They are kids books but on the other hand they are not bad mindless entertainment and are fairly readable.

Harry potter is a kids book and millions of people like it.

There are other young advlt books that I would pick up before the hunger games . Perhaps you would like the true blood books or maybe the best kids books of all time the lord of the rings books, or if you like science fiction Enders game.

The series creates a fascinating universe that really gets you hooked in the first book. I've read the first two books and I'm making my way through the climix of the third. Though I have to confess that I nearly threw the third book out of the window, reason being that it became Twilightish.

The first one is definitely worth a read.

It's not good literature. Just kind of meh, or decent. But you'll still get hooked.

I have an http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxymoron on the matter.

You might like it, but then again you might not.

Or you could think it was mediocre like I did.(I have not read the books though)

I finished the first book and I liked it. My girlfriend liked it too. It is a bit for teens but that doesn't make it bad. The movie was not as good as the book (they never are). Overall its a teen book with advlt themes (fights to death). I'll be starting the second book sometime next week.

No not at all on Logans Run. On The Running Man somewhat but the running man was also a novel first.


Its a good book. Its not extremely well written or some sorta great literature but it is a fun read.

I'm not really interested in The Hunger Games, but from what I do know of it, the 1975 film http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollerball_%281975_film%29 comes to mind.

They are probably not that similar at all, other than futuristic competitive survival.

first 2 books are good, 3rd is pretty mediocre.

PLEASE NOTE: I haven't read any replies in this thread, only the OP.

I picked up the trilogy a few weeks ago. Ploughed through the first book and thoroughly enjoyed it. I had my reservations as it seemed to be a copy of Battle Royale, but it was sufficiently different that it stood on it's own two legs. The first book was great. It did a very good job of introducing the main characters and setting the world. The actual 'games' were extremely entertaining to read.

The second book was mediocre. Without going too much into it, for fear of spoiling the plot, I got the impression that Collins was trying to replicate the first book. It was a good read, but paled in comparison to the first book.

I haven't finished the third book yet; I'm about half way through it. It's dull. It's tired. Unfortunately, it's necessary to round out the overall story, but it is bloody boring.


Collins is not a good writer. She can pace stuff well, and write some entertaining set pieces, but her actual writing is extremely amateurish. It's particularily evident in book 3. Books 1 and 2 had an entertaining storyline to make up for the weak writing, but book three is as generic as they come, and Collin's lack of narrative skill is especially evident here.

Arnie - "I'll be back"

Richard Dawson - "Only in a rerun..."


Classic.

That is exactly the problem with hollywood anymore. No originality, I won't go into detail about why and how this is happening. But IMHO Hollywood is pretty much dead anymore. Just rehashes and remakes of stuff and alot of it is crap. I have been looking into the remakes of the old toons for GI Joe and Transformers. The new Transformer series is great and has some awesome new storylines in it. However the new idiotic Joe: Renegades is a poorly written storyline with a rip off of A Team twist to it.

I would argue that there hasn't been originality for centuries going way beyond Hollywood. I guess every once in a while it happens but it is extremely rare and can't even think of anything off the top of my head right now. Every story is somehow influenced by something else whether directly or indirectly.

@Mumatil, that's really a side point to the story. Rich controlling the poor happens in the real world, we don't need a dystopian future for that. Haha lol. But really compared to 1984 it's not similar in terms of story, one is about huge mega countries locked in constant war, runnign police states, and using "secret police". In the other everything is rather barbaric, there is no more globaisation and they force children to fight in the wilderness. It's similiar, but not really.

She should've called it 'Dues Ex Machina: the Book'.

I actually just got the trilogy in the mail today ($30 from amazon, originally $54). I received them around 4:00 PM and I finished reading the first book by 10:00 PM. Assuming the same happens with the second and third books, I'm really gonna wish I had borrowed them instead of purchased.

The first book was definitely entertaining...I literally couldn't put it down until I finished. That said, it didn't leave an impression on me after reading it like I was expecting after hearing all of the rave reviews it's received. Like previous posters have said, it's obviously geared toward teens and, even though the subject matter is more mature than the twilight series, the style of writing isn't all that different. No lengthy descriptions of scenery, no really detailed back-stories of key characters, etc.

Bottom line: I'd recommend reading at least the first book (haven't read the others yet), but borrow instead of purchase if you can (unless money isn't an issue).


I agree...While I was reading it, I thought that this is what a book would be like if I attempted to write one, lol. I sometimes come up with what I think are cool ideas for a book, but I just don't have the skill or the patience to do more than get to the point, write down the facts, and move on, instead of really developing the characters, the scenery, and the storyline.

Girlfriend wanted me to read them, so I read them. They are good books but they are simple. Only took about two days to read each one.

Apparently Collins only intended to write one stand alone novel. It's somewhat obvious when reading books 2 and 3 that she's stretching a lot of things out in order to make a trilogy.

Just buy 1984 if you love dystopian fiction. Be warned however that it is a terribly depressing but it is extremely relevant to today. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nineteen-Eighty-four-George-Orwell/dp/0141036141/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334399086&sr=1-1
The opinion here seems to be that there are some parts of the book that are designed to appeal to teens in a clumsily obvious way so you might not enjoy it for that.

This is basically what I thought. I've only read the first book, though I have the second book.

Still, worth a read. It reads like a 'young advlt' book, but there's some interesting commentary on the media in there. Despite the geography being sketchy, the rationale for the Games actually make a http://www.overthinkingit.com/2011/11/09/hunger-games-pareto-efficiency/3/:

You're implying that there was a point in time where the vast majority of movies (or art, for that matter) made weren't crap. That has never been the case. Yeah, this is the decade of Transformers and Battle Los Angeles, but also the Nolan Batman movies, Up, Bridesmaids, District 9. Etcetera. We just forget about all the crappy movies in a few decades.

I'm also interested in reading them, what puts me off is the vagueness surrounding the world and the reasons behind the breakdown of civilised society in the books. I can suspend disbelief, but I get the feeling that the author was lazy about really fleshing out a solid back story and history.

I agree. The world itself is paper thin. Next to no back story, and to be honest, it's the kind of civilisation I'd expect a bored 12 year old boy to design over the course of an hour.