Kindle Book: Mockingjay

So I did it again. I finished Mockingjay in one day. I told myself I wasn't going to, but as I was reading, I just didn't want to put it down. At this point I just wanted to know how the story ended.

I'd like to take this moment to give another spoiler warning. Now that I've read all three books, I will be saying things that give away earlier plot points. I'd also like to discuss Mockingjay in more detail than I've done for the other two books. So if you haven't read the trilogy yet, you might want to stop reading.

Mockingjay was a really strange entry in the Hunger Games trilogy. As I was reading it, I was struck a few times by how it felt like I was reading a completely different story. Sure, the characters were all there (or mostly there anyway - although even the characters who died tended to come up quite often). I find myself comparing Mockingjay to Worldwired, the final book of the Jenny Casey trilogy by Elizabeth Bear. No, Mockingjay doesn't start following other characters. But the scope of the story changes.

The one word that comes to mind when I think of Mockingjay is "revolution" (or "rebellion" works too). At the end of Catching Fire, Katniss was rescued from the arena along with a couple of the other tributes only to discover that District 12, her home, no longer exists. It was firebombed, much the same as District 13 was in the Dark Days which preceded the Capitol's complete control of the country and the beginning of the Hunger Games. Her rescuers are bringing her to District 13 which was actually not destroyed as everyone was led to believe. Unfortunately Peeta was left at the arena and is now in the hands of President Snow.

Katniss has been the spark that began the rebellions in several of the Districts. Those in charge of the rebellion (mainly headed by the President of District 13) want Katniss to continue rallying and inspiring the revolution by becoming the Mockingjay, the symbol of her pin (and the dress her stylist made for her to wear during Catching Fire). After a lot of time resisting, Katniss eventually agrees, but only if the tributes who were left behind in the arena (Peeta and a few others) will be given immunity.

And so begins Katniss's adventures in propaganda. After an initial attempt to produce a video in-studio fails (Katniss is a terrible actress), she is sent into the field. The shoot is supposed to be safe, with Katniss walking around a hospital talking to the wounded, but the hospital is attacked, giving Katniss the opportunity to shoot down some hovercraft. This gets her camera crew some amazing footage.

Meanwhile, President Snow hasn't been idly sitting by. He keeps staging interviews of Peeta on TV, showing Katniss how much Peeta is deteriorating. Finally, Katniss breaks down, prompting a rescue mission. Unfortunately Peeta has been more badly damaged than anyone can anticipate; he has been tortured in such a way that his memories of Katniss have been confused and he believes she is the enemy. He tries to kill her when he first sees her.

And this becomes the first real big setback to her possible relationship with Gale (who I had been rooting for since book 1). Other setbacks happen, making a relationship with him less and less possible (the most noticeable one being his plan to cave in the last place of resistance within the Districts - it is painful for Katniss because her father died in a mining accident).

Finally, Katniss and company makes her way into the Capitol. Her squad is supposed to be just the face of the rebellion, celebrity tributes and beautiful people being used for propaganda only. But Katniss has other plans, wanting to kill President Snow herself. Her squad experiences a setback when Peeta is sent to them; this is clearly a signal that the District 13's president wants her dead because Peeta isn't really better. But the squad helps him as best they can.

Then on a mission deemed safe, all hell breaks loose. A hidden trap takes out their commanding officer, and other traps kill a few other members of the squad. The remainder escapes just in time before the Capitol's forces blow up the building they were last seen in. Both Capitol and Rebel forces believe the Mockingjay is dead. So Katniss and her squad attempt to continue on and kill the President themselves. Unfortunately he realizes they are still alive and starts hunting them within his city. Slowly she loses more and more of her squad until there's only her, Gale, Peeta and two others left. They make it to the President's Mansion just as the rest of the rebels do. A group of children is kept in front of the mansion, and the children get bombed by a Capitol hovercar. Rebel medics rush into help, including Katniss's sister Prim. In a trap much like one discussed earlier by Gale, a secondary explosion goes off, killing the medics.

