I'm sure some of my SF comrades will dismiss these novels as "escapist young adult fiction." Fair enough. Maybe I'm just immature (my wife will vouch for that in a heartbeat ;-). But I'd list two recent "young adult" fiction series among my all-time favorites, and The Hunger Games ranks beside Harry Potter in that category for me. Both are simply tremendous examples of the storyteller's art. Both feature protagonists, antagonists, and supporting casts of characters who grab the reader's imagination and refuse to let go. And I'll make a confession: The Hunger Games is the first trilogy I can remember that hooked me so profoundly that I re-read it, start to finish, as soon as I digested the last line of the last book.