Just wondering (constructive critism only)

[Lilmizflashythang]

I was wondering what you thought about the idea behind my book.

It is about a group of people who narrowly escape a nuclear meltdown on Earth. They crash on a deceptively safe paradise complete with telepathic-bonding unicorns (not what we see nowadays as unicorns, but a more traditional view) and gryfs. (housecat size griffons)

Do you think that it could be an adult sci-fi read, or more childish. Or is it just too far into the fantasy realm.

Any help would be appreciated.

[scalem X]

It depends how you write/have written it, I suppose.
Whether you want to go/have gone scifi / like Anne McAffrey's Pern novels or more aiming at the young adult market. I personally should go/feel like you've gone for the young adult kind of thing, from what I've picked up in your very short synopsis.

Have you written it yet or do you want to write it?

[j. d. worthington]

Actually, I think I'd have to go with Scalem on how it "feels" from the brief description. You've got something that could be an adult book, true, but the way you describe it, it sounds more like a book for younger readers... though not quite, with the meltdown.

In the end, it depends on how you play it. I mean, when one thinks of little fairies, one usually thinks of "cute". But the "fairies" in Heinlein's Podkayne of Mars are vicious, and can be murderous. When you hear "love story", you think of a romance of some kind, with a sentimental feel to it; but Robert Hichens' "When Love Came to Professor Guildea" is one of the most horrifying stories I've ever read -- yet it is a love story!

Look at how you want to present it (or, better, how the story seems to be presenting itself)... and go from there.

[Anastasia]

I think it could be a young adult/childrens book, along the lines of the Narnia chronicles, or it could be very much more an adult-themed book. I don't know if you've read any of Ursula La Guin's adult fiction, but when I read your description, I immediate thought of her books, which include a large fantasy element, with some rather gratuitous sex and violence

Let's not forget that fairy tales were originally adult tales - in the original, the prince didn't just have to kiss Snow White if you know what I mean.

Good luck with it - let us know how you get on.

[Interference]

Originally Posted by Anastasia

Let's not forget that fairy tales were originally adult tales - in the original, the prince didn't just have to kiss Snow White if you know what I mean.

And even then, she managed to have two babies and still she didn't wake up! Personally, I think she was just pretending to be asleep. It happens, you know ...

Fairy tales and allegories are tricky territory. What hasn't been said? My real question, though, is why use these "familiar" fantasy creatures? Are you deliberately drawing a connection? If so, then there is potential for adultifying it as much as you like (I just invented a word and I love it - sorry, digressing...)

What would real people, the people who work alongside you every day, what would they say if they were really, honsetly and truly confronted by a mythical beast? Would the exodus from a doomed planet suspend enough of their disbelief to be able to accept it unquestioningly? Would they investigate it and discover that their myths might not be so mythical? Would they query their own stability of mind?

As everyone else has said, your treatment is really all that will determine the agegroup of your readership. That and your personal preference for the type of audience you would like to develop.

Trust your inner voice and go for it.

Good luck.

[Lilmizflashythang]

I was hoping for more of an adult feel, only without the gratuitous violence or sex. I find that those ruin the story for me. I used the unicorns and gryps because there really isn't any books using them, to my knowledge. I have been writing it for about six months now.

[Anastasia]

Originally Posted by Lilmizflashythang

I was hoping for more of an adult feel, only without the gratuitous violence or sex. I find that those ruin the story for me. I used the unicorns and gryps because there really isn't any books using them, to my knowledge. I have been writing it for about six months now.

That's fine, but I did find myself bristling slightly at the suggestion that sex and/or violence are necessarily 'gratuitous' in a fantasy novel. Read Margaret Attwood and then come back to me on that one! (suggestion: "The Handmaid's Tale"). Both sex and violence are part of the real world, and as such, can be appropriately incorporated into an imaginary world. If you have things to say about those two subjects, of course, and can write about them convincingly.

It's fine to leave them out as well, of course, although even C.S.Lewis had a fair degree of violence in his work (even his children's fiction) if not sex.

[Lilmizflashythang]

Originally Posted by Anastasia

That's fine, but I did find myself bristling slightly at the suggestion that sex and/or violence are necessarily gratuitous in a fantasy novel. Read Margaret Attwood and then come back to me on that one! (suggestion: "The Handmaid's Tale"). Both sex and violence are part of the real world, and as such, can be appropriately incorporated into an imaginary world. If you have things to say about those two subjects, of course, and can write about them convincingly.

It's fine to leave them out as well, of course, although even C.S.Lewis had a fair degree of violence in his work (even his children's fiction) if not sex.

By "gratuitous" I meant unnecessary, or so much it becomes a bloodbath or a smut novel. I don't necessarily mind violence. I enjoy Anne McCaffrey and Tara K. Harper, and they have some violence in them.

[Teresa Edgerton]

Originally Posted by Interference

And even then, she managed to have two babies and still she didn't wake up!

That would be Sleeping Beauty, not Snow White.

[Interference]

She used to be Snow White, but then she drifted.