Brain Spill Book Review #9

Catching Fire

By Suzanne Collins

Setting

Catching Fire is a sequel to the book, The Hunger Games. This world takes place where the government, centered at the Capitol, has tyrannical control over the twelve districts surrounding it. Seventy-five years earlier, the thirteen original districts had rebelled against the Capitol, but had failed. The rebellion ended with the utter destruction of the Thirteenth District. As punishment for the rebellion, the Capitol creates the Hunger Games. In the Hunger Games, the remaining twelve districts must each send one boy and one girl (between the ages of 12 and 18) as tribute. These 24 children must then go into an arena and fight to the death. The winning tribute is returned home and lives a life of wealth. Every twenty-five years, though, the Capitol puts a twist on the Games, called the Quarter Quell, and the upcoming Games will be the third Quarter Quell.

Summary

Peeta Mellark and Katniss Everdeen competed in the seventy-fourth Hunger Games, and with a stroke of good fortune, both won the Hunger Games by pretending to be madly in love with each other. Katniss is not in love, but Peeta is. Now living a life of riches, things are much different back at home. Peeta and Katniss are haunted by nightmares of the Hunger Games they were in. President Snow comes to meet Katniss, telling her that having both Peeta and Katniss winning has angered many citizens of the twelve districts. Peeta and Katniss must continue to pretend to be in love to continue to convince the districts that they were in love and to keep the districts from rebelling. Katniss fails, Katniss also begins to hear news of people rebelling in other districts. She hears stories that there might still be survivors in Disrict Thirteen. She wants to run away to avoid punishment for not stopping rebellion, but when law enforcement strengthens and Gale gets flogged for poaching, Katniss knows she must stay. To keep up the facade of love, Peeta and Katniss get publicly engaged. The president then announces that the next Quarter Quell will take previous winners of the Hunger Games and make them go through another game. District 12 only has three living winners: Katniss, Peeta, and Haymitch, and Katniss and Peeta are chosen for the games. Now Katniss and Peeta must try to stay alive in the Hunger Games for a second time.

Characters

Katniss Everdeen

Katniss is the narrator of the story. She is still as annoying as in the first book, but now she actually has a reason for her complaining. She is caught in a love triangle. Gale is now a love interest, and one that she has known all her life, but she also sort of likes Peeta, and the Capitol continues to pressure her into the relationship with Peeta. She also has nightmares about the previous Hunger Games to complain about. She changes quite a bit in this book, where she decides to take up the cause of the districts and try to rebel. In the Quarter Quell, she also learns how to trust people more freely.

Peeta Mellark

Peeta is still madly in love with Katniss, though she still is not. They are, though, on good terms with each other. Peeta is not chosen to go into the Hunger Games, but volunteers in order to protect Katniss. He doesn't change to much. He just can't run well on his artificial leg and is always just in love with Katniss.

Gale

Gale is Katniss's other love interest. His two main characteristics are his love for Katniss and his ongoing anger at the Capitol. He becomes the main voice of rebellion in the book. He really doesn't appear for most of the book, though.

Haymitch

Haymitch is still important. He is now one of the few people that Katniss can confide in. He also works to help Katniss and Peeta survive in the games as their coach again. Haymitch also becomes a voice of reason when it comes to hopes of life in District 13 and of successful rebellion. Haymitch becomes much more of a respectable character over the course of the book.

Finnick Odair

Finnick is one of the other tribute chosen to fight in the Quarter Quell. He becomes a very helpful character and ally to the District 12 tributes in the games. He is also one of the more interesting characters, who can see deep into his emotions and the book continues.

President Snow

Finally! There is now a real antagonist in the books! President Snow becomes the voice of the Capitol and represents the force that the Capitol has in Katniss's life. 

Effie

Yeah. She is still here.

Conclusion

This book was actually very good. I don't enjoy the characters as much. The character development feels very rushed, but I really enjoyed the plot and how the entire book comes together. It was a very good book. 7 out of 11 waffles.

Brain Spill Book Review #8

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents

By Terry Pratchett

Setting

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents takes place in Terry Pratchett's fictional world, Discworld. For those who don't know, Discworld is a giant disc that is balanced on the backs of four elephants who are standing on the back of a giant turtle that is flying through space. The story takes place in the city of Bad Blintz, located somewhere on the disc.

