Books

[shipperx]

Finished reading Doomsday Book last weekend.  What a grim yet lovely book.   A little overlong but definitely rewarding (and devastatingly sad in places.  But, you know, the Black Plague and an Avian Flu epidemic are always going to be sad. They're going to need to send poor time travelling Kivrin on a long vacation after that... and possibly into therapy. )

Devoured The Hunger Games (Book I) today.   Damn.  It's straight-up awesome.  Loved it!  Loved Katniss, who kicks major ass and is a wonderful heroine (who makes me think of a young Aeryn Sun).  Rue completely broke my heart into a thousand pieces, and  Peeta... *swoon*. 

Really. Just loved it.  Now I have to read the whole series.

And I also now have a dilemma.  What do I read next?  I've been waiting for six months for the answer to Connie Willis's cliffhanger-ending to Blackout and pre-ordered the sequel All Clear months ago. According to my e-mail, Amazon shipped it today. 

OR I can devour the rest of the Hunger Games trilogy  Catching Fire and Mockingjay.

That's not even taking into account that there's a Harry Dresden book being released this month. 

However, I strongly suspect that this Harry Dresden anthology isn't going to actually answer the cliffhanger from the last book (my understanding is that the part of the anthology that deals with the cliffhanger from Changes is going to be told from Murphy's POV, so I suspect that it isn't going to actually answer the cliffhanger... which is why it currently ranks lower on my 'to read' list than the two remaining books in The Hunger Games  and the Connie Willis sequel).

Let me just finish by saying that The Hunger Games completely sucked me in.  All the way.  I may have something more coherent to write about it later.  Right now I'm bleary-eyed and needing to go to bed.  I just couldn't sleep without finishing Book 1.

Comments

[flake-sake.livejournal.com]

I'm just reading Mockingjay and I agree the series is really exciting. I listened to the first book, which was a huge mistake since the actress reading it was terrible, but the books themselves are very intriguing.

The only gripe I have with them is that she has a hard time getting from the smaller scope to the bigger one. The second book seems to be a bit at a loss how to do that, but the third one is pretty much fantastic so far.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I had issues with the beginning of Catching Fire because I really didn't think that her stance with the berries in Hunger Games seemed to be much of a political statement. I thought it would come off as very Romeo and Juliet and a smart move in that light inasmuch as in selling the drama of it all, because I can't imagine that The Games could have gotten away with the ending where 'the starcrossed lovers' died. It is partly bread and circuses and so I would think they'd have wanted to sell the storyline to the masses. I didn't think the ending was quite as much of an embarrassment to the State as her compassion was. I would've thought her (and Thresh's and Peeta's) refusal to kill each other owuld have been a bigger problem for them. That they could sell her and Peeta as starcrossed lovers was a better out than admitting that they simply refused to buckle to the rules of the game.

Which, quite frankly, is what I had thought midway through Catching Fire would happen. I kept waiting for the Tributs to refuse to kill one another in which case the 'real enemy' is the state. Forcing the state to come and kill them would have been a Spartacus moment. Though, it was still a breathless cliffhanger as an eding.

[2maggie2.livejournal.com]

Doomsday Book is one of my favorites!

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I found it quite interesting and in it's strange, haunting way, lovely.

Probably shouldn't have followed it up with something as grim as The Hunger Games though. I think I need to read something light soon!

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

I think you should go ahead and finish the Hunger Games trilogy because all the details from bk 1 will be fresh in your mind that way. (And if you read Catching Fire you'll want to dive right into Mockingjay.) On the plus side, they're so relentlessly driven that you'll read them really quickly and you can get back to the Connie Willis book :D

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

These are definitely page turners. Finished Catching Fire tonight (and now have GOT to go to bed) but I'll definitely be reading Mockingjay this weekend.

[molly_may]

I read Doomsday Book when I was in college, and loved it, but it messed me up for days with just how sad and heartbreaking it was. Speaking of Connie Willis, I generally don't care for short stories, but her collections Fire Watch and Impossible Things are both excellent, and many of the stories, especially in Impossible Things showcase the screwball humor that she used so effectively in To Say Nothing of the Dog.

I'm actually a big Connie Willis fangirl, but I haven't read Blackout yet, though now that the sequel is out I think I'll probably be picking it up soon.

