Book Review: The Hunger Games Trilogy
Source:humantrafficking.change.org
It’s rare that a fiction book captures the essence of a complex, heavy issue like human trafficking or forced labor. It’s even rarer when that fiction book is written for young adults. Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games trilogy isn’t about modern-day slavery per se, but it envisions a world where a small, wealthy elite profit from the exploitation of the masses. It’s a world not entirely unlike the real one.
The final book of The Hunger Games was only released a few weeks ago, so this review will be spoiler-free. For those who aren’t familiar, the story is set in an America far into the future, which has suffered from some sort of major, society-destroying disaster. In its wake, a country called Panem with a powerful Capitol and 12 outlying districts rose up. But the Capitol acts as an abusive autocrat and rules the districts with an iron fist. To show their power, the central government forces each district to send two teenagers to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a live televised fight to the death. The series revolves around 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen who is sent to the Hunger Games and the events which follow.
In Panem, there are modern-day slaves — men and women called Avoxes who have had their tongues ripped out by the Capitol and are forced to serve the wealthy. But the vast majority of people in Panem are also exploited. They are forced to labor for the Capitol, doing everything from mining coal to making luxury goods, and in return receive food that in most cases can’t feed their families. They are trapped by a combination of fences, fear, and entrenched hopelessness. And every year they are psychologically tortured by watching their children fight to the death in the Hunger Games.
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Review: Dust by Joan Francis Turner
Source: tor.com
Confession: Dust was my first foray into zombies. Generally turned off by sluggish attacks, scary moaning, and, you know, eating people (much to my friend Andrew’s dismay, who tries annually to get me to play zombie video games as an alternative to traditionally celebrating the new year), I thought, A different sort of Zombie novel, told from a purportedly sympathetic zombie’s point of view? Go on, give it a shot! This is a success already!
Well—partially. Parts of Dust were, in fact, zombie-strong, while parts of it atrophied, decayed, and might have strengthened the book had they been left by the side of the road like Jessie’s arm in the first few (graphic!) pages.
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Loups-Garous vs. Wolves
Source: orbitbooks.net
A long time ago, when the Moorehawke Trilogy (UK | US | Fr) was still just a book-foetus in my fuddled noodle (I was working on something else at the time) I began playing with the idea of the Loups-Garous.
When the story first took shape in my head, the Loups-Garous were just humans. Members of a well structured organisation of men who travelled out from central bases of operation (compounds in the Russias, the Moroccos and Europes) and made a rich living from banditry, mercenary activities and (of course) the trading in slaves. I had wanted them to embody a callous disregard for the welfare of others, and a lack of respect or loyalty to anything other than their own kind. Originally they simply adopted the name Loups-Garous as a tribal title, and used the legend of the werewolf as a guise in order to terrorise the isolated villages and communities from whom they kidnapped their supply of slaves. But I couldn’t resist pushing it further, and eventually they became Wolves – their greed and cruelty now taking on a physical aspect as well as a behavioural one.
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Serializing Science Fiction Romance—Hot Or Not?
Source: thegalaxypress.net
One aspect I find appealing about science fiction romance’s status as a niche subgenre is that there are opportunities to experiment with medium. I’ve blogged previously about expanding SFR to videogames, manga, and webcomics. But, another intriguing possibility is that of serialized stories.
The digital medium readily lends itself to segmenting stories for bite-sized consumption (think: cell phones), or offering readers the episodic adventures of an SFR couple. Given that widespread ownership of e-readers is still a few years away, it makes sense to deliver stories that readers can consume on-the-go or without incurring significant eye strain.
While it’s possible that a breakout book or series could catapult science fiction romance into a higher level of visibility, I believe that we need a variety of different approaches to increase the subgenre’s appeal. If we wait for one particular story or author to “make it” then I fear we are limiting ourselves by not tapping into all of the available resources.
But how strong is the interest for serialized science fiction romance?
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