Trilogy

'Red Riding' trilogy MPAA rating: Unrated Running time: 5 hours, 5 minutes Playing: At the Nuart Theatre in West Los Angeles

Insurgent A Novel Veronica Roth Katherine Tegen Books, 544 pp.: $17.99, for readers age 14 and up There's no questioning the impact of "The Hunger Games. " Its success has given birth to an explosion of dystopian young adult literature that invariably unfolds in some environmentally compromised, governmentally bizarre future version of the United States. The more successful books in the genre rearrange society in ways that are unfamiliar and inventively oppressive, creating a perfect petri dish for young heroines to rise up against their circumstances in ways that not only reveal their inner strengths but lead to romance.

At the 1994 Cannes Film Festival, fans of Krzysztof Kieslowski found their hearts lifted. And then broken. The Polish master was on the Riviera with the magnificent "Red," the final panel in his "Three Colors" triptych and a film widely expected to receive the Palme d'Or, even by Quentin Tarantino, whose "Pulp Fiction" took the honors instead. But for devotees it wasn't the disappointment of laurels denied that was hard to bear; it was Kieslowski's announcement that he was retiring from filmmaking.

The False Prince A Novel Jennifer A. Nielsen Scholastic: 344 pp., $17.99, ages 10 and older Most children want to be recognized as someone special. In "The False Prince," Jennifer A. Nielsen takes that desire to an extreme with a romp of a medieval-themed, middle-grade novel. This kickoff to her new "Ascendance Trilogy" is a swashbuckling origin story about orphans forced to compete with one another for a chance to take the crown. The book opens with a boy running through the streets being chased by a cleaver-wielding butcher hoping to retrieve a stolen roast.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based computer maker said it agreed to pay plaintiffs $1.6 million in cash and 4.5 million of its common shares to settle a class-action suit filed in federal court Dec. 20. The suit, filed by shareholders, alleged violations of state and federal securities laws in the sale of Trilogy common stock between Nov. 9, 1983, and Aug. 14, 1984.

Under terms of the agreement, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company would issue about 38 million shares of common stock to holders of ELXSI, a privately owned company that develops and makes large computer systems for the engineering and scientific market sectors. As a result, ELXSI holders would own just under one-half of the combined companies. A Trilogy spokesman said the merged company would probably be called Trilogy, with ELXSI operating as a subsidiary.

Unless you thought of visiting the Warehouse for the first time in 15 years, or thought the Apache Club West was still happening or you have a hobby of driving around light industrial zones looking for places to eat, you probably won't come across Trilogy, a new restaurant in an old club space right off Olympic Boulevard on Stoner Avenue in West Los Angeles. You'll recognize it by a well-lit logo painted on an outside wall: three buff, naked angels behind a strategically placed banner.

Home Box Office is having admirable success reviving the omnibus TV series, most notably with its popular horror anthology show "Trilogy of Terror." This weekend, the cable network presents a trilogy of terror of a distinctly different sort with the triple-headed premiere of "Women & Men: Stories of Seduction," which in fact offers stories less about seduction than about subsequent romantic withdrawal, paranoia and betrayal. Now that's scary.

A trailer for "The Host" -- the new book-to-movie project by "Twilight" author Stephenie Meyer -- premiered right around the time that moviegoers were taking their seats for the first screening of"The Hunger Games. " Why is this news? "The Host" doesn't open in theaters until March 29. Of 2013. Is this all a coincidence? We think not. It wasn't all that long ago that Meyer was pretty much the reigning princess of young adult literature with her wildly successful "Twilight" trilogy-turned-film phenomenon.

"To the Ends of the Earth," the latest goody from "Masterpiece Theatre," PBS' long-standing English Embassy of the Air, adapts a seafaring trilogy by William Golding, best known as the author of "The Lord of the Flies."

With all the hype surrounding the opening of "The Hunger Games," it wouldn't be surprising if your 7-year-old was as psyched to see the dystopian sci-fi drama as your mother-in-law. But the "games" of the title here spotlight kid-on-kid homicide, so choosing this PG-13-rated film as a date with your youngster might not be the best parenting move. If your child is approaching puberty though, Suzanne Collins' trilogy of books centered on the futuristic world of Panem, might have already been assigned as required reading by his or her middle-school English teacher.

