kurtwombat's Reviews (902)

As a middle aged male, I understand that I am not exactly the target audience for THE HUNGER GAMES but I did find it an enjoyable read. Some of it could be predicted from page one but there were still plenty of surprises. Obvious early on was that there would be a love triangle involved but it is handled with restraint and the main character Katniss does not dither over the topic—it does not smother the rest of the story. Katniss is allowed to be a teenager with her understanding of life being limited but the author does not allow that to limit her story telling. The reader is allowed an understanding of the world around Katniss that she herself has not achieved yet. The future dystopia that she lives in is well and believably structured. Beyond the Hunger Games themselves, there are no gimmicks designed to single out the dramatic lives of teenagers—no soap opera elements present teens as suffering saints. The world is oppressive, daily life stark, and survival is foremost on the mind…for everybody. Comparing it to another juggernaut young adult phenomenon, THE HUNGER GAMES has a much better main character than the TWILIGHT books. Whereas Bella is generally passive until the final book, swooning one way and then the other, Katniss is aggressive, self-possessed, and responsible because she has to be. The Games themselves start with a bang and maintain that tension pretty well. The violence is restrained, and Katniss isn’t exactly mowing people down but the action evolves in a way that is both logical and satisfying. That balance extends to the handling of the future society and the government that runs it—and her more immediate relationships within the district she lives in. Well done and the story certainly compels the reader into the next book.

The last book of the trilogy is the least. Notched it up one star because I loved the ending. Whereas the first two books touched lightly on politics and the place for media therein, etc...this book is suffused with it. Bogs the story down at times. New characters the percolated in the first two books don't stand out as much in this one. Had the author lived, died shortly after submitting all three books for publication, I suspect there might have been some revisions before publishing. As in the other two books, some nice wicked plotting and suprises along the way. Has sufficient payoffs for reading the first two books and part of my take on it may be colored by reading all three in a row and possibly I suffered from series fatigue. Still...very worthwhile as part of the trilogy. Had the author lived,would be interesting to see the clamor for more of what happened to Lisbeth Salander after the final book ended...clearly a character one would love to follow.

This second book of the Millennium Trilogy drifts along at first following the ever intriguing Lisbeth Salander as she reinvents herself. The time spent with her at the beginning probably surpasses the time spent with her in the entire first book—but it is worth it as she remains interesting, even becoming more so. The second and third books are all about how Salander became Salander. It is a mystery hinted at in the first book, played with in the second book and revealed fully in the third. The time spent only with Salander ends just as it started to become stale and the book returns to the back and forth jump in narratives that worked so well in the first book. Something that could easily be distracting or irritating or confusing works quite well to keep all the pots on the stove hot. While I miss the drive of the first book provided by two separate mysteries, this book compensates by providing many angles to the mystery of Salander’s past as well as introducing a nice selection of new and interesting characters—most of whom are bad guys. I missed that the two main characters from the first book barely communicated but it did created a nice spark any time their words crossed. This book ends not quite with a cliff-hanger but it does end suddenly—leading directly into the next book. While a tad annoying didn’t really detract from the whole. Once it gets rolling, it moves with gusto…especially the last third of the book. The sense of peril is real and ominous and seemingly unavoidable.