fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2760 ]

[ SECRET POST #2760 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2760 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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[The Penny Dreadfuls]

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[True Blood, Game of Thrones]

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[Tamora Pierce]

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[Free!]

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[Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift]

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[Masterchef]

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[Game of Thrones]

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 017 secrets from Secret Submission Post #394.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 1? (if this is one, let me know what) - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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07. http://oi58.tinypic.com/abjltd.jpg
[Tamora Pierce]

I'm worried too OP, and I honestly haven't read her last couple of books, though I'll be reading her Numair books with a hopeful heart...

As far as I can tell the Tortall books are going that way rapidly, but I was heartened by Battle Magic that at least The Circle books seem to be keeping her old style. It's not the best CoM book by a long-shot (and, frankly, had serious continuity issues with WotE), but IMO it was better than everything that's come out of Tortall since Protector of the Small ended.

But Mark starts the Circle series as soon as he's done with Mastiff. :(

I shipped Numair/Daine(?) so hard when I was younger and then I got older and I was like holy shit age difference oh my god.

I still can't help but feel residual affection for them, though. The locket/hair thing, plus the skeleton dinosaurs was one of my favorite scenes when I was young. Oh and Daine's hot antler dad!

What's this about mark reads?

Mark is reading the entire works of Tamora Pierce, and Queen Tammy (as she is affectionately known) absolutely adores Mark and is a regular in the comments on his entries.

I've never read Armor Pierce, but I'd hope if she's so talented, she wouldn't let that happen. Comfort yourself with the thought that she's possibly just trying to keep herself in readers' minds.

Goddamn autocorrect. Actually this one is kind of funny.

I'm calling her that from now on.

Been staying away from Mark Reads so I don't know the whole history of that, but I do feel you on her more recent books being a let down.

I really liked Terrier, and then one day I saw Bloodhound on the library bookshelf and was like "omg? why haven't i read this yet?" so I immediately checked it out.

As I got about halfway through the book, I realized that I had read it before. It'd just been so boring and the plot so half-assed that'd I'D COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN EVER READING IT.

Note to future self: if you ever spend so much time developing a random one-off transgender character and their correct pronouns and the way other characters perceive them to the point where the readers have no idea who the hell your main antagonist is, you need to re-evaluate your book.

I HATE what she did to Tunstall in Mastiff (he suddenly became a villain because he loved Sabine too much and wanted to impress her by kidnapping a little boy? WHAT) and that she had to throw in some random guy Beka was supposed to have married (Holborn), who had never been mentioned in any previous book, and who actually seemed really abusive. (Pierce said she rewrote this book after helping with the 9/11 recovery project, IIRC.)

The series just went *really* downhill after the first one, and she absolutely wasted Beka's potential with Rosto to give her some shoehorned romance with Farmer Cape.

Eh. I always liked her Emelan books better (I love Trisana Chandler to bits and pieces).

Ooh, boy. I didn't end up reading Mastiff, but I got spoiler-bombed for that bit and it killed any desire I'd had to.

And once again, the Beka/Rosto thing, I think it's another example of her "ideas" getting in the way of the actual plot. I get the feeling she wanted to do a thing that showed girls it's okay to have multiple crushes/loves/what have you, and who you think you're going to end up and spend all your remaining days with isn't necessarily the first guy you meet. Or the second.

And that's a REALLY GOOD MESSAGE. I personally love that message. But it was executed terribly.

Re: SPOILERS FOR MASTIFF

analise - 2014-07-25 01:05 (UTC) - Expand

I started following her Tumblr three days ago and already I'm ready to stop. =/

That's too bad. :( I haven't kept up with her books since the Alanna series, but I recently reread one and was struck all over again about how on point they were about so many things... but without driving the message home with a sledgehammer. Jonathan behaves like an asshole and Alanna calls him on it. I think at one point she realizes that if he loved her, then he wouldn't be trying to make her feel bad about not giving in to everything he wants at the expense of her own wishes. I was pleasantly surprised by how sex isn't a horrible shameful thing nobody should do unless they want to diiiiiiiiiiie, it's just... normal and healthy. It's not a big PSA, it's just worked into the story and feels natural.

