The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - Book Review

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read a couple of reviews and went back to the book to realize that I hadn't bothered to review this book. Here are some of the status updates I wrote while reading the book:

36% - It has started to interest me a bit, but it still hasn't amazed me. The whole preparations for the games seemed like a Miss World contest. Except for the Gamekeepers maybe. Oh well, I am getting old I guess.

50% - Now that the games have begun, it does seem more interesting.

78% - The story is moving really fast. I am just being lazy and slow and complaining that the story is not rich. Martin has spoiled me.

84% - Trying a bit of prediction - Peeta and Katniss win the Hunger games. Book 2 has Gale entering the games and Peeta-Katniss have to coach him. What with the love triangle and all.

94% - "I seem to be in a strange, continual twilight." - Katniss' own words.

Initially, I thought that the book had promise. This is not just from the reviews it has received on Amazon and GR, but the fact that so many people seem to take a liking to it.

I loved the way the author started with the world description. Panem, the district, the games, the dystopian settings were all really good. And just when I thought it would get better, enter love story. From then on, it just went down for me. The world was just a backdrop for the love story.

I didn't like the drab characterization apart from Haymitch, maybe. Fellow fluid lover.

As for young-adult novels, there are some really good gems out there. But this book tries to better stuff like Twilight in some way and I don't even want to mention the conclusion. I did give the book 3 stars though, but that's just for the world setting and the fast writing pace.

P.S.: Don't you think the second half would make a radically brilliant Karan Johar movie?

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I read this book in November 2011. 

Politicircus

Just this morning I heard a strange, albeit very normal, story. Some corporator in Pune was elected as the chairman of the standing committee and he organized a celebration rally. Needless to say that the rally was organized on a busy street at a time when the traffic is usually at it's peak. How thoughtful!

So this chap was in an open jeep, along with some ladies from the household, and had a pretty huge entourage around him. The usual gundas who support whoever is in the power seat, the tag-alongs who, well, just tag along and all the drama people. This corporator chap was waving to people. The people who were caught in a traffic jam, the people who were in a rush to go home, cook for their families, and who  generally had a very vauge idea about this celebration. Reminds me of the Penguins from Madagascar. Just Smile and Wave boys, Just Smile and Wave! (Yeah, I cringed too. How can I use this analogy on a waste of a politician? No, I won't. But, you get the picture, right?)

Reminds me of another story. Seems a few days back, a rasta-roko rally was organized to protest against increasing traffic woes. Should I, possibly again, tell you the prime setting of this rally? No, right? But, I am sure the thought was to make people aware when it would hurt them the most. People got hurt alright; headaches, BP might have increased. Result of the rally? Some politician or just a wannabe chap met his March targets and got his appraisal done.

Political drama at it's best. Our money wasted by someone else and we just stand and suffer. Our money spent on making us suffer. How long will this go? Someday, the restless, angry people are going to rebel. Violently rebel.

Then Mr Corporators and local gunda politicians, what are your 100 gundas going to do against a mass of thousands of angry people?

Here, I would like to borrow an idea from Girish's blog and add a song for the moment:
Not to touch the Earth by The Doors. More so:

Not to touch the earth
Not to see the sun
Nothing left to do, but
Run, run, run
Let's run
Let's run

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson - Book Review

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hey Mr. Stephenson, Metaphors be with you! Sorry, couldn't help using the cliche!

OK, let me start by listing some of my favourite things from the book:
- Raven
- Technology and it's maniacal usage in the book
- Humour that would go well while drinking with buddies
- Uncle Enzo's Mafia philosophy
and last but not the least
- Technology and it's maniacal usage in the book

My favourite characters in a descending order:
Raven > Uncle Enzo > Ng > Librarian > Hiro > Y.T.

So here is a summary of the book as cited from the book itself:

"Wait a minute, Juanita. Make up your mind. This Snow Crash thing—is it a virus, a drug, or a religion?"
Juanita shrugs. "What's the difference?"

Wow, Mr. Stephenson!

Summary babble:

Snow Crash has one of the best opening chapter that I have read in recent times. An ultimate, adrenalin-filled, psycho-geeky narrative of a Pizza Deliverator. This Deliverator is the same chap 'Hiro Protagonist'. (A name that will stay with you for a long, long time.) Yes, it does look like Stephenson is being ever-so-sarcastic by coming up with names like Hiro and Y.T.

I have heard a lot that Stephenson bombards you with info, facts, and factually-fabricated fiction in a manner that appears like an iceberg. The tip is just 1/8th of the actual monster. And yes, it is true. (All those have read his other books, specially Anathem, can snigger now and call me naive!) But, steer your ships safely.
Here are a few buoys and lighthouses that might (or might not) guide you if you feel like picking up Snow Crash:

- Do you love (I repeat, LOVE) science and technology. Not just brief allusions that appear once in a while; not just computer science, but chemistry, biology, geology, and linguistics too; but almost every paragraph brimming with highly obvious or slightly obfuscated allusions.

- Do you dig reading about things like Metaverse (even though this is not so difficult to fathom since we have seen it materialise already, but written in '92 Stephenson has described a lot of facets of virtual reality, avatars (first usage of this term to define entities in VR) and more, in a splendid detail) or his brimming love for factually presenting information like:

"Even the word 'science' comes from an Indo-European root meaning 'to cut' or 'to separate.' The same root led to the word 'shit,' which of course means to separate living flesh from nonliving waste. The same root gave us 'scythe' and 'scissors' and 'schism,' which have obvious connections to the concept of separation."?

- Can you identify when MSG when "Chinese food without MSG" is mentioned?

No, that was not for you Heisenberg!

- Do you think of petting a radio-isotopic dog, ever?

- Do you love (or don't mind) the bustling overflow of technologically-whacky metaphors:

"logos with a lot of bright, hideous yellow in them, and so Alameda Street is clearly marked out before him, a gout of radioactive urine ejected south from the dead center of L.A."

or

"track him down through the moiling chaos of the microwaved franchise and confront him in a climactic thick-crust apocalypse."

or

"when the temperature has greenhoused up to a hundred and ten degrees".

(I would like to cite some more of them whacky ones, but why don't you check them out yourself?)

- Do you like reading about awesomely described (Oh and one of my most favourite) bad-ass bad guys? A world-class-bad-guy nominee! The sure shot winner of the Nobel (I will shred you in) Pieces (before you blink your eyes) prize. Sir-Kicks-Ass-Aleut. The ultimate-weapon wielder and kick-ass fighter chap: Raven. Raven, the last of the true Gentleman.

- Do you want to keep wondering about Hiro's objective purpose apart from being cool, sword fighting, making a fool of himself in front of Juanita (or stopping her from outwitting him), writing microcode and so many other things? Do you, eventually, want to conclude that when your name is Hiro, heroism is a given?

- Do you like mythology imbibed in technology and would like to read the long ramblings of Hiro with the Librarian about the same? How does weaving facts around fiction or the other way round sound like?
To cite an example, here is something about the Sumerian stuff:
Thi siswhe re nea lstep he nson pla ysw ith yo urb eli efs an dtr ies tos scr ew yo urb rai nso mem ore.

- Do you not mind reading about an annoying side-kick? Yeah, Y.T.

- Do you not mind a conclusion of a book that feels like you are dreaming about swimming in the vast Amazon and then you suddenly wake up to the splashing you are making in your half-filled bath tub?

If the answer to most of these questions is 'Yes', or you want to go ahead, read the book and nuke my review, I will offer you a nuclear submarine.

The rest is up to you.

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