Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins

I just finished this final book in the Hunger Games Trilogy. I was told by a wise man that I shouldn't review books I didn't like, so I have been abiding by that advice. Some works that I enjoyed had drawbacks in language and content, but Collins' work was exemplary in both aspects.

The first book had Katniss Everdeen, the "girl who was on fire," a desperate young adult who sacrificed herself in substitution for her sister's name being drawn to participate in the Hunger Games. The Games are a fight to the death in an arena rigged by Capitol Gamemakers' traps, seeded by weapons. It is a brutal and cruel reminder to the districts that they failed years ago to overthrow the Capitol. To the citizens of the Capitol, however, it is popular entertainment to send gifts of food, medicine, and weapons through silver parachutes to favored tributes.
Katniss sees the decadence and excess of the technologically luxurious Capitol and is sickened, knowing that the resources used for the Games could improve the lives of the citizens. The Games traditionally demand one victor out of the 24 tributes from the districts, but Katniss's fellow tribute Peeta declares his love for Katniss, capturing the sympathy of the nation. Katniss' focus back home had been providing for her mother and sister by illegally hunting in the woods - she had not considered her effect of attracting suitors.
The Capitol promises that this, the seventy-fourth games, will be different - that Katniss and Peeta can be co-victors if they both survive. When the conditions are met and the Capitol reneges on its promise, Katniss pulls a stunt that saves them both, but at a cost she cannot fathom.

The second book, Catching Fire, expands upon the fallout from the seventy-fourth Games - Katniss's act of defiance earns her the audience of the Capitol's President Snow in her own home. When she saved herself and Peeta, she was desperate and saw it as just survival. What it had become in the eyes of the districts was a symbol, a rallying point of rebellion. The mockingjay pin that Katniss wore during the games has changed into the watchword of insurrection and unrest. Snow warns Katniss that her family and friend's lives are on the line - The girl who was on fire is contagious, her continued existence is emboldening the masses that the Capitol is not invincible after all. Katniss made the Capitol move an inch, the districts want to push it further. President Snow announces that the Seventy-Fifth Games, a quarter quell (every 25 years, there is a twist in the set-up of the games), will be drawn from the pool of previous victors. Katniss will have to undergo the horror of another Games. She and Peeta are troubled already with the memories and nightmares from the previous Games, now she will be facing a field of the best and worst the Games has to offer.

I think I will pause here, because the above sounds good enough to me. I left out some key parts and persons, for I think the reader will enjoy meeting them on their own time. The second book may not have the novelty of the first and the anticipation of the unknown challenges. By Catching Fire, the reader has reached a transition point between the Capitol's dominance and the districts' flames of rebellion. This is the crux of the series, and perhaps the finest in my opinion for the dexterity of Collins treatment of Katniss's unenviable position - "Yes, the Capitol is despicable and wrong to take joy in the Hunger Games, but bringing the violence out of the arena and into a state of war will take more lives. Besides, her family and friends' lives are on the line whether she succeeds or fails. Katniss is walking a thin line, and struggles with understanding the icon she became, with the importance interpreted from her actions in the camera's eye."

Mockingjay, brings us to the blossoming of Katniss's character and role. Surviving two Games has made her into a walking shell and wreck of humanity. The rebellion wants her to become their Mockingjay, the living symbol of defiance and rebellion. This third book is dissimilar with what the previous two set up. It is carried out in an unfamiliar environment, we as readers can sympathize with Katniss's bewilderment and confusion as to where she is going and why. She watches as those who she knew so well adjust to the hardships of military discipline and roles.

"War makes good men better and bad men worse." - Joseph Chamberlain, civil war officer of the Union.

We see this happening as Katniss begins to puzzle out who she is underneath the attitude and shields she places around herself. She is broken and the Capitol's propaganda is malicious - torturing those in the Capitol whom she befriended or were attached to her in the Games. She bears the guilt of all who sacrificed their lives so that she could live. So many district citizens have invested their hopes and futures into her survival, what she means to them as a symbol. But she is not perfect, she cannot be an ideal, and Katniss struggles with the burden of the living almost as much.

