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alexiscartwheelToday I've got a round up of thoughts on three great series, followed by two young adult dystopian novels.
Earlier this week I read in the Guardian that a ninth and final book of L.M. Montgomery's Anne books is set to be published in Canada this fall. The book is called The Blythes Are Quoted and supposedly shows the darker side of the series, with themes such as "adultery, illegitimacy, misogyny, revenge, murder, despair, bitterness, hatred, and death – usually not the first terms associated with LM Montgomery."
Another Guardian writer asserts that the Anne books, as well as Montgomery's other novels, always had a bit of a dark side. She calls Montgomery "the grandmother of the YA/adult crossover book" and I have to agree. Long before there was Twilight and it's addictive sparkley vampires, there were Anne and Emily and so many others. I've continued to enjoy her books into adulthood, including those I've read for the first time as an adult. I look forward to reading the new book!
I saw Half-Blood Prince last week with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sagacious_c and her posse, and I thought it was pretty good. The Harry Potter movies are never as amazing as the books, but I thought this was a decent adaptation and pretty fun to watch.
Some things I enjoyed:
- The depiction of Harry's friendships with Ron and Hermione. I've seen several people mention the "boy moments" like Ron and Harry fighting over the Potions book, and I agree that they were good laughs. Harry awkwardly trying to comfort Hermione about Ron showed the more emotional side of their friendship, and the library scene with Romilda showed them having fun together. I thought it was great that they accentuated the close sibling-like relationship that they have and really showed that Hermione matters to Harry beyond being "the smart one."
- Harry and Ginny's relationship played out pretty well. Harry talking about his attraction to Ginny and casting significant glances at her works much better on screen than his inner monologue about chest monsters! I still like their after Quidditch several sunlit days kiss better, though. :)
- Slughorn and Lavender Brown were both great additions to the cast. Yes, Lavender is over-the-top... but she's written that way in the books too! Draco was also good (although why was he always wearing a suit?) and Emma has improved a lot as Hermione.
- The subtle mention of Remus and Tonks's relationship, as well as the implication that they'd been arguing about something. Totally unimportant to the main plot in HBP, but I'm a Remus/Tonks fan, so I appreciated that they made it in.
- The pretty: there was some good cinematography and good direction for this one. I really liked the shot up the stairs when Harry arrives at the Burrow. It really captured the chaotic structure of the house and the chaotic nature of living with the Weasleys.
Some "meh" things:
- I felt like the transitions between some scenes were a little awkward. The movie sometimes felt more like a series of separate incidents than a continuous story. If you've read the books, it was easy to fill in the gaps, but in the best sort of adaptation, you shouldn't have to do that.
- The Death Eaters come to Hogwarts for what? To stand egg on Draco, then run through the halls cackling? It just doesn't make any sense.
- Snape's out of the blue "I am the Half Blood Prince" with absolutely no explanation. It felt a little "Oh, yeah, we've got to throw this in cause it's the title of the movie and all." Snape was generally good and slimey, it's just that bit I didn't like.
- And finally, the Trio's final scene. Why exactly did we sacrifice Ron's awesome "We're with you whatever happens" for Harry's much lamer "Blah blah Hogwarts is beautiful"?
I haven't rewatched all the films recently, but I think Order of the Phoenix is still my favorite. I'm very curious about how the two Deathly Hallows films will turn out. If things go well, there's the potential they could be some of the best, but there's a lot of stuff to pack in there!
I finally got a copy of The Last Olympian from the library and read it last week. It was pretty action packed and a lot of fun. The Last Olympian was a little different than the preceding books, which all figured some specific cross-country quest, each of which was basically a smaller piece of the puzzle. It all leads to the final showdown at Mount Olympus. It was cool to have the action focused around New York and have so many characters united fighting Chronos, and as usual I enjoyed the humor, mythical references, and all the extraordinary things, like having a pet hell-hound, that to Percy are now completely normal.
You'd think Percy and the other half-bloods would realize one of these days that prophecies never turn out quite like they expect them to, eh? In every book there's been an unexpected twist to the prophecies, so it's very true to form that the prophecy didn't mean that Percy would die, or would have to choose whether or not to kill Luke. I thought that was cool--Percy ultimately played a very important roll, but Luke was also redeemed taking down Kronos.
I thought it was a good finale to the series, though the ending left it wide open for more adventures--and I noticed Rick Riordan called this "the first Camp Half-Blood series" in the acknowledements. I wonder if further books will be from Percy's point of view or another characters. I could see it becoming like Tamora Pierce's Tortall books, with characters that reoccur in multiple stories, but distinct protagonists for each series. I think a series from Annabeth's perspective would be pretty cool.
