Long Way to a Small Angry Planet content?

July 1, 2018 7:35 PM

So my 9-year-old found The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet on his kindle fire b/c I downloaded it to my kindle paperwhite to read this summer but I haven't gotten to it yet and he saw it downloadable on his carousel. How is this content going to be for a 9-year-old? Is this fine, or do I need to delete it and pretend there was a file glitch?
posted by Eyebrows McGee to Media & Arts (19 answers total)

There is sex. How much violence is ok? There isn't a lot, but there is some. I think it might be more boring than objectionable for him.
posted by jeather at 7:37 PM on July 1, 2018

Yeah, it’s a pretty tame book except where it’s way above a nine-year-old’s head, iirc.
posted by restless_nomad at 7:39 PM on July 1, 2018

more boring than objectionable for him.
I'd second that. I've really enjoyed what I've gotten through so far (coziest boarding by space pirates ever!), but I think a lot of what's going on will be over his head in a not-that fun way.

There is a bunch of wholesome messaging built in (e.g. on tolerance of others who are different), so that's nice.
posted by SaltySalticid at 7:39 PM on July 1, 2018

I think it depends on the nine-year-old; I was reading some adult (uh, not in the NSFW sense, just books not intended for children) popular fiction by that age and mostly enjoying it, although there was certainly stuff in those books that went over my head at the time. I wouldn't really hesitate to hand this book to a middle-school-aged kid who was a good reader, so for a kid a little younger than that it's hard to say. The prose is pretty accessible, but the story is primarily about social dynamics among the characters, so if he's the kind of reader who needs a strong plotline or lots of action scenes to stay engaged it probably won't appeal. The messaging, as noted above, is pretty wholesome--it's a book about found family, building relationships in diverse contexts, and figuring out how to behave ethically in challenging situations.

In terms of adult content, there's a fair amount of swearing. There also is some frank discussion of sexuality (although much of it is more along the lines of "here are some interspecies cultural differences"; think Star Trek-level stuff), and a few romantic plotlines that include sexual relationships, including queer ones. But if I'm recalling correctly (you may want to double-check this) there aren't any actual sex scenes; things fade-to-black before it gets explicit. The violence is minimal compared to most stuff in the space opera genre, but there is some, including at least one character death, plus references to past atrocities, offscreen crimes, etc.
posted by karayel at 8:22 PM on July 1, 2018

I've read it (ok, at a beach book level) and was reading science fiction pretty young but it's hard to remember just what I could deal with (years later my mother commented that I'd sometimes just come out an sit quietly during carson) but like previously suggested a lot would go right over. But there are good space battles and it's all on a space ship so if that's of interest it should be fine with some discussion.

(much later my mother asked for a good SF novel so she could see what I was interested and a Heinlein was at hand, and her reaction was a perplexed comment, "it was ok, but the girl had fur")
posted by sammyo at 9:32 PM on July 1, 2018

It depends a lot on your values. I think there's some casual drug use, which I would definitely want to discuss with my nine year old. In a sufficiently Catholic household, I could imagine that this book might need to be accompanied by a conversation on different people's norms around extra-martial sex. Basically, Chambers builds a world that has reached consensus on a number of issues which, for better or for worse, do not have real-world consensus.
posted by meaty shoe puppet at 9:50 PM on July 1, 2018

I would let my nine-year-old read it, if I had one.
posted by seasparrow at 10:24 PM on July 1, 2018

There's a little bit of sex, I don't think many nine year olds would be crazy about it, but I didn't feel there's anything super objectionable.
posted by smoke at 11:39 PM on July 1, 2018

If he's the kind of 9-year-old who's mature enough to read an adult novel on his own initiative, he's the kind of 9-year-old who's mature enough to handle any of the subject matter he may find in that adult novel, I'd think.
posted by fso at 3:43 AM on July 2, 2018

I would be delighted if my 9yo expressed an interest in reading this, and I would definitely let him.
posted by el_presidente at 5:01 AM on July 2, 2018

I'm pretty adventurous & permissive about the books my daughter (similar age) reads, and I loved this book myself, but I would still steer her away from this. Reasons & spoilers follow.

