The Hunger Games vs. Tortall

[xiphias]

cogitationitis just posted about her comparison between The Hunger Games and the Tortall books.

I commented to her, but I thought I'd put some of those thoughts here, too, to get your thoughts about 'em, too.

So, the reason we can do a compare-and-contrast between these works is because we can create a category which includes both sets: perhaps something like "YA stories featuring young female protagonists in violent SF&F worlds."

So, in Tortall, we've got Alanna, Daine, Keladry, Aly, and, jumping back a couple centuries, Beka Cooper. And in Panem, we've got Katniss Everdeen.

Cogitationitis mentioned that she just generally liked Pierce's characters better than she liked Katniss, who's more self-centered and moody. But to me, that actually makes sense for the character.

Pierce's heroines generally have a lot of advantages not available to ordinary folks -- family background, early training, magic, support from gods. Keladry and Aly are from noble families. Kel benefited from childhood martial arts training in the Yamani Isles, Aly from childhood espionage training from her father, Beka from childhood proto-policing training in Lord Gershom's household. Alanna has healing magic, Daine is among the most powerful wild mages the world has ever seen, Beka can talk to wind-spinners and the souls of the dead. Both of Daine's parents are gods (although her mother only apotheosated after death), Aly works for and is supported by Kyproth, Beka is an Initiate of the Black God -- and the constellation Pounce hangs out with and helps Alanna, Kel, and Beka.

Katniss is good with a bow. Hey, she might be the best archer of the group, but Dane and Kel can both shoot, too, so even that's not certain.

Katniss lives in a post-apocalyptic dystopia, while Alanna, Daine, Kel, and Aly live in a monarchy with rulers who are dragging their country into a more egalitarian, free, equal, and just society. By Aly's time, Tortall is getting close to where we are now, in the United States -- not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but definitely getting downright livable in parts. Beka's world is one of inconsistent and uneven justice, but at least it doesn't have structural injustice. Her world isn't designed to be unfair, the way Katniss's is.

Of course Katniss isn't as likable as the rest -- nobody else was smashed down as hard as she was.

But if I were to write a crossover fanfic between Panem and Tortall, I'd want to see Beka and Katniss together. They've got the most in common -- both grew up in grinding poverty, both were motivated by wanting to protect their own because nobody else could or would, both, over time, had to expand the scope of what "their own" means. Neither is much good at the whole "talking with people" thing, nor does either make friends easily. However, both have enough integrity that the DO make good, solid friends once the actually get to KNOW people.

Comments

[cellio]

I don't know the Tortall books, but the comparison that kept coming to mind as I read the second half of the Hunger Games trilogy was Ender's Game.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

That really does seem to be a much closer match in terms of plot and of tone.

Hey, shout-out to all my YA-librarian homies -- is Ender's Game one of the books that y'all put out as an "If you Liked This You Might Like That" for Hunger Games?

[cogitationitis.livejournal.com]

I think the biggest difference is that, unlike Ender, Katniss tolerates a fault in herself that she won't tolerate in others: she derides her mother for sinking into depression after her father's death, yet she does so twice over the course of the books. At the end of Ender's Game, and indeed throughout it, Ender feels bad for what he's forced to do, and as soon as nobody's pulling his strings, he tries to right the wrong he's done. Instead, Katniss just goes and hides herself away and wallows in self-pity.

Perhaps if Katniss had a little more pity for her mother, or fought against the role dictated for her harder, or hadn't sunk into depression twice, I might like her better. Instead, she comes off as shallow and whiny.