The Hunger Games is the first of a series by Suzanne Collins. The heroine is sixteen year old Katniss Everdeen from the poor Twelfth District of Panem, the country made up of the ruins of what used to be North America. Every year two competitors from each of the twelve districts, one of each gender, are selected to journey to the Capitol to compete in the Hunger Games, a televised competition. It's like survivor, except without rules and instead of being voted off, competitors are killed off.
Katniss ends up in the Games when she volunteers to take the place of her younger sister. No one from her district has won for many years, so her selection is basically a death sentence. There's a lot of tension in the book between Katniss's desire to survive, and the calculating, emotionally hurtful things she sometimes does in her attempts to make it through alive, and her resistance to becoming a pawn in the Capitol's cruel manipulation of the Twelve Districts. I enjoy dystopian fiction and strong female protagonists, so this book was an all around winner for me. I could go on more about things that I liked about it, but that'd start giving away important plot points which I won't do, because you should really just go read it.
The sequel, Catching Fire, is due to be released at the beginning of September, and I'm looking forward to reading it.
And finally, another dystopian young adult novel with a completely different premise. I picked it up from the library when I was in Columbus--I limited myself to checking out only one while I was home, and I picked very well. Cory Doctorow's Little Brother (named in reference to Big Brother in Orwell's 1984) is set in San Francisco in the not so distant future, so in some ways the situation in the book are scarier than those in The Hunger Games because of the familiarity and greater immediacy. The protagonist is Marcus Yallow, also known as w1n5t0n online, a high school student enthusiastic about technology, gaming, and LARPing.
Marcus and his friends are cutting school to play a game when San Francisco becomes the cite of a massive terrorist attack. They arrested by the Department of Homeland Security for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and are detained and questioned for several days before three of the four are released. When Marcus is released, he discovers that DHS has taken over his city, tracking everyone's movements and activities. He makes it his mission to use his technological knowledge to fight back. There's a lot of tech talk in the book about stuff like RFID and data encryption, which I thought was explained pretty lucidly. The fact that a lot of the technology in the book already exists makes the related issues all the more important to think about now. There were several parts of the book that were seriously chilling. I feel like I learned a lot about internet security, and the book gave me a lot to think about.
If you want to read Little Brother, you can of course obtain it by the traditional methods from a bookstore or library. However, in keeping with the spirit of the book, it's also available online as a free download under a Creative Commons license in a wide variety of electronic formats.
Earlier this week I read in the Guardian that a ninth and final book of L.M. Montgomery's Anne books is set to be published in Canada this fall. The book is called The Blythes Are Quoted and supposedly shows the darker side of the series, with themes such as "adultery, illegitimacy, misogyny, revenge, murder, despair, bitterness, hatred, and death – usually not the first terms associated with LM Montgomery."
Another Guardian writer asserts that the Anne books, as well as Montgomery's other novels, always had a bit of a dark side. She calls Montgomery "the grandmother of the YA/adult crossover book" and I have to agree. Long before there was Twilight and it's addictive sparkley vampires, there were Anne and Emily and so many others. I've continued to enjoy her books into adulthood, including those I've read for the first time as an adult. I look forward to reading the new book!
I saw Half-Blood Prince last week with
sagacious_c and her posse, and I thought it was pretty good. The Harry Potter movies are never as amazing as the books, but I thought this was a decent adaptation and pretty fun to watch.Some things I enjoyed:
- The depiction of Harry's friendships with Ron and Hermione. I've seen several people mention the "boy moments" like Ron and Harry fighting over the Potions book, and I agree that they were good laughs. Harry awkwardly trying to comfort Hermione about Ron showed the more emotional side of their friendship, and the library scene with Romilda showed them having fun together. I thought it was great that they accentuated the close sibling-like relationship that they have and really showed that Hermione matters to Harry beyond being "the smart one."
- Harry and Ginny's relationship played out pretty well. Harry talking about his attraction to Ginny and casting significant glances at her works much better on screen than his inner monologue about chest monsters! I still like their after Quidditch several sunlit days kiss better, though. :)
- Slughorn and Lavender Brown were both great additions to the cast. Yes, Lavender is over-the-top... but she's written that way in the books too! Draco was also good (although why was he always wearing a suit?) and Emma has improved a lot as Hermione.
- The subtle mention of Remus and Tonks's relationship, as well as the implication that they'd been arguing about something. Totally unimportant to the main plot in HBP, but I'm a Remus/Tonks fan, so I appreciated that they made it in.
- The pretty: there was some good cinematography and good direction for this one. I really liked the shot up the stairs when Harry arrives at the Burrow. It really captured the chaotic structure of the house and the chaotic nature of living with the Weasleys.