To be truthful, I wasn't sure of Collins's intent in writing the third installment of the series. It just felt so different - the culmination of what went on before. But as I arrived at the end, I was treated to an ending that was fittingly eloquent, a nod to the past and what is to come. In a string of books whose authors cannot bring themselves to cut the strings and knot the conclusion, this was a refreshing departure.

Highly recommend
The Hunger Games which I send
Most refreshing end

Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins

I confess I read this book because Entertainment Weekly's cover of Katniss looked worth the effort of seeing in a movie. I like to read the book before the film, the characters are not as visually ingrained in my mind until after the movie, then they are hopelessly entangled in my mind.

The novel takes place in a dystopian American continent. Renamed Panem, it is comprised of the Capital and Thirteen districts. There was a revolt against the capital years ago, and the thirteenth district was wiped off the map. The Capital created the Hunger Games - an annual televised fight to the death. Like the ancient myth of Athens and the Minotaur, two tributes are randomly selected from a lottery held in each district. One boy and one girl, winner's district receives aid from the capital until the next games.

The story surrounds the seventy-fourth Hunger Games, and a girl from District 12, Katniss Everdeen. Her father died in a mining explosion, leaving her to be the sole breadwinner for her healer mother and adorable sister Primrose. She hunts illegally in the forest with a bow, bringing fresh meat to barter in the black market. Gale Hawthorne helps her in the forest, two years older and a master of snares, their friendship in the forest is one of the few things in her life that makes Katniss happy.

The Hunger Games eligibility window starts at twelve and ends at eighteen. Each year, a new slip with your name is added to the pot. However, for the poorer families, a child may enter their name multiple times to receive bread rations for the year's time. It would supplement a family's diet at the risk of being chosen for the Hunger Games.

In the town square, Primrose Everdeen's name was drawn, her first year of eligibility. This was an astronomically unlikely chance, and Katniss volunteers in her unlucky sister's stead. Her companion to the games is Peeta Mellark, the baker's son. Katniss has avoided him for years, knowing that a gesture of kindness on his part saved her family from starvation after her father's death. She hates owing people, and suspects Peeta's motivations for doing such an act.

On the train ride to the capital, they spend time with Haymitch Abernathy, the drunken has-been of the village. Far back in his day, he won the Hunger Games, and now it is his job to mentor the tributes each year. Katniss hates him for stumbling around, being a general embarrassment who could hardly keep himself together, let alone train anyone else.

The Capital is luxurious to the extreme, a slap in the face to Katniss's sensibilities. Meals come at the push of a button, showers have over a hundred different options for cleaning, and the roof of the complex has an electrical field to dissuade suicidal tributes. Katniss gorges herself on the rich and abundant food, knowing that a little saved fat in the games is a precaution for survival. Each year, the setting is different, but some constants remain.

At the beginning, all the combatants start on metal disks in a circle, a giant cornucopia erected in the center. Scattered on the ground are supplies and weapons for the duration of the games. For sixty seconds, tributes must remain on their platforms, after which the land mines surrounding each disk are disabled, signalling the start. After the bloodbath of skilled "career tributes" over greedy novices, the key is survival.

Career tributes originate in well off districts - trained at an early age, they volunteer to participate. Katniss's only edge is that she is accustomed to fighting for her survival. Her skill with a bow earns her a 11 out of 12 in her interview with the Gamemasters - controllers of the environment of the arena. They set out traps and devices to force the players to fight, signal the death of combatants with a cannon fire, and collect the cadavers with hovercrafts.

Sponsors may intercede in the games, donating money to send gifts to tributes upon whom they placed bets. The games are an ugly affair, reminding the districts of their subservience to the Capital. Only those born into the leisurely lives of the city can afford to watch the games in its entirety.

Katniss is hostile to the decadence of this society, she only wishes to win so that she might keep her promise to her sister to return home the victor. She cannot figure Peeta out - during his televised interview, he claims to have a crush on her since childhood. But he asks Haymitch to train them separately. What does he have to hide? Katniss keeps her distance once the games begin, knowing that if she gets close to Peeta, it will be that much harder for her to finish him in her quest to win.

