Lugh got born first. On midwinter day when the sun hangs low in the sky.

Then me. Two hours later.

That pretty much says it all.

Lugh goes first, always first, an I follow on behind.

An that’s fine.

That’s right.

That’s how it’s meant to be. (p. 1)

This is the first page of the novel. If you HATE reading dialects in fiction, give this one a miss, because it don’t never git any better than that. There ain’t no punck-chee-ashun. No quotation marks to tell you if something is being said. There’s a reason for all this madness. I understand why it’s written like this but I didn’t really enjoy it. The reasoning behind the style (this is all assumption on my part, BTW) is that the population as a whole is largely illiterate and language is fluid so it’s been dumbed down by years of illiteracy. It’s also written in the first person, so we don’t ever get a break from it. If she would have considered writing this in the third person, it might have been easier to read.

Other than the style of writing, it was a pretty good dystopian read. It held some similarities with The Hunger Games, and I’ve heard that Ridley Scott bought the movie option rights to this before it was even published. There may be a version of this coming to a theatre near you in the next couple of years. It would really make a great movie. There was a lot of action, and a love interest that’s intense but  doesn’t steal the show. The world building was a bit unbelievable, and the main character was pretty annoying but if you like to read post-apocalyptic fiction, give it a try. But beware, it looks like this one is going to be a trilogy.

Then I saw the trailers on Facebook. The first was crap, but still all the ladies on FB swooned. I thought “what is the deal with these books?”

But then they posted the second trailer, and I was at least convinced that I wanted to see the movie.

Before you know it my wife (with some help from our Facebook friends) had talked me into reading the first book, The Hungers games.

It was good, really good. I had a hard time putting it down. There were things that kind of bothered me, the universe seemed a little underdeveloped, Katniss was a little flakey, but it wasn’t bad enough to make me want to stop or even slow down. Then I hit book 2.

The things that bugged me a little about the first book started to get more pronounced. What really started to drive me crazy was Katniss’ behavior. She started acting like a 17 year old. I know, you are thinking, “but she is.” but still it drove me crazy. She was selfish, needy, flakey and selfish. Did I mention selfish. It was hard for me sympathize with her at all. Meanwhile, she has these kind, brave and handsome young men all gaga over her. Huh? I know guys will sometime ignore neurosis for looks, but according to the book she is not really that pretty. I’m thinking “what the!?!”

It went from annoying to bizarre for book three. And then it ended. The last four pages of the book were brilliant, but everything between the end of book one and there was me trudging up hill through the snow.

Absolutely read book one, but maybe give book two and three a pass. If you need to know how it ends, drop me a note or read the Wikipedia page,  it’ll save you the time of reading them.

If you want another perspective read Cindi’s review of The Hunger Games, Clarissa’s review of Catching Fire and Mockingjay.

It’s beautifully written. The main character, named Temple (a girl who seems a lot older than her fifteen years) is from the south. The narration and her voice have a southern accent. Kind of like Huck Finn I guess. I bet Alden Bell read Huck Finn before he wrote this book. Anyway, here is a small sample of the writing,

See, God is a slick god. He makes it so you don’t miss out on nothing you’re suppose to witness firsthand.

That’s another thing. Most, if not all, post-apocalyptic fiction I’ve read ignores God. He is either no where to be seen, long forgotten or given up on. This book brings God in from the first page. It also seamlessly blends in evolution. I love that the characters all talk about God. I keep wondering if setting this book in the south is why God still exists in the minds of the characters.  Anyway, people in this novel even go to church. Not our main character, of course, but other people do.

Now for the problems. Every book has them. This book is set 25 years after a zombie infestation began. 25 years. There are times in the novel where Temple runs into an abandoned store and gets supplies. It’s a small thing but so unbelievable for me. I would think that the packages of cheese crackers she grabs would be either long gone in 25 years or really bad. People still also had electricity. How is that possible? Is it? I don’t know but it seems strange that there would still be electricity if no one is around to work in the plants. The setting, the way it all played out, it wasn’t really that original. There wasn’t a lot that was completely new. It was worth reading, for me, because of the style. It was beautiful and haunting. I just finished reading it, but I can already feel it haunting my brain. I was even thinking in a southern accent for at least an hour after I read it. But, I Hated the ending.

