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Wordful Wednesday: Catching Fire

I deliberately avoided picking up Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins, when I saw it on the bestsellers rack at the Library.  Several times.  My esteemed partner in pavement pounding talked me down once when I almost picked it up.  He reminded me that I had about six books already checked out and that I should finish them first.

I thought The Hunger Games was terrific, and I was in no big hurry to pick up its sequel.  After all, the third book won’t be out until next August or so, so why rush to catch up?

And then my library Hold Request came through.  Still, I had a Crichton and a Koontz to read, and I dutifully finished them both before starting Catching Fire.

I’ll try not to be too spoilery here, because anything I reveal about Book Two might spoil something in Book One.  (You know, “spoilery” is a perfectly good word, so why does my spell-check not think so?  Must add it to the dictionary.  Done!)

I wondered if I’d like Book Two as much as Book One.  In a word: Yes!  It’s every bit as exciting, and the deeper look into the evil Capitol was just chilling.  Even when the book started to retread some familiar Hunger Games territory, it managed to bring something new to it.

Suzanne Collins has managed to create a dystopian world with elements of 1984 and Firefly, and I know that seems strange.  No spaceships, of course, but the whole difference between The Alliance and the Outer Planets parallels the Capitol and the Districts, particularly the Outer Districts.

I loved the pacing of the book, with nearly every chapter ending in something of a cliffhanger.  It made it difficult to stop between chapters.  Which I still did, because I didn’t want to just tear through it.  I didn’t want to read it too quickly, and five days seemed quite leisurely to me.  (BTW, how does “leisurely” fit with that whole ‘i’ before ‘e’ thing?)

Also, in good White Christmas fashion, the book even managed a slam-bang finish.  (Anybody humming, “Because we love him, we love him, especially when he keeps us on the ball…”?  You should be!)

And I think I’ll stop here.  If you liked The Hunger Games, you’ll not be disappointed with Catching Fire.  Hopefully the same holds for Book Three.  Now if it would just get published a few months earlier!

(My newest nefarious plan is to get both HG and CF on audio from the Library and listen to them right before Book Three comes out!  Sounds like a plan to me.)