Storm of Swords Review

      As usual, Martin has written another amazing book. Also unchanging is my reason for reading this one at the current time: so the show doesn't ruin anything. As mentioned from by previous blog, there are parts in the 2nd season that doesn't officially occur until the third book. On the positive side, I am far enough ahead that I won't have to read the fourth book for awhile, but on the negative side, I am addicted to the series and can't wait that long to read the fourth book. I am hoping to read it this summer, but I am also applying to medical schools and taking the MCAT and a bunch of other things so it is a wait-and-see kind of thing. 
     Alright, to the book... Martin is an amazing writer and if you haven't read him yet, you should. Even if it not part of the Song of Fire and Ice series (although you have to read that too!). What I find truly exhilarating about this book is that there are so many HUGE twists and cliffhangers. Of course there is still a lot of gore, sex, and ... characters. There never seems to be any less characters, even if they die, Martin makes sure to put one or two in their place. That is a slight annoyance, but there are so many things happening at once that is becomes a necessity. There is only so much that I can say about the plot before it gives something away either from this book or the first two books. I guess I can tell you some of my favorite characters. To me, the most interesting characters are Bran,  Daenerys , Tyrion, and Arya. They are and/or were awesome characters. That reminds me of an awesome saying I heard about George R. R. Martin recently: "The first rule of GRRM is never get attached." Very apt I would say.
     The rating of this will be high, and I am kind of feeling bad because I haven't read any "bad" books so it seems like I rate all of the ones I read highly. This is not the case; it is usually just that I pre-screen books before I read them so I don't waste any of my valuable time. Hopefully this persuades some people (*cough cough* this means YOU readers) to read this!

Give me some feedback! It is lonely at the computer ;)

The Hunger Games

     As I (probably) mentioned in a previous post, my elder cousin recommended the Hunger Games series to me this past Christmas. I had not intended on reading the series until the summer when I have a little more time, but then my friends informed me that we were seeing The Hunger Games movie the next day. If you know me at all, you wouldn't be surprised to know that I dropped everything I was doing and went to reading the book before I saw the movie. I had literally read for about 8 hours total (of course this was off and on. I mean ... I have to eat you know!!) and was a mere chapter until I finished it, and then I had to leave for the movie. I was a little frsutrated, but I got through the main points, so it wasn't a catastrophe.

     In the book/movie, there is a future government controlling North America, and there are the (you guessed it) Hunger Games as punishment for the revolution that occurred about 75 years or so (judging form how many Hunger Games that have been). In these games, two teenagers from each district (one girl and one boy ranging in age from 12-18) are offered as tributes to fight to the death for the amusement of the rest of their country. It is a very dark plot, and kind of reminds me of the Pendragon book The Quillian Games, but Hunger Games is much more mature. The main characters are form District 12 and the two tributes are Peeta and Katniss. There is nice development between them throughout the book/movie as well as their attitudes of the government. You will just have to read them to find out (or I GUESS you could watch the movie, but what fun is that??)

     Since at this time in the past (or is it the present O.o), I had not finished the book, I will rate the movie followed by the book. I loved how no major things were changed in the adaptation, but was just a little concerned about some of the stuff that they left out. Unfortunately, I can't even be too upset with them about that, because the movie was already treading on the "too-long-to -sit-through" movie at 2 hours and 20 minutes. I think the only complaints that I can really make is the shaky camera (I absolutely hate that kind of filming. HATE IT I say!) and the romance that they added in. I thought that it was really cheesy (and I think it was meant to be) and if I hadn't read the book (or at least most of it), then I would have thought that Katniss liked Peeta (sorry if it spoiled anything, but I doubt it did). The director could have made the act on Katniss's part much more prominent, but instead left doubts in the audience's mind; making us think "well, maybe she IS in love with Peeta." It's all a bunch of hulabaloo. I guess overall, I have to rate the movie as a 8.5/10. Pretty solid movie, but as an adaptaion, the score drops to about 7.

     The book was fantastic! Many twists and very good writing style. I don't even know what to say. When a book is good, you shouldn't have to explain it's greatness.

     Oh, as I am sure all of you have noticed, there have been a lot of Hunger Games related things occuring out there on the web. SO I would like to take this oppurtunity to share something I found on tosh.O's blog:

I though that this was awesome!