Recenzija na hrvatskom nalazi se ispod recenzije na engleskom ?
There have been plenty of reviews of romantic novels lately on this blog, don't you think? Why not to mix it up a little?
Here's one a bit different ??
I've read reviews that compared this series with Divergent and Hunger Games, and that was enough for me to pick it up. I was, for a long while, looking for a book series with both fantastic and romantic elements so this dystopian one looked like the right choice.
Today I'm writing about the first three novels in The Gender Game series: The Gender Game, The Gender Secret and The Gender Lie.
The world Violet Bates lives in has long ago been divided to East and West. In East, there lies kingdom of Matrus, where women rule. In West, there's Patrus, the land of men. Between them, there is a river nobody ever crosses on their own.
The men who live in Matrus must submit to the laws of women. The only thing they can ever do is work physically. The women who live in Patrus have no rights but the ones men give them.
We meet young Violet, a girl who tries to send her brother across the river, where, as a boy, he could have a chance for a better life. But her plan fails, her brother gets taken away and the first chance she gets to see him again she gets many years later.
This is where our story begins.
Violet must move to Patrus, marry a man and retrieve a certain Matrus' possession that has been stolen. She must do all of that in a society that prohibits any woman to work or even get out of her house alone.
If she fails, there will be war. If she fails, she'll never see her brother again.
This story sounds amazing, new, different. Finally somebody has found a unique way to try and give an answer to the question many were asking for a long time. Who is better, smarter, stronger? Men or women?
Our heroine decides to enter the world that, as a woman, restricts her in every way possible and has to be ready to sacrifice lives of innocent people, lie to the man she's going to use and then set him up with a crime, all for, as they say in Matrus, the greater good.
The most interesting part of this story is, as usual, love. Love between a man born in Patrus and a woman of Matrus. Love between two opposites. Love that speaks about what connects us and not what divides us.
This series poses another question: what should we do when the world we know is the one who is set to destroy us?
Whom to trust? What to believe?
Is there somebody to be loyal to or should we only trust ourselves?
This is the story of the truth. Nobody's perfect. We all hide some secrets, we make mistakes, we all have weaknesses. We're cruel and we can be generous. It's a choice we make.
As J.Locke says: we are born as tabula rasa, and we become what society makes of us. We are what we learn to be. We are the product of the effort society puts in educating us.
Besides the three mentioned novels, there are two more already published, The Gender War and The Gender Fall and two more yet to be, The Gender Plan and The Gender End.
I suppose now you're wondering why haven't I read and commented on those other two published ones.
Because, well, descriptions. As interesting as it was the plot, I cannot (and won't) read books that explain to me, in greatest detail, every single move somebody makes. She was running left, then took a turn right, and there she saw she couldn't jump to the other side, so she returned to the main path...The author makes a big deal of every single step (literally every step) the character makes. And, truthfully, who cares!
I know, I know, we do need descriptions to know how a world different from ours looks like, but the only reason I should read about how a forest looks like is if every single tree in it matters somehow.
The more she tries to illustrate the world, the less I care.
Then, there's a lot of repititon. They have some kind of venomous flies in that world and those creatures are everywhere. It's like the author's thinking hmm, how can we make it dangerous? Oh, I know, let's put some flies in there. Hmm, how to make this scene even more dangerous? Uuuuh, let's add more flies!
Stahaaaap, please!
OK, now I'm stopping too.Please, if you don't mind descriptions of that kind, or you even love it, read this series. This is one truly amazing story that I would genuinely love very much in every other case.
After reading, or if you already did, be sure to leave your comment and share your opinion.See you next week,
Rose ??
Tko je za malo fantastike? Ja znam da ja jesam ??
Na serijal The Gender Games nai�la sam u jednoj recenziji koja ga je uspore�ivala s Igrama gladi i Razli�itom, a ja sam jedva �ekala napokon se do�epati nekog serijala s bilo kakvom fantasti�nom, paranormalnom temom, jer doma�i izdava�i taj �anr prevode �alosno malo. Jesu li samo lijeni ili �ele biti okrutni? U svakom slu�aju, ako me koji �uje, nek' se smiluje! ??
Danas vam donosim recenziju prva tri romana iz serijala: The Gender Game, The Gender Secret i The Gender Lie.
(Serijal nije preveden.)
Svijet koji Violet Bates poznaje podijeljen je na Istok i Zapad. Na Istoku vladaju �ene, u kraljevstvu Matrus, na Zapadu, u Patrusu, vladaju mu�karci. Dijeli ih rijeka koja se ne prelazi.Mu�karci koji �ive u Matrusu pokoravaju se pravilima dru�tva u kojem nadmo� imaju �ene, a zakonom im je dozvoljeno baviti se samo fizi�kim radom. �ene koje �ive u Patrusu pate od iste sudbine. Potpuno su u vlasni�tvu svojih mu�karaca i nemaju nikakvih prava osim onih koje im oni daju.Pri�a po�inje da dan kada mlada Violet poku�a pre�vercati brata preko rijeke kako bi ga poslala u dru�tvo koje �titi mu�karce i po�tedila te�kog �ivota koji ga �eka ako ostane u Matrusu. Njezin plan propada, ona i njezin brat su razdvojeni, a prvu priliku da ga vidi dobiva tek puno godina kasnije.Jedino �to mora u�initi kako bi ostvarila to pravo je oti�i u Patrus, udati se za njihovog mu�karca, i u dru�tvu u kojem nema apsolutno nikakve slobode ili prava, izigravati �pijuna kako bi povratila vlasni�tvo koje je otu�eno iz Matrusa. Tu po�inje na�a pri�a. Ako Violet ne uspije, izbit �e rat izme�u spolova, a ona �e biti jedini krivac. Ako ne uspije, nikad vi�e ne�e vidjeti brata.
