The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games is an impressive novel--it has all the elements of a good novel and executes on them well.  In terms of structure, I believe it actually has two complimentary dramatic structures which reach different audiences--one about survival and the other about love.  The two converge at the resolution and lead to a satisfying finish.

The four parts of structure are:  set-up, response, attack & resolution.  Here is my analysis of the two structures:

Survival Story

1. Set-up:  Katniss volunteers for the games in her sister's place.  She thinks she is just fodder for the games and has no chance until she loses her temper in training which earns her the highest score of all the tributes.  After that happens, she now knows she has a chance and changes her outlook on the games.

2. Response:  Now that she believes she has a chance, all of her actions are aimed at improving her odds:  she plays along in the interview, she runs from the cornucopia as instructed, she hides and bides her time.  But during this portion of the book, she is only responding to events.  That changes when she is cornered in a tree seemingly with no escape.  Then a fellow tribute, Rue, gives her the idea of unleashing a nest of killer hornets on the tributes who have her trapped.  She does this and thus begins the attack phase.

3. Attack:  Katniss is literally on the attack in this portion, looking to kill other tributes or hurt their chances of survival by destroying their supplies.  She forms an alliance with Rue.  She also forms an alliance with Peeta when the Games announce that tributes from the same district can both win.  Here the two structures begin to come together because Peeta is hurt and she must help nurse him back to health.  The resolution is set up when the leaders of the Games promise to provide something each of the remaining tributes need desperately at the cornucopia.  Katniss goes to the cornucopia to get medicine for Peeta and for the final showdown with the other tributes.

4. Resolution:  Katniss gets the supplies for Peeta but is then trapped with some of the other tributes at the cornucopia by intelligent wolves.  She battles both the wolves and other tributes and is ultimately victorious.  Now that it is just her and Peeta, they believe they have won.  But then the leaders of the Games change the rules yet again and announce there can be only one winner.  Rather than fight one another, they decide to both commit suicide.  Before they can kill themselves, the leaders of the games relent and allow them both to win.

Love Story

1. Set-up:  The set up on the love story is slow because we don't know up front that this will be an important element.  However, the background provided is necessary for the reveal later on.  Peeta helps Katmiss when she and her family is starving by giving her a loaf of bread even though he is punished by his parents for it.  Peeta is nice to her during the training, but she thinks it is part of a deception to make it easier to kill her during the games.  The set-up ends when Peeta professes his love for Katniss during the interviews.  Now Katniss needs to decide if she believes him, and how she feels about him

2. Response:  For the love story, most of the response is in Katniss thinking back on what she knows about Peeta and wondering if perhaps he really does love her.  The response ends when Peeta deliberately helps her survive after the hornet attack in a moment when he could have easily killed her.  Now Katniss knows he is trying to help her and realizes he really does love her, even though she doesn't want to admit it to herself.


3. Attack:  The love story begins in earnest when Katniss finds Peeta injured and starts to nurse him back to health.  They act romantically, even kissing, but Katniss is still mostly just playing the part to get help from Haymitch, her sponsor.  She does begin to care more deeply about Peeta in this section, although it comes across more nurturing than romantic for most of the time.

4. Resolution:  Katniss goes to the cornucopia to get medicine for Peeta to save his life and the two stories converge.

For me, the survival story was what kept me reading.  But I can see some readers focusing more on the love story, especially if they're rooting for Peeta to get the girl.  However, for me, the love story never took off because Katniss never really fell for Peeta.  Nonetheless, the decision to have two separate story structures which overlap and come together in the end is a great technique and one I hope to use some day in my own stories.

Hyperion, Dan Simmons

After finishing this book, I was very disappointed in the non-ending, in complete agreement with the Grub Street reviewer who wanted to throw it in the lake.

Hyperion is well written with varying styles for each story.  I got the sense that Simmons was showing off, but it didn't bother me because it was so well done.  Simmons also excels at concept, and most of the stories have an intriguing idea at their core.

On the other hand, Hyperion fails at structure--not having an ending is a big problem.  Apparently, this entire book is just a set-up for Fall of Hyperion which I have not yet read.  Perhaps I will have to revise my evaluation of this book after I've finished the second installment.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, by J. K. Rowling

Notes while reading:

(55%)  The book has a strange structure.  The first 20% or so was Harry's struggles against his non-magic foster family (his aunt and uncle) after his parents died when he was just a baby.  This was getting interesting and seemed to set up this struggle to be part of the first plot point, but then Hagrid came along and took him to Hogwarts at about the 25% mark.  The first plot point should be the first big change or conflict that sets up the rest of the book, but in Harry Potter the conflict in the first 20% was resolved at the first quarter mark!

The book was slow after that, just going through Harry's introduction into the world of magic.  Once arriving at Hogwarts, a new conflict is introduced pitting one house (Harry's Gryffindor) against another (Slytherin, which produced the series Darth Vader character).  Certainly some of the students from Slytherin are against Harry, but some of the professors don't like him as well.  This new conflict is somewhat interesting, but it hasn't been explained enough yet to make it a true first plot point.  The book is more than half-way over, and I still don't know the main conflict in the story.

(Finished)  Well, right after I wrote the above, the book picked up on advancing the plot and at the 65% mark we finally found out that the main conflict is stopping Voldemort from getting the Sorcerer's Stone (you know, that thing mentioned in the title!).  Things moved quickly after that with the author breezing through the second part (the response) and right into the attack and resolution phases of the story.  This part of the book was good and kept my attention.

