hsimone wrote: ↑16 Apr 2019, 16:45
I really enjoyed
The Hunger Games trilogy, too, but I never heard of
Worm by John McCrae. I may have to check this one out - thanks for the recommendation!
I hope you like it! The protagonist is incredibly resourceful and strategical with a unique skill set, making each fight interesting and different from most others you see in the genre. The story has definitely made me gasp out-loud several times during climactic battles. It helps that the main cast are incredibly lovable, you can't help but root for them - even when you know they're in the wrong. They're a bright spot in a very dark world.
The beginning is unfortunately a bad place to make an impression, though. It reads at first like a mediocre self-insert fanfic,
BUT this feeling quickly goes away within the first couple of (short) arcs. It's one of the story's biggest criticisms, because the rest of it is so, so, so good, but most people lose interest as the first few chapters turn them off from the rest. It's unfortunate, because it quickly improves and proves to be different from anything else in its genre, subsequently averting, subverting, and deconstructing multiple tropes in both the sci-fi and superhero genres. Dystopia is heavy with this one. The protagonist is easily my favorite character of all time. (Though I don't often agree with her motivations, I usually understand where she's coming from)
If you can't tell, I'm a bit of a fangirl. *Fans self dramatically and sighs*
Dragonsend wrote: ↑16 Apr 2019, 17:23
Of course at the top of my favorites, a Handmaids Tale, Farenheight451, and Stephen Kings The Running Man, ooh what about Waterworld? Any way I like all of those. Would Mad Max qualify? That movie was insane!
I know it's not a book, but
Mad Max is a great movie. I love
Fury Road, it blew my mind the first time I saw it. I believe it has a comic prequel floating out somewhere in the nebulous.
I'm ashamed to say I haven't read Stephen King's
The Running Man. I know, I know. Cuff me.
Dragonsend wrote: ↑18 Apr 2019, 12:15
I love he whole dystopian genre, the heroes are always fighting for something "normal", the basics of freedom and justice and those are things worth having. I just started reading 1984 by George Orwell and I am enthralled with this book . I had just finished reading The Turn by Matthew Tysz and I was always interested in Nietzche and nihilistic sociology. In my opinion the absolute epitomy of what leads to the loss of love, hope and in the end, life. They are truly horror stories. As stated earlier you are drawn into the story wanting the people that want to live and love and to give that to people that have lost those things, makes for great reading and motivation.
I think that's a big reason why dystopia is so intriguing. It challenges your perspective of right and wrong, pitting characters between morals and their will to survive. It's also part of what makes it so dang depressing at times, because we like to think these things connected (morals and survival), but they aren't always. I subscribe to the thought that certain morals - like helping your fellow man - benefit society in the long-term, but it's harder to subscribe to that thought if I'm pitted against my fellows by a utilitarian government that encourages dog-eat-dog because it benefits
them if the masses are divided against each other, rather than united against the government. And sometimes, for some people, it's impossible to have the energy or resources to care about anyone but yourself.
Sometimes you have to sacrifice everything you are in order to stay alive, and build yourself from the ashes of who you used to be. Dystopia pushes characters to make these profound choices that you don't often see in most other genres.
That's the point, isn't it? You have to see humanity at its worst in order to fully appreciate it at its best.
Dragonsend wrote: ↑18 Apr 2019, 14:26
Sorry for so many posts but here is a question? What would you do if you lived in a society that was oppressed by a lie about something fundamental that led to oppression or pain? Should that be a new topic? I would risk my life for change..
I think it's very easy to read a narrative of an oppressed people rising up against their oppressors and hope you'd be one of them. I want to say I'd be one of the people fighting the power and spreading truth. But the truth of reality is a lot more gray and gritty. In all reality, I think most people would be living the lie, unaware there was any other truth. That happens all the time in real life (albeit most of the time on a smaller scale), and unfortunately, as so often happens, fiction reflects reality.
I think the best way to start a rebellion is a whisper campaign. If I discovered the truth of the lie, I don't see myself on the front lines - not because of cowardice, but because that's not where my skill set lies - and one of the best ways of fighting oppression is knowledge and communication (it's why corrupt governments work so hard to spread lies and destroy books and education, or pit people against each other so they care less about what the other side has to say). People underestimate the power of a good whispering campaign - just ask anyone in marketing. It's a powerful tool to get people on your side without immediately setting off alarms. Because who can spread the word, if everyone who knows the truth is dead?