Summary

In the story, the main character is Maurice, an educated, talking cat. He is travelling with a kid named Keith and a colony of educated rats. Maurice, Keith, and the rats travel from city to city. the rats scour the city, openly showing themselves to the locals while pretending to be dumb rats. When the people get fed up with the rats, they call for a rat piper. Keith, a regular piper, pretends to be a rat piper, who is paid to pipe the rats out of town. Maurice organizes the whole con. Maurice, Keith, and the rats split the money. Maurice wants the money to set up a nice cat retirement. Keith just wants to play his pipe. The rats want the money to buy a boat and find an island where the rats can live in peace, away from the humans. The group is trying to con Bad Blintz when something suspicious begins. There are no other rats than the educated ones, the rat catchers are sketchy characters, and there is an abundance of poison and rat traps. Something is up in the city, and Maurice, Keith, the rats, and a local girl, named Malicia, try to figure out what is going on in the city.

Characters

Maurice

Maurice is an educated, talking cat who is set on making his fortune. He has a questionable set of morals and has no problem conning people. His dream is to have a cushy life where he is fed well and gets pet a lot. He is a very practical, realistic person, which leads to conflict between him and Malicia. As time goes on, Maurice grows closer to the rats and to Keith, and learns to let go of his own wants in order to help those he cares about. He is a very interesting main character, being a person whose actions the reader wouldn't normally approve of.

Keith

Keith is an orphan who was raised by the Musician's Guild in Ankh-Morpork. He learned how to play the pipe there. For most of the novel, Keith is referred to as the stupid-looking kid, and for much of the novel, he acts that way. Keith's only want is to be able to play the pipe. Keith identifies himself more with the rats than with humans, and this is what leads him to realize that he must assert himself into te ongoing events rather than just playing his pipe.

Malicia

Malicia is the daughter of the Mayor of Bad Blintz. She has a very active imagination due to th amount of books that she reads. She believes that real life should be like a fantasy stories, and is always looking for secret trapped doors, fantasy-like back stories, and other common book plots. As the story goes on, she realizes that life is not just a big story and the ending is not always exactly like a storybook ending.

Dangerous Beans

Dangerous Beans is the intellectual leader of the Educated Rats. He is physically weak, small, and is an albino, but makes up for it with his brains. Dangeroous Beans sets down the moral code for the rats and organized their goal to find a human-free island for rats to live on. He is, though, fascinated by the ideas of the book called Mr. Bunsy, in which humans and rats live in harmony, but he has little hope that this is possible in real life.

Peaches

Peaches is the first educated rat that Maurice met. She is the scribe for the educated rats, writing down the moral rules that Dangerous Beans thinks up and created an entire written rat language. She also carries around a copy of Mr. Bunsy with her at all times. She and Dangerous Beans are the two most intellectual of the rats, and are the main promoters of the rat island idea.

Hamnpork

Hamnpork is the leader of the educated rats, and represents the older generation of rats. He appoves more of the old ways, before they were educated rats. He is the "back in my day" generation. He fears getting his power overthrown by a younger, more powerful rat. He, by the end of the book, also changes his ways, realizing the need for the new ways of life as well as the old.

Darktan

Darktan is the leader of the Trap Disposal Squad, whose purpose is to dismantle all of the rat and mouse traps before someone gets hurt. He is strong and is a viable replacement for Hanmpork as leader, but Darktan does not want to be leader. He enjoys his work as a Trap Disposer. He is practical, and at the beginning of the book, finds little use for intellectual thinkers like Dangerous Beans and Peaches. By the end of the book, though, Darktan realizes that everyone has there purpose. He realizes that the intellectuals are important for the future of the rats and that it is his destiny to become leader someday.

Nourishing

Nourishing is not much of a main character, but is a very interesting character nonetheless. She is a young, scared rat that has not yet found her place in the colony. She is usually found helping out Darktan with whatever he is doing. Over the course of the novel, Nourishing overcomes her fear and becomes a strong, brave rat herself.

Sardines

Sardines is an educated rat he grew up around a theatre. He wears a hat and has a cane and he dances. He is one of the most outgoing rats when it comes to getting the local people's attention. He has been known to swim, dance, and steal dentures out of people's mouthes. He is not exactly a main character, but he is funny and is important in turning Darktan into the leader he was meant to be.

Conclusion

This book is one of the best I have ever read. It has so many main characters and so many that change over the course of the book. The book ends well and is unpredictable up throughout the book. It also has a perfect mix of humor and seriousness. 9.5 waffles out of 11.

