The Outhouse - The Greatest Comic Book Forum

[Chris]

I have only read book one myself so far, but it was pretty enjoyable. I'm usually not too hard on something that is this easy to read and I shoot through it in a day. I'm not familiar with Battle Royale, but I could imagine it not being hard to run into similarities in a concept like this. I'm kinda interested in picking that up now and seeing how it compares.

I liked the characters in this for the most part and the story was ok as well. I realize the environment they fought in was a controlled one, but I still didn't like the way things would just randomly happen or change. Definitely interested enough that I picked up the other two to read later.

Battle Royale is a much more straight forward book (and definitely more adult).. not so much about the characters as this, and it's just one book.

But here's that list:

Both occur in a dystopic future.

Both are about a no-holds barred tournament of death. Both tournaments are run by governments and involve youth as players who are forced to kill each other until one survivor remains.

Both stories feature a lottery as a means of choosing players.

Both stories feature the use of “backpacks” which are given to the players. In both stories, the backpacks have been filled with random weapons. In other words, the players never know what they have until they open the backpack.

Both stories feature pairings of an older, stronger youth protecting a younger one (In BATTLE ROYALE, Kawada helps protect Noriko and Shuya; in THE HUNGER GAMES, Katniss helps protect Rue). It could also be argued that Kawada’s character influenced Haymitch Abernathy’s character in THE HUNGER GAMES because both characters act as guides for the main characters. Incidentally—or maybe not—both Kawada and Haymitch are survivors of previous tournaments.

As the games progress, both stories feature means by which players are informed of the current death toll

To raise the stakes for the players, there are “Danger Zones” in BATTLE ROYALE and manipulated environments in THE HUNGER GAMES.

In both BATTLE ROYALE and THE HUNGER GAMES, the surviving couples rebel against the government.

[jeremy]

wow, that is quite a list of similarities lol

[misac]

if you guys like this, i'd also recommend this series "the monstrumologist" by rick yancey. its another YA series, but about this orphan at the tail end of the 19th century who becomes apprenticed to a monster hunter. really fun and the second one is ridiculously gory for a YA book.

Sounds interesting.

[misac]

Battle Royale is a much more straight forward book (and definitely more adult).. not so much about the characters as this, and it's just one book.

But here's that list:

I thought all the students in BR were from the same class so they'd all be the same age.

Now that I remember, the danger zones in BR were done better.

Also, speaking of backpacks, I don't get how Cato was able to kill Thresh. He'd stolen his backpack so I imagine he would have put on the armor on and had the ‘home field’ advantage.

[David Bird]

My review:

The Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins
Published by Scholastic, 2010

The latest “next big thing” in young adult fiction, following Harry Potter and Twilight, has been Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy, a solid and enjoyable adventure story.

It is set in a post-apocalyptic America, ruled by an advanced city located in the Rocky Mountains, which has divided the rest of the country into twelve regions and dominates them through the distribution of food stuffs and the Hunger Games. One boy and one girl from each region is drawn by lot and flown to a designated location where they are required to fight to the death. There can only be one survivor. The Games are nationally televised and viewing is compulsory.

This sounds a lot like Koshun Takami’s Battle Royale, in which a repressive regime rounds up a classroom of kids each year and subjects them to a nationally televised fight to the death, but Collins’ inspiration is the story of the Minotaur. Many have heard of the maze and the monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man, but not many know that its story included a debt by the city of Athens. Athens had to pay Minos a tribute of seven boys and seven girls, drawn by lot. Upon their arrival the children were led to the maze and fed to the monster. This happened every year, or every nine years (depending on which version of the story you’re reading) until Theseus volunteered to kill the beast. I’ve only read the first book and don’t know how much further Collins has gone in integrating her source material into the trilogy, but she has introduced the concept of human-animal mutations and our hero is a volunteer.

That hero, Katniss Everdeen, is the weakest part of the story. Katniss is a poor girl from the poorest region and she spends a great deal of time telling us of her daily hardships. Following her father’s death the family was pushed to the brink of starvation, but apart from that one, admittedly traumatic, event her family has actually done quite well for itself. She is a successful hunter (well, poacher), her sister has a goat, that provides milk and cheese, and her mother has an apothecary business. She’s gifted, well liked, and beautiful, but you’d never know that to listen to her. One character describes her as “sullen”--resentful, sulking--and she certainly is that. She’s a teen, of course, but still.

Another problem is her unwillingness to kill. When she does it is only under the greatest duress. Outside the context of a battle to the death, this would be admirable, but she is in a battle to the death. This is pretty standard in comic book adventures. The protagonist isn’t simply the main character, he’s the hero. To save her heroine from getting her hands unnecessarily bloodied Collins has to put clever plotting ahead of character development, but that’s pretty standard in genre writing and I doubt many who pick up this book are going to mind.

I am giving it 4/5. I look forward to reading everyone's when I have time.

[jeremy]

I don't like David's reviews...they make me feel inadequate lol
Good review man.

Now that you mentioned it in your review, the whole not killing thing annoyed me a bit too. Especially coming from an experienced hunter in a fight to the death. I noticed the majority of people she killed was not done directly either. I get how that is supposed to create a noble mentality and perhaps was a good thing being a young adult book... I get a bit tired of that angle myself.

[misac]

I don't like David's reviews...they make me feel inadequate lol
Good review man.

