Tag: Alternate History

Books

Book 181: The Mark of Athena (The Heroes of Olympus #3) – Rick Riordan

Geoff W

I can’t wait for the next in this series to come out!

When it does, I’m going to re-read the first three all over again because there were so many details I only vaguely recalled AND their just fun reads! (Although this might not happen as The House of Hades‘ scheduled publication is August 2013, but I hope to get the chance!)

From what I do recall from the first two books, this is definitely more action packed and definitely not lacking. However, in the end it was just as much a tease as the others. For the entire book I held out hope that some of the major plot lines of the series would be wrapped up, but only one of them was (which was definitely nice). I was, however, very glad that the seven demigods from the prophecy were finally together and the teen angst in the book definitely added to the plot (although I’ve yet to read an author who does teen angst as well as J.K. Rowling).

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2012 Challenges, Books, The Classics Club

Book 153: 1984 – George Orwell

Geoff W

I started to read this a few months ago, but I just couldn’t get into it in the first few pages. Setting it aside was apparently the right thing to do because when I read it this time I enjoyed everything about it (with the exception of the ending). 1984 counts for both my 2012 Back to the Classics Challenge (20th Century Classic) and The Classics Club.

Once again, as it seems happens more and more frequently, I’m at a loss of how to respond to a novel. I both loved and hated 1984. I thought the ending was a bit tough to get through, but once you got through it the middle of the novel was amazing and kept me wanting to know what happened, but then the ending was let down, even though I get it.

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Books

Book 150: The Enchantress – Michael Scott

Geoff W

[Check out my 2016 re-read here.]

Now THIS is how you end a series. Although I’m definitely sad about quite a few things, it took until the final ten pages for me to find out what was going to happen. And when I realized I scared the dogs because I yelled out ‘NO WAY!’ in excitement and wonder and then jumped up and paced while I read the last few pages.

After the lackluster ending to the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer, I wasn’t sure I wanted to read the last book of Michael Scott’s The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, but I am glad I did. Although I didn’t appreciate it as much as I should have (it’s been over a year since I read book 5), it was definitely an awesome ending! I think I’m going to have to purchase copies of the series and re-read them next year. Good thing work got me a $100 gift certificate to a local book store and I recently purchased to Groupons/Google Local coupons for a total of $50 (I only paid $25) for two local used book stores 😀

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Books

Book 93: The Son of Neptune (The Heroes of Olympus #2) – Rick Riordan

Geoff W

In book two of The Heroes of Olympus cycle, Riordan comes through on the perceived promise of keeping things as exciting as in The Percy Jackson and the Olympians cycle. I’ve already discussed my lack of enthusiasm over the Kane Chronicles so I’ll move right in to this review/summary/pontification.

This novel takes place immediately after the events of The Lost Hero. However, rather than continuing with Leo, Piper and Jason we finally get to catch up with Percy Jackson. Not only do we not find out what happened over the past eight months, he was apparently sleeping, but he also appears with very little recollection of who he is and what he’s done in the recent past. (However, he knows more than Jason – I guess because his story was already written.) Instead of waking up in Camp Half-Blood, he is on the run from various monsters and steadily making his way to Camp Jupiter – a Roman demigod camp located somewhere in California – where all Greeks face a cold welcome.

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Books

Book 90: The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus #1) – Rick Riordan

Geoff W

With The Lost Hero Riordan sucked me into a new series. It definitely helped that this was a continuation of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. It also helped that the Greek pantheon has a stronger sway on mythology and fables that I learned growing up than the Egyptian pantheon which appeared in The Kane Chronicles. I had no intentions of reading this book any time soon, but it came in at the library and I had to read it or send it back. Thankfully I enjoyed it and it was a quick read (550ish pages in two days).

The Lost Hero follows the story of Jason, Piper and Leo from the journey of normal teenagers to demigods. However, not all is as it seems. Although I discovered the ‘secret’ not very far into the book and assumed the last chapter’s revelation earlier than I probably should have, but I assume that comes from the novel being written for a younger audience. Aside from this, I quite enjoyed this series. And how could you not enjoy a series that’s back-to-back action and packed full of Greco-Roman mythology brought into the 21st century?

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