Beyond Selidor

I did read Pagan's Daughter, but I didn't like it as much as the books featuring actual Pagan.

That seems to be the general consensus. I did miss Pagan's voice a lot when reading it, but I just loved Babylonne so much that I think the book ended up being my second-favourite in the series. I think I subconsciously decided that writing fic capturing Pagan's voice was too hard, so I stuck to writing other characters.

Let me just talk about Nick for a second. I am just very fond of the way Sarah Rees Brennan presents humanity and family and love as things that can be learnt. I mean, to make a comparison - there's none of JK Rowling's "born from a loveless union? You are incapable of feeling love" thing here. Also, I care a lot about the relationship between Nick and Alan! Fictional sibling relationships are just absolutely my thing.

Yes, me too! I like how Sarah Rees Brennan writes siblings in general (Angela and Rusty are great in The Lynburn Legacy books as well), and Alan and Nick's relationship is particularly well done. I have lots of sisters, and I often find that fictional depictions of sibling relationships don't portray them accurately. But Nick and Alan have that fabulous mixture of mutual concern and protectiveness, love built on shared experiences, and realistic frustration on occasion. (I like the other sibling relationships in the series too - Mae and Jamie, and Sin and her younger siblings.)

Mae is probably my favourite character, followed by Nick and Sin. I just really like characters who have no superpowers, or background knowledge of the supernatural world, who wind up as part of a group of supernatural/superpowered individuals, with nothing more than their wits to keep them safe. I also love characters who use words as defensive weapons (although this could probably describe any of Sarah Rees Brennan's characters, not just Mae). I also just adore the fact that she's realistically frightened by the things she faces, and has a realistic estimation of her abilities, takes help when it's offered, but ultimately wants to control her own destiny (rejecting Nick's offer to get things for her by supernatural means, and so on).

I really must reread the Tomorrow series. It's been so long, but I forever have love for the mismatched group of people who circumstances force to work to a common goal trope, and also, war stories set in Australia? Yes please.

For me, the powerful thing about the Tomorrow series was that it took the things that adults normally deplore in teenagers - their adaptability, intense friendships, and deeply felt emotions - and made them heroic, demonstrating that these were the reasons they were able to survive the invasion where inflexible adults could not. Also, the fact that the series focused the minds of an entire generation of Australian teenagers on the realities of wars that were taking place beyond their borders, particularly the way they affected every aspect of people's lives and existences.

I used to be a book reviewer, and I had the good fortune to interview John Marsden at one point. It was terribly unprofessional of me, but after the interview was done, I gushingly thanked him for being such a presence in my teenage years, and for how important his stories were to me and my friends. I'm glad I got that opportunity.

I feel like we must collect all us people who were reading YA in Australia in the 90s and early 2000s and get some fandom going.

If there's interest, I could start up some kind of Dreamwidth comm and/or themed Tumblr for this. I just need to come up with a catchy name!