My alternate office (was my main office for quite a while, but I only go there occasionally, of late) where I work has TV, generally tuned to CNN. Today, I noticed them putting a note in the chyron about The Hunger Games books outselling Harry Potter, series vs series.
For a couple of different reasons, I was quite incredulous about that. For one, I think Harry Potter is a better series. For another, it's been out a lot longer, and set all kinds of records as each successive volume was released.
But, upon further consideration, they probably meant that the Hunger Games series sells more books, week to week, than Harry Potter does now. And that I can believe (it's still a bit surprising, but doesn't seem impossible). It's a lot easier to get into a three-volume series than a seven-volume one. And there's only one movie, so that's even easier.
I did find it a bit ironic, though, it coming up now, because I just started re-reading The Hunger Games yesterday. I'm hoping that it stands up to closer scrutiny; I think it will, but it can be hard to tell (Harry Potter, by comparison, I've read several times, though only twice since the seventh tome was released).
Showing posts with label suzanne collins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label suzanne collins. Show all posts
20120821
20120327
Stay hungry, my friends
I mentioned that my wife and I managed to go out on Friday, missing the Caps game against the Jets. We were going to see The Artist, but my wife decided she couldn't sit through a silent movie. So we ended up going to The Hunger Games. (It being opening night, I was surprised we didn't have trouble getting tickets (or seats), but I think that was just because we went to such and early show. There were already lines for later shows when we got to the theater.)
And, to my surprise, my wife, who went into it knowing, "that she [Katniss] did something to help her sister". I didn't think it was her style, plus she knew nothing of it, so I wasn't at all sure she'd be happy with it. But she liked it quite a bit.
They did some very interesting things in the adaptation. Instead of staying totally in Kat's perspective, they cut away to a cut-from-whole-cloth control room during parts of the Games sequences. They made things a little confusing in at least one way, with the dogs at the end, but it was a cool thing to see. They also showed President Snow pushing his weight around a bit behind the scenes (my guess is that Donald Sutherland insisted on having more screen time). The rule changes also seemed much more abrupt and capricious.
My main disappointments with the movie were the removal of Madge, making the Mockingjay pin a gift from someone (Greasy Sae?) in the Hob (I know the woman next to me read the book, because when this happened, I let slip a "What?", and she said, "I know" in an agreeing tone). Prim was also even weaker than in the book. And the entrance of the "Girl on Fire" was pretty lame. It just did nothing for me, at all.
One thing that really hit me was the difference in appearance of Kat's behavior, when you didn't have her thoughts to go along with her actions. Her behavior towards Peeta seemed really terrible, and mercenary. I think that was not an accident (nor do I necessarily think it was "wrong"), but it felt a whole lot different.
A smaller one that I had mixed feelings about was when Kat was judged for "deadliness" just before the start of the games. She got back to her apartment, and everyone knew what she had done. Haymitch's reaction, as well as Effie's, were both good, and played on each other well. But I liked it better where they asked what she had done and she just said something like, "I got their attention". Perhaps that would have been too hard to do without knowing her thoughts on the matter, though.
We also only got to see some of the baggage between Peeta and Kat. My guess, though, is that that was just a matter of screen time. It was interesting, the way they did it, but a little weird, too. Because not only did we not see all of the situation, but what we did see was spread out a bit as well.
The last thing that felt missing was the explanation for the mockingjay. They said what the pin was, but didn't touch on its significance. I imagine they'll have to do that in the second movie. Certainly, they'll need to before they get too far into the third.
Overall, I thought it was very good. Not perfect, but very good. I don't think I'll go see it again in the theater, but I'll certainly buy it on blu-ray, when the time comes.
And, to my surprise, my wife, who went into it knowing, "that she [Katniss] did something to help her sister". I didn't think it was her style, plus she knew nothing of it, so I wasn't at all sure she'd be happy with it. But she liked it quite a bit.
They did some very interesting things in the adaptation. Instead of staying totally in Kat's perspective, they cut away to a cut-from-whole-cloth control room during parts of the Games sequences. They made things a little confusing in at least one way, with the dogs at the end, but it was a cool thing to see. They also showed President Snow pushing his weight around a bit behind the scenes (my guess is that Donald Sutherland insisted on having more screen time). The rule changes also seemed much more abrupt and capricious.
My main disappointments with the movie were the removal of Madge, making the Mockingjay pin a gift from someone (Greasy Sae?) in the Hob (I know the woman next to me read the book, because when this happened, I let slip a "What?", and she said, "I know" in an agreeing tone). Prim was also even weaker than in the book. And the entrance of the "Girl on Fire" was pretty lame. It just did nothing for me, at all.