Katniss is in a daze for a long time after the death of her sister. She finds herself walking into the room where Snow was being held before his execution. She has a brief conversation with him, which is when she starts to wonder just who bombed the children and her sister.

Finally, Snow's execution is at hand. Katniss is supposed to be the one to kill him with an arrow. But at the last minute she turns and kills the Mayor of District 13 instead. The Mayor had assumed control once the war was over. Katniss is brought into custody where she contemplates killing herself, but in the end she is released to go back home to District 12 (where her house and a few others have miraculously survived). Gale has gone elsewhere because he knows Katniss will always think in the back of her mind that he was responsible for her sister's death. She spends a long while in a fog, doing nothing, until one day she finds Peeta has also come home. And so she slowly mends mentally, living out the rest of her days with him and the children they eventually have.

I know I've gone into a lot of detail about the plot, but I felt it was necessary because this book was so full of twists and turns. The original book was all about the actual Hunger Games, so that was all that happened. The second book was first about Katniss's trip with Peeta, the beginnings of rebellion, and then the Quarter Quell, which was an excuse to get Katniss and Peeta back into the Games. Mockingjay does not feature the Games at all (although the fight through the Capitol is rather like another Hunger Game in many ways). While Katniss is still very much controlled by others, she also seems to lose her spirit in this book. That has a lot to do with the stress of being the Mockingjay, and Snow's attempts to break her using Peeta. But she also spends large amounts of the book aimless, uninterested in her surroundings and rather boring. The beginning and end really drove that home. At the beginning she was recovering from her last Hunger Games (the Quarter Quell) which involved a head injury. She was disoriented, having a tough time adjusting to the rigidity of District 13 and hated being stuck underground. At the end she was tried for killing the District 13 Mayor, but spent the entire trial in solitary confinement. Why didn't we get to see the trial?

I realize that part of this is very realistic. I mean, she was a 16-year-old girl at the beginning of The Hunger Games who liked hunting with her friend Gale. By Mockingjay she has survived two Hunger Games, incited revolution, been the face of that revolution and killed an awful lot of people. She isn't coping very well with all of that, but still has to pull through because everyone expects her to.

But by the end it was hard to like Katniss. Peeta kept saying, all the way through the series, that she had no idea what effect she had on others. And it's true that Katniss didn't. But I as the reader also didn't get it. She had two boys who loved her (although I really don't know why Peeta continued to. No matter what she did, he just seemed to love her unconditionally without really knowing her). She kept doing things that made people notice her. But she was selfish (and admitted that to herself). She knew that good people didn't win the Hunger Games, and that Peeta was special because he was a good person (I keep thinking back to when she realized that before the Quarter Quell began. The only reason Peeta won was because of her. He's too good to have done it on his own. I do not fault him for that - it's part of who he is, what makes him so special). And she seemed to give up too much, particularly in the last book. In previous books she was always determined to fight for something; the fight just seemed to be gone this time around.

I was also really disappointed by her lack of a relationship with Gale. Right from The Hunger Games I thought he was the one for her. Gale was the one who knew her, who watched out for both her and her family. But first Catching Fire disappointed me by not starting with their reunion (to be fair, Katniss tells us about it before long. But I would have preferred to jump right back into the story at that point, not months after it happened). And then their relationship deteriorates more and more as Mockingjay progresses.

I really don't want to say much more about Mockingjay or the whole Hunger Games trilogy in general. I did enjoy reading them (I did read them in three days afterall). I found I didn't want to put the books down. But I was struck, over and over again, that if this had been my story, it would have been a lot different. But this isn't my story, so I cannot fault Suzanne Collins for telling her story her way. As I said, it's a good read, so definitely consider The Hunger Games trilogy if you're looking for a good post-apocalyptic tale.