There can only be one victor in this cruel event, and the last one standing must have strength of steel and the hardness of the heartless.

Didn't mention Rue,
Though she is my favorite.
Small whirling dervish.

Poison Eaters, Holly Black

Who is Holly Black? She is one half of the popular Spiderwick Chronicles team. Tony DiTerlizzi, the other part, is more whimsical and kid-friendly. Holly Black brought her expertise to the team, for she is simply brilliant when it comes to faery lore and fantasy. She is wilder and uninhibited in her imagination, scope, and vision. She edited a work with Justine Larbalestier entitled Zombies Vs. Unicorns - A compilation of stories, written by young adult authors in a mock debate. As an aside, these stories weren't nearly as interesting as I hoped they might be...

The Poison Eaters is a collection of short stories by Holly Black, in which gems and trinkets may be found. My favorite story so far is The Dog King. It is a werewolf story, set in a country where the city dwellers venerate the deadly packs, while the villages cower in fear of the coordinated rampaging stampedes. The capital city is ruled by a king who keeps a wolf named Elinad as a pet. This animal is his eyes and ears in the castle, shape-shifting to report to his king in human form. In the village below, people begin dying in horrific fashion, the King promises the crown to he who halts the rampage. But is he willing to have the truth surface with the consequences?

A bibliophile's delight is the tale, Paper cuts Scissors. Justin, a young library student, takes on a job by the mysterious Mr. Sandlin. Justin's girlfriend, Linda, had a gift for inserting objects into books, weaving the folded item into the narrative. Linda heard of a man named Sandlin, who could pull things out of books as well. Justin refused, and Linda folded herself into a Russian tale, forcing Justin's hand. Justin meets a girl at school, Sarah, who claims to know about Sandlin. By the end of the story, Justin learns about the intersection between Rock-Paper-Scissors, relationships, and reading.

The Boy who cried Wolf is a snapshot that could have been a bigger storyline. It is satisfying in itself, but it is ripe for development.

For the most part, short stories are fragments of greater concepts in the writer's mind. They are quick sketches that could be fleshed out and drawn forth to produce beautifully dark and bewitching tales. Not all thoughts and ideas are comfortable to learn, know, or say aloud. The strength and weakness of a short story is that it never overstays its welcome, no matter whether the guest is charming or detestable.

I nearly forgot.
This haiku is a thing I do.
Good night to all you

Unincorporated Man, by Dani & Eytan Kollin

I picked this book up from the library because of the title and thickness. I thought it would be an interesting read. I didn't expect it to be deep and compelling, but as I continued reading, the story had me hooked.

300 years in the future, death and taxes have been modified into an afterthought. Revival techniques and age therapy have provided means to prolong man's lifetime to well over 170 years, provided that the brain is intact. Incorporation is the way of life in this modern world. From birth, the government has a 5% stake in the individual's future earnings, the parents a 20% stake. By law, the individual itself has to keep a 25% minimum stake in themselves. The other 50% is IPO'ed to investors who own you as a potential cash cow. It is explained by one citizen as incentive born of self-interest - 'Why would you lash out at a sibling if you have a stake in gaining from their future? You wouldn't want to risk physical or emotional trauma to affect your chance to make money...'

Into this well oiled system, insert a single, free man. Justin Cord, a 21st century billionaire, the first man to create an entirely workerless factory in Tennessee, was dying of cancer. He used his fortune to design and build a cryogenic suspension unit for the purposes of being revived in a world where such an illness could be cured. Nearly 300 years later, he is discovered by a GCI prospector named Omad, just an ordinary joe looking to make a buck on the side who stumbles upon Justin's cavernous tomb.

GCI, the largest corporation on the planet, takes over its employee's find. Neela Harper, a revivalist stationed in Boulder, Colorado, sees this find as her one big chance to break free from the small town stage. No one survived the GC (Great Collapse) of the 21st century, which decimated the world's population. If it wasn't for the wisdom and guidance of Tim Damsah, a young Alaskan politician, the world might have fallen victim to the effects of the horrifying VR Plague.

