Books: Theo and the Forbidden Language | Songs of Distant Earth

DNF #188: Theo and the Forbidden Language by Melanie Ansley.

This book is being sold as a children's book. The last passage I read before DNFing it was:

His wife, an equally ill-tempered matron with hair and arms that stank of blood and fish, was gutting a still squealing piglet on the counter for a waiting customer. Several other piglets hung writhing by their hind trotters from a hook behind the bar, their high-pitched screams drowned out by the general hubbub of the inn.

There is rape in this book. Graphic murder and torture. Bestiality.

This was basically Game of Thrones set in a world with talking animals.

The plot was interesting enough: In a world where all animals could talk, humans were at war with them. The humans came up with a magic tool to "pacify" animals (remove their ability to talk and think) so they could enslave them for use on farms.

Not that they didn't eat the thinking version of the animals, that was another horrible thing in this supposed children's book. Apparently the animals tasted better when they could still think and talk...

Along with all that other stuff, the author had a massive issue with characterization/worldbuilding. The animals were animal-shaped, rabbits looked like rabbits, not half-human rabbits. Yet they used swords, tools, cups, teapots. How? About 20% into the book, the animals were suddenly wearing clothing for the first time. The author just had zero consistency about how animals work.

And speaking of that... I almost DNFed at 18% in when the human emperor decided he just simply had to have a baby with a rabbit. He was going to kidnap one and rape her until she got pregnant. I don't even want to try to picture how that would even physically work...

I've been pushing myself to finish books instead of DNFing them, but I really should have DNFed this one sooner. I made it a third of the way in before jumping ship.

DNF #189: The Songs of Distant Earth by Arthur C. Clarke. I love science fiction, so I figured I should read something by one of the biggest names in it.

I tried to keep in mind this was written in the 80s, but I really struggled with it. The whole thing felt so naive (but probably only because it was written 40 years ago). I didn't believe the setting, the worldbuilding, or the characters.

Plot: Set in the current time and real world, scientists discovered that in the year 4,000 the sun would go nova. People at the current time didn't care, but by the time the year 3,000 rolled around, everyone cared and the entire planet worked together to get humans off Earth and into space.

Right there was my biggest issue. Pretend us now in the real world knew the sun was going to go nova. Would all of America be able to work together, let alone the world? It's a nice thought, but I don't believe it.

So anyway, humans get off the planet and into space. They have generations on other planets. Then new arrivals from Earth (or so they claim) arrive at one planet.

This wasn't a bad book, the writing wasn't bad, it just didn't work for me. (And apparently it's one of his less popular books, so I made a bad choice on which one to try.)