Kindle Book: Catching Fire

Well, I somehow did it. I managed to read Catching Fire in a day, just like The Hunger Games. And hopefully this time I'll be able to get a good night sleep now that I'm done.

At this point, I am going to issue a spoiler warning. It's impossible to talk about Catching Fire without giving away some of the stuff from The Hunger Games. I may also be ruining some cool stuff about Catching Fire, so if you don't want to know, please stop reading now.

I'm going to say that I was disappointed with Catching Fire right from the start. The way The Hunger Games ended led me to believe Catching Fire would take place immediately after The Hunger Games. It didn't. Catching Fire took place months after The Hunger Games, leaving out a lot of the things I wanted to read about (most importantly Katniss's homecoming and reunion with her family and Gale). But no, it skips ahead to her tour with Peeta halfway between their Hunger Games and the next one.

Once I got over that though, I was pulled in by the story. The Capitol's President appears in person at the beginning of the tour to issue Katniss a dangerous ultimatum: she must convince the entire country that her feelings for Peeta are genuine or else those she is closest to will die. After the events of the previous book, several of the Districts are beginning to rebel, and they are using her act of defiance (and the unprecedented two champions of the 74th Hunger Games) as their symbol of rebellion.

So Katniss tries her best, but it isn't enough. The Districts start rebelling, leading to harsher conditions back in her home District (even though the people have not rebelled there). Gale is severely punished, after which they lose access to the woods. And then the unthinkable happens: for the 75th Hunger Games, the candidates will come from the living winners of previous Hunger Games. And in Katniss's District, there are only three. And only one of them is female.

Catching Fire was a pretty good story, even after my initial disappointment. There's a lot going on, and you can really tell that it's an important turning point for not only Katniss but her entire world. But that being said, I don't think Catching Fire was as good as The Hunger Games.

So now I'm onto Mockingjay, the final book in the series, tomorrow. I'm really hoping it will be a great ending to the trilogy. And I'm hoping that this time, Mockingjay will take place immediately after Catching Fire's story ended.

Kindle Book: The Hunger Games

At work, The Hunger Games has been extremely popular for the last while. I've seen it and the other two books in the trilogy go by countless times. And I've always kind of wondered why exactly everyone was in love with it. A couple of friends also recommended it to me. I heard rumours of a movie being made (which wasn't surprising; the book's been so popular at work and everywhere that why wouldn't Hollywood jump on it now?) Then my mom bought it on her Kindle and read it in an extremely short period of time while I was reading The Help. So as soon as I finished The Help, I borrowed my mom's Kindle and started reading.

Needless to say, I finished it in one day. I wasn't honestly planning on doing so, but I wasn't able to sleep and the book was so good that I didn't want to put it down!

The Hunger Games follows Katniss Everdean. She lives in what used to be North America. In the recent past (less than a century ago), the outlying districts of her nation rose up against the Capitol and lost. As part of the result, every year each district has to send a boy and a girl as tribute to fight each other to the death in the Hunger Games as sport for the Capitol's people. The winner is showered in riches for the year until the next Hunger Games.

Katniss is an illegal hunter, working with her partner Gale to keep their families alive. Coupled with a yearly "tesserae" (I guess it means portion or allowance) of grain and oil, they trade their kills and finds (they get wild plants as well) for other necessities to survive. But that yearly tesserae isn't free; for each person-worth of oil and grain you need, you have to enter your name an extra time in for the Hunger Games. And those entries stay with you until you're ineligible as an adult.

In an effort to protect her sister Prim, Katniss refuses to let the girl take the tesserae, preferring to put her own name in however multiple times are necessary. But despite Prim only having a single entry, the unthinkable happens: Prim's name is chosen! Katniss doesn't hesitate a moment but jumps forward and volunteers in Prim's stead. And so begins her adventures having to fight for her life in the Hunger Games!

