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posted by martyb on Thursday November 24 2016, @07:18AM   Printer-friendly
from the turn-the-page dept.

Title: Black Bead
Author: J.D. Lakey
164 pages
Barnes & Noble
Amazon
Available in hardcover, paperback, and ePub

I met the book's author and her illustrator at this year's Worldcon [The World Science Fiction Convention -Ed.]. They were raffling off a hardcover copy of Black Bead, so I left my email on the list. A few weeks later the illustrator, Dylan Drake, emailed me, saying I didn't win the hardcover but he attached an ePub version. We've exchanged a few emails.

It's the first book in a series, but like Frank Herbert's Dune or Isaac Asimov's Foundation, it stands by itself. It's the only book in the series I've read so far, as I still have a couple of other books laying around unread.

I liked this book. Some call it "young adult" fiction, probably because someone with an eighth grade education could easily read it, and partly because the main characters are children. But I'm far from young; I'm eligible for Medicare next year, and I enjoyed it. It was what I look for in a book—a fun read.

Dylan said some people saw it as fantasy even though it's intended to be science fiction, probably because the main character has psionic powers. I won't spoil it, but in a later book she has yet to publish, the psi is explained scientifically.

It seems that some SF is fantasy in disguise. Maybe all SF is; I'm at the beginning of Stephen King's 11/22/63, and it's the only time-travel story I've read that has absolutely no science; at least, that I've run across so far (it's a very fat book). Dylan's is science fiction that only feels like fantasy. The writing style reminds me vaguely of Tolkien, and perhaps that's why.

It's a primitive setting in an alien, dangerous world with some very imaginative and often scary flora and fauna, including fruit that causes inebriation, obviously becoming wine on the vine.

Again, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'll be reading more of these books.


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by rob_on_earth on Thursday November 24 2016, @08:41AM

    by rob_on_earth (5485) on Thursday November 24 2016, @08:41AM (#432329) Homepage

    Enders game was about children and is not a children's book. I would not judge a book by the age of its characters.

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  • (Score: 2) by vux984 on Thursday November 24 2016, @06:46PM

    by vux984 (5045) on Thursday November 24 2016, @06:46PM (#432504)

    Ender's game, the writing, language, and it's themes etc are all very accessible to young readers.

    • (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday November 25 2016, @01:33AM

      by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Friday November 25 2016, @01:33AM (#432681) Homepage Journal

      O won't judge a book by the age of its characters, like the GP, but I don't agree that because it's accessable to children it's a children's book. That makes it an "all ages" book.

      --
      mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by vux984 on Friday November 25 2016, @02:09AM

        by vux984 (5045) on Friday November 25 2016, @02:09AM (#432699)

        That's fair. I guess an alternative perspective would be to agree that practically ALL good "childrens books" ARE "all ages" books. From 'to kill a mockingbird' to 'Horton Hears a Who' to 'The Silver Chair' to 'Ender's Game'.

        That said, i appreciated Ender's LESS as an adult than I did as a child. I.e. I felt it wasn't as a good re-reading it as an adult. Whereas the other titles I mentioned above I appreciated even more as an adult.

        • (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday November 25 2016, @06:08PM

          by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Friday November 25 2016, @06:08PM (#432929) Homepage Journal

          I think I'm in agreement. A children's book IMO is one that only appeals to children (e.g., "Horton Hears a Who").

          --
          mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
          • (Score: 2) by vux984 on Friday November 25 2016, @07:15PM

            by vux984 (5045) on Friday November 25 2016, @07:15PM (#432967)

            A children's book IMO is one that only appeals to children (e.g., "Horton Hears a Who").

            I think you underestimate Horton Hears a Who.

            Reading it again with an adult perspective; as well a sense of historical context and you might find there's more to it. As an allegory for post WW2 occupation of Japan. As an apology for the internment of Japanese americans - internment which he ardently supported during the war. Were you aware of Dr. Seuss' WW2 era political cartoons and propaganda films? Or that he enlisted in '43. Or about the trip he made in '53 to Japan and how the war and how that trip changed his writing and beliefs? That he started writing Horton Hears a Who after that trip, or that he admitted in '53 that Whoville is modeled on Japan, or that the book’s dedication, “For My Great Friend, Mitsugi Nakamura,” refers to a Japanese professor he met in Japan...

            Some have gone further and read "the black bottomed birdie let go and we dropped / We landed so hard that our clocks have all stopped" as a metaphor for the bombings; I tend to be suspect of meaning that is projected onto a authors work after the fact, but Horton Hears a Who is inextricably connected to Japan so it bears at least some consideration.

            Or that in '53 during the cold war even while he's reconciling his feelings for Japan he characterizes the evil black eagle/vulture as "Vlad Vlad-i-koff"... the Russian's were the new villains in the real world after all.

            Read a couple biographies of Seuss and you'll appreciate Horton Hears a Who has quite a few more layers under the surface.