Catching Fire

by Suzanne Collins.People, I am in agony. (Long SIGH). Just finished reading this about an hour ago. It took me that long to collect myself enough to turn on my computer. It is going to take me so much longer to get the story out of my head. The closest I can come to describing how I feel is to invoke memories of how YOU felt after the 4th Harry Potter book came out, you were drawn into the story, and then it ended without any satisfactory resolution. If anything, you felt more compelled to read the 5th book than ever, even though it wouldn't be published for another year or so. That is how I feel right now. I desperately want to dive right into the next book.

I started reading The Hunger Games on Thursday, finished it Friday. Bought Catching Fire Saturday night (I knew if I bought it in the morning my Saturday would be a wash) and couldn't put it down today.

Its so tough to write about how I'm feeling, and a brief synopsis of the story without giving away spoilers. I need someone to talk to about this. About what has been going on and what we think the 3rd book will bring us. I have read reviews on Catching Fire that were a bit derogatory when comparing it to The Hunger Games. I completely disagree. I think that the games and arena pictured in Catching Fire were appropriate given the tributes who were present. And anyone who doesn't think the traps and snares and trials throughout were as intense as the first book has become completely desensitized in my opinion.

Angst.

I am so looking forward to reading the third and final book in this trilogy.

Dragonhaven

by Robin McKinleyI felt a little bad for saying I was mad at Robin McKinley in the last post, so I decided to read one of her recent novels to make up for it.

Dragonhaven is the story of Jake, a teenager growing up in a Wild Animal Preserve. Both his parents have worked there his whole life, and he plans on living there his entire life as well. The catch is that life at the preserve is a bit precarious because money is tight and various government factions are always looking for ways to get rid of it so they can use the land for development or oil drilling or gold hunting or whatever. And the biggest catch of all is that the preserve is actually for preserving dragons. Thats right, dragons.

It turns out dragons aren't just mythical creatures afterall. They've just figured out how to survive without attracting much human notice. There are preserves in Kenya and Australia too. But the preserve Jake lives/works at is the biggest in the world. And other than finding dragon scales and smelling the air no one has seen a real dragon in decades. Until Jake stumbles upon a dying dragon who has just given birth...and all the babies are dead except one. Technically it is illegal for a human to "interfere" with nature to save a dragon's life...and so Jake makes a split-second decision to try to save the dragonlet, come what may in consequences. And the entire book is pretty much about his struggle to help the dragonlet survive without attracting the notice of anyone around him....

I enjoyed reading this book a lot. It was laugh-out-loud funny in a quite a few places. And it was interesting, I didn't want to put it down because I genuinely didn't know how the plot would resolve itself. However, I picked the book up not knowing anything about it, and it took about 50 pages for me to catch on to what the book was really about. Mostly this is because the entire novel is told via Jake's streaming consciousness, in the past tense because the story happens when he is 14-15 years old, but he's writing it down as an 18-19 year old. The author does a great job of getting into a teenage boy's head: this book reads just like you're really listening to a 15 yr old talk and try to explain things. And this is partly why its so funny in places, because of his descriptions or whatnot. But it is also why its a bit hard to get into until after 50 pages, because Jake is struggling with how to start telling his story.

If you can make it past the first 50 pages I definitely recommend this book. Its entertaining. Original. And it feels real, even though its fantasy. I think you'll find it gives a view of dragons that hasn't been given in literature ever before.

River Secrets

By Shannon Hale.

Like Enna Burning before it, River Secrets picks up right where its predecessor novel leaves off. Therefore, to get into it you've really got to read the first two books in this Bayern trilogy.

Can I just say, to get it out in the open, that reading River Secrets made me kind of angry? It is such a good book---and it just brought to my mind The Blue Sword and The Hero And the Crown by Robin McKinley, and made me so angry she never wrote a 3rd Damar novel! It would have been wonderful! Shannon Hale has managed to write 3 really great books, all centering around the country of Bayern, all told from different perspectives and involving different adventures and twists and turns....and Robin McKinley could have done this with Damar and she ended up going a whole different direction. Makes me, as a reader, feel snubbed. And I know RM published those 2 novels almost 20 years ago, but reading a really great "third novel" just brought out all these repressed feelings of what might have been. Sigh.

ANYWAY: River Secrets is told from the point of view of Razo, another friend of Isi and Enna. Kind of fun to read about Bayern and Bayern traditions from a male perspective this time. Razo and many others of the soldiers belonging to the king's personal guard, Bayern's Own, accompany an ambassador to the capital city of Tira, in an effort to establish good relations between the two countries. However, a lot of people are still upset about the war which recently ended, and seem to stop at nothing when it comes to stirring up conflict, false accusations, and potential uprisings. Razo has to solve a few mysteries in order to ensure a 2nd war isn't begun.

These Bayern books are truly enjoyable. Go read them now if you haven't already!!

Enna Burning

by Shannon Hale.

After I read The Goose Girl, a lot of people told me I absolutely had to read Enna Burning. It took me a while to get a chance to check it out of the library because our library seems to have it on constant hold-status even though it was published in 2004.....but I finally got my hands on it.

What can I say? Enna Burning was in fact really good! I wouldn't recommend reading it unless you have read The Goose Girl though, because the story picks up a few months after The Goose Girl ends, only this time it is told from the perspective of Enna, Isi's friend who was a fellow animal-keeper in The Goose Girl.

Enna is hilarious. The things she says just make me laugh out loud. If you've read The Goose Girl, you'll remember that Isi learns the language of animals. Well, this story is about Enna learning the language of fire. It turns out she's quite good at controlling heat and pulling or pushing it away, but the story really pivots on whether the fire will eventually consume her since fire is an all-consuming force. Take into consideration that Tira, the nation to the east of Bayern has declared war on Bayern and is trying to take over the country and you've got a great fanciful read that really has an ending the reader doesn't expect. Good read.