Subject:Re: The Future of Young Adult Fiction?
From:Barnacle hotmail.com>
Date:Thu, 10 Apr 2008 02:17:49 -0500
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.composition

On Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:34:48 -0500, Patricia C. Wrede wrote: Oh, for
pity's sake. That's one of the more ridiculous things I've ever heard.
About the only way you can come up with that is if you boil both books
all the way down to the Standard Plot Skeleton -- hero has problem,
hero tries to solve problem, hero succeeds in solving problem. Which
applies equally well to "Hansel and Gretel" and "The Hunt for Red
October."

Hansel turned to Gretel, hunched over the scanner. "She's out there
somewhere..."

Gretel concentrated, the Sony Sweetspot[tm] headphones clamped to her
ears, careless of the syrup that dripped down her hair. With tiny
movements of her fingers, movements so small as to be almost invisible,
she adjusted the controls. On the waterfall display crumbs of
gingerbread appeared and died as they floated to the surface. Software
so secret as to be unknown to the NSA listened; filtering for traces of
the witch in the natural noises of the forest and displaying the result
in coloured lines of gingerbread on the waterfall display.

"I've got something, Hansel. Bearing 235 true, range, oh, twenty, maybe
thirty feet. But I can't ID it yet. Call it Zulu one." She picked up
the pot of jam and marked the display.

Hansel thought, desperately. 235 true. He furrowed his brow, trying to
visualise. 234 true, twenty feet, that would be down the garden path
and just behind the first oak on the right. Dare he try a shot? Here
they were, trapped in the vulnerably fragile gingerbread house and
unable to see out... was it the witch out there? Or was it Ryan?

Neil
--
I wonder if it will be friendly?

Dum vivimus, vivamus....

--
Dan Goodman
"I have always depended on the kindness of stranglers."
Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Expire
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