lydamorehouse | (Reply)

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You're a poor excuse for an SF fan? I had to _start_ the panel admitting I'D NEVER FINISHED THE LORD OF THE RINGS.

:-)

But, I haven't read the FOUNDATION series either. I've read some Asimov short stories, but not any of his novels. So, we suck together in our fannish cred.

I often hate it when I get picked to be on a book panel like this, because I feel like I always get showed up as woefully under read. But, I tend to make up for it by having strong FEELINGS about the books I did read, like the HUNGER GAMES trilogy came up and I could have spent the entire allotted hour discussing what bugged me about that series. (I did freak out the audience, however, by admitting that I refused to see the movie because the whole point of that book was how disgusting it is to pay to watch kids kill each other, so why would I spend $7 to watch kids kill each other!!???)

I think the issue people had with FAMILY TREE was they _they felt_ that the talking animals weren't well telegraphed. You maybe picked up on clues that most readers didn't, is all. So you can go off muttering justifiably. I had a similar experience, not with FAMILY TREE, but another book where the surprise ending was that the pov characters were aliens. I kinda-sorta saw that coming, but I ended up with a "ripped off" feeling rather than an "Ah HA!" one that I'm sure the author had intended. I can't remember the title of that book its author, unfortunately, though I might be able to find it if I search the archives here, because I think I ranted about it when I read it.

This is where it all becomes subjective, you know? Gene Wolfe came up because, apparently, he has a tendency to pull rugs out from under readers. Will (I think) said that Wolfe didn't bother him because he anticipated that move, so it ultimately was part of the fun of the book, rather than a bother. That's one of those "tricks" that can either backfire or work. But, again, it's interesting in terms of "writer beware" things, I think.