One Thousand And One Parsecs

Change of plans

So I was going to start Edenfall this week…but then, I realized I wanted to spend some more time in the universe of Worlds Away from Home, so I decided to work on Into the Nebulous Deep instead.

ITND is a direct sequel to Mercenary Savior. Basically, it grew out of the realization that James’s story wasn’t anywhere near finished. Like WAFH, I’m trying to throw in some romantic elements…how well that works out remains to be seen. I’ll probably get it all wrong on the first draft, but make it shine in subsequent drafts.

Anyhow, here’s the soundtrack I’ve put together. Most of the songs are from ocremix, but there’s also a good bit of U2 and a little Daft Punk, as well as a couple chiptunes that probably no one’s heard of. Man, I love chiptunes.

I’m going to try to write through this rough draft as quickly as possible. Right now, I’ve got a deadline for April 16th, but I wonder if I can finish before that.

Part of that has to do with my new goal of two novels per year; I want to train myself to write quickly, so I can be putting out more work. More than that, though, I want to try and tap into my creativity in a deeper way. If I can train myself to write quickly, I’ll be less prone to self-edit, which hopefully will help the creative part of my mind to flourish more freely. That was certainly the case with WAFH 2.1, and I want to do it again.

I stopped ITND 1.0 back in December in order to work on Bringing Stella Home; not because it wasn’t working, but because BSH needed a little more work. After that, I ended up picking up WAFH. Now, it’s time to go back and finish this project.

Farnham’s Freehold by Robert Heinlein

Bomb warning. Third bomb warning. This is not a drill. Take shelter at once. Any shelter. You are going to be atom-bombed in the next few minutes. So get the lead out, you stupid fools, and quit listening to this chatter! TAKE SHELTER!

Thus begins the wild and crazy story of Hugh Farnham, a middle aged suburban American, with his alcoholic wife Grace, his law student son Duke and daughter Karen, their black house servant Joseph, Karen’s sorority sister Barbara, and the cat Mr.-Livingston-I-Presume. When the Russians nuke the peaceful town of Mountain Springs into oblivion, only the uncanny foresight and resourcefulness of Hugh keeps them alive. When they open their bomb shelter and climb outside, however, they find themselves in a world that defies anything they could ever imagine.

This book was incredible. I finished it at 4:00 am on a Sunday night, and honestly I wouldn’t have it any other way. The characters are memorable and engaging, the plot face-paced and thrilling, the world fantastically imaginative, and the story both entertaining and thought provoking. Wow.

Heinlein is an unparalleled storyteller, and I think he does it by creating worlds that are innately fascinating and imaginable and populating them with characters who act like real people, with the full range of reactions and motivations that real people have.

Consider the basic premise: who hasn’t wondered what World War III would be like? No one who grew up during the Cold War, certainly. And as for surviving and colonizing an uncivilized wilderness, people of all ages have been enthralled with that idea since Robinson Carusoe and The Swiss Family Robinson. Heinlein capitalizes on this urge by telling us a story that we love to tell ourselves.

But the thing that really drew me in was the characters.

I’ll confess, when I got to the part where they open the bomb shelter and find themselves in a pristine, virgin wilderness instead of a blasted city, I threw the book across the room. Up to that point, everything about the nuclear attack had been so realistic that the cross-dimensional time travel element totally threw me out.

However, even after I put the book down, I couldn’t stop thinking about Hugh Farnham. The down to earth, no nonsense resourceful man who took the Boy Scout motto “Be Prepared” to a whole new level–who had the chutzpah to draw a gun on his own son when his rebellious behavior threatened to unravel the group–his undying attitude of “never surrender”–I just couldn’t stop thinking about him. So I picked the book back up and finished it, and am I ever glad I did!

But it wasn’t just Hugh Farnham. Grace, with her debilitating alcoholism and irrational outbursts, was a character I really loved to hate EVEN THOUGH she reminded me of people in my own family. Joe, the longsuffering polite servant who changes so frighteningly with the reversal of fortune in the second half of the book; Duke, whose dysfunctional relationship with his father leads to so many problems; Barbara, the 60s era divorcee who goes from outsider to one of the closest members of the group–man, there were some memorable characters. And NONE of them were caricatures; all of them had strengths and weaknesses, and while some fell prey to their flaws, others rose above them and triumphed magnificently.