One thing that really hit me was the difference in appearance of Kat's behavior, when you didn't have her thoughts to go along with her actions. Her behavior towards Peeta seemed really terrible, and mercenary. I think that was not an accident (nor do I necessarily think it was "wrong"), but it felt a whole lot different.
A smaller one that I had mixed feelings about was when Kat was judged for "deadliness" just before the start of the games. She got back to her apartment, and everyone knew what she had done. Haymitch's reaction, as well as Effie's, were both good, and played on each other well. But I liked it better where they asked what she had done and she just said something like, "I got their attention". Perhaps that would have been too hard to do without knowing her thoughts on the matter, though.
We also only got to see some of the baggage between Peeta and Kat. My guess, though, is that that was just a matter of screen time. It was interesting, the way they did it, but a little weird, too. Because not only did we not see all of the situation, but what we did see was spread out a bit as well.
The last thing that felt missing was the explanation for the mockingjay. They said what the pin was, but didn't touch on its significance. I imagine they'll have to do that in the second movie. Certainly, they'll need to before they get too far into the third.
Overall, I thought it was very good. Not perfect, but very good. I don't think I'll go see it again in the theater, but I'll certainly buy it on blu-ray, when the time comes.
20120302
Vive la revolution
Mockingjay arrived very quickly (I'd like to say, as usual with Amazon, but they've managed to screw up two of my orders since then (actually, maybe three; one looks suspicious)), and I blitzed through it a couple of nights ago.
As expected, this is where the revolution became an open one, and tracks the course of the revolution.
Kat is wanted to be the face of the revolution, which she eventually agrees to do. One good thing about this book was the process by which that occurred. I liked that it was not an instantaneous thing, that she had to work up the courage to do it.
In fact, I liked almost everything about the book. The last twenty or so pages were fairly weak, but it was really amazing up to that point. My gripes at the end are that I didn't like the way the final mission was handled, didn't think much of the parachute stratagem, and thought ending in obscurity was a bit... unlikely.
The issue with the final mission is that I don't see why so much of the book would be dedicated to a bunch of people dying in a failed attempt. I guess I can see some possible reasons (wanting to show the horror, and frequent lack of glory, in war, perhaps), but from a story perspective, it seems odd, at best. I suspect the ending will be changed pretty significantly in the movie, because of that. Hollywood really doesn't like that style of ending (and, to be honest, this is a case where I didn't like it either).
The parachute stratagem bugged me because, while I understand why they'd have that strategy available, when and how they used it made no sense whatsoever. It wouldn't help militarily, and you certainly don't set up something like that to kill your own medical staff. Especially when you don't have a surfeit of such staff.
I also don't understand why Kat survived. We're told the President wanted her dead, the President had her helpless, and she ended up alive somehow. I can't explain that part. It's not like it would have been difficult: order one group to kill her, tell another group that the first did it under someone else's orders, and have the second group kill the first. Then you've got the martyr that you want, along with some heroes (the second group) who can be useful after everything is over.
And having Kat fade back into obscurity just seemed like more than a bit of a stretch. Too many other people would have wanted to use her, in one of dozens of ways, for her to ever be left alone. Ever if she never regained her mental stability, she would have been too useful to let go.
Anyway, despite all that, I thought it was a very good book, and a very good series. I'll probably look out for Ms Collins' other books.
As expected, this is where the revolution became an open one, and tracks the course of the revolution.
Kat is wanted to be the face of the revolution, which she eventually agrees to do. One good thing about this book was the process by which that occurred. I liked that it was not an instantaneous thing, that she had to work up the courage to do it.
In fact, I liked almost everything about the book. The last twenty or so pages were fairly weak, but it was really amazing up to that point. My gripes at the end are that I didn't like the way the final mission was handled, didn't think much of the parachute stratagem, and thought ending in obscurity was a bit... unlikely.
The issue with the final mission is that I don't see why so much of the book would be dedicated to a bunch of people dying in a failed attempt. I guess I can see some possible reasons (wanting to show the horror, and frequent lack of glory, in war, perhaps), but from a story perspective, it seems odd, at best. I suspect the ending will be changed pretty significantly in the movie, because of that. Hollywood really doesn't like that style of ending (and, to be honest, this is a case where I didn't like it either).
The parachute stratagem bugged me because, while I understand why they'd have that strategy available, when and how they used it made no sense whatsoever. It wouldn't help militarily, and you certainly don't set up something like that to kill your own medical staff. Especially when you don't have a surfeit of such staff.
