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I was today years old when I found out that William Sleator’s House of Stairs, Interstellar Pig and its sequel Parasite Pig have been finally ebooked.
I have absolutely no authority to assign any summer reading but I am doing so anyway. Underrated classics by an LGBT author deserve to be appreciated.
have you read Interstellar Pig, by William Sleator (1984)?
yes
no
vote yes if you have finished the entire book. vote no if you have not finished the entire book.
(faq · submit a book)
30-second Sci-Fi Book Review #170 A look at William Sleator's body of work.
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Thoughts on Interstellar Pig and Parasite Pig
Since I read both books close together and both over a number of days, the timing turned out where I could review them both in one post.
Interstellar Pig by William Sleator
Usually with my reviews, I try to be fair to the book. I will not be fair in regards to Interstellar Pig because it is one of my all-time favorite books and I love it to pieces.
I haven’t read the book in close to over 10 years or so, because I was a ding dong and decided that “the next time I read the book, I’ll take notes so I can make my own version of Interstellar Pig”. That never happened, for one reason or another, I never got around to doing it and as such, never got back around to reading the book again until last week.
Even with all that time, I still remembered so much about it clearly. I was a little worried that it wouldn’t hold up to my memories, and in a way, it was even better than I remembered.
The writing is great, it’s descriptive when it needs to be, but it doesn’t bog things down.
The characters are a lot of fun (however, you don’t really learn a lot about them) and there’s a lot about the book that captures the imagination. There’s mysteries and plot twists and even if you figure them out before they’re revealed (which isn’t hard, especially if you read certain descriptions of the book), it’s a blast to see how they unfold.
There’s so much I love about this book, I’ve always wanted to write or RP using some of the elements from it, at one point, when I was much younger, I wanted to use Neopets’ Neopian Adventure Generator to make some ridiculously complicated story based on it with 4 different paths involving different alien characters (I believe one was going to be Invader Zim) and all the stories connected to each other. This never happened and I don’t think I have any story notes on it. (I just found out that the Adventure Generator was gotten rid of in 2009, I’m pretty sure I was wanting to use in between 2000 and 2005, so that’s how long this thing has been brewing.)
I remember on Disney’s old game VMK (Virtual Magic Kingdom), someone asked me what my favorite book was. I tried to tell them “Interstellar Pig”, but the super strict word filters turned it into “### Pig”. No matter what synonyms I tried, it was always “### Pig”. XD I think the person I was talking to eventually changed the topic around my “### Pig”s. XD
I have loads of history with this book, I first read it at my local library and later I got a copy of it for my birthday.
At one point, Nickelodeon was supposed to be making a movie from the book and there were going to be video games based on it. Unfortunately, this never happened.
With all that being said, though, the book isn’t perfect. But, it’s pretty darn close.
The game in the book has captured other people’s imaginations as well, I’ve found a handful of things talking about people trying to make their own copy of it.
There are two versions that I know of that are available for people to play. I haven’t tried either of them yet, so I don’t know how good they are.
The first one is Extraterrestrial Grail. There’s a free, downloadable version and a physical version you can buy.
The other one is Chaosmos, which I just found out about recently. It comes in a physical board game version only. (It’s also on Amazon, so after I buy the collector’s edition of Heart of the Swarm and maybe a couple other things, I think I’m gonna start saving my Bing.com rewards gift certificates towards it.)
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Parasite Pig by William Sleator
On paper, I should love this book. It’s a sequel to one of my favorite books, written by one of my favorite authors, and the paperback version was published on my birthday.
When I first read it, I hated it. I haven’t read it since that first time all those years ago. I was dreading reading it, but, in the end, either time or the fact that it was my second reading, I didn’t dislike it as much I as did originally.
That being said, I don’t exactly like the book. I like parts of it, bits and pieces are nice and the beginning starts out pretty good. But, then right around the middle, it drags on and kinda stalls. It starts picking up again, but then kinda turns into a chaotic mess.
There’s at least one point that’s raised that doesn’t make a lot of sense and it’s never explained. There are easy ways to headcanon it away, but I would like to know the real answer.
Everything is (mostly) wrapped up so neatly, even things that had lingered from the first book. There is an Or Is It? sort of ending, but it’s done so half-heartedly, it describes how everything is finished and this just goes Or Is It? I understand that a neat ending makes sense, but at the same time, it’s so frustrating, you can kind of see the author checking off boxes to tidy up problems one by one.
I just...it kind of makes me sad. I love the first book so much and this second book is kind of a huge disappointment and it’s frustrating. It’s not a bad book by any means, I don’t think, but as a sequel to Interstellar Pig, it just doesn’t stand up to the original.
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I think the next book I’m going to try to read is Singularity, also by William Sleator. Like Parasite Pig, I didn’t enjoy my first reading of it, I’m hoping time will make me see it in a different light. Also, I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, as there’s something that reminded me of it and I keep having AU crossover thoughts with it.