Prim finds herself heading to the Games with Peeta, a baker's boy who helped her once when she was younger. The two of them are being helped by the last man who won the Games from their district and a team of stylists. After a week of ceremonies, interviews and training, they are brought to the arena and pitted against one another; there can be only one winner.

After reading it, I finally get why everyone's loving The Hunger Games. It is an extremely well-written book, fast paced and entertaining. The end wasn't exactly the greatest, but it leads right into the second book, Catching Fire. But I'm willing to forgive that because I'm going to start the second book right away!

The Help

The Help isn't the type of book I would normally pick for myself to read. My aunt gave my mom The Help when she came to visit us several months ago. My mom read it then passed it onto me. It took me a bit to get into it; the book is pretty slow at the beginning. I could feel it building up for a couple hundred pages before things really started to move. But by the end of the book, I was really glad I persevered.

The Help is the story of three women in Mississippi during the early 1960's, two black women who work as maids, and one white woman who doesn't really fit in. Together they begin writing a book about what it's like working for the white women of the town. Fearful for their lives, as well as the well being of their families, they change their names and the name of the town in the book. The book collects the stories of other maids as well, telling both the good and the bad of working for the white women.

Of course, the white woman doing this, Miss Skeeter, also has to be careful. If her friends and family found out what she was up to she would be ostracized at the very least.

The really interesting thing about this book is when it takes place. Both of my parents were alive (although quite young) in the 1960's. That really put everything into perspective for me: this kind of thing was happening within their lifetime.

The Help is an excellent character novel, giving you a glimpse of what it might have been like in Mississippi during the 1960's. And while you cannot take this as truth (it is a work of fiction based in reality, but it is also written by a white woman; Kathryn Stockett admits at the end of the book that she really doesn't know what it was like for these women working at that time), it really was a good book that is worth reading.

Library Book: Jurassic Park: The Devils in the Desert

Around the same time that I found the Supergirl graphic novel at the library, I also found one from Jurassic Park. I decided to start reading it this afternoon and finished it when I got home from a friend's. Unlike Death & the Family, Jurassic Park: The Devils in the Desert was a one shot graphic novel where you only need a basic understanding of the Jurassic Park world.

Basically, some pteranodons migrated to southern California from one of the two islands where they were created and it's up to the local sheriff, a FBI agent and a paleobiologist to stop them from terrorizing the countryside and killing people.

The Devils in the Desert was a good story. I really liked the characters and the human drama that was happening among the dinosaur stuff. If you want a good, quick, easy read that's full of dinosaurs, this is definitely the book for you!

Library Book: Supergirl: Death & the Family

I apologize. This is full of spoilers.

It's been a realy busy week. I started reading The Help, but then work got a bit crazy and I haven't had time to finish it. I wanted to read something on a coffee break yesterday, and not wanting to get back into the Help then have to put it aside again, I decided to read one of the graphic novels I randomly picked up. I chose Supergirl: Death & the Family thinking that I haven't read a Supergirl title in a long time. The last ones I read don't even appear on this blog! I looked back in my library reading history; I read three in 2007, inclusing Superman Batman: Supergirl, which was so good that I went out and bought it! I was also a fan of the 1996 series, having bought the first twenty or so issues before my local comic store closed on me. One of the graphic novels I read in 2007 just happened to collect the end of that series. I'd like to get the rest of the series one day because it was really good.

Anyway, enough of that tangent. My point is that I haven't read a Supergirl story in a long time. Unfortunately that really showed while I was reading; I had a few moments where I was really confused as to what was going on. It doesn't help that Death & the Family was volume 8, a fact that I only found out online after actually reading the story.

Despite having no idea what was going on, Death & the Family did a pretty good job of bring me up to speed. There was a whole chapter that explained what happened with one character (Lucy Lane) which was really interesting. Her character didn't have a whole lot to do with the main storyline, but it was still really interesting (and a good set up for the future).

