The fiance liked them a lot. I found them decent, but not spectacular. It definitely is young adult fare. Disturbing, but not as graphic as it likely should have been to really paint the intended picture, and the writing seemed to be deliberately simplistic to serve a younger reader.
I didn't like that the underlying themes and messages were hammered at so hard. It's probably suitable for a younger reader that needs a bit more help to pick out the deeper intentions, but for me, it just made for redundant explanations of things that I already understood. I also didn't like reading page after page of lavish description of clothing choices, but that might just be me.
The movie trailer that I've seen doesn't inspire much confidence. It looks like it suffered from an insufficient budget. It's being produced by Lionsgate, which might explain that.
I wasn't all that impressed by it. Certainly not enough to go read the others. The story wasn't anything special and I don't think Collins is that great a writer in the first place (the Gregor the Overlander books weren't that good either.)
My first impression of it was "Battle Royale Redux" as well, but it was different enough to be interesting.
My favorite variation on Battle Royale was the Azumanga Daioh! one, where Osaka whines "Why do I have to keep killing all my friends?" before defeating everyone with a letter opener.
I actually really enjoyed the series. I'm stoked about the movie. :P
The plot was gripping, no doubt, just too disturbing. I guess there are just some places my imagination doesn't like to go. It gave me a nightmare.
The movie trailer actually looks pretty good and typically stories told via movies are less 'real' to me than those read in books so I might actually see it.
I liked it, other than the moment where I went "yep, saw THAT coming". I won't say when that was, not going to spoil for anyone else but I'm sure MANY of you know what I'm speaking of. I will see the movie. And I just started to read the 2nd book. I usually read things FAR beyond this reading level, but lately been having alot of headaches, so this is a perfect easy read for me right now. =P
I enjoyed the series. It wasn't all that amazing literary-wise (as said, the writing is mostly for young adult audiences), but the plot was interesting for the first and second books. I didn't care for the third book, which is the general consensus among everyone who has read all three. Not because the ending was depressing (though it was), but because the entire book seems to pass in a blur as the main character is actually under drugs for most of it. The descriptions are lacking, and the action is way too uneven. At one point a character died and I didn't even realize it until several pages later when they mentioned the name again.
Meh, worth reading, but I like Battle Royale better for a survival story.
Other than a slightly different backstory, isn't this basically Running Man? Not saying that makes it bad or anything, but it's not really a new concept.
Other than a slightly different backstory, isn't this basically Running Man? Not saying that makes it bad or anything, but it's not really a new concept.
It's closer to Battle Royale than Running Man (both novel and film), but yeah same difference.
"We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary." — James D. Nicoll
Just finished the first book. Wasn't bad, but I was disappointed it didn't quite go to the dark, psychological, places that Battle Royale went too.
I'll have to finish the rest now, because I'm O.C. in that way when it comes to a series, but I'm thinking if they stick to the material it could be a pretty entertaining flick.
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"The Rich are there to take all of the money & pay none of the taxes, the middle class is there to do all the work and pay all the taxes, and the poor are there to scare the crap out of the middle class." -George Carlin
Didn't like the 3rd book. Not because of the ending, but because most of it was boring & I don't know if Snow was lying or not. The ending actually didn't bother me & was happier than I thought it would be.
But it seemed, to me anyway, that the author just gave up, resolved the love triangle in a couple of pages, and ended it.
Edited, Mar 24th 2012 5:56am by Omegavegeta
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"The Rich are there to take all of the money & pay none of the taxes, the middle class is there to do all the work and pay all the taxes, and the poor are there to scare the crap out of the middle class." -George Carlin
Didn't like the 3rd book. Not because of the ending, but because most of it was boring & I don't know if Snow was lying or not. The ending actually didn't bother me & was happier than I thought it would be.
But it seemed, to me anyway, that the author just gave up, resolved the love triangle in a couple of pages, and ended it.
Edited, Mar 24th 2012 5:56am by Omegavegeta
I felt the same way, though really my major dislike was the writing style. Because Katniss was drugged up, emotionally traumatized, or in hectic combat most of the time, it just didn't have a good flow. Two parts really stick out as being poorly done: First, I didn't even realize when Finnick dies because the action just briefly mentioned it. I was four pages past when I realized, "Wait, what happened to Finnick?" and had to go back and carefully scan the pages to figure out where he bit it. And second, like you said, the ending. The end of the book just comes suddenly; bam, it's 20 years in the future. The end. What? No. Lame.
In other news, I'm finding it disconcerting how many people in the twitterverse seem upset to find out Rue is black. It specifically says in the book that she has dark skin, so I'm not sure why it's such a surprise. But man, you'd think the author had made her a three-legged mutant from a bunch of the tweets you see online.
In other news, I'm finding it disconcerting how many people in the twitterverse seem upset to find out Rue is black. It specifically says in the book that she has dark skin, so I'm not sure why it's such a surprise. But man, you'd think the author had made her a three-legged mutant from a bunch of the tweets you see online.
In other news, I'm finding it disconcerting how many people in the twitterverse seem upset to find out Rue is black. It specifically says in the book that she has dark skin, so I'm not sure why it's such a surprise. But man, you'd think the author had made her a three-legged mutant from a bunch of the tweets you see online.
Sad. I don't find the number of people saying stuff like that surprising, though (as I've said before, play some CoD online for about 5 minutes, and you'll be convinced that about 50% of the population are card-carrying KKK members).
What's interesting is how so many of them can say stuff like that, while clearly believing that there isn't anything racist about it. The old "I'm not racist, but [something incredibly racist]." Yeesh.
I had watched the trailer to the movie while I was reading the book, so had envisioned many of the characters similarly to how they were portrayed in the early trailers. My son, however, said he had envisioned Rue as oriental.
Regardless of skin color she was adorable.
Her death in the book was the most disturbing of all as she was entrapped in that net. It was just so primal and animistic. One small change to the story from the book to the movie though changed all that. In the book Katniss didn't have time to cut her out of the net before the thrown spear took Rue down. In the movie Katniss did get her out of the net. Rue was standing, no longer a trapped animal. Funny how such a little thing can make such a difference - to me anyways.