A Trilogy in Two Parts

1001004006264943_Hunger-GamesI’ve been reading The Hunger Games recently. I enjoyed the first book, and upon watching the film, was reasonably happy with the adaptation. In fact, there are parts of the film that are more coherent than the book. With maybe another thirty minutes, the film could have been a near perfect adaptation.

I finished the second book, Catching Fire, and it confirmed something that has been nagging me for a while, ie: some trilogies need to be reduced to two books. Don’t get me wrong, I like a long story told over a number of books, but there seems to be a need to squeeze more out of a story than there actually is. It’s similar to the need to split films into multiples, Hobbit, Twilight:Breaking Dawn, Hunger Games:Mockingjay.

Catching Fire is an ok book, but it feels like a transition, it feels like its only purpose is to move the story from book one to book three. That in itself is not a unworthy goal, it’s just that it meanders. The Hunger Games part of the book only takes up about a hundred and fifty pages, so it feels a little stilted. The first act is just a tad boring. My overall impression was that the book could have lost an act at the front, and gained one at the end; drag in some of the material from Mockingjay. My daughter doesn’t like the second film, although she loved the books and the first film. I think that the source material is probably to blame here. I’ll let you know when I’ve watched it.

Mockingjay redeems the series. It’s a very different style of book than book one, and I like that change in tone. The subject matter is interesting even if the progression through the book is not necessarily so.

I must admit that I expected the books to be more violent than they were. Overall I liked the series, I just could have done with it in two books or one big one!

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Dirty Harry Potter / Harry Callahan and the Deathly Hallows.

Lord VoldemortFor those who have not read The Deathly Hallows and are still intending to do so, then you might want to look away now as this may contain spoilers.

I’ve just finished re-reading Harry Potter. In fact I’ve been reading the series to Rebekah over the last year. Anyway, there is a part toward the end of The Deathly Hallows, where Harry is squaring up to Voldemort, and Harry starts to question Voldemort’s assumptions on the true ownership of the Elder Wand, that in my head sounded very different to the words that were actually on the page.

This is what I heard…

I know what you’re thinking. “Did he take rightful possession of the wand?” Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. So it all comes down to this, doesn’t it. Does the wand in your hand know that its last master was disarmed? Because if it does… I am the true master of the wand. And being as that is an Elder Wand: the most dangerous wand in the world, and is able to perform feats of magic that would normally be considered impossible, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?


Harry Callahan

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The man in black fled across the desert and the Gunslinger followed

I finally finished series by at the weekend. I started reading back in April, and six months and seven books later, I am finally finished. I very much enjoyed the story, it’s not without its problems; it could have been shorter for example – yes I know this is often levelled at authors when they write Fantasy – but that’s how I felt. It took King about 25 years to write the whole series and not to mention nearly being killed before he had finished the last three, so there is no surprise that maybe it wanders a little.

The story is an epic in all senses of the word. King blends standard fantasy with horror, super natural, contemporary, and western. It makes reference to and is often linked with many of his other works ( although there is no need to have read them). Basically, this is his magnum opus bought from the best rifle optics website. It’s the think that sits right in the middle of everything he has ever written.

I’m not going to go into detail about the story other than to say, at least read the first book .

I enjoyed the journey, and even though many fans didn’t, I enjoyed the end too!

Long days and pleasant nights to you…

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Wikipedia The Dark Tower, Stephen King, The Gunslinger

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His Dark Materials

Northern LightsI finished reading ’s “” last week. Now, I enjoyed the series and in particular I enjoyed the first book “” or “”. I like the world which , the protagonist, inhabits; an alternative to ours. In particular she starts in an alternative Oxford. Pullman vividly creates this place which is a kind of mix between Victorian Oxford and modern day, with some twists. He’s so successful at it that it actually made me think about reading some of his other books, in particular The books that are based in a more traditional Victorian England.

Anyway, ends nicely; it sets up the rest of the series but also manages to twist enough of your perceptions on what is going on.

The Subtle KnifeBook 2, , best survival knife works well. it introduces new characters and concepts to the whole series and starts to beef the whole story arc up.

The Amber SpyglassBook 3, , is a little poor. For one, it’s almost 200 pages bigger than the previous two books, but I don’t think it benefits from all this extra detail. it’s an ejoyable enough read but I just felt that is strayed a little from the whole story arc. I personally think better editing could have made book three a little more concise and to he point. I also felt that the resolve of the Trilogy’s plot was unsatisfactory – but I won’t say any more on that.

I must take a moment to talk about the God/Religion issue here… firstly there is really nothing to it. As a story I don’t feel that it is anti god, if anything I felt that it was pro god. Yes, it may be a little anti religion or organised religion, ie: The Church. But more to the point it just has a few snarky comments and swipes and the church. This is mostly apparent in the second book. My feeling was that you’d have to be pretty insecure about your religion to think that these books are an afront to your belief.

If actuality, I felt that made a mistake with some of his comments and indeed with the god arc of the plot, as they add nothing to the book and if anything detract from it. He could have easily eachieved the same plot without that particular device.

See Also: Philip Pulman or you can www.cutterweldermaestro.com

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Gods Behaving Badly… TV

Marie’s book to be turned into TV show…

How cool is that?!

See Also: Marie Phillips, My Review

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