Help! Is Culture series ok for 9 yr old?

[jmkemp]

My 11 year old son wanted to read it, I think on reading this thread I'll point him at Player of Games instead. I'd forgotten the cannibal bits of Consider Phlebas, I must re-read them all sometime soon!

Thanks all for contributions, helped me too.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Thanks all for contributions, helped me too.

Glad we could, and welcome to the chrons forums.

 

[Danny McG]

He's started so let him finish so long as he tells you if anything worries him.
Don't go too deep into explanations as it just confuses at that age.
I remember reading one of my dad's war stories when I was off school ill age nine (am sure of my age cos was ill on my birthday).
I looked up at my mother perplexed and asked "what does raped mean?"
Reply was " a man attacks a woman"
I spent the next couple of years convinced that, when I read about wife beaters in newspapers, these men were rapists.
Think I was like eleven and a half when understanding fully dawned.
As to bad language in books, just listen in to a bunch of kids when they think the adults are out of earshot! The swearing makes my teenage years in a coal mine seem like a bible class

 

[AndrewT]

I would not recommend these to children at all. There is so much other better material for them to read. Very few youngsters would be able to follow the plot in Use of Weapons. I'm still not sure if there was a plot anyhow.

 

[jmkemp]

What would you recommend for a bright youngster with an interest in SF AndrewT?

 

[tinkerdan]

The beginning of this book has some elements that might well appeal to a 9 year old it's unfortunate that it doesn't stay within that age level. I for one found the whole thing rather disappointing and would probably have to bow out on trying to read it with my child(grandchild), as I couldn't force myself through it for a second time. It wasn't so much the the banality or overriding sex and violence and cannibalism as the lack of form or purpose within what might narrowly be described as a plot. Too many jaunts into senseless adventures that were much less entertaining than Johnathan Swifts Gulliver's Travels.

I'd probably just say, "Good luck getting through that and making any sense of it."