The Hunger Games - Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (3 stars)

After the amazing first Hunger Games book, I was looking forward to this one. Unfortunately it is nowhere near as good.

The book begins by tidying up the aftermath of the Hunger Games: life as a 'victor', the victory tour, and Katniss' re-uniting with Gale. All are given fairly boring treatment, with much of it in narrative summary, and missing the sense of urgency for revolution I was expecting from the ending of the first book. Katniss faffs around and Gale, supposedly the rebel, spends the whole novel working in the coal mines being a good little oppressed peon. It wasn't long before I was thinking the only way this book was going to be any good was if they got back into the arena.

Obviously Collins or her editor thought the same thing, and so we end up with basically the same novel but written worse this time. The new arena is reasonably interesting, but not enough to make it a great book. The ending is not bad, but we could have arrived at the same point if Katniss had decided to throw her lot in with Bonnie and Twill, saving us the mediocre plot re-hash.

Despite all that criticism I still quite enjoyed the book, and I hope the third one is a return to form.

3 stars.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (4.5 stars)

I'm told it's the 'best book ever written' by a friend - better read it then. It is a pretty amazing debut for Rothfuss, I just hope he doesn't leave us hanging for years for the sequel.

The story and characters have some very strong Potter overtones - the whole section of the book at the University where Kvothe, the improverished student, struggles to learn as much as possible despite the interference from his enemies Ambrose (Malfoy) and Master Hemme (Snape), is vintage Rowling.

Kvothe is also a just a tad too awesome for my liking: not only is he a faster learner than everyone else at University and an artificing genius, he is also a musical prodigy, has a photographic memory, is an accomplished actor, is fluent in most languages, and attracts the most beautiful women in the city. The only things that save his character are his arrogance (how could someone like that not be arrogant!), his occasional bad decisions and child-like pettiness, and his complete lack of a clue when it comes to women.

I think Elodin is the coolest character in the book, and I loved it when he gets Kvothe to jump off a roof and watches him splat on the ground.

The explanation of magic (sympathy) is a particularly cool idea, much better than the vague latin bastardisation for spells dreamt up by Rowling.

Not the best book ever written, but pretty good.

4.5 stars.

Generation Kill by Evan Wright (4 stars)

A friend lent me this after I raved about the HBO miniseries of the same name created by the brains trust behind The Wire (my favourite TV show of all time) - Ed Burns and David Simon. The HBO series is brilliant and, like The Wire, struck me as a brilliant warts-and-all exposé.

I usually don't like reading the book after watching 'the movie', because I find myself inserting scenes from the movie in my head instead of using my own imagination. I felt the same in this case, although I think this is one of the very rare situations where the TV show is as good as, or better than, the book. As an aside: Sgt. Rudy Reyes plays himself in the HBO series!

The full title of the book is Generation Kill: Living dangerously on the road to Baghdad with the ultraviolent Marines of Bravo Company. It was written by a Rolling Stone reporter who travelled with the elite of the American Marines: the Recon Marines that were at 'tippity-tip' of the pointy end of the initial invasion of Iraq.

The marines are all complex characters. Many of them are conflicted and disillusioned, some extremely well educated, while others occasionally fit the mold of stupid killing machines that love war. The latter produced some of the most horrible and memorable quotes:

[Trombley:]"I was just thinking one thing when we drove into that ambush," he enthuses. "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. I felt like I was living it when I seen the flames coming out of windows, the blown-up car in the street, guys crawling around shooting at us. It was fucking cool."

Tonight he entertains his fellow troops by pacing the tent, reading letters aloud sent by schoolchildren to boost morale. He opens one from a girl who writes that she is praying for world peace. He throws it down. "Hey, little tyke", Person shouts. "What does this say on my shirt? 'U.S. Marine!' I wasn't born on some hippie-faggot commune. I'm a death-dealing killer. In my free time I do push-ups until my knuckles bleed. Then I sharpen my knife."

"They kill hundreds of people, those pilots. I would have loved to have flown the plane that dropped the bomb on Japan. A couple of dudes killed hundreds of thousands. That fucking rules! Yeah!"

[Person:]"I just read that all these pussy pop stars like Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears were going to make an antiwar song. When I become a pop star, I'm just going to make pro-war songs."

In the TV series, the Marine senior leadership appears totally incompetent, they constantly endanger the lives of First Recon in ways that seem astounding. They frequently send the marines into known ambushes and against suspected tank battalions in open-top un-armoured humvees without air or artillery support. In the book the strategy actually gets explained, and the author has a grudging respect for it:

The rationale makes sense when it's explained to me by [General] Mattis after the invasion: The small force [First Recon] races up back roads ahead of the big force rolling behind on the main road. The enemy orients their troops and weapons on the small force (not realizing it's the small one), and the big force hits them where they're not looking for it. It's a trick that works best when you're going up against an army like Iraq's, which has no air assets and bad communications and will have a tough time figuring out that the small force is just a decoy. I admire the plan when Mattis and others explain it to me. And in a way, I'm glad I didn't know about it in advance, because it would have been scarier to remain with Second Platoon. Perhaps this is why they didn't tell the Marines in the platoon about this plan either.

The most depressing part of the book is reading about the continued tolerated incompetence of key officers that constantly endangers everyone's lives, and results in civilian and Marine casualties. 'Captain America' abusing a prisoner and 'Encino Man' calling in a 'danger-close' artillery strike that would almost certainly have killed the platoon come to mind. Thankfully most of the time the other officers and enlisted men can negate the stupidity and incompetence.

