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Dystopia

Strange Things Did Happen Here

Wednesday, December 3, 2014 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

Saw Mockingjay (part 1) tonight with Kim. I was very curious to see how they would continue and especially how they would split it. The first two parts were really good, so I was hoping they would continue that trend. And they did.

It’s a really good film. A comfortable pacing keeping the action happening while making time for emotional gut-punch moments so you actually get to experience the feels and not rush through them. I think they made a good choice where to make the cut and end this part. This way parts 1 and 2 aren’t just one film that just happens to be in two parts, but each have a different all-over theme.

They also made a really good rendition of the Hanging Tree song, which is very nicely sung by Jennifer Lawrence. It becomes a tune that sticks in your head.

We stopped at Starbucks on the way back since I’d seen the sign announcing the return of the Christmas flavours the other day and I love honey almond hot chocolate. It’s like drinking a liquid marzipan bar, one of those with a thin layer of chocolate around them.

Posted in: General Tagged: Dystopia, Food, Friends, Kim, Movies, Music, Pathé, Review, Videos

Society

Wednesday, July 9, 2014 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

426262Hmmm… So I finished Reached, the third book in a dystopian trilogy by Ally Condy. I got the first part, Matched, from Kim when she was clearing out books. I read that last week and I enjoyed it. It reminded me a bit of The Giver by Lois Lowry which is a classic in the dystopian sub-genre. I found the concepts and characters intriguing enough to want to read the next two parts but not enough to warrant buying the paperbacks. So I acquired them in e-book form and read the second part, Crossed, in one day last Saturday. That part suffered from middle-part syndrome quite badly, but not enough to make me quit.

In short, after wars and all those things, a group decided to rebuild society and limit free will and what people can and cannot do to prevent a repeat. The Society has chosen 100 pieces of some art forms that are still allowed to be seen and talked about and stuff (100 paintings, poems, stories and songs). Other than that, there is no art and creativity. People don’t make things, even their writing is copy-pasted phrases on tablets. The Society has data on everything, and everything is sorted and matched and regulated to create the healthiest and most productive people.

People go to school and afterward are given a designated work position. They only have to know what they need for that job and nothing else. So a botanist only knows about plants, a medic only knows about treating people and so on. If one is lucky, they become an Official, one of the people who run things. Children are Matched with their prospective partner when they are 17. This is followed by a strictly regulated courtship until marriage at 21. After which children are expected around age 24 as that is the optimum age for healthy children. And so on.

Cassia, the main character, is in luck. Unlike most cases, she already knows her match, her best friend Xander. This is what the book starts with, the Matching Banquet. But then, when Cassia views the micro chip she’s been given, as per tradition, with info on Xander, she sees a photo of a different boy. It is Ky, another boy from her neighbourhood and friend group. Something like that is not supposed to happen and it leads to doubt in Cassia’s mind about the Match, and the whole process.

When her grandfather dies, because he turns 80 and that is when people die in the Society, he gives Cassia poems. Poems that are not part of the 100. This brings Cassia to further question the Society and with this mind set, she sees more and more things that are off, and realises that art from before the 100 were chosen, as well as other items, are used to trade. Trade for information, but also to trade for passage to other places, beyond the Society’s inner provinces.

Cassia and Ky hang out a lot over the summer as they both chose the same recreational thing to do, hiking. Cassia falls in love with Ky, and then the conundrum of what to do, who to choose, who to believe, who to follow really takes off. The Society notices their association and as Ky is classified as an Abberation, he is eventually taken away.

The second and third books take this further as the Society starts clamping down on things, a revolution brews and Cassia, Ky and Xander must navigate these circumstancces to  find each other, and try and help rebuild a new society and figure out their love triangle. As I said, the second book is not as good. It’s slower and not much happens, but it does give a lot more info and background on the Society and the people that chose to live outside it. About the trade system and about the revolution. The third book is a nice surprise as usually these books end with the overthrowing of the old government and the new dawn rising. But here, the revolution succeeds pretty early in the book. The rest is dedicated to show that even after such an event, things don’t magically fix themselves.

I was a wee bit disappointed in the ending. I had hoped to also learn more about the Otherlands and how the rest of the planet is faring. I understand it is too much for the scope of the story as is, but maybe a short story here or there in the future would be nice. All in all, for people that like dystopian fiction, I would recommend this.

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Books, Dystopia, Photos, Review, Scifi

Blog About Me [12/52] Ten Books I Love

Monday, September 16, 2013 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

I have read so many books in my life, it’s hard to narrow them down to just ten that I love. In the end, the books (or series) listed here are ones that have influenced me, or those that just make me feel good, or just have this undefinable thing. Also, they’re in no particular order.

