forget your Unified Theory of Everything

I finished this a couple weeks ago. The short version is, I had too many problems with this series to really like it. My favorite things about it were the pacing of the first book and Katniss. My least favorite things were the pacing of the other books and clumsily handled themes. Below are lists of likes and dislikes about the book, with explanations. If all you want to read about The Hunger Games is squee, I suggest you stop when you get to the section labelled "dislikes".

Spoilers galore.

( What I liked and didn't like about the Hunger Games trilogy )

I would be interested in discussing The Hunger Games with anyone who has read it. My whole review thing is horrendously long, so I understand if you don't want to read the whole thing. But come on, tell me what you thought about the series! I guess a bunch of people liked it, and I'd love to hear why. I'm interested in the movies (are they really happening?), even though the books ended up not particularly sitting well with me.

The nature of reality trips me up a lot, to the point where sometimes I can’t say stuff because I’m confused about what’s real or not. So I figured I’d say stuff about the nature of reality. This is kind of teenage existential angst stuff, the stuff I was worrying about when I was sixteen, the kind of stuff I think you’re supposed to get over by now, unless you take up a career in philosophy, religion, or theoretical physics.

I’m aware the fact that I sit around contemplating the universe probably comes off pretentious. I’m also aware that other people before me have done so better and already thought of (and probably have specific jargon for) all the things I’m saying.

Mostly I must just like to hear myself talk. I love words and I love writing and I love saying things and things being said. So I do also love to discuss, so I have a request for trippy existential books and discussion of trippy existential books at the end. You can skip to that part if you want. Or just not read at all. I won’t be hurt!

( Existential angst. )

I finished this book some time ago, which means I probably remember it just well enough to talk for 15 minutes :o) Oh, it's Warrior's Apprentice, by Lois McMaster Bujold.

This is a science fiction novel about a boy named Miles. The plot in this book doesn't matter that much to me, because it's the characters who shine forth. Wait, actually, the characters don't really matter that much to me either, because it's Miles who shines forth. Miles is the disabled son of some kind of lord, and he wants to go to space school like all the other kids. With that simple premise, Bujold follows through to fill out numerous kinks of mine:

1. Daddy issues. Mommy issues! Family issues.
2. The difficulty and pressures of living up to an image (and Miles's image, like my own personal one, is more his own than his family's, and thus far harder to live up to. Although he does have family issues, and his family putting pressure on him, the pressure he puts on himself is far worse, I think).
3. Making the best out of who you are (without waiting for it to come to you).

1+2+3 = fucked up, crazy sad funny sweet amazing shenanigans. In other words, I really loved this book; I really love Miles; and I really, really love space pirates.

( More about this book, part 2. )