Monday, May 14, 2012

The journey of Suzanne Collins

by Kim Van Sickler

As many people did, I inhaled the Hunger Games series. I deemed author Suzanne Collins to be ridiculously brilliant. I put her on a pedestal and aspired to someday being half as good a writer as her.

And then in April 2012, I drove my daughter and her friend on an obnoxiously long car trip (2,780 miles in one week) and decided to make the most of that dead time by listening to Collins' earlier series, "The Underland Chronicles." They are five books about an eleven-year old Overlander (regular human) boy who turns twelve before the series is complete. In Book One he crawls through an air duct in his NYC apartment building to retrieve his two-year-old sister, and finds himself transported on an extraordinary air current to the Underland.

Listening to Gregor's exploits in Gregor the Overlander, Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane, Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods, Gregor and the Marks of Secret, and Gregor and the Code of Claw, I came to see Suzanne Collins in an entirely different way. I felt like a proud mother watching her child grow up.

The series is good. But it's not brilliant. In so many places I see Suzanne grappling with story arc, pacing, and conflict. Character development of all but a few characters is sketchy. In this series, she spends most of her time wowing us with her gigantic Underworld creatures: fliers (bats), crawlers (cockroaches), gnawers (rats), nibbles (mice), spinners (spiders), cutters (ants), shiners (fireflies), stingers (scorpions), diggers (star-nosed moles), hissers (lizards) and  killers, (humans who are so pale as to be translucent, with silver hair and violet eyes.) Totally appropriate for a middle grade audience, but still, lacking the polish of her later works.

She cut her teeth on this series. She did not spring fully formed into a New York Times best seller and recipient of about twenty-four other prestigious book awards. Rather, she slogged her way through 1,757 pages, developing her trademark style. I got excited whenever I saw a glimpse of the Suzanne Collins to come.

Gregor, her reluctant hero, is endearing because he becomes the caretaker of his two-year-old sister, Boots, while busily trying to fulfill prophecies in the Underland. In Book Two: Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane, when he is charged with killing the Bane, who turns out to be a baby rat, Gregor struggles to decide what to do. A hero with a big heart. Traces of Katniss.

In Book Three: Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods, Gregor and company travel to The Jungle and the Vineyard of the Eyes where carnivorous plants, sentient plants with eyes, lure them into traps they must band together to fight their way out of. Not so different from the bizarre forces of nature in the Arena.

Solovet is the female commander of the human Underlanders, someone who takes her job so seriously that she crosses some very clear ethical lines. Foreshadowing of President Snow.

Ripred is a battle-scarred rat with a heart buried somewhere underneath all the cynicism. He's a master manipulator and reminds me of Haymitch.

Suzanne Collins didn't get where she was with sheer talent. She practiced her craft and honed it admirably in the Underland Chronicles series. It appears that for most of us, even Suzanne Collins, we must put in the time before we reap the rewards. We've got to keep slogging away.

14 comments:

  1. Love the connections you make to Hunger Games! I found the first Gregor book about a year after it was published at my oldest son's school book fair. He and my other sons LOVED the series and eagerly anticipated each installment. I loved watching her writing improve through the series. And when news of Hunger Games impending publication was announced, we pre-ordered a copy. So we have been fans for a long time. I almost liked it better when the whole world didn't know about her books... I was forever throwing Gregor out as a reading suggestion. Not necessary now. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Irene!
      I can see why your sons loved these books. Lots of battles between giant scary critters! My impression is that The Underland Chronicles appealed more to boys than girls. My daughter finally gave in and paid attention towards the end of audio Book Two and her friend never did. But they both loved the Hunger Games series. Maybe because of more character development?

      Delete
  2. LOVE this post! This was a great reminder to keep working on our craft. I was curious about her other series, thanks for the recap (might appeal to my 7 y.o. son).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ooooo. I think this would be fun to read aloud to him. He's going to love two-year-old Boots.

      Delete
  3. Replies
    1. Don't I know it! Just received two rejections on my full manuscript requests on Beached and Grizelda. SLOG!

      Delete
  4. Great post Kim. I think it's a reminder for unpublished and published authors that getting that first book published is only milestone (though a very important one) and not nearly the end of a writer's development of their craft. Sorry to hear about the rejections. I know you'll get there!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the vote of confidence, Eric. Writing is a long journey, not for the fainthearted!

      Delete
  5. I love the comparisons you draw from her series to the characters in HG!
    It's always fascinating to me when traces of an author's previous works overlap into new projects. Great post!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow- I didn't even know she'd written something else! (never honestly thought to look, haha!) This is an awesome post. Just goes to show how we improve the more we write!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know! A five-book series that most of us had never heard of before HG. It's nice they're getting attention now. They deserve it.

      Delete
    2. Hi, Kim!

      My name is Denny. I am from Bulgaria and I am a translator. I've translated The Hunger Games Series, and recently started reading the Underland Chronicles. And up to now I thought that I was the only one who had made these connections. I was glad and surprised to learn that I wasn't Ripred really reminded me of Haymitch, and I agree that Gregor about Solovet though - yes, she is a lot like Snow, but reminds me of President Coin, too. Congratulations on what you have written! I'll be glad if you look for me on skype dennie171

      Delete