I suppose that Farnham’s Freehold is a good example of pulp science fiction at its best: an imminently entertaining story that is also meaningful and thought provoking. If so, then this is definitely the kind of stuff I want to write. The descriptions may be sparse and the prose rather unremarkable–but man, the story…what a wild and crazy ride!

Interesting job search development

So over the weekend, I saw this ad on the Provo craigslist for a pizza delivery position, and decided to walk in on Monday and ask about it. But I didn’t want to make the trip without doing some other errands, too.

I happened to have a complete set of The Chronicles of Narnia that I’d bought from my sister over the summer. Knowing that I probably wouldn’t read them before my next move, I figured it would be best to trade them in for credit at Pioneer Book.

A little bit about Pioneer Book: it is the awesomest used bookstore in Utah Valley. While I was in college, I used to go there at least three or four times a semester, often with friends. Half the books I owned before I left for DC came from there, and even now, I find myself going back often. Great place.

So I went to Cougar Creations, printed up a few copies of my resume (one for the pizza place, a couple others just to have on hand), and went downtown. Unfortunately, the pizza place was closed, so I decided to come back later and run up to Pioneer Books instead.

I walked in, put The Chronicles of Narnia on the desk, and asked the cashier what they’d take for it. She asked for me to hold on while she got her manager.

All of a sudden, I realized that this was my perfect in to ask if they had any job positions opening up soon. I’d already planned to ask (since hey, it doesn’t hurt), but I hadn’t expected to talk with the manager.

Well, it turns out that I recognized the manager from when I’d come with my brother in law over Christmas break. We chatted a bit, I asked if there were any positions opening in the next couple months, and he said that there might be, so I should probably come back and drop off a resume.

Guess what I happened to have in my jacket pocket?

Man, Pioneer Book would be an awesome place to work. It’s a bookish job, with bookish people, in a city full of college students, working with books…man, if I could make enough money, I might even postpone teaching English in Asia.

Most of the employees are students, so when April comes around and most of the students go home, some positions might very well open up. And hopefully, I was able to leave a professional enough impression that they’ll call me back. Wish me luck!

More thoughts on indie publishing

Since my last post on indie publishing, I’ve been thinking a lot about this subject. I haven’t decided to take the plunge into self published ebooks yet, but I have decided to make some changes in my writing and my career strategy, in order to position myself more favorably if/when I choose to do so.

Basically, my new strategy is something like Japan or Saudi Arabia’s approach to nuclear weapons: they don’t have an explicit nuclear program (since that would violate the nuclear non-proliferation treaty), but they have gathered the equipment, resources, and expertise together so that if they decided to go nuclear, they could do it in a year or less.

First, though, I attended Brandon Sanderson’s class lecture this Thursday, in which he had some very interesting things to say about ebooks and the publishing industry. This was part I of his “how to get published” lecture, and here are some of the more interesting points he made:

Almost all the indie writers who are making it big have at least one loss leader ($.99 or less) on their list.
No one really knows whether indie publishing will be viable for large numbers of writers, or whether authors like Amanda Hocking and Joe Konrath are outliers.
Successful indie published books are typically:
1) short (70k to 80k words)
2) written in a pulp genre (thriller, romance, paranormal, sword & sorcery, etc)
3) promoted very well through social networking
We have not yet seen any indie successes in epic fantasy, young adult / middle grade, historical fiction, or non-fiction.
The produce model vs. unlimited shelf space argument for going indie doesn’t apply as much to science fiction & fantasy as other genres, because:
1) sf&f stays on the shelves in bookstores longer than other genres
2) sf&f series grow better with a big push on the first book
3) sf&f makes a lot of money on hardcover, unlike other genres

A lot of these points tend to mesh with what I’m hearing from my other sources–and Brandon really represents the last of the successful writers to make it big on the old model, before the ebook revolution began to take off. He doesn’t make as big a deal on the current 25/75 split on net ebook sales as I would make, but then again, he’s making most of his money through print.

