Is Kristin Cashore Writing Anymore Books

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Nancy Benigar

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Aug 4, 2024, 12:14:40 PM8/4/24

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Robin Wasserman Website

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A review by Dan Shade

Advertisement This is my first book review for the SF Site. I am excited to become a member of this international team and to have theopportunity to review some of the exciting science fiction and fantasy (SFF) that's being written for youngadults. I've been reading young adult SFF almost exclusively for the past five years. Young adult SFF is seeingunprecedented growth. Many mainstream authors are crossing over and writing for young adults. Many of the novelsI've read and felt were outstanding are debut books. Kristin Cashore, author of Graceling and Fire,is a good example having produced two of the finest books I've read in a long time. Other more established authorsare building very interesting worlds. For example, Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games and Catching Fireare also worthy of praise and awards. I hope to touch on many of the books I've previously read when I review theirsequels. But for now, let's talk about Crashed.Ever since reading I, Robot by Isaac Asimov, I have long anticipated the coming of robots and androids. However,having just turned 58, I don't think I'll see them in my lifetime. And though I'm impressed with robots that buildcars and perform delicate medical procedures, they leave me cold. So, I am forced to find my androids where I canand Robin Wasserman has given me some very interesting ones to read about. In the tradition ofDo Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick, we find ourselves faced with robots who "morehuman than human (Blade Runner). They are rejected by most of mankind, their creators, and find littlepeace among themselves. Their lives are empty and often spent in seriously dangerous activities, such as jumpingout of planes without a parachute, so they can feel the rush. And what the Mechs call a feeling is not the sameas our perception.Crashed, by Robin Wasserman, is the second book in an exciting trilogy. The first book was Skinnedand the forthcoming third book will be titled Wired. The first two books take place in a future where therehas been war and terrible poverty (not much explanation is given regarding how we got where here). Thereare, however, an elite few who have the credits to live well. They have nothing but thefinest. America's cities are the refuge of the diseased. No credits, no cure. All of the cities are in variousstates of decay. Then there are the CorpCities, owned and operated by corporations. You work for the Corp,live in Corp housing, and eat Corp food. It's called life without a union, sort of like mining for coal inWest Virginia a hundred years ago. How does the song go? "You load sixteen tons, what do you get? Another dayolder and deeper in debt. Saint Peter, don't you call me, 'cause I can't go; I owe my soul to the companystore." Thank you Tennessee Ernie Ford. But many think living in a CorpCity is better than starving todeath in a city. Those in the cities feel the freedom they have is more than adequate payment for starvingto death or dying of some horrible disease.Finally we have the rich living in their big homes in the country. How these class distinctions came to be isnot explained very well in Skinned or Crashed. Maybe they were rich before the wars and ecologicaldisasters. Maybe they got rich because of the war. Certainly BioMax, the company who builds, maintains, andbacks up the memories of Mechs is doing well. However nice as it is to live in a mansion, be connected to the webat all times, wear the latest fashions, go to school, and have friends; this group of people have something onone else on earth has -- the credits to stay alive forever. That's right! These folks no longer need feardeath. If they are seriously injured, their minds can be downloaded to a new Android body, just like the Cylonson Battlestar Galactica. They are called Skinners by those against the process and they choose tocall themselves Mechs. On the other hand, the procedure looks very attractive to me. Heck, the way Robin Wassermandescribes it; I'd volunteer for a Mech body right now! Forget my aortic heart valve that came from a cow. Iwouldn't need it anymore. Nor would I ever get sick, feel pain, or suffer in any way.This brings us to our protagonist -- Lia Kahn. Lia was a human or what Mechs call an Org. She lived with herparents and sister Zo in a beautiful home where they all pretend to be happy. Lia was part of the elite athigh school. She was a trendsetter. People wait to see what Lia was wearing before they went shopping. Shedated the best looking and richest boys and had a fabulous time with her friends. Life was mostly a bowl ofcherries for Lia. That is, until the car accident which left her nothing but a broken and burned stub of abody. So, Lia's father decided to "save" her by having her mind downloaded into an android body. It was adecision he made while overcome with grief and one he'd live to regret.However, instead of this being the beginning of a bright, new life, it becomes a nightmare. When we meet Liaagain in Crashed she has come to terms with who and what she is -- a machine. Which I think is a sadthing. She lives and interacts solely with Mechs. Which I think is a bad thing. The book begins with Lia givinga tour of the "facilities" to brand new Mechs. The facilities are provided by one extremely rich Mech. Itincludes a huge home, acres of ground, pools, tennis courts, etc. Room for hundreds of Mechs to live and party together.This happy scene doesn't last long. There are already tensions between the Mechs and the Orgs. The Orgsare calling for BioMax to stop making Mechs and to reduce the rights of a Mech to live a free life. Soon aterrible disaster occurs in which hundreds of Orgs are thought killed. The media captures Lia's face oncamera and blames the terrorism on her. It looks like war is coming between the Mechs and Orgs and poor Liais doomed to be right in the middle of it.I can highly recommend Crashed as well as Skinned. And I'm looking forward with much anticipationto Wired. Robin Wasserman is a skilled writer who knows how to make her story believable. Her charactersare not as deep as other books I've read but they come alive in an almost 3D fashion. There's plenty of actionand the books are a quick read (for me that's a week, for my 12-year-old daughter it's overnight). I likedthese books so well that I'm keeping them for my home collection. Since I'm out of bookshelf space, that sayssomething.Copyright 2010 by Dan ShadeDan Shade is a retired college professor who loves to read young adult science fiction, fantasy, and horror.But he doesn't draw the line there.He also enjoys writing science fiction and hopes to publish someday.In the meantime, you can find himat lostbooks.org (under construction).