Opis ove pri�e zvu�i nevjerojatno, novo, jo� nevi�eno. Napokon je netko na inovativan na�in obradio vje�no pitanje o nadmo�i spolova i krajnosti u koje su oba spola spremna i�i kako bi je dokazali. Tko je ja�i, pametniji, bolji? Mu�karci ili �ene?
Na�a heroina dobrovoljno je u�la u dru�tvo koje od nje tra�i da na ulicu izlazi isklju�ivo u pratnji mu�karca, a njezino vlastito dru�tvo od nje je zahtijevalo da �rtvuje �ivote nevinih ljudi i zlo�in smjesti jo� nevinijem mu�karcu, rekli su, za op�e dobro.
Ono �to mi je posebno zanimljivo u serijalu u kojem se suprotstavljaju �enski i mu�ki rod iz dva razli�ita svijeta, je, poga�ate, ljubav. Ona koja umjesto razli�itosti isti�e ljudske sli�nosti. Ona koja odgovara na pitanje kako �e se njihovi svjetovi okrenuti kad se ljudi iz dvije razli�ite kulture zaljube.
Drugo va�no pitanje koje ovaj serijal postavlja je �to u�initi kada je njihov vlastiti svijet taj koji uni�tava njihovu obitelj?
Kome ostati vjeran, odan, lojalan? �to u�initi kada se svijet koji smo poznavali okrene naglava�ke?
Postoji li itko kome mo�emo vjerovati ili smo zaista sami?
Ovo je pri�a o istini. Nitko nije savr�en, svi mi skrivamo tajne, svi grije�imo i svi imamo svoje slabosti. Svi smo mi okrutni i svi mo�emo biti velikodu�ni. Sve je samo stvar odabira. Slo�ila bih se ovdje s tvrnjom J.Lockea, �ovjek se rodi kao tabula rasa, a dru�tvo je ono koje od njega (ne)obrazovanjem u�ini �ovjeka ili �udovi�te.
Uz tri nastavka koje sam u ovom tekstu ukratko prokomentirala za sada su objavljena jo� dva, The Gender War i The Gender Fall, a o�ekuju se jo� The Gender Plan i The Gender End. Pitate se za�to sam prokomentirala smo tri od njih pet?
Zbog, hmm. tehni�kih problema. �ak i uz posebno zanimljivu temu ovog serijala, nisam mogla pretrpjeti naporan na�in pisanja. Pod naporan mislim predetaljan, a ve� sam odavno shvatila da taj problem imam sa svakom distopijskom knjigom koju uzmem u ruke. Okej, razumijem, treba do�arati taj univerzum, ali zaista ne treba opisivati svaku sitnicu. Da, trebamo znati kako taj novi svijet izgleda ako je to svijet druga�iji od na�eg, ali zar zaista trebamo �itati o svakom detalju i zar ga stvarno treba opisivati taman kad lik tr�i kako bi spasio �ivot? (Nepotrebni?) opisi koji razvodnjuju radnju, razvodnjuju i moje zanimanje. Detaljni izvje�taj izgleda krajolika kojim netko �e�e nikome nije od va�nosti, pa i da je okupan �istim zlatom, ako nije bitan za radnju. Dosad ste me ve� upoznali pa znate da nemam ja vremena za to. Previ�e me knjiga �eka. Tako da, unato� tome �to me zanima kako �e ovaj serijal zavr�iti, ne�u �itati dalje od tre�eg nastavka.
Ah, da, tu su i muhe. Skoro sam zaboravila na muhe. Muhe su otrovne i privla�i ih krv pa je ta jadna �ivina doslovno svugdje. Taman kad je scena sama po sebi opasna, ajd' pogodite, autorici ba� sad trebaju jo� i muhe.
Dobro, dosta, gasim se.
Ako imate vi�e �ivaca od mene i ne smetaju vas opisi, ili pak je to upravo �to smatrate pravom �ari ovakvog �anra, onda ovaj serijal toplo preporu�ujem. Da me ne smeta ono �to me smeta, ja bih se u njega odmah zaljubila.
Sad kre�em u potragu za novim paranormalnim naslovom i nadam se da �e me taj sljede�i oboriti s nogu. Do tada, komentirajte i �itajte...
Rose ??
P.S. hajdemo nabaciti jednu nagradnu ????
Prve dvije osobe koje komentiraju ovaj post (komentar ne mo�e biti anoniman) osvajaju svaka po jednu knjigu sa slike. Tko prvi komentira, bira knjigu.
U darivanju mo�e sudjelovati bilo tko, ali zbog po�tarine, knjige �aljem samo na adresu u Hrvatskoj. U obzir se uzimaju samo prva dva komentara na ovom postu (ne na fejsu!). Nakon �to objavite komentar, javite mi se u inbox :)
(Darivanje vrijedi do 22.6.2017.)
Sretno svima!
