The Wild Blog in the West

With novels like The Chocolate Wars , A Separate Peace , and  Lord of the Flies under its banner, Young Adult literature was never a bastion of sweetness and optimism.  Rather, Young Adult literature (or "YA," as it is fashionably called) is used frequently to explore dark themes about ourselves and our society.  In fact, one could even argue that YA novels are often darker  than adult novels, not only because the events are happening to kids, but also because authors can take advantage of the "kids' novels are safe" misconception to push the envelope. Certainly The Hunger Games  trilogy does not shy from darkness.  It's a post-Apocalyptic world where North America has been separated into 13 districts, each with its own specialty, while an oppressive Capitol rules over all of them.  If you have not read The Hunger Games , or you have only seen the first movie, stop reading now because I will be discussing the first and second novel along with the third i

SPOILERS for all five novels in the A Song of Ice and Fire series.  This prediction thread is for the novels ONLY.  So if you are purely a fan of the TV show or have not read the novels, LEAVE NOW!!!!! Ahem. Since I've already done one lengthy post about Game of Thrones  and the A Song of Ice and Fire series, why not another one?  There are more predictions about the last two novels than you can shake a stick at.  If I were to post this on any dedicated message board, it would instantly be smothered by countless other thoughtful and incisive posts.  Fortunately, I have this blog, and can go as long-winded as I want.  Without further ado... Major Predictions for A Song of Ice and Fire 1.  Benjen Stark is Cold Hands.   Either that, or the "boss" of Cold Hands.  Benjen Stark has been hardly discussed since his first disappearance.  Martin never depicts his absence in the same melancholy fashion as he does other lost or dead characters, which makes me suspect that

The following contains spoilers for both Game of Thrones the TV show and A Song of Ice and Fire, the book series by George RR Martin on which the TV show is based.  If you don't want to be spoiled, TURN BACK!  TURN BACK NOW! I'M SERIOUS!!! REALLY!!!!!!!!! Okay.  Can't say you weren't warned. I would love to claim that I've been a George RR Martin fan since A Game of Thrones first hit bookshelves in 1996.  But like most people, I became a fan of the novels only after the show premiered.  In fact,  A Song of Ice and Fire  may be the first series that I wanted to read simply because I was spoiled for the entire thing.  A wonderful overview at Salon.com gave me a taste for what lay in store.  A massive rebellion that overthrows a cruel king?  His daughter frees a "continent" of slaves?  Sibling sex?  What's not to intrigue?  So after two episodes of the TV show, I picked up the first novel, and did not put the series down until I had read all fi

So here we are.  Where did it all go wrong? A month or two after The Land of Painted Caves  was released, when the cynicism had fully sunk in, I dashed off this fanfic , which detailed the plot for a proposed Book Seven.  I still wish that such a novel would be released, though I have little faith that it will be.  Jean Auel hinted in 2010 that she had more material and The Land of Painted Caves  might not be her last, but that does not mean she is hard at work pounding out the story.  While Auel still seemed quite sharp in 2010 and 2011, the physical toll of writing -- at least at the pace she knew -- might be too much for her at this point. Of course if Auel does produce a Book Seven, all bets are off.  It could be the best story that she's written since The Clan of the Cave Bear , enough to dissolve our cynicism and make us fall in love with the   Earth's Children series all over again.  Or it could be drek that makes The Land of Painted Caves look like a feast of

And so we reach the final novel in the Earth's Children series.  It is worth mentioning that for most of the time between  The Shelters of Stone  and The Land of Painted Caves , fans believed that seven novels were going to be published.  Auel had made a statement that she had enough material to produce a seventh novel.  So as the years passed, many of us hoped that the big delay was due to Auel writing the sixth and seventh novel together.  After all, wasn't that what she was supposedly doing when she wrote the fifth novel?  Since the sixth novel did not appear two or three years after the fifth, that seemed to be the only credible explanation. Then when the announcement came that The Land of Painted Caves  was Auel's last novel, many of us thought that meant the sixth and seventh novel had been combined to form a mega-novel even bigger than The Plains of Passage .  What could possibly await us?!  If Auel was going to stage the big Clan-Others confrontation, it would ha

After a decade of impressive productivity, few would blame Jean Auel for wanting a rest.   The Plains of Passage alone must have been a beast from a research and storyline standpoint.  Its length is dangerously close to twice the length of The Clan of the Cave Bear . So who could blame Auel if she took a year off before starting the long-anticipated "Ayla meets the Zelandonii" novel?  If she approached it fresh, the story would only be better for it.  By the time I read Auel's first four novels, two years had already elapsed since The Plains of Passage , so I would have to wait, oh, another three maybe? And so the wait began. As the years passed, I frequented an Earth's Children   message board , where people started to question whether the fifth novel would ever be released.  Now and then Jean Auel's son would pop in to inform us of her progress (which boiled down to "No she's not dead.  Yes she's still working on it"), but Internet-ave