Hello Hivers and Book Clubbers,
It's been almost two weeks since last time I've written a post. Sometimes you pick up books that warrant a review, either because they are good, and/or because there's something of substance I can say about them. In the meantime I've been reading some books that were somewhat out of my depth, pretty rough stuff. And if I can barely cling on myself, it means I'm not remotely well-versed enough in the matter to convey it in writing to an audience.
So to switch up things, I've picked up a fiction-book. And it's a very popular one at that; 'The Hunger Games', written in 2008 by Suzanne Collins. Wikipedia tells me this trilogy is the most-bought young-adult series after Harry Potter, which says something. I was first introduced to the series through the movies, which I watched with friends quite some years ago. Because of this, I knew the big picture already. Since there will be plot-talk in this one, this is your SPOILER ALERT, you've been warned from this point onwards.
A synopsis
What took me to pick up the books (in pdf form) is partly to see if the books are A: different and B: better or worse than the movies were. And as far as the first book is concerned, the movie has kept very much to the source material.
So just as a short outline; the story tells about Katniss Everdeen, a 16-year-old girl who is selected for an event in an arena, called the Hunger Games. This event, for which 24 teenagers are selected from 12 districts, a boy and a girl each, is held yearly. In this arena, which is virtual/coded, the contestants have to fight to the death, leaving one winner who gets to go home again.
Since the story is in a somewhat simple novel-form with one strict point-of-view and protagonist, being Katniss, one can quickly tell she is bound to be the winner, which she becomes at the end of the book. The Hunger Games themselves take up about two-thirds of the book, and are a decent sequence of action and events to keep going.
World-Building
What this book lacks, in my view, is built somewhat poorly in the remaining third of the book, and that is world-building in this universe. I'm not sure, for example, what the relationship is between the world Katniss lives in and ours. The book mentions early on that the state Katniss lives in is called Panem, and that it is built on 'what used to be called the United States'. The capital city of Panem is mentioned to be somewhere in the Rocky Mountain range, though it is just named Capitol, so no hints as to where exactly.
What happened? The book mentions wars and rebellions, but does not explain anything. It tells that the yearly Hunger Games are a reminder of the Capitol's power over the districs, as a form of penance for a paticularly hard-fought rebellion by the districts.
And these districts are also not described in many words. The first remarkable things is that they have no names, they are just numbered 1 through 12. As mentioned before, Katniss is from 12, which is told to be in the area that used to be Appalachia (roughly 'our' West-Virginia). Also, the population of this district, which is as big as a US state, by the way it is described, is 8000. Just 8000. What happened to this universe? Is it post-apocalyptic? It is not a purely fantasy-setting, since it mentions the 'old' American names and regions. I hope the next two installments give some answers.
Also, the logistics of it all seem very odd. Each district is responsible for delivering a certain type of goods to the capital, which seems to act as nothing but a leech on all the others, and lives in wealth while most districts are very poor. District 12 is known for coal-mining (once again echoing the Appalachia-area in the United States), and is the poorest of them all. Hunger is an all-pervasive issue, the mines make the people sick, etc.
Contact between the districts is minimal, yet the Capitol is able to retrieve all goods and to keep order. It is a very dicatiorial/authoritarian system, to the point of it being ridiculous. And the book is not subtle in the fact that a rebellion might be brewing. Unrest is clearly below the surface.
So to top it all off, the main event of a book is a happening where each district is forced to give up two of its young boys and girls, to most likely be slaughtered in a televized media-event, just to let them all know who's boss. The book is pretty thinly veiled in this regard, that things are not goint to last this way for long.
Interim Conclusion
So the book, I'd say, reads away very well, yet does not bring any surprises. That the protagonis will win is a given, and the world described is clearly not going to last. Also, the sentences are often very short. I'm not used to this, perhaps because it is very uncommon in non-fiction, but it would be good for people who are looking to improve their English from a lower level.
I'll be reading the next two installments as well, and posting reviews about them too. I'd like to get answers to some of the questions posed here as far as the world-building is concerned, and to see if the movies remain as true-to-form to the books as the first one seems to be. I'll see you all in the next one,
-Pieter Nijmeijer
You know what?
I 100% agree with your critique- the 'world building' in the WHOLE series is severely lacking. The geography is all fugged up and the.... trade/travel arrangements are pretty sketch.
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