 

Brain Spill Movie Review #3

John Carter

Setting

John Carter takes place in post-Civil War Earth, but the majority of the story takes place on Mars. On Mars in this world, there are human-type people and martians, known as Tharks, who are tall, green, and have tusks and four arms. There is also a race known as the Thurns. The Thurns control the power of a mysterious energy source known as the ninth ray.

Summary

On Mars, or  Barsoom, there is a war going on. The mobile city of Zodanga is at war with the city of Helium. The Thurns have taken the side of Zodanga and their king, Sab Than. This has given the power of the Ninth Ray, which makes Zodanga near unstoppable. To halt the onslaught of Zodanga, the general of Helium has agreed to marry off his daughter, Princess Dejah Thoris, to Sab Than. Meanwhile on Earth, John Carter is a treasure hunter, looking for a cave of gold. While looking, he comes across a Thurn and is accidentally transported to Mars. Carter discovers that while on Mars, he is much stronger than others on Mars, able to punch harder and jump higher. Carter soon gets himself into the center of the Martian conflict, trying to save Dejah from the marriage and save Helium from destruction.

Characters

John Carter

John Carter is an interesting character. At the beginning of the movie, he is a treasure hunter, not wanting to get involved with the conflicts of others, namely between the United States and the Apache. John Carter develops well, changing from an indifferent man, looking out for his own good, into a man who cares enough to try to save the princess and Helium. This movie does a good job at developing its main character.

Dejah Thoris

Dejah Thoris is the princess of Helium. She is smart and comes close to discovering the power of the ninth ray, and would have if not for Thurn sabotage. She is a less interesting character, whose motives include not getting married to Sab Than, discovering the mysteries of the ninth ray, and saving Helium from destruction.

Tars Tarkas

Tars Tarkas is the leader of the Tharks, a once-great power of Mars. Tarkas is more interesting than he looks at first glance. He is the one who spares John Carter's life multiple times within the movie. He sees something in Carter that other Tharks do not. He sees Carter as a symbol of change. He hopes for change within his traditional tribal culture and change so that the Tharks can once more become a great nation.

Sola

Sola is the daughter of Tars Tarkas. She is shamed for messing up and making mistakes many times. She has led to so many mistakes that she has to run away from the Thark tribe with Carter and Dejah to avoid death.

Matai Shang

Matai Shang is the leader of the Thurns, who are the controllers of the Ninth Ray and the so-called messengers of the great Goddess. The job of Shang is to make sure that the Ninth ray is not discovered where the Thurns do not want it to be and that it stays as a mysterious force to be feared. To do this, the Thurns give the Ninth Ray only to arrogant warlords who would only use the Ray for destruction.

Sab Than

Sab Than is the arrogant warlord referred to in the above section of the article.

Conclusion

John Carter was, overall, a very good movie. It was interesting and I enjoyed it. It would probably have kept my mom awake in a movie theatre, which is saying a lot. I think that the problem that John Carter had in the box office was that it had too small of a fan base and too small of an advertising scheme to get people interested in the movie. Nine stars out of eleven.

Brain Spill Movie Review #2

Source Code

Setting

Source Code takes place in a military lab of some sort, after a bomb destroys two trains somewhere in the vicinity of Chicago. The main character is within a computer program known as the Source Code, which allows him to go back before the train explodes.

Summary

Captain Colter Stevens wakes up after fighting in Afghanistan to find himself on a train with a woman named Christina Warren. After eight minutes on the train, it blows up. Stevens wakes up again within the Source Code, though he has no idea how he got there. Captain Colleen Goodwin, his contact, and Dr. Rutledge, the head of the Source Code program, explain that the Source Code allows Stevens to relive the last eight minutes of someone's life. In this case, that life is of a man on a bombed train. Stevens's job is to find out who the bomber is in order to stop the bomber from striking again. Stevens, as the story goes on, realizes more about his life from the past two months and becomes suspicious of those who are running the Source Code.

Characters

Captain Colter Stevens

Captain Colter Stevens is the main character of the story. After waking up on the train within the Source Code, Stevens wants to find out how he got there and who the people of Source Code were. As he continues to go into the Source Code, he begins to want to change what happened rather than find out who the bomber was. Stevens discovers that much has changed in his life over the past few months. Stevens, rightfully so, is the most interesting character in the story.

Christina Warren

Christina Warren is the travelling companion of Stevens on the train in the Source Code. Her main role in the story is as a person that Stevens wants to save from her fate of dying on the train. She is what convinces Stevens to use the Source Code as a past-altering tool rather than as an infromation gathering device.

