YABookgate -

[neverendingmidi]

Eh. The writing is good, but otherwise? It's not a bad Ocean's 11 remake, assuming you don't mind the "heist" leitmotiv to be dumped half-way through the infiltration, but the characters' ages don't fit at all (they're teenagers solely for the sake of being YA, not because they act like them), the main character's tragic backstory isn't plausible at all, and the fucking names? Dear God. The world building isn't the worst, but it's pretty much ruined by the author coming up with names a 5 year old would chose for her made-up countries. Idk how the fuck would anyone think "Grisha" is an appropriately mighty name for fantasy!Russia.

It's not a long read, so give it a shot if you're into that, I suppose. But imho, the book is way too overhyped for what it is.

Grisha is a Russian name, though usually it’s a diminutive of Grigori

Sort of how Vanya is one of the diminutives of Ivan.

Edit: corrected the diminutive. Sacha (or Sascha) is a diminutive of Alexander

 

[Azovka]

Grisha is a Russian name, though usually it’s a diminutive of Grigori

Sort of how Vanya is one of the diminutives of Ivan.

Edit: corrected the diminutive. Sacha (or Sascha) is a diminutive of Alexander

I know. I’m Russian. Which is why it bothers me so much that Bardugo used that shit as a name for a supposedly mighty nation.

It’s on par with AoT’s “Marley” when it comes to stupid naming choices.

Same goes for her “coporalnik” and other pseudo-army terms.

Edit: my MATI stems from the fact that she used “Grisha” as the name of a country, not a person. It’s like having a country named “Archie” or “Johnny”, and you’re supposed to suspend your disbelief long enough to think it’s the most powerful and scary country in the world.

 

[Rose Winters]

Eh. The writing is good, but otherwise? It's not a bad Ocean's 11 remake, assuming you don't mind the "heist" leitmotiv to be dumped half-way through the infiltration, but the characters' ages don't fit at all (they're teenagers solely for the sake of being YA, not because they act like them), the main character's tragic backstory isn't plausible at all, and the fucking names? Dear God. The world building isn't the worst, but it's pretty much ruined by the author coming up with names a 5 year old would chose for her made-up countries. Idk how the fuck would anyone think "Grisha" is an appropriately mighty name for fantasy!Russia.

It's not a long read, so give it a shot if you're into that, I suppose. But imho, the book is way too overhyped for what it is.

well, I needed something easy to get into during lunchbreaks and friend kept recommending me this. She's freaking out about the show because KANEJ™. I'm about 100 pages in, not bad, loving the ensemble cast, but yeah the naming's cringe-inducing. It's like the author mashed together random letters to vaguely resemble words, and I swear she has a boner for letter J.
I did expect the characters to be older based on the casting for the show, but in the book they're all like 17? Although, in fairness, it's YA in a nutshell. The last series I tried to get into was Throne of Glass and I gave up. Why is it so hard not to write a character as an overpowered Mary Sue?

edit:

Grisha is a Russian name, though usually it’s a diminutive of Grigori

Sort of how Vanya is one of the diminutives of Ivan.

Edit: corrected the diminutive. Sacha (or Sascha) is a diminutive of Alexander

The Vanyaverse

 

[neverendingmidi]

I know. I’m Russian. Which is why it bothers me so much that Bardugo used that shit as a name for a supposedly mighty nation.

It’s on par with AoT’s “Marley” when it comes to stupid naming choices.

Same goes for her “coporalnik” and other pseudo-army terms.

Edit: my MATI stems from the fact that she used “Grisha” as the name of a country, not a person. It’s like having a country named “Archie” or “Johnny”, and you’re supposed to suspend your disbelief long enough to think it’s the most powerful and scary country in the world.

Ah sorry. I can see that driving a native speaker nuts. I didn't realize it was a country name.