Toekomsttrilogie, Thea BeckmanThe Future Trilogy by Thea Beckman: Kinderen van Moeder Aarde, Het Helse Paradijs & Het Gulden Vlies van Thule.

I read these while in elementary school. I read a lot of more fantastic books and historical ones, so when I first picked up Kinderen van Moeder Aarde (Children of Mother Earth), it seemed like the perfect book. I had experience with Thea Beckman’s historical books which I really liked, and this had fantasy and scifi stuff in it. So I took it home from the libary, and I think I finished it in one day. I became near obsessed with it. Went back to the library at my first opportunity and got the other two parts Het Helse Paradijs (The Hellish Paradise) and Het Gulden Vlies van Thule (The Golden Fleece of Thule). I copied the map, wrote down things from the books to create a reference for myself to this world Thea had created and I spent so much time in my head creating more stories and exploring the world. I would periodically borrow them from the library again, to reread them. These books really jump started my interest in world building and cartography.

I haven’t read them in a good number of years now, not since I stopped having a library membership. Weirdly enough, I only added the books to my permanent collection about a year and a half  ago.  They’re currently on my to be (re-)read pile. I estimate I’ll get around to them sometime next year 😀

 

Discworld ShelfThe Discworld series by Terry Pratchett.

I was first introduced to the Discworld series in my first year of High School. I started out, if I remember correctly, with a Dutch translation of Witches Abroad, which I really liked. Over the next few years I read more Dutch Discworld, and even bought a few. However, it wasn’t until I’d started reading in English and picked up my first original Discworld, that I truly fell in love with the series. I started reading them all in English, including those I’d already read in Dutch. And I started collecting the books. Terry manages to do something that, I find, is a tricky thing to do. He writes “funny books” that are so multi layered with references to so many things and manages to tell very serious stories through this. His main characters are some of the best I’ve seen. And the ever evolving nature of the world of Discworld is a joy to experience.

 

Belgariad/Malloreon, David EddingsThe Belgariad/Malloreon series by David Eddings.

This series really cemented my love of more traditional fantasy. I read them in Dutch first, starting in the first year of High School, like with Discworld, including the companion novels about Belgarath and Polgara. I bought English versions of the companion novels some years ago and really enjoyed rereading them. I managed to snag a complete collection of both the Belgariad and the Malloreon in a second hand book shop a year or two ago and jumped on it right away.

Fortunately, upon rereading, I still loved them as I did before. The base story is a quintessential one in Fantasy: peasant boy finds out he is descendant from an old line of kings and needs to reclaim his heritage and defeat the big evil. The way in which it was dressed up, though, really did it for me. There’s prophecy and wizards and fascinating other party members and tertiary characters, and a cool magic system, old gods, powerful women and so on. In the second series, the Malloreon, the story repeats itself. And the books get some crap for that. Except that’s a major part of the overall theme. The base concept behind the whole series is that history basically keeps repeating itself until we can finally make the universe right again. The second series therefore has many parallels with the first, and I think that makes it a better series.

 The Giver, Lois LowryThe Giver by Lois Lowry.

Another book I first read in elementary school. My first experience with more dystopian elements and more scifi than fantasy. It made such an impression on me that I kept looking for the book for years, on and off. I remembered parts of the plot and then I’d think, “I wanna re-read it.” But I could never remember the title or the author. So it was years before I used The Google to try and find it. And then I found it, and I was ecstatic 😀

The bits I kept remembering over the years were things I wouldn’t right away associate with a children’s book, which technically it is. A very rigid control of society. Everyone does things exactly like this, and no deviations are accepted. Those that deviate, or can no longer contribute to society are killed off. Of course that is done in a perfectly sterile manner, with a ceremony and all, but the effect is the same. And I was appalled by that, and it opened for me the doors to dystopian fiction, especially featuring children or teens. That’s probably why The Hunger Games resonated with me as they did.

 

Articles of the Federation, Keith R.A. DeCandidoArticles of the Federation, by Keith R.A. DeCandido.

I read a lot of tie in fiction, books written about, and taking place in, universes from other properties. Mainly movies and TV shows. One of the bigger properties I read in, is Star Trek. The expanded universe of Star Trek spans so much space and time, and goes so much deeper than can be shown in just the shows and movies. Articles of the Federation is on my most loved Star Trek books because it tells the story of background characters, the ordinary people of the Federation. It details a year in the office of Federation president Baco and how she deals with all the crap going on. Diplomatic ouvertures, threats of war, the press, all in a context of the Star Trek future. I’ve heard it described as a cross between the West Wing and Star Trek.

