Now, NOW I'm starting to get upset.
Jan. 29th, 2010 02:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conuly
Well, I have to go to bed, so no time for that, I'll just have to be angry in the morning.
But while I'm up, a quick comment on The Hunger Games which I just now read for the first time.
First - it's written by the same person who wrote The Overlander Chronicles, which were my guilty pleasure when they came out. It's much better written, but the Gregor books were her first, weren't they? I'd expect some improvement! (And the Gregor books weren't bad, they just had some awkward writing in parts.)
Second, it's interesting, reading this book I kept flashing back to another book I have at home - The Hermit Thrush Sings. The two books don't have much in common - just numbered districts after a vague "fall" that are forbidden contact with each other, mutations in the "dangerous" woods, and singing birds as a theme - but the one reminded me of the other. So if you've read a bit about The Hunger Games but think you'll like a book with less violence and more mysticism, pick up the other one instead. (I just now bothered to look up hermit thrushes and was pleased to find that they're real birds with a really pretty song. When I finally looked up nightingales a while back to hear a recording of their song, I was gravely disappointed.)
I'm adding this to my personal list of dystopic books I've read and enjoyed. Cut my teeth on dystopias, you know. One of the first chapter books I ever read was Outside, by Andre Norton. Printed in large "early-readers" print, no less! Much of the book seems cliched and old to me now, but I read it to bits then, and that's what counts, isn't it? (Childhood's End, now, is depressing as FUCK and I won't read it. And you can't tell me that's not dystopic fiction. All the aliens have is their FAITH that their actions are on the side of good, and that's not good enough for me.)
But while I'm up, a quick comment on The Hunger Games which I just now read for the first time.
First - it's written by the same person who wrote The Overlander Chronicles, which were my guilty pleasure when they came out. It's much better written, but the Gregor books were her first, weren't they? I'd expect some improvement! (And the Gregor books weren't bad, they just had some awkward writing in parts.)
Second, it's interesting, reading this book I kept flashing back to another book I have at home - The Hermit Thrush Sings. The two books don't have much in common - just numbered districts after a vague "fall" that are forbidden contact with each other, mutations in the "dangerous" woods, and singing birds as a theme - but the one reminded me of the other. So if you've read a bit about The Hunger Games but think you'll like a book with less violence and more mysticism, pick up the other one instead. (I just now bothered to look up hermit thrushes and was pleased to find that they're real birds with a really pretty song. When I finally looked up nightingales a while back to hear a recording of their song, I was gravely disappointed.)
I'm adding this to my personal list of dystopic books I've read and enjoyed. Cut my teeth on dystopias, you know. One of the first chapter books I ever read was Outside, by Andre Norton. Printed in large "early-readers" print, no less! Much of the book seems cliched and old to me now, but I read it to bits then, and that's what counts, isn't it? (Childhood's End, now, is depressing as FUCK and I won't read it. And you can't tell me that's not dystopic fiction. All the aliens have is their FAITH that their actions are on the side of good, and that's not good enough for me.)