So anyways, here is what I plan to change about what I’m doing in order to better position myself to best take the ebook plunge, if/when I decide to do so:

1) Write at least 2 polished novels per year

Kris Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith make very good arguments about how being able to write well quickly is a huge asset for a writer these days.

There are many good reasons for this:

1) Writing faster gives you more practice with craft, which tends to improve quality.
2) The best way to promote your books is to constantly write new books.
3) The limited shelf space argument against writing quickly is now moot with ebooks.

In particular, I want to increase my writing speed in order that I can have a larger list to put out if/when I decide to go with indie publishing. It’s much harder to be successful if you’ve only got one book available for sale; if/when I decide to take the plunge, I want to have at least three.

So far this year, I’ve finished one (Bringing Stella Home), but that’s because it was already sitting in the queue and only needed a quick touch up. I would like to get Worlds Away from Home polished before the end of the year, and possibly one other project, such as Edenfall.

2) Reduce production time to as close to one year as possible

Right now, it takes me on average about two years to write a polished, salable novel. That’s not a problem, because I have a lot of projects in the queue, but it’s not as fast as I would like. I wrote Genesis Earth and Bringing Stella Home while I was still a journeyman writer, figuring out my craft. I should be able to produce a lot faster.

Towards that end, I’m going to try to get Edenfall finished and polished within a year. Since it’s already March, that might mean getting it polished by February of next year, but I still want to try.

My biggest weakness is first drafts; I always tend to get stuck midway and drop the project for a while before I feel ready to finish it. That’s something I would like to change. Then again, that might just be part of my writing process, and shouldn’t be forced. However, I certainly could go through my revisions much faster.

3) Write out the direct sequels while the first book is still unpublished

Previously, I thought it was a bad idea to write out all the books in a series or trilogy before the first one is ever picked up. After all, a rejection from a publisher on the first book is a rejection on all the other books in the series as well. Using this reasoning, it was much better to write the first book of another trilogy, in order to maximize how much I could submit at any given time.

With indie publishing, however, it’s much better to release the whole trilogy all at once, so that readers who finish the first book can immediately pick up the others. Again, the paradigm here is that the best way to sell books is with other books; if they loved the one, they’ll buy the others, especially to find out what happens next.

Of course, the best model is probably to have an open series with several indirect sequels with recurring characters in the same world. With the Gaia Nova books, that’s exactly what I plan to do: Worlds Away from Home is set in the same universe as Bringing Stella Home, but with different characters and different story arcs.

However, Genesis Earth has serious trilogy potential, and with Edenfall I’ve decided to actually write the other books. If/when I decide to take the plunge, I want to be able to release at least the first two books in that trilogy at the same time. In fact, Genesis Earth is perhaps the biggest reason why I’m thinking so seriously about going indie, but that’s a subject for a whole other post.

4) Experiment with pulp genres such as space adventure stories

When Brandon said that the pulp genres tend to do better, I wasn’t sure whether that includes what I write. I write primarily science fiction, but not the kind of stories you’d read only for entertainment and promptly forget once you’re finished. If anything, I want to write more like Ursula K. Le Guin, whose stories are so meaningful they stick with you long after you’ve finished them.

Then again, there tends to be a lot of overlap in science fiction between the thoughtful, meaningful stuff and the pulps. Ender’s Game and Starship Troopers immediately come to mind as awesome, entertaining stories that also have a lot of depth. In his lecture, Brandon made it clear that “pulp” does not necessarily conflict with high art–just that the primary purpose of the story is to entertain.

I can live with that–and I actually have several story ideas that would translate well with the pulp mentality. I’d like to do a novel (or a series of novels) with Danica from BSH and her mercenary team, perhaps as a sort of origin story for Roman, Anya, Artyom, and the others. I’d like to revisit the Hameji as well, with a sort of “Ain Jalut in space” involving Sholpan’s son (BSH was basically the Mongol conquest of Baghdad in space). I’ve already started an “Odyssey in space,” as told from a female Telemachus character–that’s To Search the Starry Sea. All of these are, at their core, space adventure stories, and might translate well as pulps.

