Mockingjay

Comig this summer to a book store near you: Mockingjay!

Starring:
Hallee Steinfeld as Katniss Everdeen
Jacob Zachar as Peeta Mellark
Liam Hemsworth as Gale
Jeff Bridges as Haymitch
Billy Bob Thornton as President Snow
Directed by Michael Bay (there's more than enough stuff blowing up to keep him interested)

Having survived 2 Hunger Games Katniss Everdeen is back, and she wants revenge. The Capitol have kidnapped and tortured her friends, they bombed her home and they tried to kill her sister's cat. Katniss is through playing games!

I am aware that the first Hunger Games book reviewed here is being made into a film and I also suck at fantasy casting, but after reading Mockingjay I just had to do that.

I've mentiioned in my reviews of The Hunger Games and Catching Fire that Suzanne Collins writes in a very cinematic style. This is so obvious in Mockingjay that it was almost like reading a film script rather than a novel. Just as well she does write such good action, because her dialogue could have been written by George Lucas...okay maybe it's not quite that bad, but you get where I'm coming from with the comparison.

In Catching Fire Katniss survived the Quarter Quell Hunger Games and was spirited away by the rebels in the fabled District 13 to spearhead their rebellion. All Katniss really wants is to kill President Snow and have her family and friends left to live their lives in peace and safety, but as the poster child for the rebelllion; the Mockingjay, that's never going to be allowed, and it appears that she is in danger of exchanging ne tyrannical leader in Snow for another in the leader of the highly militarised and rigidly disciplined District 13's President Coin.

Most of the story centres around the rebellion and as the story has always been told in present tense first person, if Katniss isn't present, then the action takes place off screen and isn't covered in any depth.

I felt Collins struggled to give her post apocalyptic North America any real complexity or sense of reality. District 12 is mining, District 7 lumber, District 3 technology, etc... Readers never really got to know much about any characters aside from Katniss herself and her 2 love interests; Peeta and Gale, as a result when someone important is killed there's no real sense of loss or shock as there should be.

As I've read a few similar things over the years the ending came as no real surprise to me. Overall the series was relatively bleak and desperately needed an injection of humour, which was tried with the character of Finnick, but never quite came off. Given that this is a YA series Collins attempted to give it a happy ending, which to my mind didn't exactly work for the tone of the series. Overall I think it would have been better finishing after The Hunger Games and letting the readers imagine how things could have played out. There just wasn't enough there to sustain a trilogy. The three books are very readable and I can see why they've captured the minds of both male and female teens, but I can't see them living on as fondly in memory as some other recent YA phenomenons.

Catching Fire

Catching Fire is the sequel to The Hunger Games and the 2nd in Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games YA action trilogy.

Following their victory in Panem’s Hunger Games (a form of gladiatorial combat that pits teenagers from different districts against each in a deadly game of survival), Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark have returned home to District 12 to settle into a far more privileged life than the one they left behind when they were first selected to compete.

Winning the guarantees the victors and their families better living conditions than that experienced by most of those in the district. Despite having a nicer house and plenty to eat Katniss misses her pre Games life. The teenager regularly returns to her old house and goes hunting in the woods adjacent to the district with her friend, and part of the series love triangle; Gale.

It is after one of these trips that she arrives home to find Panem’s leader; the creepy and menacing President Snow (his breath smells of blood, ewwww!) waiting for her. The country’s dictatorial leader did not like the way in which Katniss won the Games and made the Gamesmakers look foolish in the process (the Head Gamesmaker apparently lost his life because of it), he’s also concerned that the girl seems to have become a hero and a revolutionary in the process and gives her a ‘friendly’ warning to watch herself, because he will be watching her.

The first indication of the crackdown is District 12’s generally friendly head Peacekeeper; Darius, being replaced by the brutal Romulus Stead, whose first act is to viciously whip Gale for a minor offence that would have been overlooked by Darius. Katniss also chances upon 2 refugees from a rebelling district who tell her that they’re headed for the deserted District 13, their belief is that it is not uninhabited as the Capitol has told people ever since they destroyed the district after a failed revolution 75 years ago.

During their victory tour of the country Katniss comes to realise how much her manner of winning the Games and her relationship with Peeta mean to the people of Panem, she also sees firsthand that her very presence can inspire the people to rebellion, something that has consequences for the inhabitants of Panem’s oppressed districts.

The Capitol’s response to the brewing rebellion is to announce the 3rd Quarter Quell (a celebration held every 25 years to remind the people of the Capitol’s victory over District 13), a special Hunger Games that will feature winners from previous Games, one male, one female, as Katniss is District 12’s only surviving female winner, she knows that this guarantees her reentry to the arena, predictably Peeta volunteers to take the place of Haymitch Abernethy (District 12’s only other living male winner) when the old drunk’s name is picked.

