h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

yes, isn't it funny that kids are perfectly capable of reading 'grownup' stuff and enjoying it, but we have 'abridged' versions of things for 'younger readers'
*gack!*
And not always just to take 'objectionable' stuff out, just to water it down. Then kids read the watery version of something and maybe never go back and read the real thing.
*ugh, pfooey!*

}:=8

And if we are considering arthur and such like, what about Mary Stewart? Her Merlin triolgy(?) and the fourth book with Mordred as protaganist do brilliantly at retelling the Arthur cycle.

Iain

Mary Stewart's Arthurian stuff is great! Now if you wanna get into other adult Arthur stuff, I would start with Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Probl'y the closest thing to what it was 'really' like in pre-Roman Britain.

There is a looooong list of wonderful titles that have dealt with the Arthurian cycle, starting with The Mabinogion, Malory's Morte d'Arthur and Tennyson's Idylls of the King. 'Course this is pretty heavy going. Howard Pyle's The story of King Arthur and his knights is a little lighter. And then there is Mark Twain's 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'

A list of 'Novels with Arthurian Subjects' is at:
http://www.ugf.edu/english/courses/ENG226/226novel.htm
This is a pretty good list and was updated in 1998, although some of the books are probably out of print and only available in libraries or used bookstores.

so many books, so little time...

}:=8

If we're allowed to mention adult books, then I'd like to say that I have really enjoyed Jack Whyte's Arthurian books - he approaches the legends with a view to how things could have _really_ happened. He starts several generations prior to Arthur and creates a very plausable story that fits and explains the legends. Well worth reading.

Yup, yup! His books are on the above list:
Skystone
Singing Sword
Eagle's Brood
Saxon Shore
Called the 'Camulod Chronicles'

Jack Whyte has a website at
http://www.camulod.com/

Thats a series I wanna read!

}:=8

Sorry to jump in on this conversation here?
I've been trying to get through Mists of Avalon while reading several other books, and it's confusing like hell. But something I noticed in a lot of Arthur books, especially Mary Stewart (and not so much the Once and Future King), is a tendency to make the characters very ... stark, very black and white I guess. If they're evil, they're hateable, if they're good than they're good - not that they're either pure evil or pure innocence, just that they are ususally the exactly the way they seem, the way one wants them to be.
Or am I imagining it?

hullo loreth! jump right in


I have two ideas about why the characters seem to have either very good or evil characteristics:
Reason number 1. mythical characters tend to be that way.
the villains are very bad and the heroes are very good. I think there is a need for this kind of tale in all literature. We want our heroes to be larger than life.

If you look closely at the Arthurian cycle, tho, you will see some complications. The Arthur/Guinevere/Lancelot situation for example. And that sticky erm...'relationship' between Arthur and his sister that resulted in Mordred... And the success of quests for the Holy Grail depended on the purity of the Knight. And most of them 'fell' in some way so they were unsuccessful. So there is a lot of material for authors to pick from.

Reason number 2: the better the writer, the more complex and believable the character. While Mary Stewart certainly is a popular writer; very successful and entertaining, I personally find the Once and Future King a 'richer' book. I think White is a better writer. But that's just my opinion.

And thats my two cents.


}:=8

Hello again, sorry I've been away but life just caught up with me.
Harry Potter didn't win the Whitbread because of Snobbery pure and simple. Seamus Heanvy's translation of Beowulf will reach so many fewer homes, and I doubt any hearts the way that Harry has.
I loved the Children of Green Knowe, and while we're on the subject of books probably aimed at younger people might I recomend Dodie Smiths ( her of 101 Dalmations fame) I capture the Castle. Printed by Virago I think, and is a wonderful book. I read it at first because it had a quote from Christopher Isherwood on the front and I was going through a huge phase at the time (another fave author of mine)
And Although I loved the mists of Avalon, I lost the will to live halfway through. Just like it took me three attempts at lord of the rings ( But like Brain, I read it when I was about twelve, straight after they'd made us read the Hobbit at school)
I've just finnished reading Life isn't all Ha Ha Hee Hee, by Myra Syal, a lovely book which I thought was all about friendshipas and growing up and being female and all that, and was then told I couldn't read it (have finished and loved it, oh, I cried!) as I wasn't Asian, and in an arranged marriage.... Maybe thats why the book is so good then!!
I havn't read the third Harry Potter yet, theres a queue for it at the local library, and priority is for kiddies, and I can't afford to buy it. Speak nicely to Imp (my Boyf) I suppose...
Buy for now Hxx
I'm so chuffed that you all saw an interest in my little forum, sigh...

Try anything by Phillip Ridley. He is best known by adults for the screenplay to 'The Krays' but children know him well for his books. The excellent 'Krindlekrax' is a story of bullying, friendship, life, death, and dragons. Bullying is a theme that runs through a lot of the books, after experiences in childhood. He has also written plays. I was lucky enough to meet the usually reclusive Mr Ridley at the National Theatre opening of 'Sparkleshark' and found him really friendly and approachable. 'Scribbleboy' is being adapted for performance there too. Check them out!

For LOTR, of which I'm a great fan, I pulled a three-book copy out of the library and did it all in about four sittings over a forty-eight hour period. I don't know how long it took, but I distinctly remember my post-fifth-grade self pausing to say out loud "Wow. This is like excersize for my brain!" Mists of Avalon, on the other hand, I've put on the back burner, to make space for Ishmael and Kerouac's On the Road.

*Copying titles furiously...*

They are going to make a movie of the Harry Potter series. I am hoping Steven Spielberg will get to do it. He is the only producer/director I can think of that will be able to make a Quidditch game believable on the big screen.

BTW, has anyone yet mentioned Anne McCaffrey's excellent Pern books?

It depends if Spielberg 'get's it' as it were. See the excellent example of Matilda (Danny Divito) of how to get it right.

Roald Dahl did some quite good childrens books, which do feature some magic and strange inventions.

Pern Hasn't been mentioned so far, but I'm sure now you've said it someone will think of something to say. They are a very good set of books with a well thought out background and history.

Steven Spielberg has officially announced that he isn't going to direct the HP movies. So there.

I know, we'll just have to see how it now pans out.

Speaking of which, anyone know what's up with the LOTR movies?
*too lazy to check herself*

I can't imagine an American film of Harry Potter. Call me (whatever the word is), but Harry Potter, to me, is a really British book...

I hear Terry Gilliam is one possibility for director, so perhaps this will be the best of both - an American who understands the English well.

You're a (whatever the word is). So there.

don't like you any more
;-(

What is the word????? Hope its something nice