The Inferior by Peadar o Guilin - Revision history

Sue at 10:42, 4 October 2020

2020-10-04T10:42:59Z

Sue at 14:27, 14 May 2018

2018-05-14T14:27:53Z

Sue at 07:31, 9 May 2018

2018-05-09T07:31:43Z

Sue at 13:03, 3 March 2018

2018-03-03T13:03:25Z

Sue at 17:09, 25 January 2015

2015-01-25T17:09:49Z

Sue at 11:30, 2 December 2012

2012-12-02T11:30:23Z

Jill at 11:29, 6 October 2012

2012-10-06T11:29:56Z

Sue at 14:29, 8 September 2012

2012-09-08T14:29:32Z

Keith at 09:57, 7 November 2009

2009-11-07T09:57:03Z

Keith: 1 revision

2009-10-24T17:50:18Z

1 revision

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 ó Guilín jumps straight into his narrative - there's no messing about - and I was hooked from the very first chapter, in which Stopmouth is betrayed by his charismatic but ultimately flawed brother. From then on, I was rooting for the hero like there was no tomorrow and I was desperate to find out what happened next. There's a whole world here to be explained, but because the plot really is a mix of mystery thriller and picaresque, there's no tiresome world-building, no lengthy expositions - you simply see things as Stopmouth sees them, but as you follow him, you gradually pick up the little clues that he does not. It's brilliantly done. The book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, but enough is resolved to feel satisfied. I hate cliffhangers, but I wasn't annoyed by ''The Inferior'' at all. If I had one criticism to make, it would be about length. ''The Inferior'' is 450 pages long. In my (shorter) book, that's too many pages for anyone, let alone younger readers. We could have lost a species fight or two and been none the less impressed. I blame Jo Rowling for all these pages everywhere - if someone at Bloomsbury had got their red pen out on some Harry Potter volumes, then I think perhaps we'd have some tighter books being published. But really, this is just a nit pick. I like short, tight books, but I absolutely loved ''The Inferior''. And I can't wait for the second in the trilogy.
-My thanks to the nice people at David Fickling for sending the book.
+My thanks to the nice people at David Fickling for sending the book.  We also have a review of [[The Deserter by Peadar o Guilin]].
 [[:Category:Catherine Fisher|Catherine Fisher's]] [[Incarceron]] takes a less visceral, but equally disturbing, look at future retribution.

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 Not a future world you'd fancy living in? Me either. But it's the world Stopmouth lives in. To live, the few remaining humans must hunt one of the multitude of ever-changing other species, or organise a flesh-trade with a species with whom they have a treaty, or they must submit to the Flesh Council's decision about who is weakest, who has least to offer the tribe. It's considered an obscenity to be buried and an honour to "volunteer" once your useful days are over. To Stopmouth's tribe, giving your flesh to feed others is a sacred thing - '' we are the marrow of your bones, your flesh, your heart''. High in the Roof of Stopmouth's world, bright globes pass over. Occasionally, they fight. And on the day Stopmouth narrowly escapes being caught by the Armourbacks, one of the globes explodes and a strange, beautiful woman falls from the sky. For Stopmouth, nothing will ever be the same again. There is so much about his world that he doesn't know. But in his journey to find out, he must defeat the Armourbacks, the Flyers, the Hoppers, and the horrific Diggers.
-I can't even begin to tell you how much I enjoyed ''The Inferior''. The press sheet says it has echoes of Tarzan, Conan and the Truman Show - and yes, it does have echoes of them all, although perhaps more of Philip K Dick's [[Time Out of Joint]] than the Truman Show, which in essence derived from it. However, it felt more like a revisionist ''Lord of the Flies'' to me. Even then, despite its treading of familiar future catastrophe and man-as-beast paths, what really struck me about ''The Inferior'' was its freshness. It felt new, interesting, thoughtful, exciting. I believed utterly in Stopmouth, a savage maybe, but a hero to die for if you're a girl and to dream of being if you're a boy. In fact, the press sheet also quoted a reviewer saying ''The Inferior'' is "unashamedly masculine", but I didn't think it was at all. The female characters, in particular Indrani, the woman from the sky, and Stopmouth's mother Flamehair, are strong, worthwhile and interesting people.
+I can't even begin to tell you how much I enjoyed ''The Inferior''. The press sheet says it has echoes of Tarzan, Conan and the Truman Show - and yes, it does have echoes of them all, although perhaps more of Philip K Dick's ''Time Out of Joint'' than the Truman Show, which in essence derived from it. However, it felt more like a revisionist ''Lord of the Flies'' to me. Even then, despite its treading of familiar future catastrophe and man-as-beast paths, what really struck me about ''The Inferior'' was its freshness. It felt new, interesting, thoughtful, exciting. I believed utterly in Stopmouth, a savage maybe, but a hero to die for if you're a girl and to dream of being if you're a boy. In fact, the press sheet also quoted a reviewer saying ''The Inferior'' is "unashamedly masculine", but I didn't think it was at all. The female characters, in particular Indrani, the woman from the sky, and Stopmouth's mother Flamehair, are strong, worthwhile and interesting people.
 ó Guilín jumps straight into his narrative - there's no messing about - and I was hooked from the very first chapter, in which Stopmouth is betrayed by his charismatic but ultimately flawed brother. From then on, I was rooting for the hero like there was no tomorrow and I was desperate to find out what happened next. There's a whole world here to be explained, but because the plot really is a mix of mystery thriller and picaresque, there's no tiresome world-building, no lengthy expositions - you simply see things as Stopmouth sees them, but as you follow him, you gradually pick up the little clues that he does not. It's brilliantly done. The book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, but enough is resolved to feel satisfied. I hate cliffhangers, but I wasn't annoyed by ''The Inferior'' at all. If I had one criticism to make, it would be about length. ''The Inferior'' is 450 pages long. In my (shorter) book, that's too many pages for anyone, let alone younger readers. We could have lost a species fight or two and been none the less impressed. I blame Jo Rowling for all these pages everywhere - if someone at Bloomsbury had got their red pen out on some Harry Potter volumes, then I think perhaps we'd have some tighter books being published. But really, this is just a nit pick. I like short, tight books, but I absolutely loved ''The Inferior''. And I can't wait for the second in the trilogy.

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 Not a future world you'd fancy living in? Me either. But it's the world Stopmouth lives in. To live, the few remaining humans must hunt one of the multitude of ever-changing other species, or organise a flesh-trade with a species with whom they have a treaty, or they must submit to the Flesh Council's decision about who is weakest, who has least to offer the tribe. It's considered an obscenity to be buried and an honour to "volunteer" once your useful days are over. To Stopmouth's tribe, giving your flesh to feed others is a sacred thing - '' we are the marrow of your bones, your flesh, your heart''. High in the Roof of Stopmouth's world, bright globes pass over. Occasionally, they fight. And on the day Stopmouth narrowly escapes being caught by the Armourbacks, one of the globes explodes and a strange, beautiful woman falls from the sky. For Stopmouth, nothing will ever be the same again. There is so much about his world that he doesn't know. But in his journey to find out, he must defeat the Armourbacks, the Flyers, the Hoppers, and the horrific Diggers.
-I can't even begin to tell you how much I enjoyed ''The Inferior''. The press sheet says it has echoes of Tarzan, Conan and the Truman Show - and yes, it does have echoes of them all, although perhaps more of Philip K Dick's [[Time Out of Joint]] than the Truman Show, which in essence derived from it. However, it felt more like a revisionist [[Lord of the Flies]] to me. Even then, despite its treading of familiar future catastrophe and man-as-beast paths, what really struck me about ''The Inferior'' was its freshness. It felt new, interesting, thoughtful, exciting. I believed utterly in Stopmouth, a savage maybe, but a hero to die for if you're a girl and to dream of being if you're a boy. In fact, the press sheet also quoted a reviewer saying ''The Inferior'' is "unashamedly masculine", but I didn't think it was at all. The female characters, in particular Indrani, the woman from the sky, and Stopmouth's mother Flamehair, are strong, worthwhile and interesting people.
+I can't even begin to tell you how much I enjoyed ''The Inferior''. The press sheet says it has echoes of Tarzan, Conan and the Truman Show - and yes, it does have echoes of them all, although perhaps more of Philip K Dick's [[Time Out of Joint]] than the Truman Show, which in essence derived from it. However, it felt more like a revisionist ''Lord of the Flies'' to me. Even then, despite its treading of familiar future catastrophe and man-as-beast paths, what really struck me about ''The Inferior'' was its freshness. It felt new, interesting, thoughtful, exciting. I believed utterly in Stopmouth, a savage maybe, but a hero to die for if you're a girl and to dream of being if you're a boy. In fact, the press sheet also quoted a reviewer saying ''The Inferior'' is "unashamedly masculine", but I didn't think it was at all. The female characters, in particular Indrani, the woman from the sky, and Stopmouth's mother Flamehair, are strong, worthwhile and interesting people.
 ó Guilín jumps straight into his narrative - there's no messing about - and I was hooked from the very first chapter, in which Stopmouth is betrayed by his charismatic but ultimately flawed brother. From then on, I was rooting for the hero like there was no tomorrow and I was desperate to find out what happened next. There's a whole world here to be explained, but because the plot really is a mix of mystery thriller and picaresque, there's no tiresome world-building, no lengthy expositions - you simply see things as Stopmouth sees them, but as you follow him, you gradually pick up the little clues that he does not. It's brilliantly done. The book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, but enough is resolved to feel satisfied. I hate cliffhangers, but I wasn't annoyed by ''The Inferior'' at all. If I had one criticism to make, it would be about length. ''The Inferior'' is 450 pages long. In my (shorter) book, that's too many pages for anyone, let alone younger readers. We could have lost a species fight or two and been none the less impressed. I blame Jo Rowling for all these pages everywhere - if someone at Bloomsbury had got their red pen out on some Harry Potter volumes, then I think perhaps we'd have some tighter books being published. But really, this is just a nit pick. I like short, tight books, but I absolutely loved ''The Inferior''. And I can't wait for the second in the trilogy.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{{infoboxsort
+{{infobox1
 |sort=Inferior
 |title=The Inferior
@@ Line 13: / Line 13: @@
 |date=September 2007
 |isbn=978-0385610957
-|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385610955</amazonuk>
+|cover=0385610955
-|amazonus=<amazonus>0385610955</amazonus>
+|aznuk=0385610955
 }}
 ''There is no food but flesh. There is no flesh but the tribes. There is but one law: eat or be eaten.''

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 |buy=Yes
 |borrow=Yes
 |pages=450
 |publisher=David Fickling Books
@@ Line 32: / Line 31: @@
 {{amazontext|amazon=0385610955}}
 {{commenthead}}

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:29, 6 October 2012
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	[[Category:Thrillers\|Inferior]]		[[Category:Thrillers\|Inferior]]
		+	[[Category:Dystopian Fiction]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:29, 8 September 2012
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	[[Category:Confident Readers\|Inferior]]		[[Category:Confident Readers\|Inferior]]
		+	[[Category:Thrillers\|Inferior]]

← Older revision	Revision as of 17:50, 24 October 2009
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