Mockingjay: Review

We arrive here, at the end of all things. Mockingjay, book 3 of the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, concludes the saga of Katniss, Peeta, and Gale as the districts begin a revolution against the Capital, a culmination of all that Katniss and Peeta accomplished (accidentally) as they survived the horrors of the Hunger Games. I've already spoken to my distaste for Collins' writing style in my reviews of books 1 and 2, so I'll just say that it doesn't get any better here. We still follow Katniss as she struggles with the events that transpired at the end of the last book: she's been rescued by the revolution and taken to District 13 (gasp!), where they have apparently been biding their time to begin the revolution anew in secret. District 12 has been firebombed to oblivion, and few survived the destruction (naturally Gale and her family are just fine), and Peeta has been captured by the Capitol.

This book suffers by far the most from Collins' sometimes ponderous and repetitive writing style. In what should be the big action piece, very little happens at all. Far little than either of the preceding books, actually. I was really looking forward to the war between the Districts and the Capitol, but guess what? We really don't see it. Instead we're treated to Katniss having a complete breakdown for the majority of the book, spending her time wandering from one closet to the next, where she can hide and cry over her loss of Peeta and her very confused feelings for him and Gale.

This book had a lot of potential. Katniss, who had been such a strong female character for the series, who had used her anger to jumpstart a rebellion, who would do anything to survive and protect those she loves just kind of stops doing all of that. Her big role in the revolution is that of a propaganda figure, dressing up in fancy armor and looking good for the camera. They keep almost taking her into actual combat, but aside from the first foray that never really happens. It's absolutely frustrating.

There are also a great deal of characters that are introduced, and never really used. Or used briefly, then thrown by the wayside. It seems like there may have been a larger plan that just never happened. Frustrating.

Then there's the end. Yes, we get everything nice and wrapped up, but it all seems incredibly rushed and lazy, actually. The love triangle between Gale, Peeta, and Katniss is resolved, but in a completely unsatisfying cop out that does nothing but wrap it up. Katniss' revolution is also rushed towards the end, and ultimately lacks any kind of real conclusion (in my mind). Katniss never actually decides anything for herself. Things just fall in a certain fashion that she decides to go with. Even the love triangle, when it seems that the decision has been made for her, seems undecided. There's a line (I won't quote because I don't want to go digging around for it) where she says that she's "relieved" that she can't go with one of them. THAT is your resolution, her decision. She's just "relieved" that she doesn't have to make any decision.

This book is by far my least favorite of the series, and seems to actually tarnish the first two books with inconsistent character development and plain old annoying decisions. The Hunger Games seemed to have not been edited very well for grammar, but Mockingjay seems to have been poorly edited for plot. I wonder if, due to the popularity of the series, they rushed the conclusion out the door before it could have fully developed, before it had properly matured. If that's the case, then it's a damn shame to conclude what could have otherwise been a very good series with such a lackluster entry. Who knows, maybe translating it to the big screen will allow them to fix what was so very broken with this conclusion.

I don't like this book. Real, or not real?

Real.

Rating: 4/10

Now, I'm off to read something a bit lighter. I think the Black Dahlia should do the trick.

Catching Fire: Review

Lucky number thirteen (which is somewhat ironic, since the other book I'm reading right now is actually called Thirteen), we arrive at Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, book 2 of the Hunger Games trilogy.

I've already written about the Hunger Games, so I'll do my best not to rehash that subject. Catching Fire is a fun continuation of the series, following Katniss six-months after the events of the first book as she tries to cope with the challenges that the evil Capital and their Hunger Games have brought into her life.

Now, there really aren't any surprises here as to the main focus of the book. If you were paying any attention at all in the first book, you'll know where this is going. The Capital is pissed with Katniss, and President Snow (quite possibly the most incompetent public relations president since Stalin) has it in for Katniss & Co.

I'll avoid spoilers here, so I won't go into what that entails. Instead I'll just speak to the merits of the book, and the problems I have with it.

It's a fun read, there's no doubt about that in my mind. I enjoyed it, the characters and the events are all things that keep me interested. I sometimes balk at President Snow's ideas for punishment, but I guess he's just not that great at actual manipulation. Katniss is a decent narrator, though she does get a little annoying at times.

