Scalzi and YA fiction, an recommendations!

[roseembolism]

Evidently some of the grognards in the SF field were grumbling, because YA books won the Nebula (Powers, by Ursula K. LeGuin), Tiptree (The Knife of Never Letting Go, Patrick Ness), and have even been nominated for the Hugo. John Scalzi has a trenchant response that should send these grumblers back under their rocks, but don't stop there; the responses include a number of recommendations for new YA novels that adults may find interesting.

I find this particularly interesting, because YA books were what got me into reading Speculative Fiction, and some of the ones I read, I'll put up against any adult novel.  Books like have Spacesuit Will Travel, or The Star Beast, or The Homeward Bounders, or The Spirit Ring or The White Mountains are books I'll happily have on my shelf next to any "adult" novel.

I admit that I have a weakness for YA books, because they tend to have more of a straightforward concentration on character and plot, and they are one of the few groups of SF novels that actually adhere to the concept of putting everything in a reasonable length. And I admit my writing style is more in the line of YA writing.  But beyond that, YA books have been a gateway to a broader interest in SF for generations, and its nice to see them get recognition for that fact.

Comments

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Charles Stross has a trenchent response

With all due respect could you possibly mean "John Scalzi" where you say "Charles Stross" above?

[mithriltabby]

Scott Westerfeld has plenty of good stuff, including the Uglies trilogy tetralogy. (His hard SF is also good, but he gets more of a thrill out of writing YA because he gets more fan mail that way.)

[seawasp]

My favorite review of Boundary was in (IIRC) School Library Journal, and made it sound very much like a RAH juvenile.

I'd be very happy to have my books in that category. I just suggested to Baen that Grand Central Arena might be marketable to the YA groups.