Captain Colleen Goodwin

Captain Goodwin is the main contact Stevens has while inside the Source Code. She gives him advice, instructions, and sends him back onto the train. Over the course of the movie, Goodwin and Stevens learn more about one another, and Goodwin starts to help Stevens in his quest to save Christina from the explosion.

Dr. Rutledge

Other than the bomber, Dr. Rutledge is the closest thing to an antagonist that there is. Rutledge, instead of worrying about the bomber, the people on the train, and Stevens himself, is worried about this mission because it is the mission that determines whether or not the Source Code is militarily useful. Rutledge, though he pretends to be worried about people's lives, is worried about the success of Source Code and himself.

Conclusion

Source Code had its good points and bad points. It was one of those movies that was good, but at some points, you just want to walk away because one of the characters is being so dumb. The plot was a new and interesting one and I enjoyed it greatly 6.5 out of 11 penguins

Brain Spill Movie Review #1

Brave

Setting

Brave takes place in a Scottish Kingdom in medieval times. Stories in the movie tell of a kingdom ruled by four brothers until one brother tried to control too much power and turned against the other brothers, taking all the power for himself. In the movie, the land is ruled by four clans: the king's clan along with the clans Macintosh, Macguffin, and Dingwall.

Summary

Merida, the daughter of the king, loves to ride her horse and do archery. Her mother, Elinor, and father, Furgus, (but mainly her mother) have planned for her to be betrothed to one of the three firstborn sons of the three clans. Merida does not want this, and when the time comes, she shoots for her own hand, being the firstborn of King Furgus. In anger, Merida cuts down a tapestry her mother had worked on for a long time. Elinor then throws Merida's bow into the fire. Merida runs of into the woods and finds a witch, who she pays to change her mother. Merida gives a fruit tart given to her by the witch to her mother, who promptly turns into a bear. The story is about how Merida tries to turn her mother back into a human.

Characters

Merida

Merida is the main character of the story, the princess of the kingdom. She likes archery and horseback riding. She also is completly against getting married. Pixar makes a point of making Merida seem prideful in the beginning, especially when it come to her mother. Merida blames her mother for everything revolving around the unwanted betrothal to one of the sons of the clan leaders. Merida really wants to be free.

Elinor

Elinor is the Queen of the kingdom and has set up the whole betrothal, which is not surprising, given that she basically runs the country for her husband, Furgus. Everybody seems to listen to her, except for Merida. This really bugs her. She, at the beginning of the movie, shows the attitude of an overbearing mother. This overbearing-ness along with Merida's pride are what drives the plot forward in the story. The two attitudes continually clash.

Furgus 

Furgus is the king of the whole kingdom, though his wife basically runs the kingdom for him. He is a strong king, but is missing a leg due to an encounter with a bear. He is an interestingly stupid character with little change throughout the story. He has trouble keeping the clans from fighting with one another and with him.

The Triplet Brothers

The Brothers are not at all main characters and probably have no voice parts in the entire movie, but they do play a main role in getting people stuff. They help get Elinor out of the castle after she turns into a bear. The brothers also get the key from Maudie after Merida gets locked in the bedroom. They're mainly just in the movie, though, to add some comedy to the movie.

Lords Macintosh, MacGuffin, and Dingwall

The Lords are important because they add a sense of urgency to the betrothal and marriage of Merida. The Lords are the loose connections that the King has with the clans. The three sons of these three lords are the possible suitors, and Merida's fight for her own freedom puts the Kingdom on the verge of civil war. These lords provide an urgency to the plot.

Conclusion

The movie is very good, with a good plot, but has trouble mixing humor and seriousness. I believe that this movie is beginning of a new chapter for PIXAR. All of the other movies of PIXAR are comedic, while this movie has a much more serious plot. Though it is not the best PIXAR movie, it was very good. I give it 8 out of 11 penguins.

Brain Spill Book Review #7

The Hunger Games

Setting

The Hunger Games is a book written by Suzanne Collins about America in a distopian future. The Capitol is the center of wealth and the government and controls the twelve districts around it. The twelve districts were forced into submission after a large inter-district rebellion. As a warning to the other districts, the capitol completely destroyed a thirteenth district by bombing it. As part of the post-rebellion agreement, each district must give the resources it produces to the people back in Capitol. Also, once a year, each district must provide two tributes, a boy and a girl, for the Hunger Games The tributes, all of which are between the ages of 12 and 18, will then be put in a large arena where they must fight to the death.