I think the sex in the book is very positive and mutual and affectionate, and that wouldn't concern me at all. If the kid is bored by it (likely!), he'll skip past it. There's also a plotline involving arms dealers and past genocides, which I find more worrisome but may well go over the kid's head.

The bit that really makes me hesitate (*SPOILERS*) is a plotline involving a tech who develops a romantic relationship with a ship-based AI he's helped build. Together they're trying to circumvent current mores and laws by ordering an artificial body from a sketchy site on the internet so they can download the intelligence into the body and be together in person. The tech is male; the AI is presented as female.

Like the other relationships in the book, this is all very thoughtfully laid out, and you're really rooting for them as the story progresses! They have at least some support from other characters, and it's not a sexbot situation. But it's also very similar to stories I'd hesitate to let a kid read in an unsupervised way, as it's superficially similar to stories about porn, faking identities on the internet, literal objectification of an idealized feminine personality, etc. So if these are topics for conversations you want to be in on with your kid, maybe read it together with him.

(Weirdly, I'd have no such compunctions about the sequel, which is more focused on younger characters and development of identity in teen-type stories.)
posted by miles per flower at 6:30 AM on July 2, 2018

I read it recently and it's a good book with a wide range of very diverse characters. There's a lot of relationship-building and diplomacy type stuff which might bore a nine year old? It's a really BUSY book in some ways, there are many different cultures and species to keep track of which may be fun or might seem overwhelming. I think there is a lot of SF that straddles the YA/adult line but this book seems pretty much in the adult category to me as a result (and yeah, the AI/human relationship). Which is not to say don't have your nine year old read it but I think if it were me I'd consider reading it along with him.
posted by jessamyn at 7:30 AM on July 2, 2018

it's sort of simple (simple in the way of dull adult books, not simple in the way of profound children's books, unfortunately). but I wouldn't advise censoring on that basis. if he has the perseverance to get through it, he is mature enough not to be harmed by the content even if he doesn't understand all of it. that is specifically a judgment on this book, not a rule I go by for all books.

I don't think it is sexist or sexual enough to unsettle him in any damaging way, but that's so personal and unpredictable. the very first sex scene he ever reads will probably stay with him a long time, but you can't really know or control what that will be. the ones in this book are not terribly memorable, to this adult.
posted by queenofbithynia at 10:51 AM on July 2, 2018

I think 9 is a little young for it. 12 or 13 I would say absolutely, but maybe not 9. Oddly enough I would have way less compunctions about the sequel - I just read both of them in one long hungover day. But there is a fair amount of casual drug use, plenty of (not at all explicit but still there) sex and, hmm, it’s just not really intended for kids? And he might be bored or irritated and turned off SF forever and that would suck, so I’d vote for downloading some YA space adventures instead.
posted by mygothlaundry at 11:17 AM on July 2, 2018

Absolutely yes. It has some (very loving) sex and some challenging concepts, but it's far more kid appropriate than 99% of action movies or Law and Order episodes. Most of the book is about nuanced, caring, complicated, platonic relationships between the main characters, not really any plot per se. Wayyyyyy more appropriate than Piers Anthony or even Twilight.
posted by miyabo at 12:38 PM on July 2, 2018

I think it's fine if he's interested. I thought the AI sex/romance part was really good and interesting although the explicit discussion of sex might make a 9 year old uncomfortable. My vote: let him read it. He may not finish it.
posted by latkes at 1:16 PM on July 2, 2018

Aside from the sex and drugs, the characters visit a non-human community in which children aren't really considered to be people. Might make for some interesting conversations if the kid gets that far.
posted by asperity at 2:39 PM on July 2, 2018

How much violence is ok? There isn't a lot, but there is some.

My memory is fuzzy, but isn't one of the characters incarcerated and brutalized/tortured in one of the chapters (the snippy engineer that no one likes)? That specific type of violence might be extra upsetting.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 8:43 AM on July 3, 2018

Fortunately, he got distracted by a new graphic novel and forgot about it, giving me much more time to get around to it myself and make a decision!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:51 PM on August 2, 2018