Some "meh" things:
- I felt like the transitions between some scenes were a little awkward. The movie sometimes felt more like a series of separate incidents than a continuous story. If you've read the books, it was easy to fill in the gaps, but in the best sort of adaptation, you shouldn't have to do that.
- The Death Eaters come to Hogwarts for what? To stand egg on Draco, then run through the halls cackling? It just doesn't make any sense.
- Snape's out of the blue "I am the Half Blood Prince" with absolutely no explanation. It felt a little "Oh, yeah, we've got to throw this in cause it's the title of the movie and all." Snape was generally good and slimey, it's just that bit I didn't like.
- And finally, the Trio's final scene. Why exactly did we sacrifice Ron's awesome "We're with you whatever happens" for Harry's much lamer "Blah blah Hogwarts is beautiful"?
I haven't rewatched all the films recently, but I think Order of the Phoenix is still my favorite. I'm very curious about how the two Deathly Hallows films will turn out. If things go well, there's the potential they could be some of the best, but there's a lot of stuff to pack in there!
I finally got a copy of The Last Olympian from the library and read it last week. It was pretty action packed and a lot of fun. The Last Olympian was a little different than the preceding books, which all figured some specific cross-country quest, each of which was basically a smaller piece of the puzzle. It all leads to the final showdown at Mount Olympus. It was cool to have the action focused around New York and have so many characters united fighting Chronos, and as usual I enjoyed the humor, mythical references, and all the extraordinary things, like having a pet hell-hound, that to Percy are now completely normal.
You'd think Percy and the other half-bloods would realize one of these days that prophecies never turn out quite like they expect them to, eh? In every book there's been an unexpected twist to the prophecies, so it's very true to form that the prophecy didn't mean that Percy would die, or would have to choose whether or not to kill Luke. I thought that was cool--Percy ultimately played a very important roll, but Luke was also redeemed taking down Kronos.
I thought it was a good finale to the series, though the ending left it wide open for more adventures--and I noticed Rick Riordan called this "the first Camp Half-Blood series" in the acknowledements. I wonder if further books will be from Percy's point of view or another characters. I could see it becoming like Tamora Pierce's Tortall books, with characters that reoccur in multiple stories, but distinct protagonists for each series. I think a series from Annabeth's perspective would be pretty cool.
The Hunger Games is the first of a series by Suzanne Collins. The heroine is sixteen year old Katniss Everdeen from the poor Twelfth District of Panem, the country made up of the ruins of what used to be North America. Every year two competitors from each of the twelve districts, one of each gender, are selected to journey to the Capitol to compete in the Hunger Games, a televised competition. It's like survivor, except without rules and instead of being voted off, competitors are killed off.
Katniss ends up in the Games when she volunteers to take the place of her younger sister. No one from her district has won for many years, so her selection is basically a death sentence. There's a lot of tension in the book between Katniss's desire to survive, and the calculating, emotionally hurtful things she sometimes does in her attempts to make it through alive, and her resistance to becoming a pawn in the Capitol's cruel manipulation of the Twelve Districts. I enjoy dystopian fiction and strong female protagonists, so this book was an all around winner for me. I could go on more about things that I liked about it, but that'd start giving away important plot points which I won't do, because you should really just go read it.
The sequel, Catching Fire, is due to be released at the beginning of September, and I'm looking forward to reading it.
And finally, another dystopian young adult novel with a completely different premise. I picked it up from the library when I was in Columbus--I limited myself to checking out only one while I was home, and I picked very well. Cory Doctorow's Little Brother (named in reference to Big Brother in Orwell's 1984) is set in San Francisco in the not so distant future, so in some ways the situation in the book are scarier than those in The Hunger Games because of the familiarity and greater immediacy. The protagonist is Marcus Yallow, also known as w1n5t0n online, a high school student enthusiastic about technology, gaming, and LARPing.
Marcus and his friends are cutting school to play a game when San Francisco becomes the cite of a massive terrorist attack. They arrested by the Department of Homeland Security for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and are detained and questioned for several days before three of the four are released. When Marcus is released, he discovers that DHS has taken over his city, tracking everyone's movements and activities. He makes it his mission to use his technological knowledge to fight back. There's a lot of tech talk in the book about stuff like RFID and data encryption, which I thought was explained pretty lucidly. The fact that a lot of the technology in the book already exists makes the related issues all the more important to think about now. There were several parts of the book that were seriously chilling. I feel like I learned a lot about internet security, and the book gave me a lot to think about.
If you want to read Little Brother, you can of course obtain it by the traditional methods from a bookstore or library. However, in keeping with the spirit of the book, it's also available online as a free download under a Creative Commons license in a wide variety of electronic formats.
