Episode 193: The Coloring Book Meta

Belatedly catching up! Just wanted to suggest for a potential future season/common room: the Wind on Fire trilogy by William Nicholson. They’re very much children’s books (but older kids, around the same level as the first few Harry Potter books) and the first one (The Wind Singer) was published in 2000. I *loved* them as a kid, even though they were kind of below my reading level at the time, because I loved the worldbuilding details and the story. My year 6 teacher got me into them & told me I would find them very easy to read BUT she knew I’d love them. The reason I suggest them for the podcast is because they are very very much so a “one of these” lol, but were a contemporary of Harry Potter and kid’s books, which is partially why I think they never reached that same cultural phenomenon. They have the whole dystopian society thing, different tiers of the country/city that readers could identify with, all the same loose trappings of HP/hunger games/twilight/YA fiction. But they precede the gritty YA dystopian trend by a whole decade. I haven’t read them in a few years, but what I recall of them… they have very interesting specifics that don’t make a lot of sense if you look too closely lol, which makes sense as they’re more for kids and not adults, and I think many weird and problematic elements. They are also DARK AF. The tone is similar to the shift in HP, with light-hearted whimsical stuff alongside graphic/cruel violence and some weird and creepy “romance” stuff. So I believe that’s also why they never made it big, but they did come out at a time when people were less eagle-eyed about this sort of thing, and it’s only since I reread them I was like “um, wait, excuse me???” and did a little eyebrow raise. But that said, they’re interesting (to me) to dissect, in part because of all the weird shit in them (especially considering the audience!!!) and also in a sense of how they could be fixed/if they were made into a Netflix show nowadays, how would it be done. And also, vitally, trying to figure out What the books are trying to say and what the politics behind them is, bc I literally couldn’t tell you, but they sure feel like they ARE trying to say something. The first book especially does this, and has a clearer ideology I think (not giving spoilers in case you do tackle them!!) but the second and third books, and all of them together, I don’t know, and your comments on Panem being an ideological inkblot test REALLY brought The Wind on Fire series to mind tbh. I think you would both have fun with them and genuinely enjoy some aspects of all the books, there’s some cute & interesting ideas and scenes in them. And I think you’d both probably have fun tearing them to shreds lol, plus they are just very easy and quick reads! So not a long slog if there’s a full point.

man can't believe yall almost chose eragon lol that's like my fave series from growing up. I think it holds up (the later books get a lot better imo) so it'd be lots of fun to listen to you guys go through that in the future if you choose to do so. having fun listening to hunger games talk seeing as I also have almost 0 experience with it

mouse girl extraordinaire