Overall, the writing was good but not great, as you'd expect from a first-time author.  But I think what has made this series so successful for kids is the world of Hogwarts that Rowling has created and the characters who think for themselves and who do important things.  And Harry is a very likable character.  He doesn't have any super-special skills (except perhaps his ability to ride a broom), but what makes him special is something available to every kid--courage to stand up for himself and his friends.

I think if I read the next book in the series, it won't be for the continuing story but to see how Rowling advances as a writer.  I've seen with Homer Hickam (one of my favorite writers) a huge development between his first and second books.  This gives me hope that even if my first book isn't very good, I'll have learned so much in the process that my second one could be great.

Living Proof, by Kira Peikoff

Notes while reading:

(At 40%)  The theme seems to be the superiority of reason over faith, but the characters representing religion are caricatures.  At one point, a priest tells the main character, "Remember the whole idea of faith, Trent:  Let go of reason and give in to God's higher plan."  And then, "Think of Jesus.  You need to learn how to sacrifice your own desires in order to do something that will help others."  As I grew up in a Catholic family and went to Catholic schools for twelve years, I know that the church is not this crude or transparent.  They are much more subtle and vague, and actually pretend that faith and reason can co-exist.  Perhaps by growing up in a staunchly atheist home (her father is Objectivist Leonard Piekoff), Ms. Piekoff doesn't realize that all of her religious characters don't ring true.  But so far, it is a big stumbling block for me as a reader.

(At 70%)  At almost three-quarters of the way through, I'm seeing that Living Proof borrows quite a bit from Atlas Shrugged.  Since Atlas Shrugged is one of my favorite books, this might seem a good thing.  However, Living Proof doesn't have characters or a plot to match Ayn Rand's classic, so when scenes are borrowed, it detracts from the book.  One example is when Arianna and Sam overcome a major obstacle before government forces can stop them.  Arianna expresses that it seems silly that they feared the government forces and that they never really had to worry about them, which is how Atlas Shrugged ended with Dagney saying the same thing to John Galt.  I still experience a sense of awe in remembering that final scene from Atlas Shrugged, while I don't feel anything when Arianna says the same sentiment in Living Proof.

Another problem I've noticed in Living Proof is that Ms. Piekoff breaks Ayn Rand's first rule of plot:  make things as difficult as possible for the characters.  This was certainly true in Atlas Shrugged, when my heart ached for the characters at times.  In Living Proof, the bad guys could have been more effective adversaries. Instead Ms. Piekoff uses Arianna's progressing multiple sclerosis as a plot devise, which is not as effective as other characters acting against her.

(100%)  Well, I finished it and nothing from the resolution/climax changed my views on the book.  The ending was somewhat melodramatic in my view.  And the unrequited love angle between two people with a father-daughter relationship came out of nowhere and was somewhat weird.

Overall, Living Proof is a good first effort, but I'm surprised it was published.  But it was and has quite a few reviews on amazon.com, so that shows you what I know.  On a personal note, I feel kind of bad giving this book a poor review because any book by an Objectivist has to live up to the incredibly high standard set by Ayn Rand.  On the other hand, any fan of Ayn Rand should hold themselves to a high standard and keep working hard to attain it.

Open Season, by C. J. Box

Open Season is a pretty good first novel, but I didn't enjoy it as much as C. J. Box's later effort, Blue Heaven.  One problem I had with it is that the hero wasn't heroic enough.  He didn't seem to know what he wanted and for most of the book he just reacted to the actions of the other characters.

Another thing I didn't like was the theme, which is that endangered species should be protected regardless of the consequences to humans, including having their land and homes taken away from them.  This last criticism is political, not literary, so it doesn't count against the book for the purposes of this blog.

C. J. Box has a good style and he did a good job of letting the reader into the characters' minds.  He also excels at the conclusion to ramp up the consequences and tie everything together neatly.  Even though the middle was somewhat boring because of the timidness of the hero, the well-planned and executed ending makes the book worth reading.

Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson

I took a break from reading fiction to read the Steve Jobs biography which is everywhere!  It was a quick and entertaining read, but I was surprised with what a jerk Steve Jobs was.  I blame it on his parents who always gave into his tantrums and allowed him to form his bad habits.  On the bad side, he treated people like crap.  On the good side, he pushed people to be better and was honest about their work which ultimately made his Apple products better.

I've never bought an Apple product, although I have looked into them.  But I could never pull the trigger on one because I hate the closed system.  I don't want to be forced to use iTunes, or the iPhone app store.  I like freedom, even though it's messy.  I make the same argument for capitalism vs. communism.

Steve Jobs is the closest thing to Plato's Philosopher King that I've seen, and it works for Apple.  But I think it works because Apple products are marketed as hip and sexy, and they're sold to people who aren't technically savvy and who don't care about open vs. closed systems.  But now that the Philosopher King is dead, I predict Apple will fall from grace over the next few years.

The Dark Tower I, by Stephen King

I just don't like the fantasy genre.  I couldn't get through The Hobbit, I  didn't get into Wizard's First Rule, and I didn't like The Dark Tower.  My problem is that I can't put the characters and actions into context when they inhabit a world created by the author.

In The Dark Tower, the gunslinger is following The Man in Black and questing for the Dark Tower.  Why?  It's not explained.  Where did the Man in Black come from?  No answer.  The book does give all sorts of details on the gunslinger's past and how he became what he is, but it's some crazy other-world that doesn't makes sense and just raises more questions than it answers.

Some people just love the Fantasy genre, but I still don't get it.