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cynthia voigt is a great rec, there are more in that universe besides jackaroo, too (although preread for content, some of them have abuse and other violence - not necessarily graphic, but not undisturbing)

there's the Queen's Thief series, of which the 4th, I think (Conspiracy of Kings?) and the 1st would be good. In the 2nd, spoiler, the female main character-ish cuts off the hand of the male main character and then he marries her so I hesitate to recommend those although the writing is excellent.

15 years old; prefer PG-ish when it comes to sexual content (like, the fact that sexuality is part of being human is OK but nothing graphic or emphasized and this kid isn't much for romance anyway). Normal fantasy sort of violence (people fighting with swords etc.) is fine.

There are lots of historically normal things that I don't want to normalize for my kids, kwim? Also for me it was partially the juxtaposition of more modern ways of interacting and social roles, esp. gender-related, combined with the violence, combined with the (spoiler) marriagethat weirded me out- they're great books, she's a wonderful writer, but I don't think I want my kids to read those two at least until they're older. Like, moved out older.

OP I guess you've tried the rest of Robin McKinley - some of them are more The Blue Sword ish than others. Not Deerskin and while Pegasus is a lovely book, reading her blog I don't think she's ever going to finish the series and it is pretty cliffhangery so you might want to spare yourselves the trouble.

She might like The Tombs of Atuan - not as much swashbuckling or romance but similarly understated and quality writing. Or maybe UK Le Guin's later more YA series - I think they're like Gifts, Voices, something like that.

Oh, there are some more modern ones based on I think Russian folktales and/or other mythology - Spinning Silver is a little more PG than Uprooted but both are good books. ETA and The Bear and the Nightingale, that one is good too.

I love, love, love The Goblin Emperor, and read it three times in a row. The logistics of the guard shifts don't make sense to me, though - that's something that has to be fixed in fanfic, because there has to be at least a third pair.

I've always loved The Moorchild as well, though when I read it with the kids I was careful to point out that people in medieval Europe really believed in changelings and they really did sometimes murder those children they thought were changed.