forget where and can't find it now) that Alanna was supposed to end up with Prince Jon. Then the characters rebelled against that destiny. Once that happened (imo) they broke the 2-d mold and became 3-d. And now, of course, with Alanna as a mother with sore joints and a rebellious daughter, she seems much more human...

[cheshyre]

Tamora Pierce is a regular attendee at Boskone. And everywhere she goes, she's got this gaggle of tweens following her around like baby ducks. It's the cutest thing (and so nice to see the author encouragement in that manner).

[cheshyre]

Here's the bit from Tamora Pierce's faq about Alanna and Jon, if anyone wants to read it...

[monzz.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow.. I only got around to reading the Lioness Quartet (which I loved), but not any other of her books. I really must go get them. :)

[sinclair-furie.livejournal.com]

Wow. I stopped reading Tamora Pierce just before it got really good!
I must check this out. Thanks for the heads up!

[naatz.livejournal.com]

they're complex, fun, and when they're over, one week later, I can't quite remember what the plot was supposed to be.

That's really nailing down DWJ. :O

|Meduza|

[satanbaker.livejournal.com]

Omg, yes. XD Tamora Pierce is one of my favorite authors.. ever. I sort of sped through Empress in a near-constant 'eee, yay!'

I'm firmly convinced Tamora Pierce is the non-fandom, lots of people read her, but.. no one talks about it.

And, yeah, however much I love it still, the first quartet is still the weakest. The fact that it was re-written from an adult novel probably says something about this.

... *cough* *can't help flailing about for a little bit*

[mashlie.livejournal.com]

I hate having to wait so long for her books to appear over here...I can't wait for the next Circle book!

(Now THERE's a fandom that needs some decent fanfic...)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is great, thank you! I remember thinking that one of the parts I liked best about those books was that she ended up with George and not Jon. And look, even the author thought she'd been heading another route! That's nifty. ^_^

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Isn't it? I want to do a post on Howl's Moving Castle, the film, and how it should be mightily appreciated for what it is, because NOBODY could ever fit a complete DWJ book into a film.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

She does get better with almost every book, I think! I think the Trickster Books, and Cold Fire (in the CoM series) are her best.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I particularly like the Trickster books, if you haven't seen those!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I need to find out more about this "re-writing from an adult novel"--interesting!

I'm two-thirds of the way through Empress. Before fandom, I used to read books in one sitting. :P No such doing now--I'm on the computer too much! Isn't it pathetic?

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I find I really like her when she's dealing with the more adult issues, as she's doing with this book. Now that the Circle are eighteen-year-olds.

(Cold Fire was my favorite! That's the first of her books whose plot didn't escape me a week after I read it. SO powerful.)

[naatz.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is. Not that it's bad or anything -- it just allows to read the entire book again a month later. XD

I haven't *watched* "Howl's Moving Castle". I have a lot of problems with Miyazaki, and while he might be a really good director, he wasn't the one should've done HMC. Miyazaki has a very realist way of portraying things, but the surrealism of HMC should be a little more colourful than what Miyazaki can give.

I suppose that once I've seperated the film from the book, I might enjoy the film. I hear it's great, and I hear that it's different from book!HMC. But it's not DWJ "Howl's Moving Castle", which is my favourite book. {Not that I exactly remember what HAPPENS in it. I just know that it's my favourite book.} The plain fact that the film has been done is amazing -- trying to translate the verb 'hobble' to the screen is just mind boggling.

{"The Nine Lives of Christian Chant" might work well on screen under the correct directing. Everything gets explained.}

Must hunt more DWJ books. :( I've only read three.

|Meduza|

[twistedrecesses.livejournal.com]

I was so thrilled when I read about Daja - it absolutely made my day :D

[satanbaker.livejournal.com]

Yeah... I'm pretty sure Tamora's said something about that. Her website is pretty good, I squee at the upcoming list of books.

Oh, I rarely read books in one sitting. XD; Just the pace of reading it, it seemed like it took up a very small amount of time. Some books you seem to meander through kind of slowly, others you're reading and you look up... and a few hundred pages have passed by (how big the book is helps in this). But, I understand about the computer taking up your time. *laugh*

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

It did! I saw it developing early in the book and said, "Do I dare think...?" ^_^

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

The film has the basic storyline there, without having quite the level of humor that Jones does so well. (Yeah, I really do wanna make that post. ^_^ )