Catching Fire - by Suzanne Collins

This book carries on very naturally from where the first one left off. Katniss finds herself in a difficult situation, as, although she is being nominally rewarded for winning the Games, she is also strongly out of favour with the Capitol for outwitting them. The story moves on at a very good pace and, like with the first volume, I did not really feel that it was a long book and kept turning the pages.

I wonder whether the world described in these books is intended to be a metaphor for the situation in the world today, where the US is nominally "in charge" and other countries, though not directly oppressed by the US, are dependent upon them as a market for their goods. Or is it simply an extrapolation of other totalitarian regimes such as the Nazis and USSR? There are certainly shades of 1984.

Although, for me, the outcome of this story was not predictable [it was somewhat in the first book], my one criticism is that the ending is wrapped up rather hastily. It is a tidy ending, with some good surprises, but it is covered in just a few pages. I am resisting the urge to read volume 3 straight away ...