To be honest, the biggest problems I have with the book are two; first, like the Hunger Games, it takes a little while to get off the ground. It took me almost a week to get past the first 30% of the book, but once I got over that hump only about two days to finish it. The other problem I have with the series at large is Collins' actual writing ability. Yes, I know it's aimed at "young adults," but I think we're somewhat shortchanging them here if this is intentionally written down to them.

Collins has a pretty great imagination, I really enjoy the ideas she presents here and the overall story. It's just when you get into the actual writing that things become rather weak. Near the end of the book I thought of a completely different conclusion based on a simple sentence that could have easily been glossed over. "Wow, that's a really clever use of foreshadowing!" I thought, and read on only to find that it was just an accidental turn of a phrase that meant exactly what it was saying.

Then there is the end, which takes a lot of important information, wrapping up just about every loose story thread and explaining it in a brief one-paragraph summary. Don't tell me what has been happening, show me! There's a pretty big (though obvious) reveal that I would have loved to have Katniss describe in shock and wonder, instead of just lumping it in with a half dozen other "revelations" that seem rather boring when put down in such a brief synopsis.

There's just not very much depth to Collins'writing, and I think that the series would really benefit from a little more emphasis on the "adult" in "young adult." See Heinlein's YA books for what I mean.

Catching Fire is an entertaining read, no doubt in my mind about that, and worth the time it takes to actually pick up the pace. For someone who is interested in YA books at all, I certainly would recommend them, and I can see why they enjoy the popularity that they do.

Rating: 7/10

2012: January in Review the Final Chapter

And we arrive at the end, wherein I dig into what amounted to a rather eclectic portion of the month. We've got instructional, post-apocalypse sci-fi, pulp noir, post-apocalyptic young adult, and Star Wars. Let's get to it, shall we?

Writing a Novel with Scrivener by David Hewson

Writing a Novel with Scrivener was a Kindle exclusive that was offered in the Lending Library, which is a program Amazon offers to Prime customers that essentially lets them read a book for free a month. I am a pretty die hard Scrivener user, and have been for about four or five years now. I'd go into that further, but that seems to be the kind of thing I should save for later.

This little book is essentially one author's user case for the software. He details how he uses it in his own fiction writing, and what he thinks are the best ways to get the most out of it when writing a novel. And that really is all there is to it. It's well written, informative, and is pretty helpful with a lot of things that even after using the software for so long I didn't really know. Scrivener is like that, there's always something useful if you dig just a little bit deeper.

Hewson did a good job of writing something informative, but keeping it brief and interesting.

Rating: 7/10

Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson

I really like Star Wars. That's no secret, ask anyone. But I'm not really a huge reader of the Expanded Universe books. Back before the prequels, when old man Lucas refused to acknowledge them one way or another, it was mostly just the "Doomsday weapon of the week" kind of deal, where Luke and the gang had to run around the galaxy destroying one planet destroying gun or bomb or starfighter after another. Then the Prequels happened, and it was all about the Jedi, and how awesome they are with the help of their clone soldiers. Super fun!

I hate most of that. So you may be able to see why I enjoyed the Republic Commandobooks so much. Written by Karen Traviss, a former war reporter who readily admits to not being a Star Wars fan in the first place. In fact, after being offered the job to write some tie-in novels she said she did a lot of research and found the Jedi to be a lot of jerks for the most part.

I'm taking a long time to explain why I love this series, but bear with me. Her task was to write a series of novels following a group of the Clone Commandos that are created in Episode II, Attack of the Clones. So she takes that concept and runs with it. The Clones are trained/raised by a badass Mandalorian (think Boba Fett, or, sigh, his father Jango) who treats them like his own sons and makes them realize that they're a literal slave army, created for the sole purpose of fighting and dying for the Republic with no choice in the matter.

When the war breaks out in the movie/books, the Jedi are all made officers (and Generals for the most part), not because they're trained to be such, but because they can do magic! And not only are they cool with these slave soldiers, most don't even acknowledge there being a problem. So the Jedi are dicks, essentially.

And I've gone on a long time without even talking about this book. Okay, back on track. This is the fifth book in the series (or the first in a second series if you want to get technical), and features the same characters that we have followed for the previous four. It takes place at the dawn of the Empire, with several of the main characters having been forced to join the Imperial 501st regiment, or the Vader's Fist, tasked with hunting down and killing the remaining Jedi.