Now that's YA and social issues done right, y'all.

What's the supposed 'issue' problem with the Beka Cooper books? Just that there's a transgender character? (Personally I like the Keladry series best; I didn't think the Beka series was as good but I didn't notice anything particularly 'issue' centered about it.

Terrier dealt with class differences, but it was banging you over the head with it. Bloodhound on the other hand was clearly "I want to write a story about counterfeiting and how that hurts and economy", and Mastiff was her thoughts on slave trafficking. Neither of the books thought much of "who are these characters and where are they going in life", an felt more like plot with characters shoe-horned in. The first book set up a wonderful set of characters and the world they lived in, then promptly left them for different ideas TP wanted to explore. It did the characters a huge disservice, especially considering the end of Mastiff.

(Incidentally, the Tricksters series had the same problem -- they were all about colonialism and race differences and so on. The only difference is I personally hated the characters, so I have no love for that series at all. Anvil-over-the-headed plot + unlikable characters = nope.)

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2014-07-25 02:05 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

likeadeuce - 2014-07-25 10:20 (UTC) - Expand

But please understand that most "sjw crusades" actually ARE valid. It's just that the tumblr kids are crappy activists.

Racism is a problem! Misogyny is a problem! Our treatment of gay and transpeople is actually a problem!

PLEASE FUCKING STOP DISMISSING EVERY PERSON WHO GIVES A SHIT ABOUT THIS STUFF AND WORKS IT INTO THEIR CREATIVE OUTPUT AS AN SJW!

Edited 2014-07-25 00:35 (UTC)

As someone who reads or read Tamora Pierce and used to be a fan - people aren't complaining about her inclusion of those topics. She's ALWAYS done that. Her books were hugely empowering to young girls like... a decade ago. People are complaining because she went from including them in a well done, impactful and meaningful way to shoehorning them in blatantly and being an SJW about them. It's not about the issues or giving a shit about them, it's HOW she's doing it that's the problem.

You have a point. It just doesn't apply here.

Re: I've never read Tamora Pierce, as a disclaimer

greenvelvetcake - 2014-07-25 01:56 (UTC) - Expand

Re: I've never read Tamora Pierce, as a disclaimer

(Anonymous) - 2014-07-26 04:33 (UTC) - Expand

Her books are so good, and I like the inclusion of certain topics in past books.

I'm just worried that, now that she's "friends" with Mark of Mark Reads, she's going to start adding social justice stuff into her books in the same way that Very Special Episodes talk about real issues, but it feels clunky and out of place, rather than interweaving the books with stuff about racism and sexism in a way that feels natural, as in her previous books.

Did that make sense?

thank you for saying this

This. I understand peoples' frustration with SJWs, but too often the baby gets thrown out with the bathwater.

I wasn't a big fan of the doggy books, but none of the reasons I disliked Battle Magic were because any imagined SJW propaganda.

Isn't it terrible when writers write about issues they have opinions about?

For what it's worth, some of her more recent books have been among my favorites (the Beka Cooper trilogy). I like that her books have had more diversity and inclusion as new ones are published. (It gives me hope that we'll get bi!Numair)

I like that she's receptive to her fans, willing to admit when she's made mistakes in the past, and endeavors to do better in the future. It's a lot more than can be said of some creators who refuse to acknowledge their own failings.

You acknowledge your mistakes by changing. Not by prostrating yourself for flogging.

Apparently it does have to be explained to me... what's the problem with Mark Oshiro? I've only read his Mark Reads for Alanna: The First Adventure so I'm not really familiar with his stuff.

From what I remember feeling when I read them, I don't think the social justice stuff was too out of place. There may have been one or two off moments but otherwise I thought it worked well. I've seen books that do it way worse.

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