Just started Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin. Apparently the later books of the #Earthsea cycle are disliked by fans. I am bewildered by that assessment. I can already tell this is an all-time favorite.
Everything from the prose to the characters feels more mature and meditative. Gender is also examined in a much more holistic and painful way. Several passages have already spoken to my soul in such a deep way that I know will remain with me for a long time
@bookstodon I'm looking for book recommendations for an 11yo who reads at a much more advanced level. He likes sci-fi. He has read the Hitchhiker's Guide series and loved them. I think he would enjoy some more 'hard' sci-fi as well. He needs something challenging but without subject matter that is too mature. Thanks for any help! #sciencefiction#bookstodon
@rabbit_fighter@bookstodon hmmm. My recollection of 2001 is that it's not super mature in content. Dystopian stuff might work if that's not a form of too mature. Starship Troopers, (NOT the movie which is too mature for me), 1984 and Animal Farm, perhaps.
The Broken Earth trilogy (hat tricked the highest honor in Scifi with three straight Hugo awards) is great and I don't recall much sex (it is alluded to).
Honestly, I think 10-12 and YA books are actually the hardest to write and some of the best any genre can offer BECAUSE they can't get lazy with shock imagery and they can't get bloated with superfluous wording.
@CuriousMagpie@rabbit_fighter@bookstodon Verne is a good one but he often is pretty racist (I read around the world in 80 days this year and it has a few YIKES moments with regards to racism) It's something to keep in mind for readers.
@CuriousMagpie@rabbit_fighter@bookstodon may depend on the book. His work absolutely inspired so many. I love the Around The World in 80 Days TV series, which absolutely inverts the racism (and sexism) in the book. There's a potential great conversation there.
Non fiction
Field of Blood - Freeman
Thunder at the Gates - Egerton
America on Fire - Hinton
Silencing the Past - Trouillot
How the South Won the Civil War - Cox Richardson
Pedagogy of the Oppressed - Freire
The Second Founding - Foner
Barrio America - Sandoval-Strausz
The Broken Heart of America - Johnson
Fiction
Rama Revealed - Clarke and Lee
The Fifth Season - Jemisin
Thrawn - Zahn
Ahsoka - Johnston
@tffmh@bookstodon Zahn keeps coming back to him. I haven't seen today's Ahsoka episode yet but I suspect by the end the Thrawn in the books (who is trying to thwart a threat from beyond the Republic/Chiss space) and the guy in Rebels will be more fully aligned.
@tffmh@bookstodon I'm not entirely sure I know thread beyond but I do know the very first thing Filoni did after Disney nuked canon was start bringing "legends" into canon beginning with Thrawn in Rebels season 3. The Ahsoka show has a bunch of "Legends" stuff he's making canon and/or live actioning into more canon (like the Night Sisters)
@willelm@bookstodon honestly, I've read all of Zahn's Star Wars books (10?), Johnston's Ahsoka (which is so good, the Tales of the Jedi episode where she destroys the inquisitor is based on it--except she destroys the inquisitor even meaner in the book) and a Star Wars horror book from twenty years ago.
And that's it. There's hundreds more. Never got into them though.
I started watching The Clone Wars movie (that's before the show) and didn't finish it. Then when the Dark Saber showed up in The Mandolorian I started watching and watched much of it the show including all of Seasons 5-7, which are fantastic.
Basically, Ahsoka is now my favorite SW character.
Still, though, seasons 5-7 of The Clone Wars are amazing and the last four episodes of S7 follow Ahsoka through the events of Revenge of the Sith. But as good as it is the emotional impact of the final episode is difficult without a good understanding of her relationship with the Clones. This video has some of that.