When it amount to get word strange new worlds , there ’s nothing like a unseasoned protagonist venturing out into a world where it feel like utterly anything can happen . Many of science fabrication and fancy ’s coolest stories are about coming of eld — but coming of age , in the last , intend drop off your pureness and confronting the terrible verity about the world .
Here are some of the dark approaching of eld story from the cosmos of science fiction and fantasy .
Top icon : Luke ’s vision of Vader on Dagobah , byJason Eden[Link NSFW ]
In many of the best stories about growing up , there is a confrontation with existential repulsion — the hero sandwich comes case to face with something unthinkable . In many cases , it ’s facing up to the terrors of the prominent world , or the fact that society lies to everybody . But often , in the right stories , it ’s more about the fighter confronting his or her own inner monster . The departure of artlessness come from the hero realizing the evil that he or she is in reality capable of . The classic example of this is probably Lord of the Flies , although it ’s not strictly SF .
So here are some coming - of - eld history where the hero confronts substantial darkness … With spoilers for old leger and movies .
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
In the first Holy Scripture of the trilogy , Katniss is a fairly innocent hero who ’s trying to avoid being turned into too much of a devil by the Games — but by the third book of account , she ’s pretty well-situated with killing hoi polloi . And meanwhile , she ’s find that all authority figure of speech lie , even the 1 on her own side , and then there ’s the transformation that Peeta get going through .
The Harry Potter Books by J.K. Rowling
I ’m mostly imagine of the death of Dumbledore and the subsequent long stretching of being strand in the woods — but also the whole stretch in Order of the Phoenix where Dolores Umbridge is storm Harry to indite with the blood quill , carve words into his own hand .
A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin
In the first Earthsea book , Ged confronts one of the most genuine expression of a personal shadow — a nameless force that he summoned in his hubris , and must defeat somehow . In the 2d book , Tenar is raised as a priestess of the Nameless Ones , but must slowly see that they are not what she believed .
Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
Sure , Ender ’s Game is the one in which Ender realizes that he ’s been used as the legal instrument of xenocide by the military formation — but Speaker is glum , and it ’s the record book where Ender really grows up and deal with the lasting moment . The descolada , a mortal plague , is a universal horror , the unraveling of aliveness .
Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban
In a post - apocalyptic world , long after a nuclear warfare , 12 - year - old Riddley Walkerhas the ultimate dreadful derive - of - age experience : his father dies , he ’s befriended by the forbidden coterie of wild Canis familiaris , and he ’s tangle in a plot to rediscover the enigma of nuclear artillery .
“ The Professor ’s Teddy Bear ” by Theodore Sturgeon
you’re able to read this story about a boy and a devil that teach him that “ the agony of dying was to be promoted and enjoyed ” in its entiretyhere .
Roderick , or the Education of a Young Machine by John Sladek
Roderick is a young robot who ’s cultivate about humanity whole by watching television — until he ’s deal off to become a fake fortune bank clerk , and discovers just how ugly man actually is .
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
This is one of the Graeco-Roman stories about a untrue utopia , where everybody is made “ pretty ” around their sixteenth birthday — and in particular , it has a with child case of a hero ( Tally ) identify that everything she ’s grown up believing is pretended , and the world is broken .
Something Wicked This path Comes by Ray Bradbury
Two 13 - year - old boys , Jim and Will , face an evil traveling carnival , with the terrible Mr. Dark and the Dust Witch , in this nightmarish fable about facing up to evil .
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
John Savage confronts the “ civilized ” earth of Soma and orgies , but in the end he and this decadant society both corrupt each other .
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
This novel about clone kids who are set up to be spare parts is notable for two losses of innocence — first , the kids realize that the story of an exemption from the donations for any couple who are truly in love is bastard . And second , Kathy winds up become complicit in the system that destroys her and her acquaintance .
Swastika Night by Katherine Burdekin
This novel , published in 1937 , ask place 700 years in the future — in a world where the Nazis have rule the world for centuries , and Adolf Hitler is hero-worship as a tall blond god who personally piloted a crucial hero carpenter’s plane . Young Alfred larn the terrible truth about the Nazi regime , shattering everything he ’s been brought up to believe .
