The Hunger Games

Do I lose any geek street cred if I say I don't care about this movie at all?

I enjoyed it. It does have a teenage angst quality to it though. You could knock it out in a few days easy. I wouldn't compare it to LOTR in a hundred years though. I'd put it slightly below His Dark Materials in quality. If Twiglight is a 0 and Ender's Game is a 10 I'd give it a 6.8

The books aren't in the same league as Lord of the Rings. The Hunger Games is a solid, quick read, as is its sequel, Catching Fire. Mockingjay, the final book the trilogy, leaves much to be desired. It's a decent series but nothing truly earth shattering.

I couldn't/didn't finish Mockingjay. I thought it was a pretty significant drop off in quality, it never grabbed me.

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what's The Hunger Games?

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I think its some story about that hot dog eating contest they have at Coney Island every year.

That chick in your avi is hot.

Book series set in a post apocalyptic world, specifically Panem, a nation that arose from the ashes of North America (mostly US with Mexican and Canadian segments)

Heavily centralized economy with the nation divided into 13 regions called Districts. Each district specializes in one aspect. One does electronics manufacture, another agriculture, and so on. All are subservient to the capital of the nation cleverly entitled Capitol.

Some 73 years before the start of the novel, there was a rebellation against Capitol, the aftermath of which left District 13 apparently destroyed and as punishment to the rest, the Hunger Games were started to continually show dominance of Capitol over the Districts.

Every year, all children aged 12 to 18 participate in a lottery. Entries are bribed by the offering of supplies in exchange for submitting your name more frequently. Get the supplies, and the more entries to your name exist, and the number of entries are progressive, so the older you are, the more likely you are to be picked.

From this lottery, two champions, one male and one female are chosen from each District. After a short prep/training period, they are thrown in an arena where the 24 champions must fight to the death. Only one can win. The winner earns immunity to all future lotteries and the ability to live in provided for wealth for the rest of your life. The District from which the champion hails is also rewarded with surplus supplies for a year.

And the whole thing is treated as entertainment by the citizens of Capitol. It's like American Idol to them. A media frenzy leading up to and during the Games (the arena is wired up ala The Truman Show). Bets on the champions are made, and if the Games start to become boring (ala the champions go off and just survive rather than kill each other), the game managers will start herding the players together to promote more action.

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what's The Hunger Games?

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like the AV


It is a little like Battle Royale, in the fight to the last survivor. However, Hunger Games includes more of a back story, training, different type of characters, and told from only one POV.

The first book was a fun read, then it went with a stupid teen love triangle and dystopian society storyline. I read all three books but really wish I'd quit after one.

That said if you've read or seen Battle Royale it'll bug you how much she stole from it. She didn't re-write it or anything it is it's own book, but every idea in it has been done before.

I read the first book in like 6 hours on a night shift once, so it's not a dense read.

It's a well-written series, but definitely aimed at young adult readers. It's a million times better than Twilight, but it's not LOTR. But it's a quick, fun read and the movie should be a blast.