The Gang of Five

Beyond the Mysterious Beyond => The Arts => Attic Treasures => Topic started by: Gentle Sharptooth on May 21, 2020, 04:27:30 PM

Title: New Hunger Games Book (2020) “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.”
Post by: Gentle Sharptooth on May 21, 2020, 04:27:30 PM
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Suzanne Collins has written a Prequel to the Hunger Games Trilogy. This one centers on Snow as the protagonist, when he is eighteen and working his way up the Capitol eschelons from poverty. It insinuates he ends up in the 10th Annual Hunger Games, but he may just be a mentor.

Anyone plan on reading it?

I’ve read mixed reviews.

Title: Re: New Hunger Games Book (2020) “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.”
Post by: Anagnos on May 22, 2020, 02:18:49 AM
I've read the free sample of the book and must say that I found it very interesting. Snow wasn't explored much in the original series, so it's interesting to see how his character evolved over time. Look into the early Panem is also quite interesting for we'll see how the country became the one we know at the start of the Hunger Games. This book is all about exploration as we witness Snow's rise to power from poverty. A brilliant move from Collins as I've always found his character very interesting. Although, I'll have to read the book from start to finish before I list my final thoughts.
Title: Re: New Hunger Games Book (2020) “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.”
Post by: Anagnos on July 31, 2020, 09:45:49 AM
I finished the book today and I have mixed feelings about it. I already wrote a review on the Amazon page, so I will simply copy it here. The book wasn't trash, but I wouldn't call it my favorite Hunger Games novel either. The simplest way I can describe the story without sounding overzealous, is that it is a story about nature, freedom and control.

Spoiler: ShowHide
Like its predecessors, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes has one thing in common with the other books in the series; heavily detailed and pragmatic world-building from Collins that fans of the Hunger Games franchise know and love. The narrative connections to her other works were not only interesting, but brilliantly plotted according to existing lore. Withal, the book ushers in more or less a hundred characters you seldom care about aside from the select few. Unlike in the previous books, there is no emotional link to connect the reader to Lucy Gray like it was with Katniss. You scarcely find yourself feeling bad about the end of the other tributes in the Games.

The book doesn’t solely focus on the Games itself. The broad smorgasbord of developments that tie this story together make it one of a kind and more engrossing. It is not the typical Hunger Games story you would expect to read. First half of the book didn’t really arouse emotion in the reader and the plot meanders enough to make you second-guess the storyline. There are quite a few shaky plot points, too. It only starts to pick up at the second half of the novel in which case it begins to resemble a poorly manufactured building on the verge of ruin.

The only interesting character in the whole book might just be the egocentric Head Gamemaker, Dr. Volumnia Gaul. The mannerisms she shows throughout the book can be linked to the person that would ultimately become like her very own protégé, Coriolanus Snow, the future president that would eventually come to embrace these methods as his own.