Dune by Frank Herbert
Young Paul Atreides come to the planet Arrakis with his family — and is forced to confront fearful calamity , before he can become the zep he ’s destined to be .
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia McKillip
Sybel has been hold and raised on the mountain of Eld , and has only known sorcerous creatures for company — until her sixteenth birthday , whenshe ’s yield a baby to worry for , and has to face a worldly concern torn by war .
Halfway Human by Carolyn Ives Gilman
Tedla is hold on the planet Gammadis , where everybody is born with no gender — until puberty , when people become either male or female . Except for a few “ blands , ” who remain genderless for life and are treated as childlike - given slaves , set only for menial body of work . This is one book where coming of age literally includes the fear of not getting to become a person at all , in the eye of high society .
Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson
The immature Tan - Tan develop up on the utopian next major planet of Toussaint — until her forefather commits a crime and flees with her in tow , to theshadow world of New Half - Way Tree , where the exiled criminals have created their own guild . And Caribbean folklore is real . Tan - Tan must take on the identity of the “ midnight robber ” to survive and become a fair sex .
The Tooth Fairy by Graham Joyce
Werecently praisedJoyce ’s Some Kind of Fairy Tale for , among other things , its great portrayal of adolescence . But this book is more focussed on male adolescence in all its strangeness and apprehension — Sam is part of a group of wild boy who go around wreaking havoc in their gondola - factory town … until the Tooth Fairy appears by his bedside . But the Tooth Fairy is a minacious , sexually ambiguous figure , a expression of pure id . Read an excerpt here .
https://gizmodo.com/the-most-brilliant-fairy-tale-novel-weve-read-in-years-5930327
Rite of Passage by Alexi Panshin
This Nebula Award - winning novel is perhaps the most literal deterrent example of the “ coming of historic period narration ” you could imagine — fourteen - class - sure-enough Mia Havero is a settler on instrument panel one of the ships that live Earth ’s destruction . And she ’s sent out on a ritual psychometric test of adulthood : surviving 30 mean solar day alone on a dependency creation , with nothing but her wits . On the major planet , she face up slavery , inhumanity , and the unnaturalness of her own society ’s focal point on eugenics .
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
Todd is the last boy in a settlement where all the woman are drained — and he ’s forced to go on the run with a mysterious fille he meets , find in the procedure that everything he ’s screw is a lie and the rite of passage he ’s been doom for involves dreadful slaying .
“ Bloodchild ” by Octavia Butler
In this Nebula- and Hugo - come through story , Gan is a boy on an foreign world , who ’s been raised to be a common carrier for the eggs of the native Tlic species — and he derive to question his office in this ecosystem , before lastly being able to make a decision for himself . you’re able to read the storyhere , and there ’s a whole website devoted to ithere .
Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The first book of the Kingkiller Chronicle tells the story of how Kvothe went from a member of a company of traveling players to one of the most notorious wizards of all time — including the murder of a king and his subsequent escape . you may read an excerpthere .
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
The confrontation between Meg and IT , the evil disembodied brain that has captured her blood brother Charles Wallace , still throw me goosebumps . It ’s one of the respectable “ confront the evil of the world ” sequences ever .
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Jonas is chosen to be the Receiver of Memories for a community that has banished negative emotions and experience , and he ’s go under asunder from the others by his awareness of sorrow . When his family fosters a baby that ’s afterwards doom to be “ Released , ” Jonas — like so many others on this inclination — goes on the run , alone .
Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Frodo and Sam confront literal swarthiness , pursue by the Ringwraiths , but also the darkness of the soul that comes from the One Ring .
Star Wars : The Original Trilogy
specially in Empire Strikes Back , Luke not only watch that Darth Vader is his father — he symbolically confronts the apprehensiveness that he will become another Darth Vader himself . And Luke distinctly prepare the improper pick , rushing to rescue Han , Leia and his other friends alternatively of completing his preparation and trusting the Force — something that brings him right up to the edge of darkness .
source : Nursery kingdom : kid in the Worlds of Science Fiction , Fantasy and Horror , edited by Gary Westfahl and George Slusser . Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy : Overviews by Robin Anne Reid . SFFWorld discussion . Also thanks to Sheerly Avni , Tim Pratt , Laura Quilter , Lou Anders and Alyssa Rosenberg .
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