The Far Side of Evil by Sylvia Engdahl

[altariel]

My short piece on Sylvia Engdahl's YA science fiction novel The Far Side of Evil is today's Writer's Choice on normblog, see here. Regular readers of this journal will know how much I love this book.

The rest of the pieces in this series are indexed here.

Comments

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

An excellent piece.

When, in the late 90s, I discovered the author's website and wrote to her, she expressed dismay at how young I was when I read this book.

I can understand her reaction. I think you must have been an exceptional ten-year-old to have been ready for it. I only read it a couple of years ago, thanks I think to a recommendation from you here, but even so I found it a difficult - though rewarding - read.

Toris, with no moons to provide a focus for romantic yearnings for the black...

Black? Is there a typo there?

BTW, I hadn't realised that you had switched from lecturing in organizational theory to doing so in creative writing. Either you haven't mentioned it here or I've somehow missed it.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

But there's a moon in that book-cover icon!

[gair.livejournal.com]

::hearts you:: Beautiful essay.

I think I was ten when I read it, too. It was the first, and is possibly still the only, book I started reading again as soon as I finished it, without a pause.

[sensiblecat.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a challenging but fascinating book. Nothing new about teen dystopia fiction, then. And I didn't realise you had connections with the Norm. I know his wife slightly - they live locally to me and she's been into the school where I work a few times. She contributes to a terrific blog, "The History Girls."