This review will avoid spoilers. Though I know I’m late to the Hunger Games series, I doubt I’m the only one.
So, some background before I begin properly. I’m no stranger to ‘young adult’ fiction. I’ve been reading it since before I was a young adult, and know full well that Fantasy and Science Fiction have always been lumped in there since the themes seemed to inappropriate for actual adults. I grew up on (contrary to Martin Prince) Asimov, Herbert, and Tolkien, with dalliances with Anthony and LeGuin. In college I got into Clarke and Heinlein, and in adulthood I’ve branched into Turtledove. This stuff is my pleasure reading home territory.
So, I wasn’t afraid to try the Hunger Games. It was an impulse buy at Costco a few months ago. I just hardly read anymore, so I only picked it up last night thanks to having no power for 25 hours after the passing by of Hurricane Sandy.
That said, I’ve had mixed feelings about it, and while at first I came way feeling badly about it, I think in the end I came into it with the wrong expectations. Contrary to the above, this is a book for teenagers. Go in expecting otherwise and you face disappointment.
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Yes, I’m sorry. When I found out yesterday morning that it was Labor Day, I did shift gears and relax a bit. By the evening I was treating it like a weekend and forgot all about Monday’s Tech at Night. So we’re making it a Tuesday morning Tech in the Morning instead.
Let’s get started with what happens when you let government regulate: they begin to ban things over their content. Yes, The DSCC is sending lawyers after the book Young Guns. Or at least, the Democrats are trying to ban the promotion of the book, which effectively amounts to banning any mass-produced book of this nature, because you can’t afford to publish a book without making sure it sells.
Just imagine what they’d do online once we gave them regulatory power there.
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