A Little Battle Royale, A Little Epic, ALOT of Intense

Summary (from inside cover flap):

In the ruins of a place known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to death before - and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

My Thoughts (Spoiler avoidant so carry on)

I seem to be on some sort of good book reading streak lately. First A Companion to Wolves and now this? The Lord of Bookworms smiles upon me.

I first got interested in reading The Hunger Games because I saw number of book blogs I follow lauding it and it got nominated for the Cybils. (And won! I just checked) I'd like to say all the praise is wholly deserved. The Hunger Games is interesting the way most dystopic novels are interesting; it makes the reader to stop and think and really think about an issue they normally wouldn't it. In this case it's about staying human in the middle of war.

A few weeks back I read The No-Nonsense Guide to Human Rights by Olivia Ball and Paul Gready and I've been framing alot of what I read in human rights ideas since. In The Hunger Games the rights of the characters are being completely violated. Katniss is being forced to ask herself how far she will go to survive and consequently, so is the reader. She manages to stay human inspite of her circumstances but there are others who don't (Cado would be a prime example). The horror is amped up by the fact that she's sixteen. I was thinking right away, she's younger than me! Kids shouldn't have to make those kind of choices!

But she does. And they do. The Hunger Games is fiction and a little bit of a political satire but there are children caught up in wars all around the world. Off the top of my head I can think of one: the civil war raging across Sri Lanka right now. There's a quarter million civilians caught in the crossfire and none of them chose to be there. Just like Katniss didn't.

The Hunger Games works on a number of levels. The plot is totally absorbing - I started last night, kept reading until I went to bed, woke up this morning and kept going until I was done. Didn't even pause for breakfast, I only went down to eat when my brother told me my mom bought us Tim Hortons muffins after I started this review. The characters are great - I'm going to remember Katniss for a long while and I could certainly sympathize with Peeta (and Haymitch! He and Katniss are so much more alike than she is ever going to admit. I'd love to know how he managed to win the Hunger Games in his time). And as I touched on earlier, it explores one very compelling moral quandary. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

If you liked this try: Epic by Conor Kostick, Battle Royale by by Koushun Takami and Masayuki Taguchi, Warchild by Karin Lowachee, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.

I recommend this book for: Dystopia fans, action movie buffs, and as ever, those inclined to read good books.

Rating: A

Maybe they'll get rid of that marriage law for me

Summary (from inside cover flap):

In a harsh Northern land, the towns of men huddle close around the walled keeps of their lords. Those keeps, in turn, look to the wolfhealls for their safety, when the trolls and their wyverns come down from the icy mountains to prey on manflesh.

The warriors of the wolfheall are bonded to giant fighting wolves. Once there were many wolfhealls, for once men were winning the land from their enemies. Now the trolls are fewer and come less often, and the lords are reluctant to send their young men to the wolfheall.

Isolfr is a young nobleman who is called to the pack. At his father's holding of Nithogsfjoll, there are a few men of the right age for bonding, and his father is hostile to the wolfheall. He refuses to send his sons, but Isolfr is deeply drawn to the wolves. When the konigenwolf, Vigdis, comes to visit with her brother Hrolleif, the young man chooses to disobey his father and answer her summons.

Life in the pack is very different from Isolfr's gentle upbringing among wolfless men. Discipline is quick and harsh, and his days are filled with work and weapons training. But the wolfheall's ways, though strange, give Isolfr a deep sense of belonging. Here he will find love and acceptance, courage and true honour.

And then, in the winter of Isolfr's bonding to Viradechtis, the trolls come down from the north in far greater numbers than before, and the holding's complaisance gives way to terror in the dark.

My Thoughts (no spoilers so go on ahead)

Oh my God, I don`t even know where to start. This book was just so deeply awesome.

Hmm. Maybe I ought to start with the problems then. Or rather problem because there was really just the one. And that was the names. D= There were so many of them! And they were near impossible to pronounce! There’s a list of Dramatis Personae at the front and I found cause to refer to it often.

When I got about halfway through the book I thought `Hmm. You know for a book so lacking in significant female characters this is surprisingly feminist`. There’s a theme - subtheme? subtext? whatever - running through about how important matriarch/peacekeepers/caretaker figures are to which I mostly nodded and agreed with wholeheartedly. Because seriously, just take a look at all the stuff your mom does one day, it's kind of awe-inspiring. And then I got farther into the book and the pro-feminist theme got much stronger and my mind starting whirring off into essay land (this is what taking HL English and History does to you. You can't just read a book, you have to analyze it. Thanks alot IB).

I don't really want to ramble on to how they handle the whole being bonded-to-an-animal cliche other than to say it's done wonderfully. I have never read Anne McCaffrey which appears to be the popular comparison on Amazon but I remain convinced that Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear have collectively pwned her.

But my favourite thing about the novel would have to be the relationships. I have a favourite type of story. I would call them love stories except whenever I say something along those lines people respond with things like 'Oh you like things like Twilight then!' and I feel the urge to shudder away in disgust. See, by love stories I mean precisely that. Stories full of love. Familial love, romantic love, friendly love. I don't really care, as long as I get my heapings of characters being affectionate at each other. This book provides that in spades. I spent a lot of time saying inane things like `Sokkolfr! You are so lovely! I know you're not allowed to marry but perhaps we could work something out? I am sure we could come to some sort of arrangement. Or elope! I am fine with your wolf coming along! This bed is big enough for three!`

...I never said reading good books left me sane.

I recommend this book for: Anne McCaffrey fans, people who like books that use the bonded animal trope, people who like reading, that one homophobic kid at the library who I am going to give it to because I think it will be hilarious and am not actually a nice person.

Rating: A