(no subject)

[sua_lay]

*despair*

Okay, there has to be someone here who has read the following series:

Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper

Xenogenesis by Octavia E Butler

Come on, people! I need someone to restore my belief in humankind! Anyone?? I refuse to believe that everyone's missed one of the best 'kiddie' fantasy series and the hottest feminist alien pr0n there is!

[ETA: links so that you'll know what the heck I'm babbling about. Also, I didn't known Octavia Butler had died. :( ]

Comments

[hpstrangelove.livejournal.com]

I've recently bought Dark Is Rising but haven't had time to read it yet...I'm currently hooked on the Young Bond Series (book 2 now of 3) and at the same time I'm reading book 3 of the Nightrunner series...I have way too many books and not enought free time...don't know when I'll get the Dark...I haven't heard of the second one. I'll have to check it out though.

[sua-lay.livejournal.com]

:) Dark is Rising is awesome, but Octavia Butler writes incredible post-nuclear war survival story with aliens and porn. Good aliens and good porn. So shoo! Go and get the books! Now!

[hak42.livejournal.com]

I read Xenogenesis many, many years ago (15 or so). I remember that I really liked it, but that's all I really remember.

[sua-lay.livejournal.com]

Yay! There's hope yet!

I love it when I almost forget what happened in a good book and then read it again after years and years.

[muchiant.livejournal.com]

I read The Dark is Rising series many years ago. Susan Cooper was the guest writer at a conference here, so I read a lot of her stuff at the time and got to listen to her talk about them.

You wrote in a previous entry that someone is making a movie of the series (or just the one book)? I was late and needing to be out the door when I saw your post, but since you've brought it up again, I want to know more!

Never heard of Xenogenesis :(

[sua-lay.livejournal.com]

I think Dark is Rising is one of those series you need to read when you're still young, and then when you return to it when you're an adult, it'll still be awesome. Don't know how it reads to an adult first time reader, though.

Yeah, they're making a movie out of it, but apparently the movie's the second book, the actual Dark is Rising. There's more about that in here. The weird thing is, it might work as the first of a series, but if they try to cram everything into one movie, it'll be a failure.

Of course I may just be projecting my dismay over the whole King Arthur thing...

More about the Xenogenesis series here. Just in case you 're interested. :D

[muchiant.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I hadn't seen anything about this. I hope its good. But movies from books almost never are. It's like you said-they either have to cram everything in, which usually doesn't work, or they leave stuff out, which ends up being the part I was looking forward to. That's why the few that work are the ones that just take as long as they need like LOTR or A&E's Pride & Prejudice.

But I'll definitely go see this anyway!

And for me, they worked fine as an adult reading them for the first time. I read the whole series, then later read them again to my kids. Although, now that I think about it, I'm sure the context of having Susan Cooper to discuss them with helped.

[sua-lay.livejournal.com]

It's always cool if they grab a series and then make a movie per book. Otherwise it's a weird mixture of all the so called highlights and no one is happy with the results. I was a bit wary when they made the LotR trilogy, because sometimes it seems there are no people who have just read Tolkien; there are either rabid fans or those who thought the whole thing kinda sucked.

Of course it's easy to make a movie out of an action packed book. That's kind of why I'm not sure Dark is Rising would make a good movie; though the series is full of action, it's more about the journey inside and growth and the whole 'mystic warriors' kind of makes me think of Gandalf the White more than of Great Uncle Merry. Er... Not the Brandybuck one...

*facepalm*

And yeah, I'll go and see the movie too.

I like the old good fantasy stuff. The Monster kids I herd for living usually go all yay about stuff like Harry Potter and Eragon, and though I can't say I hate Potterverse (since that kind of hypocricy would look bad even on me), I don't exactly consider them high literature. Reading is always good, but I kinda wish people would look at the older stories too. The fact that Cooper wrote the stuff 30 years ago doesn't make it obsolete. Actually, some of her charactarizations and ideas make modern fantasy look dull and ancient.

/off my soapbox

[omega-h.livejournal.com]

I read Dark is Rising as a kid. Loved it then.

[sua-lay.livejournal.com]

Yay!

You have a good taste. :D

[lyr]

I've read the Cooper, but not the Butler.

[sua-lay.livejournal.com]

*dances* Well, at least people do seem to have good taste in fantasy around here...

*pimps the sci-fi series a bit more*