Neela fights Hektor Sambianco, the GCI representative for the constitutional right of immediate revival. Hektor refuses, sneering that GCI will revive the Man when it has a guarantee of profit from the matter. After all, a pre-GC man had the potential to be quite valuable as a curiosity. The Chairman, reclusive head of GCI and the most powerful man in the world, had a responsibility to the stockholders of his company to milk this find for what all it was worth.

Hektor demands the outrageous sum of 10 million for an immediate revival. Neela balks - the highest revival ever contracted before was in the 400,000 range, this was ridiculous. Yet, by the end of the day, an anonymous donor covers the tab: Justin Cord becomes the Uniincorporated Man, the only person in the solar system (which has since been colonized through terraforming), to not be owned by anyone else.

While the Incorporated World's members dream of someday achieving the magical number of a 51% majority stake in themselves, this man receives it on a silver platter.

Neela is assigned to integrating Justin Cord into the wonders of the modern world. But it soon becomes clear that the modern world also needs time to adjust to the existence of Justin Cord. The man is ingenious, observant, and eloquent - and is absolutely disgusted by the concept of "incorporation." The idea of humans owning each other is repulsive to a man who spent his life earning his freedom from rags to riches. The more Hektor Sambianco and GCI try to force Cord into becoming part of their stock trading world, the harder and more determined Cord fights against the perceived bonds.

Justin quickly becomes a celebrity not only because of his unique status of freedom, but also for being a living legend - the story of his life and mysterious disappearance intrigued the world for 300 years. To have the actual article preserved and intelligent makes him the most followed man on the planet. But when a radical political party names Cord their poster boy and begins a reign of terror in his spirit, Cord finds how quickly public opinion can change. He did not wish any of this to happen, but refuses to acquiesce to the demands that he become part of the system.

How hard would you fight to retain your concept of independence? Is it worth the loss of your friends, fortune, and reputation? Is it right for one man's ideals to overrule the the greater society's stability and interest?

"This world we are living in, sir, is a dictatorship - a dictatorship of the content. It is a creeping, smothering form of dictatorship that works so well and makes everyone so happy... on the surface." - pg.448


I really enjoyed this book, it was rather thought provoking and insightful in the realm of humanity and the concept of self interest. The drawbacks to the book is the chapter concerning the universal week of debauchery that is named Mardi Gras. That and the use of the f-bomb 300 years past the present are two concepts that would have been better buried in the Great Collapse.

I am not much for sci-fi, but this is humanity accelerated and given new toys rather than the cliche idea of hypothetical contact with extraterrestrial races.

Super 8, a J.J. Abrams film

I thought this would be like Cloverfield - big build up to a mysterious disaster and series of events. Cloverfield was a tribute to horror films and revitalized the hand-held camera angle of filming things. While I loved Abrams's reboot of the Star Trek series and its intricacies, I think he could have done better with this project. It felt like a stunt to give summer viewers a trip. Pan's Labyrinth was a brilliant stroke because it was a war movie and a fantasy, could be viewed both ways. I am still deciding whether I will like this movie and its genre split of drama and sci-fi.

The film centers around the viewpoint of Joe Lamb, the town deputy's son, and his friend, Charles's desire to enter a film contest with a zombie themed entry. The time is 1979 and the camera of choice is a super 8, the training wheels that honed many of today's filmmakers. One night, while filming at a train station, a white pick-up truck drives deliberately on the tracks and derails the train. Cary, another of Charles' gang of moviemakers and the resident pyromaniac, is overjoyed by all the chaos and explosions. The rest of the group attempts to collect themselves after witnessing first hand such a disaster. They discover the truck in a bad state and find that the driver is the honors biology teacher at their middle school. He tells them to run, backing up his words with a handgun before he collapses from weakness onto the steering wheel. Within minutes, Air force personnel are combing the tracks, collecting and boxing up crates of curious white plastic cubes that were strewn from the wreckage.