I also don't understand why Kat survived. We're told the President wanted her dead, the President had her helpless, and she ended up alive somehow. I can't explain that part. It's not like it would have been difficult: order one group to kill her, tell another group that the first did it under someone else's orders, and have the second group kill the first. Then you've got the martyr that you want, along with some heroes (the second group) who can be useful after everything is over.
And having Kat fade back into obscurity just seemed like more than a bit of a stretch. Too many other people would have wanted to use her, in one of dozens of ways, for her to ever be left alone. Ever if she never regained her mental stability, she would have been too useful to let go.
Anyway, despite all that, I thought it was a very good book, and a very good series. I'll probably look out for Ms Collins' other books.
20120226
Sparks Flying
I mentioned reading The Hunger Games last week, and having the second book on order.
Well, Amazon outdid themselves, and managed to deliver it on Monday (ordered Saturday). So, not wanting to lose the storyline, I dove right in. It didn't pick up immediately where the last one left off, but not too far from it.
As expected, much of the focus of this one is in moving beyond Kat's significance in the Hunger Games themselves. Unsurprisingly, she has become a bit of a symbol for many others. This is evident very early on, although Kat herself doesn't realize it for quite a long time.
What I found particularly compelling is her gradual conversion from fighting that to embracing it. At first, she wants to quell it, then to run away before she finally accepts how things are. Also, I thought her relationships with Gale and Peeta were extremely well done. I'd want to hit her over the head for how confused she gets at times, but then I remind myself how I was in dealing with the opposite sex at seventeen. And I didn't have anything like the pressure on myself that she had. Nor her reason for not wanting to ever have children.
The big thing I didn't expect was actually revisiting the Hunger Games, and especially not the way it happened. If you're thinking something along the lines of, "Well, it is called the Hunger Games trilogy", I'm fairly sure the third book will not be going there. I guess I'll know for sure when it arrives (Tuesday, hopefully).
Anyway, overall, I think this was a better book than the first one (helped, probably, by not being weighted down by needing to introduce the setting and characters). Certainly, it was harder to put down. Let's hope that continues in the third.
I'm less convinced about a movie working with it, though. I think more will have to be cut, and the movie will suffer for it. But I hope I'm wrong about that. And I hope it won't take two or three years for it to come out.
Well, Amazon outdid themselves, and managed to deliver it on Monday (ordered Saturday). So, not wanting to lose the storyline, I dove right in. It didn't pick up immediately where the last one left off, but not too far from it.
As expected, much of the focus of this one is in moving beyond Kat's significance in the Hunger Games themselves. Unsurprisingly, she has become a bit of a symbol for many others. This is evident very early on, although Kat herself doesn't realize it for quite a long time.
What I found particularly compelling is her gradual conversion from fighting that to embracing it. At first, she wants to quell it, then to run away before she finally accepts how things are. Also, I thought her relationships with Gale and Peeta were extremely well done. I'd want to hit her over the head for how confused she gets at times, but then I remind myself how I was in dealing with the opposite sex at seventeen. And I didn't have anything like the pressure on myself that she had. Nor her reason for not wanting to ever have children.
The big thing I didn't expect was actually revisiting the Hunger Games, and especially not the way it happened. If you're thinking something along the lines of, "Well, it is called the Hunger Games trilogy", I'm fairly sure the third book will not be going there. I guess I'll know for sure when it arrives (Tuesday, hopefully).
Anyway, overall, I think this was a better book than the first one (helped, probably, by not being weighted down by needing to introduce the setting and characters). Certainly, it was harder to put down. Let's hope that continues in the third.
I'm less convinced about a movie working with it, though. I think more will have to be cut, and the movie will suffer for it. But I hope I'm wrong about that. And I hope it won't take two or three years for it to come out.
20120219
How much do you want it?
The upcoming movie, Hunger Games, got me kind of curious, so I got the book recently, and finished reading it yesterday.
I could see why they wanted to make a movie out of it; it should translate to the screen fairly easily. And it was well- and sparingly-written, had a very compelling plot, several interesting characters, and an interesting world.
The world is some kind of post-apocalyptic one, where the US (or maybe all of North America) broke up into regions with a capital at Panem (exact location unknown, except that it is somewhere along the western feet of the Rockies). Sometime before the book began (75-100 years prior, it seems), the thirteen Districts rose up against the Capitol, and were put down. One of the Districts was completely extinguished, in fact.
The remainder are pretty harshly ruied, with minimal food and energy, a lot of policing, and an annual droit du seignor-type ritual called The Hunger Games. Adolescents (age 12-18) are chosen from each District by lottery; one boy and one girl, and sent to compete at the Capitol. To win, all you need to do is survive. And the game environment changes every year, but it is always some kind of wilderness.
