Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

This is another book that I feel is along the same vein as Ender's Game. Also unbelievably good. I can't quite believe this is marketed as a young adult novel, with its dark themes and ethical commentary on government control and blind consumption of popular culture. Although I wish this book was out when I was considered a young adult, just so I can see how I would react to this book.

It is essentially a cross between Battle Royale and Survivor in a post WW3 environment. In retaliation for a popular uprising years ago, the Capitol has created the Hunger Games, where a boy and a girl under 18 from a formerly rebel district is randomly selected to participate each year. The game is a Battle Royale, where the contestants kill off each other until only one survives. All the while, the games are broadcast throughout the world as a reality TV show. How each player plays the social media and survival game determines how much help they get from the spectators. In this story, Katniss volunteers for the games when her sister's name is chosen. She undergoes the media blitz before the game, which is a stark contrast to the actual games. She survives the game, but not without consequences.

One of the ploys they use to help her survive is to play star-crossed lovers with the boy who is chosen to play the game with her. Normally they are to kill each other, but he professes a love for her before the games begin, so they are able to use that to garner sympathy from the viewers. And in a last ditch effort to usurp the power of the game, the two pretend to commit suicide rather than kill the other off. This causes a chain reaction among the former rebel states because to them, it's not an act of love, it's an act of rebellion.

This is the first book in a trilogy. In the middle of the second. Just as good. I think I would react exactly like Katniss in her situation... if I managed to survive at all.

Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card

This book occurs in parallel with Ender's Game. It is Bean's story. Bean is one of Ender's commanders, and the only one smart enough to realize what's going on with the Bugger war, and was informally pegged as Ender's successor if he failed.

It's a book that is able to stand on its own merit. The plot is still compelling, despite being a parallel story. What Bean goes through is different enough to seem new. And Bean's perspective of the whole affair gives new ideas about what Ender suffers through the novel. It adds a whole extra dimension on top of the original story.

Bean is a genetically engineered genius. He is able to think twice as fast as anyone and is a survivor bent on winning ever since he grew up on the streets. However, he also knows that he is not charismatic enough to take Ender's place. So he is happy to live in Ender's shadow and prepare himself to succeed if Ender fails.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

A friend of mine recommended this book to me a long time ago, but I've only read it now. It's a shame, because the book is so good. It's deep, has lots of action, and fast paced. Exactly the kind of book I've been looking for.

The story is based in a future earth where over population is rampant and families must petition the government for a permit to have a child. A second child is uncommon, and a third child is completely unheard of. But Ender is a third child. His older brother and sister had shown incredible genius and aptitude for military command. But his older brother had shown signs that he was a sociopath, and his sister was considered too empathetic to be a military leader. So the government allows his family to have Ender, a third. This emphasis for a perfect leader is the result an alien invasion that occurred years ago, by a race known as the buggers. Earth has lived in fear of the alien's return and has created the circumstances necessary to defeat the alien invaders, should they come again.

So Ender is drafted into the military at the age of 6. He begins a grueling career where every odd is intentionally thrown against him in order to make him the perfect commanding officer. They want him to win, and he does his best to survive. By the end of the novel, he is able to do exactly what they trained him for but at the expense of his mind. When he leads the human armada against the bugger world, he is only 12.

The story is all I've said and more. There are so many ideas in it that are still relevant, and I imagine will be relevant for a long time to come. I'm surprised this book isn't studied at school.

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

This is my first voluntary non-fiction book. This distinction is necessary because I've read oodles of textbooks, and none of them were as fascinating as this one.

Outliers is about basics of how people achieve genius and success. It's a fascinating observation about the people who we idolize as the pinnacle of intelligence and success, and breaking it down to achievable morsels. By Gladwell's estimation, genius and success is achievable through luck, hardwork, practice, and a willingness to overcome one's cultural behaviours if it becomes a barrier to your success. It doesn't necessarily have much to do with aptitude.

In my mind, it's become the basis of how I would like to raise my children (whenever I have them) so that they have every opportunity to become successful and brilliant. If they fail at life, it won't be my fault.

