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A bit edgy about this storm that is coming in - not where I'm at, but where I hope to be going on Monday. Really don't want to deal with the plane being cancelled. Also aggravated by the fact that once again I managed to acquire more stuff than I have the room to pack - which either means getting it shipped (dicey, since getting deliveries at my home in NYC is a nightmare) or checking a bag (dicey for a whole other set of reasons). And the antiboitics I'm taking appear to have the side-effect of making me a bit wired.
Finished Mockingjay - the final book in The Hunger Games this morning. While there are many things I love about these novels, including the fact that they are impossible to put down once you start them - my difficulty with them is that Collins does not provide enough depth to her characters or develop them enough to make me "really" care. Granted I just finished reading George RR Martin's Storm of Swords which tells us everything we ever wanted to know about each and every single character and a few things we really didn't. But I didn't cry during his novels either.
Collins focus is more on theme than on character, a flaw that I've been noticing in Whedon's work of late as well. At times she's almost dictative about it, much like Whedon is. Although, I prefer Collins to Whedon mostly because she's a much better plotter and her use and exploration of her themes is a tad more digestible not to mention clear, (a gross understatement if there ever was one), she doesn't develop her characters to quite the same degree nor as fully as Whedon. The reason, I find myself compelled to compare the two writers is that their themes are fairly similar and well, both have critical flaws that I'm trying to figure out - there's something off in both stories that cut me off emotionally from them.
Collins' themes regarding war, violence, the ends justify the means, use of power, and the cult of celebrity are not all that different than the themes identified in Whedon's work. In some respects they are done far better and are far clearer here. Whedon's story feels cluttered and confusing, to the degree that his themes can be read more than one way and not necessarily in a way that is, shall we say, at all complimentary of the writer. (That's also a gross understatement). Let's face it some writers are better at writing thematic/plot driven stories while others are better at character/emotional driven stories. Collins tale is a thematic/plot driven one - her characters set up and created for the sole purpose of exploring a theme. While Whedon's stories tend to be character driven, with the plot made up as he goes and the theme coming from the characters. When he attempts to switch to plot/theme driven it's a complete mess. But this review is about Collins not Whedon, so let's neatly kick him out of it now, shall we?
There's nothing wrong with thematic/plot driven tales. Often they feel like allegories, and tend to end tragically - a moral reminder of what not to do. Examples of these sorts of stories clutter the sci-fi literary bookshelves of many a university or high school english lit or poli-sci teacher's shelves (well those who like the genre at any rate) - George Orwell's classic - Animal Farm, Adulus Huxley's Brave New World, Arthur C. Clark's Childhood's End, Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man, Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange, Shirely Jackson's The Lottery, Roger Cormier's The Chocloat War, William Fielding's Lord of the Flies...
( Spoilers for Mockinjay and The Hunger Games )
I recommend these novels but with a caveat...the love triangel can be grating at times, but it is endurable and if you view it as metaphor, workable. Also what she does with Peeta in Mockingjay is quite interesting on multiple levels, thematically, characterwise, and plotwise. While the Hunger Games did not tug at my emotions in quite the way I hoped, it held my interest and was impossible to put down. And the plot supports the theme.
My quibble is I wish it was better written, the characters colored in a bit more, evolved more, given more time to develop...Finnick, Johanna, Prim...and Gale, I feel I barely know. And there's so much I want to know about Haymitch. It feels at times more like a script than a book, waiting for a good actor and actress to give it life, and a good turn of phrase.
In that regard at least, Jim Butcher, JK Rowling and Whedon have one up on Collins - for their characters voices hum in your mind long after they are done, but this in part is due to the fact that they put character before theme.
So, yes, it's a good series of books, with quite a bit that haunts long afterwards. The type of books that you ache to discuss after finishing them and are somewhat annoyed that you can't.
Finished Mockingjay - the final book in The Hunger Games this morning. While there are many things I love about these novels, including the fact that they are impossible to put down once you start them - my difficulty with them is that Collins does not provide enough depth to her characters or develop them enough to make me "really" care. Granted I just finished reading George RR Martin's Storm of Swords which tells us everything we ever wanted to know about each and every single character and a few things we really didn't. But I didn't cry during his novels either.
Collins focus is more on theme than on character, a flaw that I've been noticing in Whedon's work of late as well. At times she's almost dictative about it, much like Whedon is. Although, I prefer Collins to Whedon mostly because she's a much better plotter and her use and exploration of her themes is a tad more digestible not to mention clear, (a gross understatement if there ever was one), she doesn't develop her characters to quite the same degree nor as fully as Whedon. The reason, I find myself compelled to compare the two writers is that their themes are fairly similar and well, both have critical flaws that I'm trying to figure out - there's something off in both stories that cut me off emotionally from them.
Collins' themes regarding war, violence, the ends justify the means, use of power, and the cult of celebrity are not all that different than the themes identified in Whedon's work. In some respects they are done far better and are far clearer here. Whedon's story feels cluttered and confusing, to the degree that his themes can be read more than one way and not necessarily in a way that is, shall we say, at all complimentary of the writer. (That's also a gross understatement). Let's face it some writers are better at writing thematic/plot driven stories while others are better at character/emotional driven stories. Collins tale is a thematic/plot driven one - her characters set up and created for the sole purpose of exploring a theme. While Whedon's stories tend to be character driven, with the plot made up as he goes and the theme coming from the characters. When he attempts to switch to plot/theme driven it's a complete mess. But this review is about Collins not Whedon, so let's neatly kick him out of it now, shall we?
There's nothing wrong with thematic/plot driven tales. Often they feel like allegories, and tend to end tragically - a moral reminder of what not to do. Examples of these sorts of stories clutter the sci-fi literary bookshelves of many a university or high school english lit or poli-sci teacher's shelves (well those who like the genre at any rate) - George Orwell's classic - Animal Farm, Adulus Huxley's Brave New World, Arthur C. Clark's Childhood's End, Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man, Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange, Shirely Jackson's The Lottery, Roger Cormier's The Chocloat War, William Fielding's Lord of the Flies...
( Spoilers for Mockinjay and The Hunger Games )
I recommend these novels but with a caveat...the love triangel can be grating at times, but it is endurable and if you view it as metaphor, workable. Also what she does with Peeta in Mockingjay is quite interesting on multiple levels, thematically, characterwise, and plotwise. While the Hunger Games did not tug at my emotions in quite the way I hoped, it held my interest and was impossible to put down. And the plot supports the theme.
My quibble is I wish it was better written, the characters colored in a bit more, evolved more, given more time to develop...Finnick, Johanna, Prim...and Gale, I feel I barely know. And there's so much I want to know about Haymitch. It feels at times more like a script than a book, waiting for a good actor and actress to give it life, and a good turn of phrase.
In that regard at least, Jim Butcher, JK Rowling and Whedon have one up on Collins - for their characters voices hum in your mind long after they are done, but this in part is due to the fact that they put character before theme.
So, yes, it's a good series of books, with quite a bit that haunts long afterwards. The type of books that you ache to discuss after finishing them and are somewhat annoyed that you can't.