The main story had to do with Supergirl having to hide her identity because Earth is now very anti-Kryptonian (that was one thing I'm not really sure about. But it sounds like it's a big long storyline that I might look into in the future). In the meantime, Supergirl finds out that Lana Lang, the woman she's been staying with, has some kind of strange disease that no doctor can diagnose. Supergirl goes off to battle the Silver Banshee (who happens to be a character I know about - Silver Banshee was in some of the early editions of the 1996 comic) but finds out too late that Lana died from her infection. Then in a typical "Comics are Weird" moment (thanks Movie Bob), it turns out some alien bugs were infecting Lana and they took over her now dead body. In a matter of days they have a huge hive in the centre of Metropolis and plan on taking over the world. They trapped Supergirl somehow (this is when she first discovers the bugs, but it's never really shown what exactly happened to her), so some guy shows up and frees her. Supergirl then battles the Insect Queen (who she apparently dealt with before), and with the help of some a superhero doctor, they force the Queen out of Lana's body, bringing her back to life (minus the extra arms the Insect Queen has). The story ends when Supergirl gets mad at Lana for lying about the disease, storming away saying she doesn't want to be human if that's how humans treat one another. It was a touching moment in its way, showing how Supergirl is learning and I apologize for butchering it here.

So all in all, Death & the Family is an interesting story. But I think you'd be a lot better off reading all the other volumes first.

Fable: Blood Ties

I recently went to Chapters with the express purpose of buying the Cowboys and Aliens graphic novel. I had a gift card left over from Christmas, and after really enjoying that book I decided I wanted to add it to my collection. Unfortunately, when I got to Chapters I discovered that they had their "buy 3 get the 4th book free" deal on. And as I started browsing, it became obvious there were four pocket books I'd like to get with that deal. So Cowboys and Aliens went back onto the shelf for another day, and instead I bought four books I've never read. Fable: Blood Ties was one of those four books.

After enjoying Fable: The Balverine Order, which was also by Peter David, finding Blood Ties was extremely exciting. I had no idea a new Fable book had been written. And unlike The Balverine Order, which was about some new characters, Blood Ties featured a couple of characters right out of Fable 3 (from the back of the book: Ben Finn and Page; while not mentioned on the back, Reaver is also in it). Finn is one of my favourite characters from Fable 3 (my most favourite is Reaver; he's so funny to listen to!) so naturally I was excited to read a book completely about his adventures after the game.

Blood Ties is a rather strange tale. Finn decides to leave Bowerstone and asks Page to accompany him; she refuses. So off Finn goes looking for adventure. He almost gets himself killed but is saved by a gnome (they appeared in the game and hurl insults at passerby's). After vowing he will not kill the gnome, the gnome decides to follow Finn around, insulting him and just generally making life miserable. Finn finds his way, gnome in tow, to a town that's under siege from a warlord. Unfortunately the warlord is the least of the town's troubles when

beast men show up. After this alarming discovery, Finn tracks the beasts down to their source and makes a virtual deal with Albion's entrepreneur devil Reaver. Blood Ties is told completely from Finn's perspective, which was quite a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, despite the great premise and my excitement over the characters, Blood Ties was a pretty slow read, particularly during the first half of the book. I don't know why, but I found myself not really caring about most of what was going on. It was honestly only when Reaver appeared to up the stakes that things picked up, but I still had a hard time wanting to sit down and read. In that regard I was rather disappointed; I loved reading The Balverine Order (well except for the premise - that needed a bit of tweaking in my opinion) and was expecting a similar reading experience from Blood Ties. Don't get me wrong, the story of Blood Ties was good and I'm quite glad to have read it. But it wasn't nearly as good at The Balverine Order was.

As a side note, the weapon code of The Balverine Order is a better draw than Blood Ties' dye pack. I don't know if I'll even bother redeeming the dye pack because I really don't care. My draw for buying Blood Ties was completely based off my expectations of Peter David's work.