Joe's dad grows suspicious as the Air force men remain tight lipped about their mission. People start disappearing, household pets are discovered in neighboring counties, power supplies fade in and out. The nexus to all the mystery of the movie, is that whatever escaped that train is now dissecting the town and its people, causing ordinary citizens to live in wordless terror, while evading the military's attempts to corral its rampage.

Throughout all this chaos, Charles rallies his ragtag group and channels the town's hysteria into the backdrop and scenery of his movie. Joe begins to fall for Alice, the newly recruited actress for the movie. Alice and Joe's fathers had a falling out and the two parties had never toed the line of silence. Charles's movie provided an opportunity to break the familiar boundaries and know one another. But after Alice herself disappears, it is up to Joe's dad to decipher why the Air Force isn't cooperating while Joe investigates why their teacher was on the tracks, hoping it will help to rescue his new-found friend.

The movie within the movie plays while the credits roll. It is almost a homage to Abrams' own roots as a filmmaker, watching the youth fumble around with angles and "special effects." With the visionary view of a child, the experience time brings, and an insane budget, courtesy of Spielberg, things like Super 8 can be made.

Abrams has made hits
Three hundred is baseball's good
Only fate that you miss...

Varanger: Judging a book by its cover 1.1

When I began to volunteer at the library at which I now work, this cover was in the "New Books" section. The earth-toned colors and curiously titled tome arrested my attention. It has been two and a half years since that day, and I have just now finished it.

The book concerns the two mercenary cousins, Raef and Conn, and the trouble that they find when contracted to the whims of other men. The narrative follows three masters, each more distant than the last.

Raef was the son of a slave woman, and is gifted with unexplained senses - He 'feels' his surroundings and has an intuition for impending danger. He uses his skills sometimes to predict the game of dice to his advantage, and at other times merely to keep track of Conn's whereabouts.

Conn needs the oversight - He is a hot-blooded warrior, conflict roils in his wake. He is single minded and fancies power and women, preferably both.

The story unfolds in Roman Empire Europe, in a small town to which the Varanger lord, Thorfinn retires with his crew. He keeps Conn and Raef as his security in the town. Thorfinn is a reasonable man, he teaches Conn how to play chess, and how that mindset transfers to life. The town leader, Dobrynya, is a canny and crafty old man, uncle to the ruler of the Rus', Volodymyr. The Sclava and Varanger are two different tribes, the Rus' is the movement to unite the seafaying Varangers with the land master Sclava to create a nation. Dobrynya has a town enforcer, Pavo, who keeps the peace with a greased palm and a sadistic whip.

Conn and Pavo are soon made rivals, neither one wanting to relent that the other is the better fighter. Pavo cheats in hand-to-hand, having the aforementioned whip, as well as a kind of brass knuckles hidden in the back of his belt and the infamous knife in his boot. Conn and Raef winter in the town, but as conflicts and scuffles continue between Conn and Pavo, Dobrynya proposes to hire the cousins for a raiding party to the south.

Raef and Conn travel by boat while the Sclava keep pace by land. Even the pace becomes a competition between the two tribes - Who will reach the designated campsite first? Conn and Raef's crew is composed of wanderers, vikings, and icelanders, these thirteen qualify as Varangers to the scoffing Sclava war band. But as the journey continues, these men become a tight-knit group of blood brothers, united under the banner of Conn's determination and Raef's navigation.

They finally reach Kiev, the hometown of the Dobrynya's nephew, Volodymyr, head of the Sclava and Varanger by the bloodlines of the leaders' union. Volodymyr is confident and idealistic in his dream of one nation. He seeks out other gods to fulfill this vision into a reality, making his personal Faithful Guard uneasy - they love their master, but they are servants of Thor and the Norse deities, other religions are strange and untrustworthy.