Even with all it’s problems, I would still give this one a solid 4 stars (out of 5). If you like zombies, then this is definitely a book worth reading.

In Matched, our narrator Cassia is a young seventeen year old  girl who lives in a far-future dystopian society. In her world, there are very few choices for her her make. What to eat, wear, when to sleep, where to live and about any other choice has already been made for her. Her food is brought to her house by a food service personnel. She wears the same clothes as her neighbours and what she does for a living is decided by “the officials.” People in her society have very few possessions, and what they do own is cataloged by “the officials.”

The main theme running through this novel is choice. Cassia is contemplating making one of her first real choices. Does she follow the rules, or her heart? How will the choice she makes affect her family? Fans of Orwellian fiction may be interested in this new young adult series.

So basically, the story had bad pacing, underwhelming world building, unbelievable characters, boring and unbelievable conversations, and plenty of hitting over the head preaching, which frankly, marred the book’s goodness for me, not to mention the head ache it gave. I fought through the first half of the book (since I keep hearing about this series), but thankfully, it picked up in the second half. Overall though, the book was a waste of my time. I like knowing how a story ends and this one is part of series, so I couldn’t resist reading the plot summaries of the other books on wikipedia. I’m glad I won’t have to waste more time reading the other books to know how unresolved it ends.

While the scenario, characters and events all unfold in a natural sequence, it still seemed manufactured. I was left with no sense of the character’s motivations. At some points there are twelve people living in one house with no mention as to their personal relationships with one another. They are only ever just a group, doing x y z.

Patriots falls quite heavily on the guns n ammo side of the survival equation, and the lengthy, detailed, never ending descriptions of EVERY firearm in the ENTIRE BOOK will wear out your patience. (Unless gun descriptions get you hot, in that case this book is tripple X.) I also recommend preparing in advance for the awkward and cliched dialog so your brain doesn’t get hurt stumbling through it. One of the best reviews I’ve ever read suggested you know you are reading a fantasy book when there is a map at the front. Well, you know you are reading a survival book when there is a six page glossary of military acronyms at the back. I did enjoy the quotes at the beginning of each chapter; I loved seeing Gene Roddenberry in there with Shakespeare and Thomas Jefferson. For your daily survival fix I highly recommend checking out the author’s fantastic blog, survivalblog.com. If you can’t survive after reading this book you just aren’t trying.

Imagine America suddenly being thrust back into the nineteenth century. Everything is very quickly in short supply as the massively fragile web of distribution across the country goes down. Neighbors turn on neighbors and martial law is enforced. Tough decisions are faced as John increasingly takes on a more prominent roll in the community and tries to navigate crime, punishment, outside threats, starvation, and the increasingly dire prognosis for his diabetic daughter. I found this novel balanced with just the right amount of large scale crisis and drama while dealing with everyday impact and personal choices. Not to sound like a horrible human being, but I found this scenario quite frightening just for the fact that no people are actually killed from the high altitude EMP blast. While most post apocalyptic books wipe out a LARGE percentage of the population in the initial attack, with an EMP everyone survives and will have to struggle through the second stage of the catastrophe and resulting die off. I noticed the film rights were sold to Warner Brothers so I will keep an eye out for the eventual release of the movie.

Is the concept original? Um, no. Was the romance good? Yes, in a young adult sort of way. The writing is great, the characters are fine, and the pacing is crisp. There is plenty of action and enough soul searching and moral dilemmas to keep it interesting past the surface. My main problem with the book is the author’s view of the future, especially surrounding the politics and government in the book’s post apocalyptic time and place. I know it is a work of imaginative science fiction, I just felt it lacked substance and credibility. (As a pet peeve there was one part right near the beginning where Katniss puts on her boots, and then pulls on her pants. ??? How often do you put your shoes on before getting dressed? Sorry to point this out; I don’t know why I noticed this.) Also, you don’t have to give everyone funky names because your book is set in the future. Most names in circulation today predate the bible. Now that I’m done complaining, feel free to check it out. I found it very entertaining and the end will leave you wanting more.