Same Book/Different Cover: The Hunger Games

This is an occasional feature where I compare different covers of the same book...what I'm particularly interested in are re-issued covers for the same book and recently foreign editions.
This month I'm looking the covers of a very popular book - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I have to confess I haven't read it as yet but I do plan to pick it up before the film comes out and find out all about this Katniss I've been hearing about! In the meantime, lets have a look at those covers!


US Paperback



US Hardcover



UK Paperback



Italian Paperback







Chinese Cover



German Paperback





Film Tie In Cover

US Hardcover - The bird-arrow symbol is interesting but I don't like the font very much. It's very blocky.

US Paperback - the girl is just glimpsed almost through the cover and there are blood splatters over the cover. I like the target but overall, this isn't a very interesting cover to me

UK Paperback - I don't really like the big picture of the girl through the HG letters - it seems cartoon-y and I don't connect to her at all. I think this is my least my favourite cover, which is a shame as it's also the one I actually own.

German Cover - A closeup of a girl hiding behind a tree with some blood on the leaves...it's nice to see some colour in some of these covers.

Italian Cover - the girl on the font of this looks like a zombie to me! A very scary cover that makes The Hunger Games look like a horror story...

Chinese Cover - Again I like the bird-arrow motif which takes centre stage. The background is light and misty with two indistinct figures running through the woods. Very visual and different from anything I've seen for a while.

Film Tie In - I don't normally like film tie-in covers but this is actually really striking. The black background with the close up bird-arrow motif in gold is clear, beautiful and intriguing. It makes me want to know more about the book!

My Verdict - I like the Chinese and Film Tie in ones best. I think the simpleness of the Film Tie just beats out over the woods - it elegant and one I would love to have on my bookcase!

Which cover do you prefer? :)

How To Live Safely In A Science-Fictional Universe Review

How To Live Safely In A Science-Fictional Universe

-          Charles Yu

Kindle Book

Minor Universe 31 is a vast story-space on the outskirts of fiction, where paradox fluctuates like the stock market, lonely sexbots beckon failed protagonists, and time travel is serious business. Every day, people get into time machines and try to do the one thing they should never do: change the past. That’s where Charles Yu, time travel technician—part counselor, part gadget repair man—steps in. He helps save people from themselves. Literally. When he’s not taking client calls or consoling his boss, Phil, who could really use an upgrade, Yu visits his mother (stuck in a one-hour cycle of time, she makes dinner over and over and over) and searches for his father, who invented time travel and then vanished. Accompanied by TAMMY, an operating system with low self-esteem, and Ed, a nonexistent but ontologically valid dog, Yu sets out, and back, and beyond, in order to find the one day where he and his father can meet in memory..

This is a hard book to describe. Set in a universe where there wasn’t quite enough reality to make it work properly, the universe seems to struggle by using science fiction tropes as filler, which basically means the line between real and not, is fine and difficult to spot. Charles Yu is our narrator, continually stuck between the present and the past and working as a time machine repair man with just his imaginary dog and a female simulated personality computer for company. Charles can’t seem to live in the present so he spends most of time in his time machine until he is called home to have his machine serviced...

This book is weird. It is part philosophical pondering and part a search for lost family, but most of it seems to rely on clever verb and idea conjugation. I have to admit I never found myself fully committed to the story as I couldn’t relax and let it flow around me. It feels like a very worthy book, however I read mostly to distract myself from my commute and as such this book didn’t really work for me. That’s not to say others won’t enjoy it – indeed some elements especially in the second half of the book were exciting and an interesting twist on the whole seeing your earlier self in time travel. There was also an amusing incident early on with a certain L. Skywalker, but overall I never felt like the thought provoking elements sat easily next to the basic search for his father.

I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. I certainly feel it will work well for others but I’m a simple reader – I like action, I like plot and I like characters. Soul searching when done away from any excitement does not hold my interest. Somehow though I feel like this is more my own failing than the book itself.

Recommended for fans of Hannu Rajaniemi and Simon Morden. 5 out of 10  

My Book Haul/In My Mailbox

The Story Siren hosts a weekly meme where bloggers can share what goodies they've purchased/received this week. If you get a chance head over to The Story Siren and check out what everyone is up to!

 

First Grave On The Right - Darynda Jones

Publisher: UK - Piatkus

Charley sees dead people. That’s right, she sees dead people. And it’s her job to convince them to “go into the light.” But when these very dead people have died under less than ideal circumstances (i.e. murder), sometimes they want Charley to bring the bad guys to justice. Complicating matters are the intensely hot dreams she’s been having about an Entity who has been following her all her life…and it turns out he might not be dead after all. In fact, he might be something else entirely.

I LOVE The Works. I've wanted this book for ages - even more so since I read reviews of it from some of my favourite bloggers so imagine how excited I was when I spotted in The Works last Sunday for the low, low price of £1.99 or 2 for £3! Can't wait to start this series now!

Feast of Fools (Morganville Vampires 4) - Rachel Caine

Publisher: UK - Allison & Busby

In the town of Morganville, vampires and humans live in relative peace. Student Claire Danvers has never been convinced, though especially with the arrival of Mr. Bishop, an ancient, old-school vampire who cares nothing about harmony. What he wants from the town's living and its dead is unthinkably sinister. It's only at a formal ball, attended by vampires and their human dates, that Claire realizes the elaborately evil trap he's set for Morganville.

 

This is the other book I got at The Works - I haven't read any of the Morganville books but I now own the first four so I really hope I will like them! Pretty sure I will though as Jess at Book Passion for Life has been raving about them recently!

 

The Last Four Things - Paul Hoffman

Publisher: UK - Penguin

Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell. These are the Last Four Things. Now there are Five. Meet Thomas Cale. Returning to the Sanctuary of the Redeemers, Thomas Cale is told by the Lord Militant that the destruction of mankind is necessary; the only way to undo God's greatest mistake. Cale seemingly accepts his role in the ending of the world: fate has painted him as the Left Hand of God, the Angel of Death. Absolute power is within his grasp, the terrifying zeal and military might of the Redeemers a weapon for him to handle as simply as he once used a knife. But perhaps not even the grim power that the Redeemers hold over Cale is enough - the boy who turns from love to poisonous hatred in a heartbeat, the boy who switches between kindness and sheer violence in the blink of an eye. The annihilation that the Redeemers seek may well be in Cale's hands - but his soul is far stranger than they could ever know.

 

I actually recieved this unasked from Penguin for review. Biazzarely I have read the first book in the seriers a couple of years ago but don't remember much about it...but I haven't read any fantasy for a while so this could break my fantasy fast! :)

 

So what have you picked up this week?

On My Wishlist #73

This is a meme from Book Chick City. There are so many books out there that I want to read that this is the only way I can keep track! This week there are some books I've had my eye on for a while - hopefully I can pick them up soon! :)

Hunting Lila - Sarah Alderson

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

17-year-old Lila has two secrets she's prepared to take to the grave. The first is that she can move things just by looking at them. The second is that she's been in love with her brother's best friend, Alex, since forever. After a mugging exposes her unique ability, Lila decides to run to the only people she can trust - her brother and Alex. They live in Southern California where they work for a secret organisation called The Unit, and Lila discovers that the two of them are hunting down the men who murdered her mother five years before. And that they've found them. In a world where nothing and no one is quite as they seem, Lila quickly realises that she is not alone - there are others out there just like her - people with special powers -and her mother's killer is one of them.

I've heard lots of positive things about this book and it sounds very exciting!

A Bad Day for Sorry - Sophie Littlefield

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Stella Hardesty, our salty, unlikely heroine, runs a sewing shop in rural Missouri. She also has a side business helping battered women with their abusive boyfriends and husbands. When Chrissy Shaw asks Stella for help, it seems like a straightforward case, until Chrissy’s no-good husband disappears with her two-year-old son. Now Stella finds herself in a battle against a more formidable enemy as she risks her own life to recover the boy.

Having finished Sophie Littlefield's Aftertime trilogy, I'm anxious to read more books by her and this sounds like it could be as emotional as the Aftertime series was.

Fated - Sarah Alderson

Publisher: Simon Schuster

 What happens when you discover you aren't who you thought you were? And that the person you love is the person who will betray you? If your fate is already determined, can you fight it?
When Evie Tremain discovers that she’s the last in a long line of Demon slayers and that she’s being hunted by an elite band of assassins –Shapeshifters, Vampires and Mixen demons amongst them – she knows she can’t run. They’ll find her wherever she goes. Instead she must learn to stand and fight.
But when the half-human, half-Shadow Warrior Lucas Gray - is sent to spy on Evie and then ordered to kill her before she can fulfil a dangerous prophecy, their fates become inextricably linked. The war that has raged for one thousand years between humans and demons is about to reach a devastating and inevitable conclusion. Either one or both of them will die before this war ends.

This sounds like Buffy which was one of my favourite TV series ever.

What are you wishing for this week? :)

At The House Of The Magician Review

At The House Of The Magician

-          Mary Hooper

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Poor runaway during the Elizabethan period, Lucy does not have many options. Her luck finally turns when she is taken on as a maid in the household of Dr. Dee, court magician to Queen Elizabeth I. The household is strange and sinister, and Lucy has a nose for intrigue. So when she stumbled across a plot to assassinate the queen, Lucy must find means to warn her . . . before it's too late.

Escaping from her abusive Father, Lucy manages to find employment as a nursemaid at the house of Dr Dee – mystic and confidant to Elizabeth I. But is Dr Dee truly mystical or is just a clever fake?

I am a recent convert to Mary Hooper’s writing, but once again she has sucked me into the Elizabethan era. She has such a skill that with minimal words she re-created the past complete with sights, sounds and smells. The people come to life, each one feels like a real person with their own habits and thoughts. The Tudor period is a favourite period of mine – and the setting in Richmond and Mortlake is familiar to me made it all feel like a comfy chair that I was settling into again – and I could have stayed a lot longer than 240 pages!

Lucy is an engaging character and I loved her devotion to the Queen and her mother. Her slow discovery of what lies beyond the normal world is intriguing and while I would have liked to know more of the magic and ghosts, there is definitely an element that can be explored in the future for Lucy. I would have liked to know more about Tomas as well!

Overall this was a great a read where the major disappointment was how quickly I sped through the pages.

Recommend for fans of Sophie McKenzie and Jennifer Donnelly. 8 out of 10

Throwback Thursday #40 - Side Jobs

This is a great feature that Melissa at My World...in words and pictures has been doing for a while and I wanted to jump on board! There are plenty of books out there I desperately want...

But what about all those wonderful books that are ALREADY on my shelves?

 

Side Jobs (Dresden Files 12.5) - Jim Butcher

As Chicago's only professional wizard, Harry Dresden has had cases that have pitted him against insane necromancers, power-hungry faerie queens, enigmatic dark wizards, fallen angels—pretty much a "who's who" of hell and beyond—with the stakes in each case ranging from a lone human soul to the entire human race. But not every adventure Harry Dresden undertakes is an epic tale of life and death in a world on the edge of annihilation.

The Dresden files is my favourite long running series - and I still need to read this anthology of stories. The big question is really why I keep putting off reading my favourite authors for other books that I know I won't enjoy as much...does anyone know the answer? :)

Grave Witch Review

Grave Witch (Alex Craft 1)

-          Kalayna Price

Publisher: UK – Berkley

As a private investigator and consultant for the police, Alex Craft has seen a lot of dark magic. But even though she’s on good terms with Death himself—who happens to look fantastic in a pair of jeans—nothing has prepared her for her latest case. Alex is investigating a high profile murder when she’s attacked by the ‘shade’ she’s raising, which should be impossible. To top off her day, someone makes a serious attempt on her life, but Death saves her. Guess he likes having her around...
To solve this case Alex will have to team up with tough homicide detective Falin Andrews. Falin seems to be hiding something—though it’s certainly not his dislike of Alex—but Alex knows she needs his help to navigate the tangled webs of mortal and paranormal politics, and to track down a killer wielding a magic so malevolent, it may cost Alex her life...and her soul.

The first in a new Urban Fantasy series introduces Alex Craft, a Grave Witch who can’t help raising shades and seeing the decay of everything when she uses her grave sight. When someone starts killing women in a ritualistic fashion and torturing their shades, Alex is determined to stop the killer but first she has to contend with a hostile detective, not to mention Death himself...

Alex has all the qualities I love in my heroines – she is smart, determined, independent and feisty. She is also isolated. She has friends and housemates, but she doesn’t confide in them. When she is attacked, hunted or injured – they worry and want to help her, but most of the time she is too busy getting into her next scrap to talk to them at all and they never know what is truly happening with her. There are reasons for this and by the end, there is some hints that her self-imposed isolation could end. She does have some very strong men in her life – her father, detective Falin Andrews, and the mysterious Death – all of which I want to know more about and leave plenty of room for future revelations.

The story is fast paced and a great mix of magic, investigation, intuition and politics. There isn’t a much time to pause as the action starts almost straight away and rarely slows down. I loved the world that Kalayna has created with the fae and magic out and used in police procedures. The city itself is built in one of the hidden spaces that opened when fae came out to the human world and magic resurged. It makes it unique with the use of magic and politics hot topics still in the world. There is so much potential in this world and with Alex - I can’t wait to see what will happen next!

Recommended for fans of Chloe Neill and Patricia Briggs. 8 put of 10.