5) Commit to releasing one book every 6 months if/when I take the plunge

This is related to the first strategy on the list, but it’s more of a business plan than a personal writing goal. Basically, if/when I take the plunge, I want to:

1) have at least 3 finished, polished books to put out at first,
2) know that I can put out one book every six months at least.

This not only means developing a backlist, it means doing some soul searching as a writer to find out how difficult it is to keep up with this pace–and adjusting my writing habits accordingly. I’m optimistic that I can, but it’s something of a paradigm shift, and I want to make sure I’ve made that shift before I take the leap.

Anyhow, these are my thoughts on how to alter my current writing strategy. I haven’t yet decided to go indie, but when the time comes, I think that these things will help me to maximize my potential if/when I decide to do so.

Of course, what do any of us really know?

Worlds Away from Home 2.1 is finished!

Yep, that’s right! I finished another novel, in this case the second draft of my fourth. It’s not without its flaws, but good enough that I won’t feel humiliated for life by sending it out to my first readers.

Anyhow, here are the stats:

Worlds Away from Home 2.1
ms pages: 450
words: 96,212
file size: 219 KB
chapters: 20 + prologue
start date: 14 Jan 11
end date: 4 Mar 11

And the wordle:

Yeah, there are a few words that appeared a bit too frequently there. At least I know what to cut out in the next draft.

As for the song that best encapsulates the experience of writing it..hmm, I don’t know. The last couple chapters, I was kind of on a Metroid trip, so even though the old NES game has absolutely nothing to do with my story, I suppose I’d have to go with the Metroid title theme:

So yeah, those are the stats. As for my thoughts, here goes:

This draft was tough, but a lot more fun to write than the rough draft. Most of the struggle happened with the outline, which took about three or four weeks to actually come together, which is unusual for me.

I did a complete read through back in the first week of December, putting everything else on hold just to write the revision notes, and ended up following almost none of it. However, it wasn’t a complete loss, because outlining it helped me to cut out a bunch of useless filler and dead-end subplots.

I tend to do a lot of shotgun writing on my rough drafts, which means I spew out all my ideas in every which direction, going off on useless tangents and failing to properly foreshadow the major central conflicts.

However, by writing this way, I often discover things that I never could have foreseen from the outset. So long as I’m careful to outline each successive draft and cut out all the filler crap (even the crap that I love), it usually works out in the end.

This draft is somewhere on the crappier side of rough draft vs. finished, polished product, but it’s definitely better than the first one. If the third draft is this much better than the second, I’m optimistic that I’ll have this thing polished and ready to send out before the end of the year.

But before then, I need the help that only a few dozen pairs of eyes besides my own can give. That, and a few months to sit so that I can come back to it with new eyes.

If I know you IRL and you’re interested in being a first reader, please contact me. I’m especially looking for male readers, since the target audience is probably more male than female, but I’m open to pretty much anyone who enjoys reading science fiction.

So anyways, enough of that. On to the next project!

Character DTRs and other such stuff

Just a quick post before I go to bed.

The two main characters in WAFH just had a DTR (Define The Relationship discussion) and it was, well, kind of rough. I don’t know what’s harder: having one in real life, or writing a fictional one that actually works.

I also don’t know which one I have more personal experience with, but that’s a subject I’d rather not get into right now.

Anyhow, even though that was an unexpected rough spot that had me down for the past few days, the end for WAFH 2.0 is definitely in sight. I’ve got one more scene in this chapter, the big climactic end battle / rescue / whatever, and then a very short epilogue. In all, that’s about seven scenes, two of which are already written and two others which I can probably glean from recycled material.

In unexpected news, I had a very interesting idea. You know the Writers of the Future contest? I always want to submit to them, but never can, because none of my stuff is short enough. It’s acceptable to submit the first part of a novel–Dave Wolverton did that, with On My Way to Paradise–but only if the first part is a complete story in itself.

Well, as I was walking down the street, I wondered whether I could take one of my novels (like BSH) and eliminate all but one of the viewpoint characters’ scenes. Specifically, I was thinking of doing that with Stella, who goes from prisoner to concubine to queen of a tribe of starfaring warrior nomads. After cutting out all the other storylines and adding in a bit here or there to preserve continuity, it could make for an interesting novella.