 

[Slowboat to China]

The Vanyaverse

Hmm. Considering how often various guys named Ivan crop up in Slavic fairy tales, you could make a pretty good superhero team from nothing but mythical Ivans. Ivan Tsarevitch, Ivan Bear's Ear, Ivan Young in Years Old in Wisdom, Ivan the Peasant's Son ...

Shoot, now I want to write that. Enter the Vanyaverse, 2022.

 

[Trianon]

SoC is a huuuuuge improvement over the main Grisha books, where characters are just Perfect Moral Paragons who argue over nothing and just walk around in the snow. I'm on the second book of the Crows series now. I agree the characters feel like they could be mid-20s. I'm kind of interested to read her adult novel because Six of Crows feels like she's trying to find the line of how dark she can go.

Kanej is my least favorite ship of the series so far though. I mean, it's good, it's just not hitting me like the other main relationships are. I think the show will end up being an improvement on the books too.

 

[Boston Brand]

Not exactly YA, but who could pass up a chance to sit at the feet of a Master of the craft of writing?

Brandon Sanderson does all this shit and more for free. Obviously he's using his white privilege to keep a fat Black woman down.

There is a lot of talk that Nora Jemison and the current woke crowd keep giving themselves Hugos to pad thier resumes and have a go at getting tenure teaching college classes somewhere.

Lord knows that aside from Jemison, none of them are making money selling books. Hell, even Jemison's sales numbers only picked up after she was giftwrapped three Hugo Awards and she became "required reading" in many colleges.

Honestly, if spec fiction wasn't so insular, this lot could fill thier own thread. Several are giant lolcows on thier own.

 

[Kosher Dill]

There is a lot of talk that Nora Jemison and the current woke crowd keep giving themselves Hugos to pad thier resumes and have a go at getting tenure teaching college classes somewhere.

The Hugos are highly clique-driven, and I'm pretty sure they'd be awarding themselves awards whether it pays or not. I'm not inclined to read anything deeper into it.

Honestly, if spec fiction wasn't so insular, this lot could fill thier own thread. Several are giant lolcows on thier own.

Always have been - I recommend The Immortal Storm for anyone interested in proto-science-fiction asperger-men.

 

[DungeonMaster]

The Hugos are highly clique-driven, and I'm pretty sure they'd be awarding themselves awards whether it pays or not. I'm not inclined to read anything deeper into it.


Always have been - I recommend The Immortal Storm for anyone interested in proto-science-fiction asperger-men.

View attachment 2110965

Yeah, I'd read it... If I could afford it.

 

[DungeonMaster]

I won't read this book on account of the reviews, which indicate the sort of audience it appeals to.

 

[Kosher Dill]

Yeah, I'd read it... If I could afford it.

View attachment 2111521

There's a PDF copy here:

https://fanac.org/Fan_Histories/

 

[Boston Brand]

The Hugos are highly clique-driven, and I'm pretty sure they'd be awarding themselves awards whether it pays or not. I'm not inclined to read anything deeper into it.


Always have been - I recommend The Immortal Storm for anyone interested in proto-science-fiction asperger-men.

View attachment 2110965

Lord knows Rebecca Roanhorse, RF Kuang and most of that crowd aren't selling enough books to otherwise get noticed.

I wouldn't mind so much if it hadn't started infecting the genre as a whole... or that the early signs of where the current crowds of woke 24/7, rainbow flag black voices etc thats infected damn near every other realm of pop culture really was first out in force. And is a textbook example of how it wrecks the art as a whole.

Now we have NK Jemison, the Hugo crowds bjggest names, repeatedly calling space exploration a waste, and Kuang and others leading a campaign to pull Tolkien from the shelves because they can't imagine why people would rather buy the work of dead white guys instead of thier woke tomes.

Hell, people want to know how the push for trannies began? They'd been digging themselves a haven in lefty spec fiction since the late 2000s.

Thats probably one of the few ways modern spec fiction DID predict the future.

 

[Kosher Dill]

And is a textbook example of how it wrecks the art as a whole.