Summary

Our story is told from the perspective of Katniss Everdeen, a 16-year-old from the poor area of District 12. Katniss lives with her mother and younger sister, Prim. To feed her family, Katniss illegally hunts outside of the borders of her district with her friend Gale. When her sister is chosen as tribute for the Hunger Games, Katniss volunteers to take her place. A boy named Peeta is chosen as the male tribute from District 12. Peeta and Katniss, along with Effie and Haymitch, their trainers, go to the Capitol. The story revolves around the two tributes trying to gain the support of sponsors from Capitol and fighting for their lives in the Games themselves.

Characters

Katniss

Katniss is the narrator of the story. She is also, in my opinion, the most annoying character in the entire book. The whole time, Katniss is always angry, or sad, or suspicious, and that's not all. Katniss goes on to describe in detail how angry, sad, etc. she is at certain people. Yes, I understand she is fighting for her life, but can't she just show happiness a bit more? The one time she does show trust and is not acting is when she is with Rue. 

Peeta

Peeta is the other tribute from District 12. He seems better than Katniss because at least his actions are nicer and are actually nice instead of pretending to be nice for personal gain. He does happen to be lovesick with Katniss, which is his main annoying quality. He doesn't seem to realize (even though he helped plan this) that Katniss is only pretending to be in love so that she can get them sponsors and get them out alive. Whatever.

Gale

Gale is Katniss's hunting buddy from District 12. He's sort of not really mentioned too much other than that he is, like Katniss, in a situation where he is supporting the rest of his family. He mainly appears asa kind-of-sort-of-maybe love interest for Katniss which is keeping her from falling for Peeta. We know he is annoyed at the Capitol and that he takes his anger out while he's in the woods. He also helps to support Katniss's family when she leaves for Capitol.

Haymitch

Haymitch is the coach of Katniss and Peeta. He's their coach because he's the only living winner of the Hunger Games from District 12. He is also a major drunkard. He is, in my opinion, one of the most interesting characters. We can see his fear of the past through his continual drinking, which he uses to keep down the memories of his time in the Hunger Games and his time coaching tributes who he watch die in later Hunger Games. We can also see his attempt to save at least one of the tributes by focusing the sponsor's gifts on Katniss.

Rue

Rue is a tribute from District 11 who becomes allies with Katniss partway through the games. she brings out the best in Katniss, mainly because she reminds Katniss of Prim. Rue is 12 years old, and is the youngest tribute that year. Katniss allies with Rue because Rue reminds her of home. Because of this, Rue brings out the little happiness we see in Katniss, which is, besides herself, something that only Prim, Gale, and (until he died) Katniss's father.

Effie

Effie isn't really important, but I want to clear something up. Some might say that Effie is more annoying than Katniss, but that is not true. Effie, with her strange catchphrases and colored wigs, is a comical sort of annoying. She brings a sort of light tone to a dark plot. Katniss is just depressing.

Conclusion

The book is a good, intense read, even though I don't like Katniss. The book mixes moments of emotion with moments of action. In the book, the idea of an over-powerful government which people are fighting against is always interesting and always popular. I give it 7 waffles out of 11.  

Brain Spill Book Reviews #6

Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen

By H. Beam Piper

Anybody who has done a little bit of reading in the genre of science fiction knows the idea of alternate universes. This is the idea that whenever somebody or something makes a choice, two universes are formed: one where the person made the chose one thing, and one where a person chose the other. Lord Kalvan is an alternate universe book, but to the extreme level. A group of people, known as the Paratime, are able to travel through the thousands of alternate universes that there are, and they have taken it up upon themselves to keep order within these universes. One time, on accident, a Paratime trooper accidentally encounters a Pennsylvania policeman, Calvin Morrison. Morrison shoots the trooper, but is accidentally transported to another universe, which Morrison refers to as Otherwhen. Calvin, known as Kalvan in Otherwhen, becomes a powerful leader in the Otherwhen kingdom of Hostigos. The story revolves around the Paratime trying to track Kalvan, the wars between Hostigos and other kingdoms, and Kalvan trying to bring down the over-powerful house of Styphon, a religous group with the only knowledge of gunpowder. Although much of the story is politics and war strategy rather than action, the book has an interesting concept and plot. One of the most interesting things the book brings up is the reorganization of language and territory in eastern North America.

Picture from http://www.listal.com/viewimage/50412h