Book Log 36/2011 - Suzanne Collins: Mockingjay – Hunger Games #3

Suzanne Collins: Mockingjay – Hunger Games #3

Beware spoilers,especially for the first two books in the series

Katniss has been snatched out of the arena, some of her fellow combatants have survived as well, but Peeta has been captured by President Snow and it's only a matter of time before he'll be used against Katniss and the revolutionaries. For Katniss has become the Mockingjay, the symbol of revolution, but it seems that no one is letting her in on the plans. Frustrated at every turn, she frets, even though she's been reunited with her boyfriend Gale.

Dark as the first two books were this strays into even darker territory. Katniss is an uneasy revolutionary and the president of the rebels is as bad as President Snow in her own way – power hungry and eager to use Katniss but not to give her anything in return except medication and platitudes. Gale has found his feet and is rapidly turning into a career revolutionary. But having become the Mockingjay Katniss is out of step and out of place.

This is an uncomfortable book with Katniss struggling to find her way through a moral and emotional maze, to keep her loved ones safe and to rehabilitate Peeta, eventually rescued after his time in President Snow's mind-laboratories. In the end she does find where she belongs, but it's not what we expected at the outset – but then, life rarely is.

I won't say I enjoyed this book unreservedly, but I am very glad I read it and completed the trilogy. There's a fashion for dystopian YA literature at the moment and this is likely to be fostered by the upcoming Hunger Games movie. I'm not sure I could read too much of it, though as a teen I would have swallowed this whole along with other examples like Cory Doctorow's Little Brother (which I also liked immensely). Will it be a bigger fad than sparkly vampires? Only time will tell.

Book Log 36/2011 - Suzanne Collins: Mockingjay – Hunger Games #3

Suzanne Collins: Mockingjay – Hunger Games #3

Beware spoilers,especially for the first two books in the series

Katniss has been snatched out of the arena, some of her fellow combatants have survived as well, but Peeta has been captured by President Snow and it's only a matter of time before he'll be used against Katniss and the revolutionaries. For Katniss has become the Mockingjay, the symbol of revolution, but it seems that no one is letting her in on the plans. Frustrated at every turn, she frets, even though she's been reunited with her boyfriend Gale.

Dark as the first two books were this strays into even darker territory. Katniss is an uneasy revolutionary and the president of the rebels is as bad as President Snow in her own way – power hungry and eager to use Katniss but not to give her anything in return except medication and platitudes. Gale has found his feet and is rapidly turning into a career revolutionary. But having become the Mockingjay Katniss is out of step and out of place.

This is an uncomfortable book with Katniss struggling to find her way through a moral and emotional maze, to keep her loved ones safe and to rehabilitate Peeta, eventually rescued after his time in President Snow's mind-laboratories. In the end she does find where she belongs, but it's not what we expected at the outset – but then, life rarely is.

I won't say I enjoyed this book unreservedly, but I am very glad I read it and completed the trilogy. There's a fashion for dystopian YA literature at the moment and this is likely to be fostered by the upcoming Hunger Games movie. I'm not sure I could read too much of it, though as a teen I would have swallowed this whole along with other examples like Cory Doctorow's Little Brother (which I also liked immensely). Will it be a bigger fad than sparkly vampires? Only time will tell.

Book Log 37/2011 - Mark Keating: Fight for Freedom

Mark Keating: Fight for Freedom

Set in 1717, this is a pirate book, hence I was drawn to it on the shelves in Tesco, not my usual bookstore.

The blurb on the front cover tells me that this is, 'Set to be the Sharpe of the high seas,' but sadly Patrick Devlin is no Richard Sharpe. He lacks the gritty panache and rough-hewn romanticism that characterises Richard Sharpe and despite rising surprisingly (but not entirely credibly) to lead a pirate gang in very short-order, he's just not a scrapper like Sharpe. Sorry, but that blurb does this book no favours at all.

Devlin was born into poverty and sold as a servant. His undoubted intelligence and ability to grab random information and turn it into an on-the-job education of sorts are what set him above most servants, but despite that he doesn't make any effort to leave his master, Coxon, a Royal Navy captain, until Coxon is taken ill and remains behind in Africa while the ship sails to England under the second in command, encountering pirates along the way. Devlin turns pirate when faced with the choice of turning or dying and from there - in next to no time and due to the previous leader being accidentally left behind for dead - ends up as a pirate captain. Until that time, happy or not, he's been content with his lot in life and even seems to have been regarded fondly as a loyal servant. So no firebrand, this Devlin, but an opportunist only.

Sure he has learned (by watching the captain) to navigate, almost a magic art as far as the pirates are concerned, and has some good ideas, but mostly it's chance that gives him his start in the pirating business and other people who save his bacon when things get sticky. He tends to look bright most of the time becauae the pirates are largely drawn as incredibly stupid as well as ill-educated.

Coxon, now fully recovered but embarrassed by the loss of his ship is sent to bring the Pirate Devlin to heel and protect a treasure chest belonging to the East India Company. I had rather expected some swashing and buckling, but what we get instead is a somewhat shifty ruse, a bit of play acting, some stealthy killing, a lot of wondering what to do next and finally an ending which isn't exactly a crackling big finish. Devlin is by no means an Errol Flynn, a Burt Lancaster or even a Johnny Depp. He's certainly not a Sean Bean in pirate garb.

Sorry. I wanted to like this but I had to force myself to keep reading. Disappointing.

Book Log 37/2011 - Mark Keating: Fight for Freedom

Mark Keating: Fight for Freedom

Set in 1717, this is a pirate book, hence I was drawn to it on the shelves in Tesco, not my usual bookstore.

The blurb on the front cover tells me that this is, 'Set to be the Sharpe of the high seas,' but sadly Patrick Devlin is no Richard Sharpe. He lacks the gritty panache and rough-hewn romanticism that characterises Richard Sharpe and despite rising surprisingly (but not entirely credibly) to lead a pirate gang in very short-order, he's just not a scrapper like Sharpe. Sorry, but that blurb does this book no favours at all.

Devlin was born into poverty and sold as a servant. His undoubted intelligence and ability to grab random information and turn it into an on-the-job education of sorts are what set him above most servants, but despite that he doesn't make any effort to leave his master, Coxon, a Royal Navy captain, until Coxon is taken ill and remains behind in Africa while the ship sails to England under the second in command, encountering pirates along the way. Devlin turns pirate when faced with the choice of turning or dying and from there - in next to no time and due to the previous leader being accidentally left behind for dead - ends up as a pirate captain. Until that time, happy or not, he's been content with his lot in life and even seems to have been regarded fondly as a loyal servant. So no firebrand, this Devlin, but an opportunist only.

Sure he has learned (by watching the captain) to navigate, almost a magic art as far as the pirates are concerned, and has some good ideas, but mostly it's chance that gives him his start in the pirating business and other people who save his bacon when things get sticky. He tends to look bright most of the time becauae the pirates are largely drawn as incredibly stupid as well as ill-educated.

Coxon, now fully recovered but embarrassed by the loss of his ship is sent to bring the Pirate Devlin to heel and protect a treasure chest belonging to the East India Company. I had rather expected some swashing and buckling, but what we get instead is a somewhat shifty ruse, a bit of play acting, some stealthy killing, a lot of wondering what to do next and finally an ending which isn't exactly a crackling big finish. Devlin is by no means an Errol Flynn, a Burt Lancaster or even a Johnny Depp. He's certainly not a Sean Bean in pirate garb.

Sorry. I wanted to like this but I had to force myself to keep reading. Disappointing.