A trailer for "The Host" -- the new book-to-movie project by "Twilight" author Stephenie Meyer -- premiered right around the time that moviegoers were taking their seats for the first screening of"The Hunger Games. " Why is this news? "The Host" doesn't open in theaters until March 29. Of 2013. Is this all a coincidence? We think not. It wasn't all that long ago that Meyer was pretty much the reigning princess of young adult literature with her wildly successful "Twilight" trilogy-turned-film phenomenon.

Archery had long been relegated to the realm of men in tights, apples atop heads and junior high summer camp. Then came "The Hunger Games. " The hit young-adult trilogy debuted in 2008, starring a heroine in a post-apocalyptic future who wields a bow and arrow to survive in gladiator-style contests. Key to the plots are several of Katniss Everdeen's dramatic shots and the increasingly advanced designs of her bows and arrows (including explosive shafts), as well as the rebellious symbolism of her archery skills.

Four years ago, "Child 44," Tom Rob Smith's debut thriller set in Stalinist Russia, was a literary sensation. An edgy, intense portrait of Russia's secret police and the lengths they would go to to protect their country's image as a crime-free society, "Child 44" managed to straddle a fine line between well-researched, absorbing historical fiction and propulsive thriller that would earn the book universal praise, sales of more than 1.5 million copies...

A Million Suns A Novel Beth Revis Razorbill: 387 pp. $18.99, ages 12 and older More than 80 years ago, Aldous Huxley imagined a genetically engineered society whose inhabitants were willfully drugged into submission. In the "Across the Universe" trilogy, author Beth Revis takes that pioneering concept and sets it afloat in space with a cast of cloned and cryogenically frozen characters who, in the second installment of this bestselling sci-fi series, become increasingly mutinous.

Ghost Lights A Novel Lydia Millet W.W. Norton: 256 pp., $24.95 Few writers are known for combining dark humor and environmentalism in their fiction; in fact, Lydia Millet may be the only member of that club. For her efforts, in the short story collection "Love in Infant Monkeys," she was named a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize. "Ghost Lights," her first book since then, is the middle novel of a trilogy that began with 2008's "How the Dead Dream. " Literary trilogies may be hard to enter midstream, but Millet has made it easy for those not familiar with the first book to start with this one. Her trick?

In 1944, a 14-year-old boy, future novelist Imre Kertész, was rounded up while on an excursion in the countryside near Budapest and sent to Auschwitz. And then to Buchenwald. Surviving the camps and returning to Budapest, he was asked, simply, by his surviving family and friends, "Where have you been?" In his work, Kertész reflects on how quickly he discovered that no one really wanted to know what he had experienced. And yet, Kertész's entire literary life has been an attempt at answering that simple question in the trilogy of novels, "Fatelessness," "Fiasco" and "Kaddish for an Unborn Child" — an attempt that earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2002.

Thank J.K. Rowling for starting the kid's book craze with "Harry Potter" and Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" saga for perpetuating the trend that has more adults reading children's titles than ever before. The year 2011 has seen an explosion of books catering to this ever-expanding bimodal audience, not only in novels for young adults but increasingly in titles for middle-grade readers, elementary schoolers, even the preschool set. Whether they're penned by the growing legions of bestselling authors who are now writing for a younger audience, or first-time novelists with intriguing stories to tell, this year has been a boon for the genre.

When Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan set out to make vampires frightening again with their novel "The Strain," the writing partners had their work cut out for them. The scariest thing about the sexy, brooding bad boys that seemed to be everywhere in pop culture was just how much of their initial bite they'd lost. Under the right circumstances, you could even take one home to meet Mom. Del Toro and Hogan had a noble aim, and they certainly put their hearts into the endeavor. In "The Strain," the calculating monster known only as the Master embarks on the first phase of his plan to subjugate humanity, stowing away on a plane bound for JFK and infecting the passengers with a virus that turns them into mindless, hairless, crimson-eyed minions who feast on blood through fleshy stingers in their throats.