I disagree - the art was already wrecked. Absent any sort of external incentives or pressures, SJW entryism usually only works on hollowed-out institutions still coasting on their glory days.

 

[Just Dont]

Every year I pump out a new book into the series I write since 10 years ago.

I'm not going to powerlevel myself or the title of the series I write, but is considered YA material and is dumb as shit.

I write it in less than a week because that is what it deserves. Young people are retarded, so they deserve to have shit things to read.

 

[Boston Brand]

I disagree - the art was already wrecked. Absent any sort of external incentives or pressures, SJW entryism usually only works on hollowed-out institutions still coasting on their glory days.

I disagree... its just that this lot has spent most of the past decade taking a sledgehammer to the genre. Literally driving out all opposition, then anyone who isn't as devoted to the cause as they are.

Case in point, the number of Worldcon/Higo voters is at the lowest its been in decades.

There is a reason half these authors survive on pittances from Patreon when self-published authors or nonwoke authors are making hundreds of thousands per book.

 

[whitepumpkin]

Now we have NK Jemison, the Hugo crowds bjggest names, repeatedly calling space exploration a waste, and Kuang and others leading a campaign to pull Tolkien from the shelves because they can't imagine why people would rather buy the work of dead white guys instead of thier woke tomes.

Uh, What? What campaign was this?
I mean, I don't doubt these authors are pissed everyone with a brain would rather spend their money on actual good writing than their shit, but I can't seem to find them demanding Tolkien be pulled.

 

[Boston Brand]

Uh, What? What campaign was this?
I mean, I don't doubt these authors are pissed everyone with a brain would rather spend their money on actual good writing than their shit, but I can't seem to find them demanding Tolkien be pulled.

Fonda Lee was the one who started it and spearheaded it back in 2019. Started a dogpile that - thankfully - went nowhere. Turns out, bookstores are more interested in selling books.

RF Kuang and Jeanette Ng were the one who spearheaded the (sadly successful) campaign to rename the Campbell Award... and later won a Hugo Award for doing so. Meanwhile one Hugo nominee this year is there for a profanity laced tirade bashing George RR Martin for mangling a few names at last years Hugos, and another for getting the Worldcon guest of honor kicked out for not being as liberal as the rest of that lot.

 

[Skitzels]

Not to power level too hard here, but I work in a used bookstore and have for the last seven years.

You wouldn’t believe how many new release YA books end up being sent to us within less than a week of debuting. While it used to be normal to receive around ten (at most, if lucky) used copies back in 2014, nowadays we receive hundreds of debut titles. These books end up sitting in storage for months until the off chance we get one customer who specifically wants the book for some reason (I suspect that at least half of them are reviewers). It doesn’t help that the market has become oversaturated with mediocre YA books.

Nor does it help that two thirds of YA authors are insufferable cunts on Twitter (see: LL Mickinney for example). If you don’t think the target audience isn’t turned off by authors like that, then I’ve got some bad news.

Funny enough, the only time we ever see a demand for YA books published post-2015, it’s because the author got cancelled on Twitter and the kids want to get their hands on banned books.

The teens who do purchase books from my store are often either seeking unwoke pre-2015 titles (such as Twilight,or for some unwoke self published book. Despite how social makes it seem, most teenagers aren’t into woke YA if my observations are worth anything.

I find it disheartening that the crowd all the major housing publishing are marketing towards aren’t teenagers who would actually be interested in these books. Instead, they’re catering to Neo-Liberal 30 somethings who are perpetual children.

 

[UnsufficentBoobage]

1.5 shelves for Jordan

If that cunt actually read, she would have known said shelves are probably a single copy of each WoT book and nothing else.
Doorstoppers FTW!

 

[JJLiautaud]

and another for getting the Worldcon guest of honor kicked out for not being as liberal as the rest of that lot.

Who happens to be a female editor-in-chief at a major SF imprint, yeah its Baen but still talk about silencing female voices