River Marked by Patricia Briggs

Patricia Briggs never fails to entertain. This is the 6th book in the Mercy Thompson series, and it is still as fast paced and action packed as the others.

In this book, Mercy and Adam get married (LOVED the surprise wedding scene), and on their honeymoon they get coerced into fighting a Native American lake monster. In this book, it's mostly just Mercy and Adam. You get to be there as Mercy discovers new things about her Native American heritage, and about her father.

This was just a fun book to read. Definitely better than most things on TV these days.

Immortal Beloved by Cate Tiernan

This book is too short. At what I would have considered the important halfway point of the story, it ends. It's billed as a trilogy but it certainly doesn't have to be. From what I've read, there's not enough plot for it to go that long.

I read this book at my friend's suggestion. It is a young adult novel, so the pace and "trilogy" attribution might be for their benefit. And there is a distinct "woe is me, i'm so woe" in the main character's characterization, which I've come to identify as part of the teen genre.

Overall, the story's not bad. There are a lot of good ideas going, and interesting characters. But I would have to wait for the next two books to come out to see if its weird length is justified. This novel is about Nastaya, or Nasty. She is an immortal and has lived a very long and debauched life. At the beginning of the story, she witnesses her friend commit a heinous crime and she comes to her senses and tries to escape the life she's led. She runs away to a small commune in Massachusetts for "wayward immortals" and learns to live her life anew. The book ends when she discovers what she really wants... to be her original self again - the girl she was born as, instead of the different characters she's personified over the last half millennia. That is where I would have thought of as the halfway point of the story. She has made personal growth, and so the plot can begin. But no, it stops. So annoying.

In my mind, book 1 would continue with her sleeping with her viking god/arch nemesis, and as she figures out what her relationship with Reyn is, Incy will find her with the help of Nell and they will duke it out. She will win, of course, and Incy will either die or run off with his tail between his legs and plot his next move. In book 2, she and Reyn move out of the commune and live a new life together in the world but they are followed by Incy or other power mongering immortals. In book 3, the two of them will grow world weary and spend some time apart, and inevitably they come together again back at the commune, and decide to start a commune of their own in Iceland to bring proper closure to their long history together. Of course, that is just how I would write it. No idea what the author intends.

Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells

I bought this book a long time ago, in the discount section of the local literary megastore... back in my teen days when reading about necromancers was cool and vampires were only in Anne Rice novels.

This book was really good. A well written standard horror detective story, but told in a different point of view. The characters are extremely interesting and compelling but the beginning was hard to follow. It starts in media res, so much so that I felt like there ought to be at least two books before this one. But I did some research, and this is supposed to be a standalone novel. All the other novels set in the same realm are not related to this storyline or are 100 years off this timeline.

The main character, Nicholas, is so complex that it seems weird that there is only this one book about him. He is the son of a disgraced aristocratic family. When his father died, his mother ran away from his paternal family and eked out a living in the city but soon died of natural circumstances. He fell into petty crime and was arrested. By luck, he was adopted by an academic philanthropist. His adopted father was doing experiments that combined sorcery with natural philosophy in the hopes of creating a device that allowed normal people to do sorcery. However, his device never quite worked the way it was intended to, and was framed for practicing necromacy and executed. Nicholas then grows up and creates a criminal mastermind alter ego to enact revenge on the man who framed his adopted father and caused his death. ALL of that should have been its own novel, but we don't get to read about it... just bits and pieces as Nicholas gripes about his feelings of injustice in the world.

This story is set in a version of 17th Century Vienna, where magic is alive and the fay invaded 100 years ago but still cause fear in the general populace. Necromacy is an executable offense.

The plot starts with Nicholas and his crew performing a heist. In the middle of their heist, they are interrupted by a creature that tries to steal something else in the same house. Curious, and to make sure this creature doesn't come after them, they start to investigate this creature... in the process, they find a revived dead necromancer, zombies, and golems. With so much danger, Nicholas feels compelled to save the city from this new monster than continue with his criminal activities.

I really liked the story, and almost wish I read it earlier. But I don't think I could have handled the disappointment of knowing that this was the only book about Nicholas.