The Dobrynya plays his hand - as Conn and Raef are under his command, he joins his nephew in a campaign to take the Greek trading stronghold of Chersonese. During the planning, Raef and a Muslim dignitary discuss the roles of God and man. Raef is a simple humanist, believing that man can and should reach his full potential without the medium of a deity. He frustrates the Arab, who sees Allah as the only way, graceful and merciful in allowing infidels to convert to him by their own free will. Raef challenges the Arab that if the Muslims believe in not enslaving other Muslims, and that Baghdad is built on the backs of slaves, then his stated wish that all become Muslim is incompatible with the ugly reality of the world.

The Arab leaves to return to Baghdad, his baggage full of notes taken upon the Sclava and their ways, in order to understand them and convert more effectively when Allah's will descends upon the North. However, he took with him the knowledge that Volodymyr plans to lay siege to Chersonese, a stop upon his journey home. Raef and Conn see danger in this, Dobrynya has faith that the dignitary was a friend.

The climax of the book is the campaign against Chersonese and the fallout from the decisions that are made by those who place power upon the wills of others. How dear a word is kept by those who pledge loyalty, and how little value is given to the owner of the promise. Life does not promise ribbons and bows as the last words are spoken, and neither does this book follow the unspoken dictates of literature.

Will this continue
As a sustainable thread
How to tie it up?

X-men First Class - Another Universe away.

I must confess to start. I am a devoted Marvel fan, especially since Brian Michael Bendis and Ed Hickman started their careers at the superhero icon. It seems trivial to review issues and storylines in a blog, unless specifically designed for that purpose. I will endeavor not to cross that line, as it takes a retcon to be "in" on what the significance of the current events are.

Movies, however, I can and will review. First class starts with Erik Lenshurr, the future villain Magneto, as a child in a Nazi concentration camp. He unlocks his mastery of metal through the rage in watching his mother die before his eyes. Meanwhile, in New York, a young Charles Xavier is awoken in the night by the sounds of a break-in. When reaching the kitchen, he meets Raven Darkholme, a mutant with the ability to shape-shift. Charles invites her to stay as a friend, she need not steal her food. Years pass, Erik vows revenge on those who tortured and shamed him, Charles attends college and publishes a thesis statement on Mutation and its Effects upon Human Race's history. Xavier is confident and arrogant in his ability to read the minds of others. Raven likes him, but he views her in the abstract box of a companion - one who shares his odd genetic line, although she looks like a freak in her original form of blue skin and yellow eyes.

Sebastian Shaw, head of the gentleman's group The Hellfire Club, is also a mutant, but he has bigger plans than just fitting into society. He assembles a core of Emma Frost (a telepath with diamond skin), Azareal (a teleporter), and Riptide (Air manipulator). They manipulate the political conflict between Russia and America, wanting to bring about a nuclear war that would kill humans and strengthen mutant strains. Xavier and Lenshurr meet while attempting to stop Shaw, and agree to form a counter group to better achieve that end goal. They find Alex Summers (Havok, an energy wielder), Hank McCoy (Beast, brilliant and has hands for feet), Armando Munoz (Darwin, ability to adapt his physiology to survive), Angel Salvatore (Angel, she has proportional dragonfly wings [Digression - in the written Marvel Universe, her name is Tempest and she is nowhere near this timeline.]).

The strain in the movie grows between optimistic Xavier and embittered Magneto. One wants to preserve both humans and mutants, the other wants it to be all or nothing. Shaw is a great opponent for the films, as he absorbs all physical damage as energy and can channel it back to the sender. (The harder you fight him, the better he becomes). The setting of the movie around the Cold War is an interesting stroke, and the effects are impressive. I must say that my favorite part of the movie was Hugh Jackman's cameo appearance. As a Caveat to sensible viewers, Hellfire Club and the meeting of Angel both feature risque apparel in an otherwise periodly modest environment. Overall, a good standalone movie, yards above X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but Xavier's character came across as lucky and arrogant. He doesn't have to train throughout the movie, and yet his finale comes through in spades. I liked the acting of Erik, Raven, and Hank - they were relatable and had appropriate levels of sympathy for the decisions they make during the course of the film.

Monsters or heroes?
Are Villains born or just formed?
Be the better man...