Still, it’s going to be tough to get it down to the 17k word contest limit. Stella is one of four major viewpoint characters, so her scenes probably take up at least 25k words in the book. I might be able to cut out a couple of subplots, like the one with Gazan…but I dunno. I’m open to suggestions from those of you who’ve read it.

In other news, I made the first cut for the 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest! I submitted Genesis Earth in the YA category, and mine is one of 1,000 entrants that will go on to the next round of judging. First place wins a $10k publishing contract with Penguin–yay!

I’m trying not to get my hopes up too much, but I’ll know whether I made the second cut by March 22nd. A couple of friends from Quark also made it through the first round, so if any of us makes it to the second, that would be awesome. Go Quarkies!

That’s about it for now; Brandon Sanderson did an interesting lecture in his 318 class on the new world of publishing, which was quite interesting. I’ve got a LOT of new thoughts to share on indie publishing, but that will have to wait for another post.

Until then, keep being awesome…but not like this guy:

Beard pics and other updates

In case you didn’t know, I’ve been experimenting a bit with facial hair recently. I figure, hey, I’m no longer a BYU student, so I might as well, right? Well, the results are in, and I must say I’m quite pleased.

I mean, check out how awesome I look:

Alright, fine, so that’s actually Waylander from David Gemmell’s Drenai series, but hey, a man can dream, right?

So anyways, here’s what the beard REALLY looks like:

I figured it would be good to keep it short, and trim around the neck and cheek; kind of like Riker, actually (no joke–his look was kind of what I was shooting for).

One of the funny things I’ve noticed is how many girls have actually complimented me on this thing. It struck me as quite a surprise, because from previous conversations with the opposite sex, growing a beard is something of a kiss (or lack thereof) of death. Interestingly enough, I’ve gotten as many or more compliments from women as I have from men. How does that work?

I guess that girls are opposed to beards as an idea, but (like most guys) they just don’t know what they want until they see it.

Probably the most hilarious about-face was from my sister Kate (who just started a new blog, hey!). When I was contemplating growing it earlier this winter, she kept telling me not to–that it would look hideous, that no girl would ever want to date me, that it would ruin my social life, etc. Well, guess what she said today?

Me: so you like my beard, eh?
oh ye of little faith
Kate: yes
…
Kate: I like it
I think it makes you look good
you need to be sure to keep it trimmed
it looks good
I’m really surprised
Me: hehehe
Kate: I eat my worrds
Me: so why are you so surprised?
Kate: hahaaha

So anyways, what do you think? Should it stay, or should it go? I’m kind of partial to it, but I’m open to hearing any contrary opinions, if there are any.

In unrelated news, I am sooo freaking close to finishing WAFH 2.0, and it orders of magnitude better than the first draft. Still, it needs a lot of work, so I’m looking for first readers to help me out with it. If you’d be willing to help out, please let me know (and please, only people I know in real life–as much as I love you for reading this blog, I’d prefer not to hand out my work to complete strangers) (also, some of you have already emailed me and I haven’t gotten back to you yet, but don’t worry–I haven’t forgotten. Expect an email about it sometime in the next week).

If you’d like to volunteer as a first reader for WAFH, I’d ask you to finish it by April 15 (tax day, joy!). My next project is Edenfall, and I expect that to take me at least a month and a half. I’m really hoping to get WAFH publishable before the end of the year, so I’ll probably start the next draft by May.

In other totally unrelated news, I’m going to write Edenfall 1.0 entirely in longhand. Crazy? Perhaps. I’ve got the notebook for it, though, and did some arts and crafts with it over the weekend–pictures to follow. Also, I’ll be sure to let you know what it’s like to write a novel in longhand; it should be interesting.

Aaand that’s about it for now. Gotta write!

LTUE 2011

So LTUE (BYU’s science fiction and fantasy symposium) was last weekend, and it was awesome.

The venue was the BYU Conference Center just north of where DT used to be, and in my opinion this was a much better place to hold it than the student center, where it’s always been. It felt a lot more professional, and allowed for better interaction.