Unfortunately, the book is better conceptually than in actual practice. There is little in a whole story arc, rather it feels like the first part in a much larger arc. It almost feels like she had a whole large story plotted out, then as she wrote it her editor told her to stop at a certain page, and to save the rest for the next book. Which would be fine, except for Old Man Lucas has decided that the books are now non-canonical, effectively ending the series.

I could go on, trust me, on how much Lucas has screwed up Star Wars over the years, but I'll quit after going on at length already. Traviss is the best of the EU writers, and it's too bad that the last of her books in this pretty great series is going to be the worst of them all.

Rating: 7/10

2012: January in Review Part I

January was a productive month for reading. Thanks to the new Kindle my lovely wife bought for me for Christmas, I was able to blaze through a good eleven books through the course of the month, almost half as many as I read in 2011.

Some books were hits, some were... well, not terrible or anything, but not fantastic. In the following post I'm going to go ahead and run through them as quickly as possible, detailing what I liked about them, didn't like, whatever weird gut feeling I might've had, and probably go on for at least four paragraphs longer than I had intended.

Just like this introduction.

Turn Coat by Jim Butcher

Turn Coat is book 11 of the surprisingly great Dresden Files series. I'd heard about the series before from a friend who had read them all and

had pushed me to take the plunge; as usual, I was hesitant to say the least. In the end, it was nearing the end of 2011 and I only had about 20 books read out of the 50 I had set myself to read by the end of the year. I was desperate, and looking for something to either read or "read" in audiobook format. Dresden Files seemed like it was worth a try. After a brief search on Audible I discovered that it was read by James Marsters (the one and only Spike of Buffy fame), and it was downloaded and streaming from my iPhone.

Turn Coat is around the point where the series starts to get really good. It's very entertaining before this, Butcher does a wonderful job of writing characters that actually grow and evolve from one book to the next. Harry's powers grow, his tactics change in a logical progression from one book to the next which is (sadly) incredibly refreshing. It's a damn entertaining read, offering some pretty excellent story progression and great character work. I highly recommend the series, and this book is a perfect example of all the things that are right with it.

Rating: 8/10

 Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey

This was a pretty incredibly pleasant surprise. I'd heard good things about the book on io9 and Goodreads, I loved the cover, and I was pretty in the mood for a relatively near future Space Opera that this seemed to be.

Set in the next hundred years or so (I think, I just realized I have no idea when it's actually set), humanity has colonized the solar system. Earth and Mars are fair weather allies, each building up their own navies (Earth having numbers, while Mars has the better ships) for an eventual conflict, and the Belt has been colonized by fortune seekers and the dregs of society looking to make a living on their own. Corporations have taken over the Belt, the distance too great for Earth or Mars to truly care about the rim of the system.

It's a tense atmosphere already when XO Jim Holden and his crewmates stumble upon a mysterious Mary Celeste type ship, and are attacked by even more mysterious military vessels. The story switches between the POVs of Jim Holden (the upright, do the right thing no matter the consequences kind of guy) and Detective Miller (tough as nails detective with a devil may care attitude and nothing left to lose). Honestly, this is one of the best things about the book. As we switch between the two characters, we are treated to two almost completely different styles of writing. Holden is a typical space opera character, Luke Skywalker or Flash Gordon, a man who sees things in black and white while the rest of the world exists in a million shades of grey. Miller is the opposite. His chapters are very noir, he's a bitter man that's seen the worst that humanity has to offer and realizes he's just another guy that's no better than the rest of the scum.

I really, really enjoyed this book. The story is a little cheesy, as all space operas tend to be, but you're not reading this for absolute scientific accuracy or a 100% realistic portrayal of a possible future. It has vomit zombies, so if that's too hokey for you then stay away. Otherwise, if you're looking for a damned fun read with enjoyable characters (and a noir space detective!) then by all means, this'll do the job. I'm really looking forward to the next book in the trilogy.

Rating: 8/10

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Ready Player One is Cline's first book, and man does it show. The idea is fun enough: in the future, the world sucks. The world economy is in

shambles, our ecosphere is blown, and we're tottering on full-blown apocalypse. Outside of cities, it's gone totally Mad Max. But doesn't matter, because everybody has access to the OASIS, a VR online game that does everything from normal PvP and MMO level grinding to allowing for a complete education, simulating a completely normal school that apparently works out better than real school.

