Catching Fire

[osprey_archer]

I got halfway through Catching Fire and WHISKY TANGO FOXTROT, I had to stop for a breather because

Comments

[wordsofastory]

It's so much fun watching you read this series without spoilers! :D I came to the fandom late, so by the time I read it basically everyone already knew what had happened, so this is a new experience to me.

Also, your version of President Snow is much more terrifying.

[osprey_archer]

I was spoiled for a bunch of things in book one, and a couple of things in book three (*spoiler* dies! Which has made it hard to get as attached to her as I probably should), but pretty much the only thing I've heard about book two is that it's not as good as book one. Which I'm not sure I agree with, actually, but maybe it's just that I came into it with my expectations pre-lowered?

[wordsofastory]

I think for a lot of people, it's simply that it feels a bit like a retread of book one. But I agree that it does some interesting things on its own.

[amaebi]

I thought that it was a deliberate retread, a la Joe Bob Briggs.

[evelyn_b]

You know, ordinarily I would agree with you, but sometimes gloveless idiots do rise to power with no subtlety whatsoever, as I learned by accidentally picking up my head this week in a room where the news was playing. I had the same reaction you did to that scene, though: Snow is an amateur - or else he's trying to confuse the rebellion somehow by pretending to be honest??

MORE SOON (and I do want to read your Rules for Successful Autocracy) but I think you're a little further along than I am. . .

[osprey_archer]

It's not a criticism of the book, really; given that the plot seems to be heading in a rebellion-ward direction, it makes a lot of sense for Snow to be an incompetent. Especially given that he may not have even had to rise to power at all - I don't think the book has specified how he became president - he may have inherited it, in which case he could be way more incompetent than he is and it would all make perfect sense.

But as a student of dictatorship I felt an overwhelming urge to give him some advice so he could at least try to avoid the oncoming deluge of rebellion. He's in a YA novel, so he's doomed to fail, but at least he could fail with skill and panache.

[amaebi]

I suspect that the source of the problem is that Collins is focused on the Evil, not the Political. Though I think that she comes down to Politics is Inherently Evil, which I found a terrific letdown.

[osprey_archer]

I'll have to see what I think once I get there. I'm still only halfway through Catching Fire.

[amaebi]

I was trying to be pointful while cunningly avoiding s[oilers. I hope I succeeded. :D