It felt like there were a lot more people there this year, including two editors: Lisa Mangum from Shadow Mountain, and Stacy Whitman from Tu. I didn’t try to pitch to either of them, since I don’t think they really publish what I write, but they were on a few interesting panels. Tracy Hickman, Howard & Sandra Tayler, and Jessica Day George were also very awesome on all the panels they attended.

One of my favorite panels was the presentation by Tracy Hickman on Lord of the Rings. He basically took it apart using Dramatica theory, showing how the series is composed of several distinct subplot, where each character (even the minor ones, like Eowyn) is literally the hero of their own story.

The presentation inspired me to go through some of my own novels and use the basic character archetypes from Dramatica to outline my own novels. I wrote out the names of all the characters in WAFH and GE on notecards, then on the back wrote down which archetype they fulfilled based on who was the protagonist.

There were several other excellent panels as well. I got a ton out of the “Can your dreams pay the bills?” one, with Sandra Tayler moderating. She sure knows her stuff when it comes to the practical business aspects of a creative career.

I dunno; a lot of my writing friends claim to be at a point where panels at cons are less useful for them. While I can see why they say that, I still find them helpful. While a lot of the advice is stuff I’ve heard before, every once and a while someone will have a fascinating insight on things. It’s like stories, I guess; even though there’s nothing new under the sun, everyone has a different way of making it their own, which is ultimately what makes the whole enterprise valuable.

Also, I had an awesome first this year: I signed my first autographed story! Leading Edge had a booth in the hall, and while I was hanging out there, I mentioned to Eric James Stone how I had a short story published and joked around about signed copies. To my surprise, he bought the issue and asked for me to sign it!

So yeah, my first signed copy of anything ever goes to Eric–thanks for the support! Now I’ll see what I can do to make that signature actually worth something someday…

Oh yeah, one more thing: Dan Wells is going to name a character in one of his books after me! According to Dan, the character (Gabe Vasicek) is “a big guy who wields a minigun.” Hehehe…can’t wait to read it!

Anyhow, LTUE was awesome this year, just as I’d expected. The panels were enlightening and entertaining, the guests were gracious and easy to talk with, and the overall experience was just a lot of fun.

4,271 words…whew!

Just a real quick post before I go to bed.

I wrote over 4k words today in WAFH–all for a chapter that I basically cooked up on the fly. It feels amazing.

For the past month or so, I’ve been recycling old material, cutting a lot of stuff that doesn’t work, tweaking the stuff that does, and putting in a new scene here and there, but basically just doing revision (aka a “triage edit,” as Wolverton likes to call it).

I’m good at revision, but it seems that that’s all I’ve been doing for the past couple months. The more I revise, the harder it is to write new material–or at least, the harder it feels. I’ve always hated drafting new stuff, because midway through it all seems to fall apart and then I have to drop the project and let it settle in my mind.

But for this chapter, I basically told myself: “alright, this is what needs to happen, this is what the characters need to do–now GO!” I sped through the whole thing without paying conscious attention to the act of writing, and just pumped it all out.

Man, I need to do this more often. Writing is so much fun! I’m sure this stuff will need to be revised later, but the story is definitely taking form the way it needs to.

In other news, LTUE was this past weekend, and I was super lame for not posting about it. But have no fear; I’ll recap the event soon, probably sometime tomorrow <fingers crossed>. And, as with past events, I recorded all the panels I attended. I won’t post the links here, but if you want them, send me an email.

In unrelated news, Talecris sucks and I need a job. Actually, correction: I need to start getting paid for the work I’m already doing by writing these novels. One of these days, though…one of these days…

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

This book review is going to be a bit unconventional, so please bear with me.

Normally, I only review books on my blog if I feel I can recommend them. They might not be perfect, but overall, the praise outweighs the criticism. However, for me personally, The Hunger Games was a huge disappointment.

I’m not going to do a little book blurb like I usually do, because I want to spend all the available space on this post explaining the reasons why I was so disappointed. Also because of that, this post will be full of spoilers. Consider yourself warned.

First, let me say that I don’t think this book was all bad. Suzanne Collins is very good at plot and pacing, and she knows how to keep a reader hooked. In that way, this book reminded me of the old Michael Crichton thrillers that I devoured as a kid.

However, two crucial things killed about half of the suspense for me: the fact that this book was the first in a series, and the first person viewpoint.

