A while back I read the Cinder series by Marissa Meyer

[conuly]

Not very heavy, and it was silly the way that all the characters got neatly paired off within a book of their introduction, but it was enjoyable fiction. All of the plot twists were extremely obvious. I say this as somebody who never catches the plot twist. You could give me an episode of Scooby-Doo and I'll end up going "The hell? It was the grizzled old caretaker and not a ghost? He was trying to protect a fortune by scaring people away using a projector and a sheet? I'll be damned. Never saw that coming!" But I saw all the plot twists in the Cinder series a mile away, and was rightly amused by the way the author kept patiently dropping those little breadcrumbs for everybody slower than me.

Still, I enjoyed the books well enough to order Renegades when it came out. You'll all be pleased to know that her writing has definitely improved - some of the plot turns surprised the heck out of me! And while I think we can all see who is getting paired with whom, it's not blatantly obvious yet! And I will say that Meyer gets credit for putting effort into including disabled characters who are actually disabled, and not just when the plot requires them to be helpless or overcome difficulty or die or inspire others or whatever.

On the other hand, there's nothing really new here, and the worldbuilding needs serious work. The pre-book timeline makes no sense - humanity always had some people with superpowers, and those people were universally living in the shadows, in all eras and locations? But it took just one guy leading a revolution for the mass of them to completely take down society through gang warfare? And now everybody loves the superheroes who saved everything (utterly annihilating all the gangs), except the ones who still fear prodigies, but none of them - not the ones who love 'em or the ones who resent 'em - wants to have their own participatory government back or handle their own basic law enforcement and firefighting needs or anything? (And there's clearly a free press, free enough to make the head honcho uncomfortable on camera, so it's not like they're just well beaten-down.) The main character's politics don't make sense either - she has two entirely contradictory sets of opinions for why superheroes running things is bad. Which is fine in a character - people can be great at handling cognitive dissonance, and she's been swimming in it since she was six! - but I'm not entirely sure the author realizes the issue here, which is a lot less fine.

So while there's definite improvement here, there's also more room for work before I put her on my Favorite Authors list. If you just want a quick, mostly enjoyable read that you don't have to think about - go for it. If you like to think a little more, maybe pick something else.

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Yeah, it isn't autism that causes you to be a bigot. (FFS, he shows up in the comments to sealion the hell out of everybody. Jerkface. Half of Google must be on the spectrum. Autism is not why he got fired. And if he lacks empathy, that's not because of autism either, so everybody claiming that can stfu.)

Italy buries 26 Nigerian women - most without a name

Comments

[konsectatrix]

Yeah, that article popped up on my feed a day or so ago and I was like "Just don't, son."

I mean has no one else ever heard the phrase 'just because someone's autistic doesn't mean they're also not an asshole.'?

And he persists in his wrongness and refuses to accept correction, so he's an arrogant asshole autistic. I don't know why he thinks THAT'S going to make anyone be like "oh okay, go ahead on being an asshat, here's your job back." Agreed that he's far from the only autistic at Google--and given that a bunch of them are likely the women that he's shitting on, it's definitely not his autism that's the problem here.

That's even before we get into smart people aren't as rare and magical sparkle-pony resource as some folks try to make themselves out to be.

*peers at Mithras article with interest*

[conuly]

Yeah, you'll notice I linked to the twitter thread about it. Which... don't read the responses.

[konsectatrix]

Nooo thank you. =D

[isis]

I loved the first Cinder book, liked the second, the third was okay, and I hated the fourth (and the "extra" Fairest, from the evil stepmom's POV).

[conuly]

This book does not have the problems of the later books in that series, though who knows how it'll develop later?

[dariaw]

I had seen that post on Damore's ridiculousness already - that guy isn't arguing in good faith, I feel pretty strongly. What an ass.

The 26 women in Italy - how terribly sad. I can't believe how little news coverage.

Love the ancient Rome one - fun to learn about. The cakes with flowers were gorgeous too.

[conuly]

Hoo-boy, yeah, a complete asshat.

[grav_ity]

CRESS remains one of my favourite books ever for exactly that reason, tbh. I haven't read any of her "evil" books, and I have no idea if/when I'll get to Renegades.

[conuly]

For exactly which reason then?

[grav_ity]

I love the "set'em up, knock'em down" style of fairy tale retellings. It's like "here is a plot point you can see from orbit, Captain, set rockets to full" and I adore it. :)

[conuly]

Then you might not like Renegades quite as much! I do think her writing has improved, though, even by that metric.

[wpadmirer]

Ancient Roman cults are weird and cool.

The fact that there are that many homeless children in this country is something we should be damned ashamed about.

Autism doesn't make you a bigot. Being a bigot makes you a bigot, regardless of any other things about you.

[conuly]

Yes, yes, aaaaaaand fuck yes.

[thewayne]

I was listening to the Adam Savage podcast last night while driving back from the Festival of the Cranes and they were talking about the forthcoming Pixar release, Coco. They said that every time you thought you had it figured out it shatters your explanation. Sounds like it should a good set of surprises for you! ;-)

[mommy]

I do like how the Taiwanese sex-ed article says that their teachers have governmental support when teaching about gender equality and LGBTQ+ topics. That simple support can make all the difference.