Things I've Noticed: 2011 was a good year for genre

Happy New Years Everyone (a little early, but my next post would be a little late).

As we move towards the end of 2011, rather than looking forward to the new genre films and stories of 2012, I want to take a quick moment and look back at my favourite stuff from 2011.

In Fantasy, 2011 was definitely the year of Game of Thrones, from those with the cash to get HBO I heard a lot of great things about the series, but I'll have to wait until it's available on DVD to make a judgement of my own. Personally I'll always think of 2011 Fantasy as the year of Thor, whether in the comic series I read in the spring, or in the motion picture. In addition, a special mention for Bill Willingham's Peter & Max, a tie-in novel to his comic book series Fables which I loved, and surprisingly a nod to the Gallager Pub trilogy of romance novels by Nora Roberts that I read for one of my book clubs (romance is definitely not a genre of choice for me) and totally fell in love with.

In Horror, 2011 was my year to understand the remimagining of slasher films that has kept horror in the cinema for the last decade. Looking at the books I most enjoyed, Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead, Tim Seeley's Hack/Slash, and a number of non-fiction works about the genre definitely stood out, and in movies my favourite two were both horror comedies, Fright Night and Tucker & Dale vs. Evil.

Finally in Science Fiction I found a lot in comic book series that totally amazed me; Starman by James Robinson may perhaps sit as my favourite superhero comic to date, and a series I just started in December Elephantmen by Richard Starkings was a stand out as a wonderfully drawn and intriguing look at a future in which human-animal hybrids are raised to be warriors. Although they came out earlier, 2011 was the year I read The Hunger Games series and out of new stories, Stephen King's 11/22/63 was a personal favourite as well. Also Dead Space gives me hopes for the sub-genre of Zombies in Space.

So there you go, my 2011 in genre stories, television and film. Thanks for taking the time to check out my blog and I'll see you all next year.

Bookmonkey

Book Review: The Hunger Games

For one of my book clubs last month I read the novel The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, the reason being threefold: 1) Both my wife and younger daughter had read it and said it was up my alley, 2) Dystopian fiction is on of my favourite sub-genres of Science Fiction, and 3) I didn't want to be as far behind in pop culture as I was when I got around to reading Twilight.

The premise of the book is pretty simple - every year 24 kids from around the world are put in an arena and forced to fight each other to the death - for TV ratings. The book follows one of these kids, a girl named Katniss Everdeen, as she is entered into this bloody event.

Here are the top 3 reasons why you should read this book:

3) Next year there will be a movie adaption coming out, and everyone you know from the kids to the ladies you work with will be talking about it, and you might like to know what the heck they are talking about.

2) The book is YA (Young Adults) so it won't take a lot of your time to read.

1) The book is compulsively readable - this goes for the sequels as well. I got intrigued pretty quickly by this story and then had a lot of difficulty putting it down.

Genre Character of the Week:President Coriolanus Snow

It's tricky to do a write up of a charater that involves major spoilers for a currently popular series, but you know what? I'm going to give it a shot. This week's genre character is also one of my current contendors for YA villain of the '00s, President Coriolanus Snow.

I started reading the Hunger Games series this month for two reasons: 1)Both my wife and younger daughter had read them and said that the series was right up my alley, and 2) It was a selection for one of my book clubs. Part of why I chose the character is that he only has a brief appearance in my book club selection (The Hunger Games), so while I speak about him, I'm not going to end up exhausting everything I want to say about the first book.

President Snow is in charge of a future North American nation called Panem. He rules from the Capital over twelve disctricts that provide the nation with food and resources. Also every year he oversees a contest/punishment called The Hunger Games, wherein two kids from each district (ages 12 - 18) are chosen to particiate in a tournament where they fight eachother to the death.

Not having a speaking role until the second book in the series, President Snow is evil in a way that brings obvious comparisons to Star Wars' Emperor Palpetine - a thirst for power and an overall creepy guy.

Just to be clear, the President is an incredibly effective villain for the series, but not the kind of genre character I'd like to visit with. If you haven't checked out this series yet I strongly recommend it. My review of the first book will be up next Monday.

Twilight of Bookmonkey: Day Eighteen

Having just finished Breaking Dawn, I can now say that I've read the Twilight Series (my current book, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, is kind of a side novel), and I've got some questions about the films.

1) Why on earth is Breaking Dawn being split into two films?

The first half of the novel focuses on Bella getting pregnant by her husband, and her best friend coming to terms with that. The second half of the book features a possible threat that builds and builds and is then removed by a Deus Ex Machina (basically a magic solution which solves all the problems without the help of the main characters). I'm just not sure how many people are going to want to check out these movies - my kids are pretty tired of the series right now, but that might be because my oldest is in University and my youngest has moved on to the Hunger Games.

2) Why is there so much interest in who is playing one-line characters in the films?

I get that a lot of people are interested in who will play Renesmee (Bella's hyper-aging daughter), as her role in the book is pretty big, but Irina (a vampire who has two lines)? or Riley (a fighting vampire from Eclipse)? Seriously, who cares which star will play these roles for 3-5 minutes of screen time?

3) Is there any way I'm going to see New Moon or Eclipse?

New Moon is in high demand at my library (currently over 200 holds) and Eclipse is out of theatres so I'm not exactly sure how I will get to see either film without shelling out $20 for New Moon or trying to illegally download Eclipse (which I'm very VERY against). I'll do my best to see these films, but it may get kind of tricky.

All right, next we're on to The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner.