Books Vs. Movies - Part 3 (update)

I've finished the 2nd book, Catching Fire and halfway through Mockingjay, the 3rd book and past where the 3rd movie ends and the 4th movie begins.  The books are really good, with lots of action but really sappy, which makes them hard to put down to write my reviews so I guess I'll do them all when I've finished the book series.  I get compulsive and just keep going sometimes and don't want to stop what I'm doing to do what I should be doing.  But it's really not like anybody is really reading this.  If anybody does, then thank you.

Book vs. Movies, Part 3 (2nd in a Series of 6)

The Hunger Games

There's not much to say about a book that has been reviewed, probably many on the two main sites Like to go and research and rate books, BookLikes, and Goodreads, that hasn't already been said. I'm mostly reading them and comparing the movies to the books and Suzanne Collins must have worked hard to get the movie really close to the book. It's been years since I've read the book and a week since I've watched the movie.

The Hunger Games is not my favorite YA series, that belongs to the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer.  The Hunger Games is probably 3rd after Artemis Fowl and then Harry Potter.  As for book series with movies, I think this will be 2nd behind the Harry Potter movies.  As for the Hunger Games as a whole, the only thing I didn't care for was Katniss's inner struggle of her love between Gale and Peeta.  But what's a YA without some first love interests.

Like I said reviews for all three Hunger Games books have been done many times and in many languages.  The Hunger Games book sold 4.3 million books in 2010 and jumped to 9.3 million in 2011.  In 2012 the sales tripled and now it's listed as 29 million in the U.S. alone.  The first movie in the series mad $694 million dollars, 2nd in the franchise.

Sometimes there are no comparisons between books.  The audio-book for Huber Games is just over 11 hours and the movie is just over 2 hours.  While the book has a lot more conversation, background and the things going through Katniss's head, the movie screams vibrant colors, future tech, and CGI.  Probably the biggest difference is the muttations towards the end of the time in the arena.  The movie just shows them as a canine type animal but the book has these critters as canines that resemble the other 21 dead players killed in the games.  The book says that when standing on their back legs they resemble the humans, blondes being blondes and the eyes are the same, or at least Katniss questions this.  There are still a lot of small changes but this movie ran pretty true with the book.

All in all, I enjoyed both the movie and the book, Rating the book 8 stars  So now I move forward to the 2nd book, Catching Fire.

Book vs. Movies, Part 3 (1st in a Series of 6)

The Hunger Games

Most everybody has seen the movies and probably a quarter of those that have seen it, if not lower have read the books. I've read them once (and the 1st 2 books twice) and now I plan to read them again.

It's funny how things trigger your mind.  I walked into a room where my wife was watching TV and the 1st Hunger Games movie was on and it reminded me of how much a fan I was of the movies and of Suzanne Collins trilogy.  To me, this was the first really successful adaptation of a modern YA book to movie.  I could never get into the Twilight series, it just seemed over-acted.  I think the movies stayed true to the books, with a little deviation and were very entertaining.  A great list of actors was on this movie project and some were big names, like Donald Sutherland, Woody Harrelson, Julianne Moore, Stanley Tucci, and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. It made the career of Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Liam Hemsworth.  When I read the books I see the actors acting out what you are reading, adding faces to the words.  The movies had great CGI, bringing life to the books and color to the scenes.  At this time Wikipedia has The Hunger Games Listed as the 20th highest-grossing film series of all time.  All four movies won major awards in various categories.  

What I will be doing is just a comparison and probably not any real review because you can find them all over IMDB and Goodreads and my favorite site, Booklikes.

So in this post, I'll just list the movies and link them over to Wikipedia.  Descriptions are plagiarized from Wikipedia The Hunger Games Film Series site, also.

The Hunger Games (2012)

Every year, in the ruins of what was once North America, the Capitol of the nation of Panem forces each of its 12 districts to send a teenage boy and girl, between the ages of 12 and 18, to compete in the Hunger Games: a nationally televised event in which 'tributes' fight each other within an arena, until one survivor remains. When Primrose Everdeen is 'reaped', her older sister Katniss Everdeen volunteers in her place to enter the games and is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts when she's pitted against highly-trained tributes.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)

Along with fellow District 12 victor Peeta Mellark, Katniss Everdeen returns home safely after winning the 74th Annual Hunger Games. Winning means that they must leave their loved ones behind and embark on a Victory Tour throughout the districts. Along the way Katniss senses a rebellion simmering - one that she and Peeta may have sparked - but the Capitol is still in control as President Snow prepares the 75th Hunger Games - the Quarter Quell - that could change Panem forever.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014)

Katniss Everdeen finds herself in District 13 after she destroys the games forever. Under the leadership of President Alma Coin and the advice of her trusted friends, Katniss spreads her wings as she fights to save Peeta, along with other victors and a nation moved by her courage.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (2015)

Realizing the stakes are no longer just for survival, Katniss Everdeen teams up with her closest friends and allies, including Peeta, Gale, and Finnick, for the ultimate mission. Together, they leave District 13 to liberate the citizens of war-torn Panem and assassinate President Snow.

So pick up your reader and download the books with your Kindle Unlimited account, which at this time is free to borrow and enjoy your read.  The books are written in a simple YA style, easy to read and since they are YA they are written for teens but us adults can enjoy them too.

Group Fifteen Files - Volume 1

Mark Dawson's Group Fifteen Files, Volume 1
is a collection of 3 books done in collaboration with three other authors for an exciting collection of novellas that are really quick and easy to read and are really good.  All three books are completely different and original with lots of imagination and effort put in them.  I felt entertained the entire time I was reading them and never wanted to put the book down.  If you enjoy Scot Harvath or Mich Rapp you will enjoy these novellas.

The first book is Scorpion: A Group Fifteen Novella (Group Fifteen Files Book 1) by Mark Dawson w/ Steve Cavanagh and my review is here.

The second book is Witness X by Mark Dawson w/ Scott Mariani, A Group Fifteen Novella (Group Fifteen Files Book 2) and my review is here.

The third and final novella of Volume 1 is Little Sister by Mark Dawson w/ Mark Ridpath, A Group Fifteen Novella (Group Fifteen Files Book 3) and my review is here.

If you want to read these books and you have Kindle Unlimited then you can borrow them for free.

I rate this tome 8 of 10.  A really good read.

Group Fifteen Files - Volume 1 by Mark Dawson w/ Steve Cavanagh, Scott Mariani, and Mark Ridpath

Little Sister by Mark Dawson w/ Mark Ridpath, A Group Fifteen Novella (Group Fifteen Files Book 3)

Little Sister is the last in Volume 1 of the Group Fifteen Files and has probably the least written about them. Usually, the protagonist is a member of Group Fifteen and the antagonist is a mercenary or government agency with an agent in Britain that was up to no good. This time we find Finley Karsh, the owner of a hedge fund company called Lochalsh Capital, being blackmailed by a former employee or at least attempted to be blackmailed but Karsh knows how to handle the situation, and he handles it with a historical luger. He handles it with murder. Karsh is in accompaniment with his right-hand man Jesse Brunner and their girlfriends Olya and Gudrún.  Olya gets suspicious and leaves her boyfriend Jesse when they return to London, but she cannot persuade Gudrún.to leave Karsh.  Keeping up?

Now enter the hero of our story, the big, and I mean big brother of Gudrún, an Icelandic native and former British SAS member Björn Thorsson now getting his masters at University College London studying old Norse and doing some language classes on the side. Enter Olya, a woman he never liked because of her influence on his younger sister, to get him to talk Gudrún into leaving Karsh.

Now to convolute my review more Karsh has a contract out on him from a rival mining company because they are both bidding on some mining project in a country nobody has ever heard of, so Group Fifteen is called in to protect Karsh, kill the mercenary with a 100% kill rate record and in the end save Queen, Country and the British way of life.

No more spoilers, the book is only 126 pages and takes a little over a couple of hours to read. Mark and Mark cram a lot into this little book and it comes out to be like the other books in this series, a little better than average read.

As for the books, if you have Kindle Unlimited you borrow the books for free or for a limited time buy the Volume for only 99 cents, which I did.  I wonder who gets the 99 cents?

I rate this book 6 of 10.  Like I said it is a good read worth reading if you are into this genre.

Little Sister by Mark Dawson w/ Mark Ridpath

A Group Fifteen Novella (Group Fifteen Files Book 3)

Witness X by Mark Dawson w/ Scott Mariani, A Group Fifteen Novella (Group Fifteen Files Book 2)

This is the second novella in the Group Fifteen Files written by Mark Dawson with the help of some of his peers.  This book was better than the 1st, which wasn't bad and now I'll go the last as of this date, Little Sister.  All of these can be read for free on Kindle Unlimited at this time.

Witness X starts out with an attack on a woman for no apparent reason but when MI5 starts digging into everything they bring in the people that pulls the trigger, Group Fifteen.  Control, the man that oversees Group Fifteen calls for the one man that can get to the bottom of everything, Twelve, or the under suspension Bryan Duffy.  The reason Duffy is brought in is that this attack was personal. The attack was carried out by a North Korean agency equivalent to Group Fifteen and espionage was a reason for them to kill anybody that would get in their way.

Dawson and Mariani pack 104 pages full of action and very little wasted space.  So far if this is a genre you like then I suggest this little novella series as "Group Fifteen Files, Volume 1" be added to your reading list if you want something quick to read.

I rate this a 7 of 10.

Witness X by Mark Dawson and Scott Mariani

A Group Fifteen Novella (Group Fifteen Files Book 2)

Scorpion: A Group Fifteen Novella (Group Fifteen Files Book 1) by Mark Dawson w/ Steve Cavanagh

If you've noticed anything about what I read is that I love series and that is 99% of what I read.  Last year I started reading the Eddie Flynn series by Steve Cavanagh and I was impressed by how good the series is.  When I saw that Steve was attached to this book and after I read the description I thought I would read the three novellas that are out now under the series name "Group Fifteen Files" which Dawson uses different writers.  How much Cavanagh and the other writers contribute I have no idea, but what the heck, go for it.  I've never read any of Dawson's John Milton books but I probably should add them to my ever-lengthening list.

This novella is written bouncing back and forth between the protagonist, John Milton, and the antagonist, the Scorpion, and every now and then third person.  Milton's job is to kill the Scorpion and the Scorpion's job is to kill 3 people. A Saudi prince, a former war correspondent Hailey Banks, and a third unknown person.  Milton's job is to catch the Scorpion when he goes after Banks.  Like most books, it see-saws the advantage between the main characters to see who comes out on top, or in a book's place in the last chapter.  It's sort of easy to guess who makes it to the last chapter.

If you want a nicely written spy novel that you can read in a couple of hours then give Scorpion a shot. I'm sure a lot of you have read some of the John Milton series (no, not Paradise Lost) and are familiar with the character.  I'm not. I'm rating this a 6 of 10, a little better than average.

Scorpion by Mark Dawson w/ Steve Cavanagh

A Group Fifteen Novella (Group Fifteen Files Book 1)

Predator's Gold by Philip Reeve, Book 2 in the Mortal Engines Quartet Series

Predator's Gold is book two in the Mortal Engines Quartet. Written as a YA book, it is easy to read, enjoyable, and has plenty of betrayal, violence, death and now a little romance.

The book is again about the journeys of young Tom (now age sixteen)  and Hester and their struggle to stay alive.  Reeve sends our couple to the moving ice city called Anchorage that is governed by a young margravine by the name of Freya.  It is her job to keep the city moving, getting her directions from the ancient ice gods, but being the last in her line and most of the city lost to a plague makes things difficult.  Reeve does a good job of making sure that where ever Tom or Hester goes gloom and despair is sure to follow.

But enough of the spoilers.  If YA fantasy/science fiction is something you're looking for, then search no more. The 2nd book in the Mortal Engines Quartet series is worth reading.

I'll give this a generous 6 of 10 rating.

Predator's Gold by Philip Reeve

Mortal Engines Quartet series book #2.

Out of the Dark, by Gegg Hurwitz. 4th Book in the Orphan X Series

2018 was a good year for me finding new series to read and I found two great series.  The first was the Eddie Flynn series by Steve Cavanaugh and the second was the Orphan X series by Gregg Hurwitz.  Out of the Dark is the fourth book in the Orphan X series and it is one of the best books of the spy thriller genre I've read in a long time.  The one thing I like about it is that Evan Smoak, also Orphan X and The Nowhere Man is he is human, well more human when compared to Scot Harvath or Mitch Rapp.

Out of the Dark starts out, well go to where I blogged about the first two chapters here.

Orphan is has been trying to retire from his assassination gig for years but his past comes back to haunt him.  He tries to do his 'mea culpa repentance' by being the Nowhere Man, a man that sometimes resorts to violence to protect somebody that can't take care of themselves when violence occurs. He is also a man of rules.  Rules that have been drilled in his head since he was twelve.  So this time when his past comes back to haunt him, in the form of the President of the United States he breaks one of his rules and takes on his Nowhere Man personification at the same time as he becomes Orphan X.  As Smoak bounces between the two and between the east and west coast, his job gets more dangerous, and one of those jobs is to kill the President.

I love this book.  I want to give it a 10 rating but I don't like handing them out so I'm going to give this a 9.  If you like books like this, then start with the origin book, Orphan X.  It'll hook ya.

Out of the Dark by Gregg Hurwitz
Orhan X series book 4.

Books vs Movies, Part 2

Vs.

Mortal Engines the book is written by Philip Reeve is a pretty good book. I've read the first and look forward to the next three.  These are YA books so they are simply written, easy to read and even though there is a lot of war and the carnage of cities eating cities the gore is left out.  Hester is shy about her looks and keeps her face hidden or rarely holds her head so Tom can see her scars.  Katherine Valentine and Bevis Pod really should have been used way more in the movie since they had really big parts in the outcome of the book.

Mortal Engines the movie has Peter Jackson attached to the producer's names and a couple of big names like Hugo Weaving and Colin Salmon along with a cast probably more well known in England than here in the USA.
The movie starts out kinda sorta like the book but then the direction of the movie takes a turn and becomes just a movie with really good CG and turns it into something that comes up with the same ending.  Characters like Pod are dropped are dropped into nothingness, deaths are changed and to me, Valentine's part is changed probably just because of having Weaving attached to the project. The actors also appeared to be older than I pictured them in the book.  You would really think that with Jackson's name so prominent on the movie poster the movie would at least tried to be closer to the book.

I think the best thing captured from the book is the CGI.  The cities and airships really came out looking like what I imagined in the book.  The CGI was realistic and didn't come out like a 2D cartoon in so many movies out recently.  The movie makers seem to think they have to change the story to make an eight-hour book into a two-hour movie.  Maybe a screenplay can't be done that way and that's why so many movies based on books just don't make it.  Or is it the people that write a screenplay think they know more than about the book than the book author.

Variety states that Mortal Engines lost more than 100 million dollars and Peter Jackson was hoping to turn 'Mortal Engines' into a new fantasy movie franchise.  In his defense, the YA fantasy franchises just aren't working.  Maybe the people making these movies are trying to hard and should stay closer to the books.

In all honesty, I probably would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't just read the book.  The IMDB rating is at 6.3 at this time and can change direction after the DVD and on-demand releases.  Which way is the question.

Out of the Dark by Gregg Hurwitz, Orphan X #4, Part 1

Evan Smoak had a contract put out on his life. Jonathan Bennett had put it out on the Nowhere Man.  Evan Smoak is the Nowhere Man.  Jonathan Bennett is the president of the United States.

"Ending Jonathan Bennett was the ultimate Nowhere Man mission." 

Before Evan Smoak was Evan Smoak he was 12 years old when he was put into a program training orphans to be weapons. Before Evan Smoak there was only Orphan X. If you had read the first 3 books of the series you would have learned that Orphan X was no longer, now it was the Nowhere Man, sort of a 'pay it forward' program with the Nowhere Man looking out for the small guy, the kid being engulfed into a gang, a girl being raped, somebody that could not take care of themselves in situations that people like you or me could never handle.

Before Jonathan Bennett was president, he was the man that called the shots and I do mean shots.  He depended on the Orphan program and Orphan X was his go-to Orphan.  Now that he was president he wanted to cover all traces of any black ops, any operation that did not fit into the constitution,  Orphan X had to die.

I wrote this after the second chapter.  I love this series and can't wait for the rest.