 

Little Women, Lousia May AlcottLittle Women by Louisa May Alcott

I’ve read this book so many times. I always wanted to be Jo, when I was a kid, because she was tough, and a writer and got to do her own thing in a time where that wasn’t generally allowed. I also watched the various movies repeatedly, and the cartoon series that was made of it and this all became this awesome amalgamation in my head. Historical time period, costumes, and awesome actors/cartoons to represent the characters.

 

 

Dinotopia, James GurneyDinotopia by James Gurney

Oh! The illustrations! I looooove worldbuilding so very much, and the illustrations bring alive the world of Dinotopia so much. It’s a historical fantasy thing, where people in the past get stranded on this deserted island. Only it’s not so deserted as first thought. There live people there, in harmony with intelligent dinosaurs. And they have this whole pretty advanced society with even a dinosaur assisted military of sorts. I still have to get my hands on some of the additional books, and a proper copy of this in English.

 

Rowan, Henk KroesveldRowan, een verhaal uit de middeleeuwen, by Henk Kroesveld

One of the better historical youth books I’ve read. It tells the story of thirteen year old Rowan who needs to leave his home town for a while after an altercation with the bailiff. When he comes back again, he finds his home locked up, the plague is active in his town. He has to leave again, and find his own way in the world and he does this, among other things, by becoming a healer and learning about herbs and such.

 

Tigana, Guy Gavriel KayTigana by Guy Gavriel Kay

A glorious fantasy novel about memory, and music and how history is written by the victors. After a devastating war, the losing side gets erased from the history books. The magic-wielding tyrant makes it impossible for the name of the losing province to ever be said, and even remembering it. In this way, the people slowly forget their own history. Only a small group of rebels manages to precariously hold on to their past and sets out to reverse the spell.

 

Vrijheid als Prijs, Catherine ChristianVrijheid als prijs by Catherine Christian

Another historical novel. The first I read about Roman times. It tells the story of rich young lady Clyta, her sort of foster brother Flavius and the slave they get for their combined 10th and 12th birthday, Hillarion. It chronicles the lives of these three as Clyta and Flavius get married and Flavius goes into the military. It’s been a while since I read it, so I’m not sure anymore how, but Flavius dies, and Hillarion ends up being sold, and Clyta falls onto poor time. Hillarion eventually becomes a gladiator, also gets married, and finally manages to buy his freedom and settles on a small farm. In the mean time Clyta has gotten herself sold into slavery causing Hillarion to work and buy her free as well. Late in life, finally, he and Clyta reunite and life out their lives on his small farm.

 

Posted in: Blog About Me, General, Photos Tagged: Blog Prompts, Books, Dystopia, Fantasy, History, List, Literature, Me, Scifi, Star Trek

The Hunger Games

Thursday, March 29, 2012 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

I first learned about The Hunger Games early this year. I read about it somewhere, got a brief idea of what it was about and filed it away in my head as a ‘I should read that sometime’. A short while later, I started seeing images across the web of a movie that intrigued me called The Hunger Games. I put one and one together, did a little bit of research to confirm my math and promptly forgot about it again; the movie wasn’t even out yet.

A week or two ago I started seeing more and more about it and realised the movie would be released soon. I read some more about the plot and stuff and realised I really liked it. And I’m a bit of a book-snob occasionally when it comes to movies after books, so I decided I wanted to read the books first.

Cue my regular online bookstore having a 3-for-2 sale last week which included all three books in The Hunger Games trilogy. I ordered, they were delivered, and I started reading book one last Saturday.

I finished it Sunday. I loved it. I was hooked instantly.

I started book two on my way to work Monday. At work, there was so little to do, me and Nienke asked for leave and decided we’d like to go to the movies. I immediately exclaimed we should see The Hunger Games. Fortunately, Nienke agreed 😀 I wanted to finish all three books before seeing the movie, at first, but with this opportunity I didn’t mind.

So we left work, had brunch at Starbucks and then went to a noon-showing, nice and quiet with only five people or so present. I was completely engrossed in the movie from the start. Normally about two-thirds through I tend to go ‘are we there yet’ and checking the time to see how long it’s been. Not this time. The movie follows the book very well. Of course some changes were made, but I think they were all smart changes. And necessary changes for a medium like film.

I continued with book two that night, finishing it shortly after midnight. I started book three Tuesday evening and finished it Wednesdag afternoon. While I’m happy with the ending Katniss’ story, I remain very curious about how Panem did after the ending of Mockingjay and before the epilogue some fifteen years later. I hope there will be more about this at some point in the future, but I’m not getting my hopes up too much, I can’t find indications of more books, either featuring Katniss or the expanded universe.

Posted in: General Tagged: Books, Dystopia, Friends, Movies, Nienke, Pathé, Review

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