Books: Un Lun Dun, The Hunger Games
Mar. 6th, 2011 08:56 amAuthor: China Miéville
Details: (c) 2007 China Miéville; Pub Del Rey Books 2007; ISBN 978-0-345-49723-9
Verdict: Un Lun Dun is a timely update to classic children's fantasy, but not quite outstanding for an adult reader.
Reasons for reading it: I've heard good things about Miéville, and I loved the idea of a book about an alternate London written partly in response to Gaiman's Neverwhere
How it came into my hands: I pretended to Books on Board that I'm American.
Author: Suzanne Collins
Details: (c) 2008 Suzanne Collins; Pub Scholastic Ltd 2009; ISBN 978-1407-11168-1
Verdict: The Hunger Games handles an unpromising theme well.
Reasons for reading it: Everybody has been raving about Collins' trilogy, so I was intrigued to try it.
How it came into my hands:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jack lent it to me.
( compare and contrast )
I might well have passionately loved Un Lun Dun if it had been written when I was the right age for it. And if I had been desperately thirsting for a story of a (probably British Asian), working class, not particularly beautiful female protagonist succeeding through her wits rather than her amazing sparkliness, I could well have glommed on to it hard. Reading as an adult, I'm definitely interested in the way that both these books so clearly belong in a world where their intended audience can be assumed to have read both Harry Potter and Twilight, and provide something with more depth but still accessible to people who haven't read much else. I think Scott Westerfeld is probably doing this kind of thing better, but these books do go a long way to convince me that the next generation of readers will have classics to feed their future nostalgia!
Details: (c) 2007 China Miéville; Pub Del Rey Books 2007; ISBN 978-0-345-49723-9
Verdict: Un Lun Dun is a timely update to classic children's fantasy, but not quite outstanding for an adult reader.
Reasons for reading it: I've heard good things about Miéville, and I loved the idea of a book about an alternate London written partly in response to Gaiman's Neverwhere
How it came into my hands: I pretended to Books on Board that I'm American.
Author: Suzanne Collins
Details: (c) 2008 Suzanne Collins; Pub Scholastic Ltd 2009; ISBN 978-1407-11168-1
Verdict: The Hunger Games handles an unpromising theme well.
Reasons for reading it: Everybody has been raving about Collins' trilogy, so I was intrigued to try it.
How it came into my hands:
jack lent it to me.( compare and contrast )
I might well have passionately loved Un Lun Dun if it had been written when I was the right age for it. And if I had been desperately thirsting for a story of a (probably British Asian), working class, not particularly beautiful female protagonist succeeding through her wits rather than her amazing sparkliness, I could well have glommed on to it hard. Reading as an adult, I'm definitely interested in the way that both these books so clearly belong in a world where their intended audience can be assumed to have read both Harry Potter and Twilight, and provide something with more depth but still accessible to people who haven't read much else. I think Scott Westerfeld is probably doing this kind of thing better, but these books do go a long way to convince me that the next generation of readers will have classics to feed their future nostalgia!
