Bibliography
Dec. 14th, 2013 03:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_lady_lily52 - The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller - to be reviewed Elsewhere.
53 - Hades' Daughter - Sara Douglass - to be reviewed Elsewhere.
Divergent - Veronica Roth
I saw a trailer for the forthcoming film of this, which looked an awful lot like it had been modelled on the Hunger Games (which I have also still not read), and figured that while I didn't want to watch the film, I quite fancied reading the book. It wasn't a bad choice, actually. It's set in a utopia/dystopia future in which the inhabitants of Chicago have been split into five factions (plus the factionless), each representing a different personality trait - Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless and Erudite. Our narrator was born into Abnegation but changes to Dauntless when she is given the opportunity, only to realise that there are all sorts of Things going on that mean the peaceful utopia she thought she lived in is no longer so.
What you get is a bit of political thriller, a bit of personal development narrative cum Bildungsroman, a bit of soppy romance, a bit of Face Your Fears and gnothi seauton, some good old-fashioned 'people with power are not to be trusted', and a touch of 'hmm, maybe this faction business sort of misses the point and we should all be people with all these lovely qualities'. I would fully expect this theme to continue through the rest of the trilogy, which I am toying with reading. As young adult fiction goes, it's jolly enjoyable, and I'm quite pleased I went for the book - it's a really rather rich imagination-scape that I think the film must fail to capture.
53 - Hades' Daughter - Sara Douglass - to be reviewed Elsewhere.
Divergent - Veronica Roth
I saw a trailer for the forthcoming film of this, which looked an awful lot like it had been modelled on the Hunger Games (which I have also still not read), and figured that while I didn't want to watch the film, I quite fancied reading the book. It wasn't a bad choice, actually. It's set in a utopia/dystopia future in which the inhabitants of Chicago have been split into five factions (plus the factionless), each representing a different personality trait - Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless and Erudite. Our narrator was born into Abnegation but changes to Dauntless when she is given the opportunity, only to realise that there are all sorts of Things going on that mean the peaceful utopia she thought she lived in is no longer so.
What you get is a bit of political thriller, a bit of personal development narrative cum Bildungsroman, a bit of soppy romance, a bit of Face Your Fears and gnothi seauton, some good old-fashioned 'people with power are not to be trusted', and a touch of 'hmm, maybe this faction business sort of misses the point and we should all be people with all these lovely qualities'. I would fully expect this theme to continue through the rest of the trilogy, which I am toying with reading. As young adult fiction goes, it's jolly enjoyable, and I'm quite pleased I went for the book - it's a really rather rich imagination-scape that I think the film must fail to capture.
