Comments on: This Time of Darkness, by H. M. Hoover (1980)

By: The Pool of Fire, by John Christopher (1968)

The Pool of Fire, by John Christopher (1968) — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 20:59:15 +0000

[...] the discussion of trilogies (and Martini-Corona’s eternal John Christopher obsession), I decided this project [...]

By: Martini-Corona

Martini-Corona — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 23:52:27 +0000

In regards to trilogies — I think they started with adult sf and fantasy and trickled down. Probably Tolkien and Asimov (the Foundation trilogy) kicked it off. John Christopher was technically writing before my personal YA era (the late ’80s/early ’90s) but he did write another YA trilogy, called “The Sword of the Spirits,” which wasn’t as popular (or good, in my opinion). But I remember a fair number of trilogy series when I was reading YA stuff — Mercedes Lackey was ALL OVER trilogies during that period. And a lot of the movie/TV novelizations of that era (like Star Trek and Star Wars) were written in trilogy form. I guess it’s hard for me to gauge what is YA fiction and what is just YA-accessible adult sf/fantasy — I also read quite a lot of C.J. Cherryh, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Margaret Weis/Tracy Hickman, and they were all prone to writing multi-volume series. I think it comes down to a combination of marketing and fan response — if you’re reading to “escape,” that’s much easier to do if you have serious world-building going on that you can roll around in, geek out about, etc. It’s not really worth laying that kind of groundwork for a one-off.

By: The Morrow duology, by H. M. Hoover (1973, 1976)

The Morrow duology, by H. M. Hoover (1973, 1976) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 01:40:22 +0000

[...] As you might have guessed, this didn’t hold up as well as the other Hoover book I reviewed, This Time of Darkness. It ain’t a subtle book. The Base people are short and stocky and have “scraggly” [...]

By: Exiles of ColSec, by Douglas Hill (1984)

Exiles of ColSec, by Douglas Hill (1984) — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 22:00:11 +0000

[...] I just remembered that it’s the start of a trilogy, one of the few I can think of from that era. And by the end of the trilogy, I dimly recall, the [...]

By: Sam

Sam — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 20:26:39 +0000

Martini-Corona & Sheila:

Yeah, it’s interesting about the Tripods — that was the only counter-example I could think of myself, and it’s also the only trilogy I could come up with from that era. Now, of course, everything’s a trilogy. I wonder if the under-200-page novels of the ’70s and ’80s just didn’t have enough time for the kids to save the world?

And why, for that matter, do we have so many more trilogies now? Is it just that Harry and Bella made it more financially feasible for publishers to sign that kind of contract, or is there more going on?

As for adult neuroses, yeah, I think there is something there. Of course, it’s going to be true that themes in YA science fiction will be similar to those in SF at large, and themes in SF reflect the adult world (as you say, Sputnik-era SF is often about discovery, and Cold War-era focuses more on paranoia and autocratic dystopias). I don’t read enough adult SF to notice any trends about what’s different in YA vs. adult SF of those eras… do you?

By: Sheila Ruth

Sheila Ruth — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 02:49:19 +0000

Aw, Martini-Corona, you took my counter-example! I was going to say the Tripods! I loved that series when I was younger.

The Time of Darkness sounds like a good book!

By: Martini-Corona

Martini-Corona — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 03:27:14 +0000

I suppose the easy counterexample would be the Tripods trilogy where (spoiler alert) they DO change the world, but with tragedy along the way, and ambiguity going forward. Sorry, my John Christopher obsession is getting kind of boring.

But I know what you mean about raising the stakes vs. previous YA works. The Homeward Bounders would be another one in this category — no uplifting, world-saving ending there.

Do you think themes in YA works are a function of adult neuroses? Are authors these days more prone to writing empowerment fantasies because they themselves feel powerless? As opposed to, say, 1950s-era YA sci-fi which seems primarily (to me) to be about discovery and exploration (the white male protagonists of ’50s stuff didn’t really need empowerment — wasn’t even on the radar), or ’70s-’80s stuff about paranoia…