I’m sorry for these two reviews being more emotional than my Starcraft book reviews, Interstellar Pig just means a lot to me.
I’ve been re-reading an old favorite book for the first time in too long and I think it might be the source of my fascination with spiderladies. XD There’s a character that’s been described as a spider-lady at least twice so far. XD
I think she’s mostly spider, though, except for some of her face. XD
Interstellar Pig AUs
You know what book I liked when I was in middle school?
It was this YA Sci-Fi duology called Interstellar Pig and Parasite Pig. It was about aliens, and all centered around this board game that I thought sounded really cool.
I still want to play that board game.
10 Books Meme!
Rules: In a text post, list ten books that have stayed with you in some way. Don’t take but a few minutes, and don’t think too hard — they don’t have to be the “right” or “great” works, just the ones that have touched you. Tag ten people, including me, so I’ll see your list. Make sure you let your friends know you’ve tagged them.
Tagged by: alex-the-nonsensologist here
I was tagged in the 10 books meme by alex-the-nonsensologist! (Doing this on my main, because Space Cadet hasn't read any books. XD )
This is going to be interesting. XD (Looking back after I wrote this, I just went with my favorites, it seems. XD )
Let's see...
1. Interstellar Pig by William Sleator - I read this book when I was younger, found it in the library and thought it was just about the coolest thing ever. It's been years since I've re-read it, but I plan on fixing that soon. It's also possibly the source for the first spiderlady I ever read about. XD Sadly, I didn't enjoy the sequel, Parasite Pig, as much, but maybe after all these years, I'll like it better on a second read.
2. Sentenced to Prism by Alan Dean Foster - I read this book in middle school, I found it in the library, but the expression on the guy's face on the cover creeped me out. However, it sounded too interesting to resist, so I decided to "not judge a book by it's cover" and I'm glad I did. ^_^ My school's library didn't care too much about their paperback books and I worked in the library in the mornings, so when I returned the book, my librarian said I could keep it and I gladly did. :D It's another one I need to re-read.
3. Dinotopia by James Gurney - I believe that I read this book in elementary school. Dinosaurs and people living together on an awesome island? Sign me up! I think my copy is from my middle school as well, the binding came undone, so all the pages fell out in a chunk. It's complete, just not together. XD As far as I know, I've got ALL of the Dinotopia books, including the paperback kids' books and the two by Alan Dean Foster, but the original stands out. ^_^
4. Raptor Red by Robert T. Bakker - I read this when I was young, my home library had it and I loved it. Raptor adventures? YEAH! Though, ha ha, I looked it up not too long ago and people consider it a romance book and I was SURPRISED to see that. XD
5. Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville - I read this book in elementary school and thought it was amazing. It's possible that I cried during it, but I can't clearly remember. One of these days, I plan on finding a ring with a teardrop shaped diamond (or imitation diamond), just like the one in the book. For some reason, I always associate this book with the next one on my list.
6. No Flying in the House by Betty Brock - I read this one around the same time as Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher. It's a really neat book, though, if I remember right, this is also one with a bittersweet ending for one character (but there's still hope).
7. The Silver Crown by Robert C. O'Brien - One of my friends in high school let me borrow this one and The Two Princesses of Bamarre at the same time and this one stood out to my by far. It's a pretty cool story, though I tend to have the habit of imagining some of the characters as OTHER fictional characters. XD The American edition is cool, it's got two different endings to it.
8. A Tale of Time City by Diana Wynne Jones - I found this one at my public library and fell in love with it. It's such a neat story and has a lot of really cool concepts.
9. Fire Bringer by David Clement-Davies - My middle school's librarian reccommended the book to me and I'm so very glad she did! It's a fantastic tale and I reread it every few years. I jokingly call it "hardcore Bambi".
10. Dragon of the Lost Sea by Laurence Yep - The first in the Dragon Series (followed by Dragon Steel, Dragon Cauldron, and Dragon War). I found it at my public library and enjoyed it immensely. However, when I went to middle school, I was delighted to find that there was more than one book in the series and read them all. They all tell a great story and some of the worldbuilding is fantastic. In high school, for a project involving making a Powerpoint, I did it on the book series, instead of my favorite band (I didn't have one at the time, so I asked permission to do it on the Dragon Series instead).
Honorable mention:
The Tales of Uncle Remus: The Adventures of Brer Rabbit, More Tales of Uncle Remus: Further Adventures of Brer Rabbit, His Friends, Enemies, and Others, Further Tales of Uncle Remus: The Misadventures of Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, Brer Wolf, the Doodang, and Other Creatures, and The Last Tales of Uncle Remus by Julius Lester - I found these four books at my middle school library and was fascinated by them. I got another friend to read them and when she was mentioning stuff she said was happening in one book, but I knew it was in another, I discovered that two of the books' covers had been accidentally switched, so I took them to the librarian and she sorted them out. :D I read them several times throughout my 3 years in middle school and years later, I found and bought a compilation book that contained all of them (Uncle Remus: The Complete Tales).