Very interesting book and miniseries.

4 stars.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel (4.5 stars)

Life of Pi won the booker prize in 2002, which, sadly, made me nervous about picking it up lest it turn out to be another brilliantly written ramble in need of a plot. When I read this passage I got a sinking feeling the book was going turn into one long boring theological lecture:

The truth of life is that Brahman is no different from atman, the spiritual force within us, what you might call the soul. The individual soul touches upon the world soul like a well reaches for the water table. That which sustains the universe beyond thought and language, and that which is at the core of us and struggles for expression, is the same thing. The finite within the infinite, the infinite within the finite. If you ask me how Brahman and atman relate precisely, I would...

*yawn*. Thankfully the story takes a very sudden and unexpected turn, and is a great read. Pi's interest and connection with the zoo and animals is interesting, makes for great tales, and is a continuing theme through the whole book. I loved the animal psychology and how Pi reasons out his strategy for living in a lifeboat with 'Richard Parker' the Bengal tiger. I also have to admit to being fascinated by the survival equipment in the lifeboat and how Pi puts it to use.

The ending is quite a shock, and very thought provoking. What is the real story? Does it matter? I liked Pi's conversation with the Japanese investigators, and his belligerent defence of the 'better story'. The implication that we should make a leap of faith (even into atheism) rather than have the 'dry, yeast-less factuality' of the agnostic is an interesting message.

4.5 stars

The Islands by Di Morrissey (2 stars)

When I picked this book up from the library I was pretty sure I wouldn't like it:

...a handsome American naval officer sweeps her off her feet and she goes to live in the beautiful Hawaiian Islands with her new husband...she begins to discover that paradise has a darker side...

But it was on the Dymocks top 100 list, and I figured I might as well get it read since I'm willing to give most authors a chance.

The first part of the book was exactly what I had expected: a cardboard cutout of a 'perfect' courtship, marriage, and honeymoon. The only thing that kept me interested was I could see some definite cracks appearing.

As the story unfolded I was surprised by the depth of detail about Hawaii and surfing. This aspect of the story managed to keep my interest while I was waiting for darling Bradley to turn into a psychopathic killer. Unfortunately the 'darker side' alluded to in the description is not really that dark: the book is completely devoid of twists and plays out the very obvious plot.

Certainly not a great book, but I had been ready to dismiss it as trash. Ms. Morrissey obviously really liked Hawaii, and I enjoyed matching her descriptions with my memories of the islands.

2 stars.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (5 stars)

After the last book I got from Dymocks' top 100 list, I picked this one up with some trepidation since it came from the same list. The Book Thief is the story of a German girl growing up in Nazi Germany through World War II, and is narrated by Death. Yes, Death. Sound depressing enough?

Surprisingly, although at times it is incredibly sad, it isn't depressing because it demonstrates both the potential for great goodness and great evil that exists in human nature. It explores the incredible moral conflicts faced by ordinary Germans in the face of a regime that ruthlessly punished dissension. Extra special punishments were reserved for those who helped the Jews.

Zusak tells of the Hubermann's bid to shelter a Jew from the death camps from the perspective of their adopted child Liesel. I thought the language and writing style was excellent, and very poetic:

A young man was hung by a rope of Stalingrad snow.

Rosa Hubermann, who looked like a small wardrobe with a coat thrown over it.

Zusak is an Australian born in Sydney. He published the book in Australia as regular fiction, but it has been marketed overseas as young-adult fiction. That is an interesting choice, given the subject matter - I saw an interview with Zusak and he said he hadn't set out to write a young-adult novel; he actually only planned a 100 page novella! In any case, I was surprised to see it was classified as young-adult.

I loved Zusak's portrayal of Death: compassionate, gently scooping up souls, powerful, efficient, and yet haunted by the goodness and hatred of the humans he touches. Brilliant.

5 stars!!!

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (2 stars)

As a winner of the Booker Prize in 2000, and on Dymocks' top 100 list, I decided this was a worthy candidate for my summer reading list. I wish I hadn't.

The unusual thing about this book is the number of simultaneous stories that are being told. They are: Laura and Iris growing up, Iris' affair with Alex Thomas, the science fiction story Alex and Iris come up with together, and Iris' day-to-day life as an older woman. The only interesting story out of all of these is sadly the sci-fi one, which gives the book its title. Unfortunately Atwood treats this story flippantly and has Alex end it in a couple of paragraphs with no regard to the readers' interest:

Not one escapes alive. The King is hanged from a tree, the High Priestess is disembowelled, the plotting courtier perishes along with the rest. The innocent slave children, the guild of blind assassins, he sacrificial girls in the Temple - all die.

My main complaint about this book is the lack of any interesting, thoroughly developed characters. Atwood pre-empts this criticism in the text by acknowledging that she (Iris) has merely provided a cardboard cut-out for her husband Richard. Unfortunately it is also true of all the characters except Iris.

Iris is boring, lacks backbone, and is so weak-willed she does nothing when others conspire to commit her sister to a mental institution. In contrast, Iris' sister Laura is one of the most interesting characters, yet we never discover her motivations: why does she constantly challenge the status-quo and display all of the spunk that Iris lacks?

The only other potentially interesting character is Alex Thomas, but his involvement is mainly limited to an emotionally cruel treatment of Iris and being the vessel for the science fiction story.

The 'twist' at the end of the story is less twist and more bleeding obvious plot development. Even Atwood acknowledges it:

But you must have known that for some time.

As I would expect for a Booker Prize winner, the writing is excellent. It's a shame the story is no good.

2 stars.