Kat, the main character, is actually in pretty decent shape for this. Although she's at a disadvantage, being a girl, she's been hunting all her life (bow-hunting, mostly, although some trapping as well) and knows a lot of wild plants, as well.
We see how she grew up (poor, in District 12, which seems to comprise Appalachia), and how her father died in a mining accident when she was young. Plus, we see how the clinical depression her mom sunk into when her father passed away left her as the family bread-winner (her sister, Prim, was much too young), and destroyed her trust in her mother.
After all that, Prim is really the only one Kat loves (she did love her father very much also, and he, thankfully, was able to teach her to hunt before his passing). So, when her sister is chosen, Kat volunteers to take her place in the Games (this, we're told, is almost unheard-of in that District, though common in a couple of the wealthier ones).
Things get more complicated when the boy chosen from their District is one that Kat doesn't really know, but feels deeply obligated to.
So the question becomes, can she live through the games?
I kind of expected the book to become about more than the Games themselves, and to a small degree it did. But not substantially, though it appears that that is what happens in the second (and third, I assume) books in the series.
It was extremely well done, and I've got the second book on order (was at the library yesterday, but there was a long waiting list to get it). The only negative thing I can say about the book is that it shied away from what would have been some pretty brutal moral decisions. But I think I'm glad that it did; while that makes for a much more interesting story, and main character, it definitely puts distance between the character and most people.
We'll see, but as I said, it should translate well, and I'm looking forward to the movie even more, now.
Update: It occurs to me that I should have been a bit more specific about Kat's duties after her father died. It wasn't like she found a job (mining, it seems, would have been her only option, if she was old enough); she had to hunt and gather so she could get food for the family. And she traded more that she'd found for the stuff she couldn't hunt. And that trading was why she wasn't arrested for her illegal hunting; some of her "customers" liked to get the extra meat she brought.
I could see why they wanted to make a movie out of it; it should translate to the screen fairly easily. And it was well- and sparingly-written, had a very compelling plot, several interesting characters, and an interesting world.
The world is some kind of post-apocalyptic one, where the US (or maybe all of North America) broke up into regions with a capital at Panem (exact location unknown, except that it is somewhere along the western feet of the Rockies). Sometime before the book began (75-100 years prior, it seems), the thirteen Districts rose up against the Capitol, and were put down. One of the Districts was completely extinguished, in fact.
The remainder are pretty harshly ruied, with minimal food and energy, a lot of policing, and an annual droit du seignor-type ritual called The Hunger Games. Adolescents (age 12-18) are chosen from each District by lottery; one boy and one girl, and sent to compete at the Capitol. To win, all you need to do is survive. And the game environment changes every year, but it is always some kind of wilderness.
Kat, the main character, is actually in pretty decent shape for this. Although she's at a disadvantage, being a girl, she's been hunting all her life (bow-hunting, mostly, although some trapping as well) and knows a lot of wild plants, as well.
We see how she grew up (poor, in District 12, which seems to comprise Appalachia), and how her father died in a mining accident when she was young. Plus, we see how the clinical depression her mom sunk into when her father passed away left her as the family bread-winner (her sister, Prim, was much too young), and destroyed her trust in her mother.
After all that, Prim is really the only one Kat loves (she did love her father very much also, and he, thankfully, was able to teach her to hunt before his passing). So, when her sister is chosen, Kat volunteers to take her place in the Games (this, we're told, is almost unheard-of in that District, though common in a couple of the wealthier ones).
Things get more complicated when the boy chosen from their District is one that Kat doesn't really know, but feels deeply obligated to.
So the question becomes, can she live through the games?
I kind of expected the book to become about more than the Games themselves, and to a small degree it did. But not substantially, though it appears that that is what happens in the second (and third, I assume) books in the series.
It was extremely well done, and I've got the second book on order (was at the library yesterday, but there was a long waiting list to get it). The only negative thing I can say about the book is that it shied away from what would have been some pretty brutal moral decisions. But I think I'm glad that it did; while that makes for a much more interesting story, and main character, it definitely puts distance between the character and most people.
We'll see, but as I said, it should translate well, and I'm looking forward to the movie even more, now.
Update: It occurs to me that I should have been a bit more specific about Kat's duties after her father died. It wasn't like she found a job (mining, it seems, would have been her only option, if she was old enough); she had to hunt and gather so she could get food for the family. And she traded more that she'd found for the stuff she couldn't hunt. And that trading was why she wasn't arrested for her illegal hunting; some of her "customers" liked to get the extra meat she brought.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)