From the very beginning, we know that Katniss isn’t going to die. We know it, because she’s narrating the story to us directly (in present tense, which personally irks me, but I won’t go into that). Unlike other gladiator-style heroic fantasies, where the major draw is to see who lives and who dies, we have that spoiled for us.

Of course, the argument in favor of the first person is that it helps the reader feel a closer connection with the viewpoint character. The problem is, I never did. At the end of the book, Katniss still feels like an outsider to me; I never felt like I got inside her head well enough to know who she really is. When I try to imagine her, all I can envision is a wide-eyed mannekin. She just didn’t come alive to me.

Why? Because the whole time, she’s only got one thing on her mind: survival. I don’t see anything but fragmentary glimpses of her other motivations, and those are never fully fleshed out. Her experiences growing up were just so traumatic that I can’t relate to her, and Suzanne Collins never provides a reference point outside of the awfulness of Katniss’s crapsack world.

Which is another thing that got to me: the setting. Every time I opened the book, I dreaded going back to Collins’ world–and not in a good, “ooh, this world is so creepy/frightening” way, but in a “man, this place just makes me depressed” kind of way. It wasn’t even that original–Panem is basically the USA as North Korea (though it could take place anywhere, for all the details Collins gives us).

What’s more, the setting is full of inconsistencies. The people are starving to death, but the forests are full of game and wildlife. In North Korea, people raze the forests for fuel and timber, driving all the game out. Yes, I know the people of District 12 mine coal, but all of it presumably goes to Capitol, just like in District 11 all the grain goes to Capitol and the people still starve. Which makes me wonder: why are all the districts specializing in only one commodity? That’s just stupid.

Which brings me to another thing: the sheer idiocy of the rulers of Panem. If the Hunger Games are supposed to remind the people of how subjugated they are, why allow the tributes the opportunity to do something like pull a romance stunt? Why spend all that time primping and preening them, interviewing them, and giving them an opportunity to manipulate the crowds? When the people of District 11 sent Katniss the bread, why didn’t a government censor stop that from happening? And finally, when Katniss and Peeta were the only ones left standing, why give them the opportunity to upstage the games by falling on each others’ swords?

Seriously, that last point got to me more than any of the others. When they announced the rules change, that Peeta and Katniss were supposed to kill each other after all, why couldn’t the GM see the potential for things to go wrong? Seriously, having them both kill each other–or refuse to kill each other–was such a blatantly obvious choice, I saw it the moment the rule change came into play. The fact that the villains didn’t just threw me out of the story.

But that wasn’t the first thing that threw me out of the story. The first thing was the parade, with Katniss and Peeta marching into the arena with their flaming cloaks. All this time, Katniss has been set up as the underdog–she isn’t pretty, she isn’t strong, she’s mildly sympathetic for volunteering in place of her sister, but the audience in that arena is looking for blood, not sympathy. So when the crowd goes wild for her and Peeta, I just didn’t buy it.

It only got worse as things went along. When the tributes did the skill check, Katniss–who, from the beginning of the story, has been set up as the underdog–scores higher than anyone else. Every time she’s in front of an audience, everyone is oohing and ahhing. It made me want to gag.

Honestly, you know what it seemed like? It seemed like Suzanne Collins fell in love with Katniss so much that she wanted to spoil her, even though the story required her to keep up the pressure. She made sure to torture Katniss in the games–so much so that it felt downright melodramatic at times–but while they were still in Capitol, waiting for the games to start, Katniss felt like a spoiled Mary Sue.

And as for the romance, it fell completely flat from the beginning. Katniss was nothing but a manipulative faker from the beginning–granted, because she needed to in order to stay alive, but the least she could have done was coordinate that with Peeta.

And that’s another reason why I had such little sympathy for her–she’s a callous, manipulative, lying little heartbreaker, like far too many women in this world.

So yeah, The Hunger Games was, in my opinion, a huge disappointment. I can partially see why it did so well (strong female protagonist, excellent plot structure and pacing, lots of hooks and cliffhangers), but personally, I don’t think it deserves half the praise it’s gotten. And after what friends have told me about the rest of the series, I can guarantee that I won’t be reading them.