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11 Books About People Whose Childhoods Were Worse Than Yours

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Trai_Dep
03/20/09

In reply to 11 Books About People Whose Childhoods Were Worse Than Yours
As a boy, I was horrified by tales from the bigger kids of how Juvenile Hall was overrun by roving packs of gibbering, adolescent rape-gangs and lurking, loner Booty Bandits once the lights went out.

Imagine my disappointment to find out this wasn't the case when I spent the weekend in Juvie for GTA.
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Skunky
03/20/09

In reply to 11 Books About People Whose Childhoods Were Worse Than Yours
Carrie from "Turning Point" (first of the Sholan Alliance series) didn't exactly have it great either, living on a planet where humans were repressed by a race of lizard dudes, and she had an empathic link to her sister who was an active resistance fighter. It was an unhealthy link as the sister would (without really knowing it) shunt most of the pain and such to Carrie.
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MarcosR
03/20/09

@Skunky: And we're leaving out Carrie from, er, Stephen King's "Carrie." Obvious, in retrospect.
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Skunky
03/20/09

@MarcosR: That's why I made sure to specify. :D
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tetracycloide
03/20/09

In reply to 11 Books About People Whose Childhoods Were Worse Than Yours
no mention of david rice's brush with gangrape at all?
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zenpoet
03/20/09

In reply to 11 Books About People Whose Childhoods Were Worse Than Yours
I bought a very dog-eared hard cover copy of Psion at a used book store a long time ago, and thought it was a great read, but assumed it was kind of "throw-away" science fiction. I had to hunt down Cat's Paw, and I guess I didn't even know about Dreamfall. I will have to walk down to Barnes over my lunch hour to pick that up, as I really enjoyed the first two.
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Zidel333
03/20/09

In reply to 11 Books About People Whose Childhoods Were Worse Than Yours
I have no sympathy for Bean whatsoever. He's a flat, annoying second character trying to take over the protagonist, and for that, I shall NEVER forgive him.
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tetracycloide
03/20/09

@Zidel333: did you even read ender's shadow?
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Zidel333
03/20/09

@tetracycloide: That's exactly what I'm talking about. Could never get into the Shadow series. I like Ender too much, but before he got all religious/Morman.
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nutbastard
03/24/09

@Zidel333:

The mormon thing is just OSC projecting his own stuff.

None of the sequels or the parallels come close to Enders Game. Younger folks might enjoy the extension of the story, but Enders Game ended right where it should have. I've read most of em BTW.

I can't say I hate Bean but he's certainly not as compelling as Ender is. Even Valentine is more fun to observe.
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Lassus
03/19/09

In reply to 11 Books About People Whose Childhoods Were Worse Than Yours
Gurney Halleck had it pretty rough, if I recall.
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Grey_Area
03/20/09

@Lassus: Brian Herbert. Doesn't count.
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Grey_Area
03/20/09

@Grey_Area: Sorry, That's mean of me. There were some parts of the 3 House books he and Anderson did. I just wish they stopped there. Beating a dead worm, let it go guys.
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Zidel333
03/19/09

In reply to 11 Books About People Whose Childhoods Were Worse Than Yours
Thanks for adding Citizen of the Galaxy; this is my fave Heinlein Juvenile, since I read as a kid, and when I reread it about 1 1/2 months ago. It's aged pretty damn well (excepting the 1950's diction), and would be a fantastic script for a film.

I remember reading a review of the book and it claimed it was more than just an anti-slavery book not because it claimed it was a racist but rather the concept of slavery is anti-humanistic. It's an interesting idea because it more or less invalidates the obvious parallels with Thorby and the then current US Civil Rights Movement.

To be honest, it was the first book I ever read where I really had to seat back and think about slavery outside any other parameters such as culture, race, or history, and why it was inherently, and innate evil. Good job Heinlein.
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
03/19/09

@Zidel333: It is still good stuff and would make a great movie, although the vastly different settings might make it a tough sell for the mouth-breathing masses. And while I loved the anthropology part of the Free Traders, that's also going to be hard to get across, with the moieties, the girl-trading, the languages.

And the slavery part would probably make Hollywood assume the lead should be black, and we'd get Will Smith's kid cast to mug around and screw it up.

Maybe a miniseries, but not from Siffy.
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Lamar Henderson
03/19/09

In reply to 11 Books About People Whose Childhoods Were Worse Than Yours
Ah, it reminds me of my old da, who, when I would complain about having to hold up the corner of the house that was starting to sage because of the slop from the industrial pig pen he built against the house, right outside the crack in the wall of the closet I was allowed to use for the two or three hours of sleep I got a night, would say, "Quit yer whinin', or I'll give ye somethin' to whine aboot!" And then he'd break my cheekbones again.

Ah, good times. Good times.
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
03/19/09

@Lamar Henderson: You tell that to the kids nowadays, and they won't believe you.
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JennaW
03/19/09

In reply to 11 Books About People Whose Childhoods Were Worse Than Yours
But then Mark turns out surprisingly well! *loves Mark*
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Charlie Jane Anders
03/19/09

@JennaW: Yay! Havent seen you comment lately! Missed your comments!
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