The Hunger Games X - The Song of a Bird and a Snake
The Hunger Games X - The Song of a Bird and a Snake (Original title: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes - A Hunger Game Novel) is a dystopian novel by the American author Suzanne Collins . This is a spin-off and prequel of The Hunger Games ( original title: The Hunger Games ). It was published in German by Oetinger-Verlag on May 19, 2020 . The American publisher Scholastic announced a first edition of 2.5 million copies for the publication. The protagonist of the novel is the villain Coriolanus Snow, known from the Panem trilogy. In the prequel, however, the future President of Panem is only 18 years old. The focus of the plot are the 10th Hunger Games, so the novel takes place 64 years before the first volume of the original trilogy , in which Katniss Everdeen took part in the 74th Hunger Games.
action
Eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is chosen as one of 24 students from the Capitol Academy to mentor the 10th Hunger Games. For Coriolanus, whose family lost their prosperity during the war years, this is a unique opportunity, as the winner's mentor can win prize money with which he could finance his studies at the university. To his dismay, he was given the female tribute from District 12, which basically had a poor chance of victory. However, the selected girl - Lucy Gray Bird - quickly catches the Capitol's attention as she sings at the harvest. Coriolanus greets Lucy Gray at the train station when she arrives in a cattle wagon with the other tributes. Coriolanus and Lucy Gray get along straight away.
Coriolanus visits the tributes that are held captive in the zoo's monkey enclosure several times. There he also meets Sejanus Plinth, another mentor, whose family originally comes from District 2, but were able to buy their way into the Capitol thanks to their wealth. Since the tribute from the Capitol is not supplied with food, Coriolanus begins to bring food from the academy to Lucy Gray, with other mentors following him. This ends, however, when another mentor, Arachne Crane, is murdered by her tribute Brandy because Arachne had withdrawn a sandwich from her. Brandy is then shot. When the academy was discussing how the Hunger Games could remain interesting for the people of Panem, Coriolanus was commissioned to produce an exposé in which he worked out the concept of bets and the possibility of sponsors being able to send food to the tributes. Dr. Gaul, the supreme game maker, takes these ideas into the Hunger Games.
During a tour of the dilapidated arena of the Capitol, where the Hunger Games are supposed to take place like every year, some bombs explode, killing several tributes and mentors. Some of the remaining mentors and tributes take part in a television interview to attract sponsors. Before the start of the Hunger Games, Coriolanus gives Lucy Gray the powder compact of his deceased mother as a souvenir and subtly advises her that she can fill it with rat poison from the monkey enclosure. When the Hunger Games began, there were only 14 tributes left, the others had already died from bombs, disease or starvation. Sejanus, mentor of Marcus, the male tribute from District 2, sneaks into the arena at night to die a martyr for hating the Capitol and the Hunger Games. Coriolanus is then led by Dr. Gaul persuaded to also enter the arena to get Sejanus out. When leaving the arena, both are attacked by some tributes, in the tumult Coriolanus kills the male tribute from District 8. Meanwhile, the Capitol had blacked out the transmission screen.
When Coriolanus learns that snake mutations should be released in the arena, he leaves a handkerchief used by Lucy Gray in the snake box so that they get used to their smell and do not attack them later. Lucy Gray manages to use the snakes as a weapon. Through this and through the rat poison, she succeeds in remaining as the last tribute and being declared the winner. However, Coriolanus is confronted with the handkerchief and powder compact, implying that he cheated at the games. He cannot go to the university, instead he volunteers as a peacekeeper in District 12 in the hope of meeting Lucy Gray again. There he also meets Sejanus, who has also become a peacekeeper. Among other things, both are involved in a mission to capture goblins and mocking boobies in order to send them to the Capitol for a study.
Coriolanus meets Lucy Gray and her band, the Covey, again at a gig at Hob. On another occasion, Coriolanus observes Sejanus talking to a black market arms dealer, which leads him to suspect that Sejanus is planning something dangerous. His suspicion is confirmed when he tells him about his plan to flee to the north with a group. Coriolanus manages to record the conversation by means of the goblins and send it to the Capitol in the hope that Dr. Horse discovered it. At another concert Coriolanus follows Sejanus as he sneaks away. Lucy Gray also joins them. Spruce, a resident of District 12, again tells of the escape plan. Sejanus has obtained weapons for this. Lucy Gray's ex-boyfriend, Billy Taupe, and the mayor's daughter, Mayfair, who overheard the conversation, are shot dead by Spruce and Coriolanus. The group returns to the concert, Spruce disappears to hide the weapons.
Sejanus is arrested by peacekeepers and hanged for high treason because Coriolanus' Schnattelpel Dr. Gaul has reached. Lucy Gray tells Coriolanus that she wants to flee north, he decides to join her. She sings the song " The Hanging Tree " to inform Coriolanus of her meeting point for the escape. The next day Coriolanus learns that he has passed the admission test for the officers' school in District 2 and is supposed to leave the next day. However, he wants to flee with Lucy Gray instead. Coriolanus finds the hidden weapons in a house by the lake. When Lucy Gray leaves the house to collect food, Coriolanus realizes that if he destroys the guns, he could return to the Capitol as there would be no evidence of his perpetrator. He also realizes that Lucy Gray, the last witness to the murder, has to think similar things and now fears that she might kill him out of fear. He furiously shoots into the forest several times and then returns to District 12.
There he boarded a hovercraft to District 2, but found himself in the Capitol. Dr. Gaul receives him and explains that she just wanted him to gain experience in the districts and understand the people there better. Coriolanus is now completely convinced of the necessity of the Games and the importance of the Capitol. Dr. Gaul now enables him to study at the university.
As a result, Coriolanus, as a game maker, developed some new ideas for the Hunger Games, such as the food prizes for the winning district as well as the winning village and the prize money for the winners of the Hunger Games. He is also used as the heir to Plinth's fortune. Lucy Gray's fate remains uncertain.
Film adaptation
Lionsgate, the film studio that has already filmed the first three Panem novels, signaled that it would also like to film the prequel.
“We can't wait for Suzanne's next book to be published. We stayed in touch with her while we were writing, and we intend to continue working closely with her on the film. "
literature
- Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games X - The Song of a Bird and a Snake , Oetinger Verlag, 2020, ISBN 978-3-7891-2002-2
Individual evidence
- ^ Alison Flood: Extract from Hunger Games prequel sparks anger among fans. In: The Guardian. January 22, 2020, accessed in 2020 .
- ↑ Dave McNary: Lionsgate Planning 'Hunger Games' Prequel Movie. In: Variety. June 17, 2019, accessed in 2020 .