Now that you mentioned it in your review, the whole not killing thing annoyed me a bit too. Especially coming from an experienced hunter in a fight to the death. I noticed the majority of people she killed was not done directly either. I get how that is supposed to create a noble mentality and perhaps was a good thing being a young adult book... I get a bit tired of that angle myself.

I'd like to see someone do that.

I didn't know it was having lots of success like Harry Potter and Twilight. Hopefully they will make a movie. And that also reminds me, all the talk about the food made me think of Harry Potter. Rowling talked about food a lot in HP.

[~Alima~]

Actually I can find her not killing attitude more believable than if she were to try and go in there gung ho. Her goal was more driven to survive and not become the barbarians everyone else wanted her to be. The kids that grew up their whole life training for the games - that were given much food, education, and a sense of accomplishment and honor in killing other children- are more apt to hunt and win. Those in the survival districts, I think, would be more jaded to the Capitol's games, would want to maintain survival, and take life when needed. Yes Katniss was a hunter for food, played the game advantagiously, but she did not posses the twisted moral to kill humans for sport. I think the author did a great depiction of having a hero that thought as a young person that had to grow up quick and not a "super" kid.

[misac]

Actually I can find her not killing attitude more believable than if she were to try and go in there gung ho. Her goal was more driven to survive and not become the barbarians everyone else wanted her to be. The kids that grew up their whole life training for the games - that were given much food, education, and a sense of accomplishment and honor in killing other children- are more apt to hunt and win. Those in the survival districts, I think, would be more jaded to the Capitol's games, would want to maintain survival, and take life when needed. Yes Katniss was a hunter for food, played the game advantagiously, but she did not posses the twisted moral to kill humans for sport. I think the author did a great depiction of having a hero that thought as a young person that had to grow up quick and not a "super" kid.

The fact that she was playing the game, well before entering the arena makes me think she wasn’t all that jaded and should have been more willing to kill.

[David Bird]

I'd like to see someone do that.

I didn't know it was having lots of success like Harry Potter and Twilight. Hopefully they will make a movie. And that also reminds me, all the talk about the food made me think of Harry Potter. Rowling talked about food a lot in HP.

They are making a movie and are in the midst of casting it right now. The studios think it'll be the next Twilight.

[David Bird]

Actually I can find her not killing attitude more believable than if she were to try and go in there gung ho. Her goal was more driven to survive and not become the barbarians everyone else wanted her to be. The kids that grew up their whole life training for the games - that were given much food, education, and a sense of accomplishment and honor in killing other children- are more apt to hunt and win. Those in the survival districts, I think, would be more jaded to the Capitol's games, would want to maintain survival, and take life when needed. Yes Katniss was a hunter for food, played the game advantagiously, but she did not posses the twisted moral to kill humans for sport. I think the author did a great depiction of having a hero that thought as a young person that had to grow up quick and not a "super" kid.

She wasn't killing for sport. She was killing for survival. And if she really believed her sister and mother depended on her, she'd want to do everything she could to make sure she survived.

[~Alima~]

The fact that she was playing the game, well before entering the arena makes me think she wasn’t all that jaded and should have been more willing to kill.

I think she was gathering all the knowledge to try and survive. She obviously knew what the game's purpose, but that doesn't mean she wants to kill anyone.

[Allen]

I really, really enjoyed this book. And I think it is better than Battle Royale.

The reason is Katniss. She isn't the great noble character. Heck, she isn't even a very likable character most of the time. She's cold, calculating, distrustful, and realistic. She has no flights of fantasy whatsoever. Yet, that's what makes her work. She is incredibly human. She is a very complex character, who makes you root for in spite of, and sometimes because of her flaws.

And it's not just Katniss or Peeta. Some of the very minor contestants are also captured brilliantly. From Rue to others like Foxface or Thresh, Collins still shows them as very human.

And of course there is the Capitol. Really a brilliant creation. Totally and completelt morally bankrupt, but just enough that is actually, slightly recognizable. I got a better sense of the world of the Hunger Games in this book, than I ever did in the Windup Girl, for instance.

And as for the actual scenes, Collins brings a very vivid style. This was a difficult book to put down, because she knew how to keep the action moving in a way that a reader could relate. She is a very talented writer, IMO.

A really great, fun book. And the sequels do a lot to build on what is in this book and take the story further.

[Allen]

She wasn't killing for sport. She was killing for survival. And if she really believed her sister and mother depended on her, she'd want to do everything she could to make sure she survived.

I don't think Katniss really had an aversion to killing. Dropping that tracker jack nest was a pretty gruesome thing to do. And she took out the boy from district one pretty without hesitation after Rue's death. I don;t think she relished it. But she wasn't against it. I think we do see a girl who would prefer not to kill (understandable). She's a survivor, not a killer. And would do what she needed to survive. That was her goal. Avoiding direct confrontation and laying low was always her M.O. from not helping that girl, who became an avox in the forest, to trying to avoid Cato et al.

But Katniss always underestimated herself. She didn't really feel she was capable of going up against Cato or Thresh. And she always thought pretty lowly of the "careers." Remember the contestant she most grew to respect was Foxface, who didn't kill anyone but still made it into the top 4.

[Allen]

I didn’t like wolves but I did find it plausible. We had already seen the genetically altered wasps and birds, so why not wolves? The fact they were created so soon after was a little hard for me to believe.

I tend to think the wolf things were something the Capitol had been working on from the very beginning.