Twenty Core Young Adult Works of Speculative Fiction Every True SF Fan Should Have on Their Shelves

[james_davis_nicoll]

Twenty Core Young Adult Works of Speculative Fiction Every True SF Fan Should Have on Their Shelves

Comments

[movingfinger]

Lud-in-the-Mist is YA? It is a great book, can be read by young readers, but the characters and themes are adult-focused.

I suggest The Charwoman's Shadow in its stead. Not that you want suggestions...

[james_davis_nicoll]

Core Books that should have been on previous lists of core books is a possibility....

[movingfinger]

I feel that adult-protagonist picaresque/coming-of-age/maturing into understanding novels are not truly YA, but it's hard for me to articulate why without more thought. They are aimed at an older audience, for one thing, and they deal with midlife problems or mature problems (Nathan Chanticleer's problems and challenges are not those of a young person). Kids can read them, of course!

The Crystal Cave is interesting, because it's read by so many younger readers because of the young protagonist, so it works for them, but it also works for older readers as a kind of nostalgic what-youth-is-ever-like read. The Charwoman's Shadow falls into the same class, to my eye.

[sethsellis]

It's the Catcher in the Rye problem: an adult book about an annoying teenager isn't going to be appreciated by most teenagers, who'll just be annoyed.

[gehayi]

Or bored to tears. I found (and still find) Holden Caulfield to be tremendously boring.

[ethelmay]

Part of the problem is that HC used to seem like such a fresh voice, and now has been so much imitated that we all say, "eh, so-and-so did it better," forgetting that in some respects Catcher in the Rye was the first. My father remembered someone coming into the office (presumably in about 1970) and saying in disbelief, "Do you realize that Holden Caulfield would now be thirty-five?" and they really were all kind of gobsmacked.

Which is not to say that anyone needs to think Catcher in the Rye is all that great now. Context matters. But the same goes for the contemporary folks who were bowled over by it.