Allll of that said, my vote would be to go ahead and finish The Hunger Games trilogy. I read them in quick succession, and I think the impact was stronger because of it. Heh, I might wait until the weekend when you don't need as much sleep to get started though, because those books are pure crack.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I've finished Catching Fire now, so just Mockingjay to go.

And I may need to reread To Say Nothing of the Dog, because I think I need some fluffy humor!

[emac66.livejournal.com]

My daughter just took Hunger Games out from the library. She is devouring it. Says it's a fabulous book so far.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

It's definitely a page turner. Dark. Very dark. But quite compellingly so.

[emac66.livejournal.com]

hmmmmmmm...now a little concerned. My dd is 14. is it appropriate? got it from her hi school library for the accelerated reading program. should I be concerned?

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I'm sure it varies by person and by reader. Some are more sensitive to violence than others, but it is a violence with a purpose.

The underlying theme, to me, is very much anti-war, showing how young people are sent to war and how it is, indeed brutal. Many people are killed in the story, though, and emotionally takes its toll on the heroine and the reader. The love story is very pure and innocent (which is why it's so moving).

SPOILERS below:::

It's post-apocalyptic. Some time many decades earlier the U.S. fell and the fascist state of Panem took its place. Panem was divided into 13 districts. There was a rebellion, that the Capital put down brutally, completely annhillating the 13th district and more or less enslaving the other 12. All wealth and luxury is concentrated in the Capital. The other districts are run by the Peacekeepers. The heroine appears to be in perhaps the least brutal of the districts as they are a very poor, very small district.

One thing the Capital does as its show of power and to keep the districts in line is have a lottery each year where the names of one boy and one girl are chosen and they are sent to the gladitorial 'arena', which is like Survivor meets Gladiator and where 24 tributes enter, but only 1 leaves.

The heroine's little sister is chosen for this years tribute, but the heroine cannot take that and volunteers to take her sister's place. Also chosen is the baker's oldest son Peeta, who showed great compassion to Katniss, the heroine, after her father died when she was a child, and more or less saved her life by providing her food. She tries not to grow close to him, because only one can survive. But, Peeta is pretty darn impossible to dislike. He's deep down, soul-deep good... and has been in love with Katniss since they were kids.

Since the Hunger Games are both an instrument of totalitarian control for the Districts and reality TV for Capital citizenry/elite (whose own sons and daughters are never, ever entered into the games), it tends to be streamlined into storlines for Capital citizens entertainment. Katniss and Peeta's handlers hit upon the idea of playing Katniss and Peeta up to the audience as starcrossed lovers (which is truly what Peeta is). Katniss is far more confused by it all.

Before being plunged into the arena Peeta tells Katniss that all he wants is to "Die as who I am. I don't want to become a monster." Still focused on survival Katniss doesn't fully comprehend. But, once in the arena, she learns. It's easy to become a monster there. But she ends up becoming the defender of the youngest tribute Rue (who is only 12) and ends up teaming up with Peeta in the hopes that one of them can survive.

As heroine, in the first two books (haven't read the third) Katniss doesn't kill so much as defend herself and others, so it's certainly possible to root for her.

As the books progress it progresses toward revolution with the districts trying to revolt against the Capital, so what began as a gladitorial type thing eventually becomes a rebellion. And yeah, lots of people die in a series of heartbreaking ways.

Bookwise I'd consider it appropriate for a teen reader. But I wouldn't put it all they way down to middle school. I would consider it 13 and up for reading (though I don't know how they can film this and keep the power of it and santitize the violence enough for a PG rating. For some reason it always bothers me more in movies than in books).

[emac66.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the input. My daughter told me a bit about it and it kind of reminded me a little of Lord of the Flies. As long as it's age appropriate I'm not too concerned. there's a difference in maturity levels in grade 9 adn grade 12. As long as it's not too much for her I'm content. thank you again.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I don't think the violence is as senseless aas in Lord of the Flies. It serves a purpose in the story. I tend to think that it's fine for a fourteen year old. It's not all that graphic, it's just that you know that a lot of good, decent people die. But we're supposed to be outraged by that in the story so I don't have a problem with the way that it's handled... though there are many places that make me cry.

[green-maia.livejournal.com]

I love The Doomsday Book.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

It was lovely. Grim but lovely. I probably shouldn't have followed it with something as dark as The Hunger Games as compelling as that one is, sheesh, it's dark.