Of course every teen reader read the Harry Potter books at least once, or at least the first couple.
I also read everything else. Redwall series, Artemis Fowl, Hunger Games, Ender series, Bartimaeus Trilogy, Eragon, Series of Unfortunate Events, Hatchet series, Wayside Stories, Goosebumps, Animorphs, Narnia, Lord of the Rings, etc.
Overall Harry Potter was better than average. Not as good as Ender’s Game, Hatchet or Redwall. Better than Eragon, Hunger Games & Narnia.
That was the whole of the third book, and I think it's actually really important that it was written that way. Too many books don't show the aftermath of war. It's not all glory and success and loss and triumph. It's all the pain that follows you afterwards for the rest of your life. I think it's incredibly well-written, and I've never seen another story that does it as well. That's what I didn't like about the movies: since you're watching the characters rather than being in their head, I don't think it could communicate Katniss's emotions and feelings nearly as well.
The author shoehorning in a romantic ending set in the future in the last 5 pages was shit, though.
Idk it’s just the vibe. Harry Potter has some magic feeling that sucks you in at moments, much more immersive as a kid. Hunger Games felt more alien and less immersive, it felt a bit cheesy and on the nose and broke the suspension of disbelief.
I will never forgive Orson Scott Card for writing Speaker of the Dead. It's a book largely concerned with understanding an alien culture and smoothing over misunderstandings. He shows how two cultures can be in conflict over different social formations shaped by different living conditions, and how that can be resolved when you stop viewing the other as inherently inferior. It's a beautiful story. And yet Orson Scott Card himself is a ferocious bigot of the homophobic variety.
I remember liking Speaker a lot but I haven’t looked at it in twenty years. Can’t remember if that’s the one where the main characters become incredibly important internet shitposters traveling through the galaxy at near light speed.
That was Ender's Game and it was Ender's siblings. They were convinced a human world war would start if the bug war ended, so they put together a plan to trick the world into being nicer by...having online debates through pseudonyms. The sister would write very paranoid stuff about Russia to seem manic in comparison to the brother, who'd write more pragmatic stuff and deconstruct everything she talked about.
It’s a different universe or something. Yeah that always bugged me as a kid it was like, does anybody other than badgers, stoats and rabbits have free will? These are the only morally grey characters that can be good or evil.
Of course every teen reader read the Harry Potter books at least once, or at least the first couple.
I also read everything else. Redwall series, Artemis Fowl, Hunger Games, Ender series, Bartimaeus Trilogy, Eragon, Series of Unfortunate Events, Hatchet series, Wayside Stories, Goosebumps, Animorphs, Narnia, Lord of the Rings, etc.
Overall Harry Potter was better than average. Not as good as Ender’s Game, Hatchet or Redwall. Better than Eragon, Hunger Games & Narnia.
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Just cause it has a better moral doesn’t make it a better series. It really fell apart at the end effortwise
Isn't the ending "And then the revolution faltered and the protagonist had a shitload of PTSD she never really recovered from?"
The fact I don’t even remember the last book whatsoever is testament to its drop off
That was the whole of the third book, and I think it's actually really important that it was written that way. Too many books don't show the aftermath of war. It's not all glory and success and loss and triumph. It's all the pain that follows you afterwards for the rest of your life. I think it's incredibly well-written, and I've never seen another story that does it as well. That's what I didn't like about the movies: since you're watching the characters rather than being in their head, I don't think it could communicate Katniss's emotions and feelings nearly as well.
The author shoehorning in a romantic ending set in the future in the last 5 pages was shit, though.
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Idk it’s just the vibe. Harry Potter has some magic feeling that sucks you in at moments, much more immersive as a kid. Hunger Games felt more alien and less immersive, it felt a bit cheesy and on the nose and broke the suspension of disbelief.
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I did not feel that way about Hunger Games, and read the entire series in 36 hours.
I will never forgive Orson Scott Card for writing Speaker of the Dead. It's a book largely concerned with understanding an alien culture and smoothing over misunderstandings. He shows how two cultures can be in conflict over different social formations shaped by different living conditions, and how that can be resolved when you stop viewing the other as inherently inferior. It's a beautiful story. And yet Orson Scott Card himself is a ferocious bigot of the homophobic variety.
I remember liking Speaker a lot but I haven’t looked at it in twenty years. Can’t remember if that’s the one where the main characters become incredibly important internet shitposters traveling through the galaxy at near light speed.
That was Ender's Game and it was Ender's siblings. They were convinced a human world war would start if the bug war ended, so they put together a plan to trick the world into being nicer by...having online debates through pseudonyms. The sister would write very paranoid stuff about Russia to seem manic in comparison to the brother, who'd write more pragmatic stuff and deconstruct everything she talked about.
Somehow it worked?
Holy shit we have decoded the secrets of Russiagate!!!!/s
I never read it but I'm told the last few books he wrote in the Ender series throw everything out and are like "Yeah actually xenocide is good."
Only 3 books you need to care about:
Enders game
Enders shadow
Speaker of the Dead
Redwall, in retrospect; Problematically race-essentialist.
It’s a different universe or something. Yeah that always bugged me as a kid it was like, does anybody other than badgers, stoats and rabbits have free will? These are the only morally grey characters that can be good or evil.
I still like it idc
Redwall was fuckin tight. GoT for kids. Artemis Foul would have been good if Eoin Colfer wasn't deathly allergic to writing new characters.
I suppose Diskworld is also pretty easy to get into for younger readers.
I reread Hatchet as an adult a year or two ago and thought it was great. Narnia really hasn’t aged as well.