The concept is neat, I'll admit that. The story is that the inventor of the OASIS has died, and in his will has said that anybody who solves his riddle will inherit his fortune, and the corporation that runs the OASIS (yeah, pretty much Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). The thing is, the guy grew up in the 1980s, and apparently had a somewhat obsessive personality. He was a geek (nothing wrong with that), and just wanted everyone else to

love all of the things that he loved (which turns out to be everything in the 80s). So the contest is that the only way to solve his puzzles is to be as obsessed as he was with the 80s, which causes the world of the future to become obsessed with the 80s. Woo. Our protagonist, Wade Watts, is apparently the best in this. He's poor, and can't even afford to take his character in OASIS off of the starting planet (it requires money, real or virtual, to travel from planet to planet), so he's a pathetic low level grunt until he figures out the first part of the puzzle.

The story is incredibly formulaic, the only interesting things being the sheer amount of pop-culture that Cline crams into each page. That would be fun, normally. I love 80s pop culture. I love seeing little references to things like AD&D or Robotech or Transformers, but unfortunately for every reference he slides in he follows it up with a complete explanation as to what he's referencing. Like an encyclopedia. And it's every. Single. Time. Which makes the storytelling tedious, at best. Also, the character building is almost masturbatory, with Watts becoming the super-best ever just a few pages after figuring out the first puzzle, and flies around in a Firefly class starship (yeah, from Firefly) or his X-Wing, even better, a Delorian with the Ghostbusters logo on the side, the KITT flashing light on the hood (and the computer to boot), and with the license plate ECTO1. Again, this all could be neat if any of it was actually used, but it isn't. The Delorian is mentioned once, and the other ships are just conveyances.

And then there's the writing itself. Unfortunately, that's the worst part. Reading the dialogue is actually painful. Nobody talks like that. Nobody. It's like the dialogue was actually developed by watching Saved by the Bell reruns, and throwing even more "ooh! Burn!" and highfives. Maybe I'm a little hard on the book, because despite all this I didn't hate it. I'm not even sure if I completely disliked it. It was fun. Cheap, corny, stupid, popcorn fun. It's not much better than a fanfic, to be honest, and I have no idea how it garnered the attention that it has. I'm as geeky as the best of them, and I honestly thought some of that was almost insulting. This book was a lot like the Big Bang Theory, in that if you have a passing knowledge of the subjects it might be hilarious. Or it might be bordering on offensive. Depends on the subject. For me, it was a little bit of both.

Rating: 5/10

At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft

And we arrive at a peculiarity of mine. I love Lovecraft. The Cthulhu mythos are amazing, the world that he has created is something I am continuously fascinated with. Unfortunately, I don't love to read his writing.

I know, it's weird and shameful and I hate myself for it, but it's true. I eat this stuff up in theory, but when it actually comes to reading his works, it takes me forever and a day to get through it. I hesitate to mention it here for fear of reprisal, but I have a similar problem with Robert E. Howard's works. Conan the Barbarian is one of those things I love, but I've read an embarrassingly small amount of the stories.

But I should get back to this review. One of Lovecraft's seminal works, At the Mountains of Madness is one of the longest stories in the Cthulhu Mythos, and as far as I've read, one that explains the most. This might actually be my biggest problem with it. What I've always loved about the Mythos, and most of Lovecraft's stories is the mystery of it, the sheer otherwordly terror that is inspired by the fact that we have no damned clue what is out there. The Colors Out of Space, Call of Cthulhu, et cetera present these horrors that are glimpsed and forever seared into the unlucky soul's mind for all eternity. Nothing is explained. Nothing is understood. Terror is all that is left.

Mountains changes this, and offers a history of the Old Ones and the Shuggoths and other races that inhabited the primordial Earth, long, long before man. It's all pretty fascinating, and I like what he came up for it, but I think I was happier not knowing.

The format for the story is the biggest hangup, though. Conversely, it may be its biggest plus as well. It's written as a letter documenting an expedition that went horribly awry, as a plea to keep others from attempting to mount a similar expedition. Because of its fictional audience, it is written with a scientific understanding in mind, detailing things like geological peculiarities that the team had been researching. This does a great deal to create a reality to the story that would probably be lacking otherwise, but it also makes it dry as hell for the majority of the story.

According to my Goodreads profile, I started the story on March 9, 2011, then finished it on January 10th, 2012. I got about 80% through before I just had to put it down, then only picked it up again out of a sense of duty/completion. It's Lovecraft. If you love his writing and his pacing, you'll love this. If you don't, then it may be a rough time getting through it. All in all...

Rating: 6/10