From that point on Catching Fire is largely a repeat of The Hunger Games. Katniss and Peeta go to the Capitol along with their chaperone; fusspot Effie and mentor; Haymitch. Interestingly enough they’re the only 2 characters that seem to have an entourage and I had to ask myself why. What is because technically they were still minors? They encounter other past winners, the only ones covered in any detail beyond their names and district are: the charismatic Finnick Odair from District 4 the Games youngest ever winner, the elderly Mags also from District 4 (as Mags is over 80 and crippled this stretched credibility beyond breaking point for me), tough as nails Johanna from District 7 and the inoffensive Wiress and Beetee from District 3, the duo are nicknamed Nuts and Volts by Johanna for their eccentricity and technical know how. You know from this that these are the ones that will either help or hinder Katniss and Peeta in their fight in the arena. There’s a brief training period in which Haymitch attempts to counsel his charges and Katniss predictably refuses to listen. Then they’re shot back into the arena to revisit the nightmare again. Collins tries really hard in the arena scenes to make it scary and exciting all at the same time, and for the most part she succeeds, but there is still an air of ‘seen this all before’ about it. People fight, people die and it isn’t spoiling anything to let you know right now that Katniss survives. Although Suzanne Collins ends Catching Fire on a cliffhanger and I’m going to read Mockingjay (the concluding volume) to find out what happens I knew what was going to happen well ahead of time and the ending didn’t hold any surprises for me.

Catching Fire is largely like one of the many sequels currently beloved of Hollywood. It’s rather like she took all of the popular elements from the first book and repackaged them for the second one. I felt she would have been better served by forgetting about the whole arena scenario and concentrating on the rebellion of the Districts, the trilogy felt headed that way from the moment Katniss metaphorically gave the raised middle finger to the Capitol when she blackmailed them into giving her and Peeta the victory at the end of The Hunger Games. This second book was largely unnecessary.

That’s not to say there aren’t some good moments in Catching Fire, the action is tense and well written. Finnick is an engaging anti-hero. I’m still not entirely sure whose side he’s on. The hints that the inspiration for the series came from ancient Rome. Collins has gone on record as admitting this, but little things like the drink that makes people throw up so they can continue gorging are rather amusing. It is also addictive despite it’s flaws, which I’ll cover briefly next.

There are some problems from the first book that are still present: the love scenes are excruciating and really clumsily written, it’s hard to work out exactly why Katniss is conflicted between Peeta and Gale as they are essentially the same character, the main difference being that Gale can hunt and Peeta is an artist. I also find myself asking if the Capitol is as technologically advanced as the Games suggest they are why do they feel the need to keep their citizens in line by forcing them to live almost medieval existences? Wouldn’t it be better for all concerned to use the technology to either oppress or benefit their populace. I know, I know, YA novel, don’t think about it too hard. It bugs me however, and even more annoying I’m hooked enough to keep reading.

The Hunger Games

I first became aware of Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games at Aussiecon when every YA panel mentioned it as the hottest property on the market. Sparked by the buzz, I decided to have a look at it.

The Hunger Games is set in a post apocalyptic United States called Panem. What happened is never directly referenced, but the reader can pick up that something fairly catastrophic took place. The country is divided into 12 Districts, controlled from the Capitol. The people of Panem are kept under control by being kept poor and hungry, and they seem to exist in an almost pre industrial society. There is some technology however and TV exists, so they have access to electricity. Once a year the Capitol puts on a blood sport for the entertainment of the masses, this is the Hunger Games. Each District sends 2 tributes; one male, one female. All the participants are between the ages of 12 - 18 and are chosen at random by ballot, every inhabitant between the age of 12 - 18 is entered into the ballot. Although the risks in the Games are great, the rewards are also substantial. The winner never has to work again and their district will also benefit from the victory.

The story is narrated by Katniss Everdeen; a tough, jaded, 16 year old, who volunteers to take her younger sister's place in the Games, when the 12 year old's name is chosen from the ballot. The story is not only told in first person, it's also told in the present tense. I can't last remember when I read an entire novel written that way and at times it was kind of odd. Suzanne Collins was a script writer for TV, and it shows in the book, a lot of it is written very visually. One thing Collins excels at is action, she does these sequences, and there are a lot of them, very well. Her romance and human interaction scenes are often painfully clumsy and they'd need to improve in future books.

The Hunger Games is very reminiscent in both concept and execution to the Japanese film Battle Royale and the Arnold Schwarzenegger hit The Running Man (based on a Stephen King story). The participants in Battle Royale were all teenagers and it took place on an island, the rules allowed for one winner, the lone survivor. The battle was also televised. In The Hunger Games, all the participants are aged between 12 - 18 and there can only be one winner, 24 enter the arena, one walks out, the arena is a large environment controlled by the Gamemakers, and it is televised all over Panem. The host of the Games; Caesar Flickerman, was not dissimilar to Richard Dawson's sleazy Damon Killian in The Running Man. You know that Katniss, being the heroine, will somehow survive, it's just how she'll do it and at what cost? Collins builds suspense well and is very good at ending the chapters on cliffhangers. She's got some clever ideas and some very nasty tricks, including genetic mutations, used by the Gamemakers to make the whole thing more interesting for the viewers and harder for the unlucky participants, however some of the names she gives her monsters are laughable, eg: tracker jackers (poisonous wasps with an internal tracking system) and muttations (genetically enhanced wolves). Giving a scary monster a stupid name somehow makes them less threatening to the reader.

The Hunger Games is the first of a trilogy, although it is relatively self contained. Katniss is a rebel and an individual and Panem's totalitarian regime doesn't like that. I can see the next two volumes being about her fight with the Capitol. The Hunger Games doesn't quite justify the hype, but it's an entertaining and involving action adventure and I'd like to see where Suzanne Collins takes it in the next two volumes as she fleshes out the world and the characters she's created in this first book.