A little less Percy Jackson than I like in my Percy Jackson

The Trials of Apollo: The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan

I am obviously a huge fan of the original Percy Jackson series because I am a reasonable person and they are great (my opinion, stated as fact). Generally I enjoyed the next series, although I really missed the intimate storytelling of the first person narrative from Percy Jackson. It’s back for this next series, the Trials of Apollo and it’s not quite everything I  hoped for but pretty close.

There is so much I loved about this book. First of all, Percy Jackson cameo. I wish he was more of a leading character and less of a cameo, but I’ll take it. I always love Percy Jackson, no matter how small his part is. Apollo’s internal voice is hilarious and delightful most of the time – the Me Cabin is an example of a wonderful joke and his character development is a carefully crafted and carries the story forward almost as much as the plot. I love Meg McCaffrey and everything she is and I have nothing else to say about her.

On a deeper level I really appreciated to outright acceptance of both gay and bisexual characters – Apollo’s son Will and his boyfriend Nico are the only functioning couple in the book and that’s fantastic and also very sweet. Although it’s becoming more common, it’s still nice to see some representation in a genre that’s not a coming out novel. Apollo openly declaring that he has only had two true loves, one women and one man and that’s great too. Overall, most LGBT representation kind of boxes off characters into gay or lesbian, so that’s great.

And here there be spoilers. I can’t get over complexity of Meg’s traumatic and abuse filled past. Talking about the devastating effects of Nero’s relationship with Meg and the way he has crippled her emotionally through a monstrous use of fear and kindness is just heartbreaking. Depending on how it is handled in the rest of the books it could be a a great chance to have an abused child become a hero, which would be great.

However, I feel like this book overall could use a bit of tighter edit. I have a feeling that when an author is big enough and their book is sure to be a bestseller that no one takes the time and care they did with the first book to make sure the story is as sharp as it could be. It wasn’t anything make or break it for me, it just struck me that there were a few lines or details that more or less just padded the text and a little more streamlined narrative would maybe make the book a little better.

I would one hundred percent recommend this book and this series to any keen reader and I would totally finish the series, if I get around to it. Percy Jackson, I’m glad your back!

The last movie I watched:

Avatar. I had only seen it once, in theaters in 3D. Incidentally it was when I learned that 3D makes me very nauseous. I enjoyed it much more this time. You know, mostly for the visuals. The plot wasn’t very important.

Last TV show I watched:

A bit of Charmed. It’s always my staple rewatch show and I don’t care what anyone has to say about that.

I am … okay

Lorien Legacy: The Power Of Six by Pittacus Lore

I suppose I should say, in defense of this series, I haven’t read the whole series. I saw the movie, and read one of the other books so maybe I’d enjoy this more if I’d done better with the series.

The second thing is that I listened to it, and I really didn’t like the readers. That can make or break an audiobook, and in this case, it broke for me. The reader for Four’s part wasn’t great but he was okay. The reader for Seven drove me nuts! I don’t know why she read all the parts of the Spanish characters with a terrible Spanish accent if all the characters, including the main character, are speaking Spanish?

Overall I felt this book wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t great – the language wasn’t particularly compelling, and while the story moved along at a good pace, the characters lacked any real depth or characterization, the villains lacked complexity and the story was generally predictable. I liked it well enough, but I’m a snob and I guess I was looking for something a little bit more.

On a more positive note, I enjoyed seeing a love triangle with a boy in the center. If there had to be a love triangle, it was nice to see it wasn’t a girl. After all, boys have feelings too.

I’m sure I’d recommend this series to an older child or young adult – it’s a fast read, plot driven and fun. I’m sure I wouldn’t recommend it to adult snobs.

Last movie I watched:

The first half of My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2. I loved the first one so much it could hardly live up to my expectations, but it’s not bad.

Last TV show I watched:

Legend of Korra. Love it!

The Return of Alcatraz

Alcatraz #5: The Dark Talent by Brandon Sanderson

As usual, I loved, loved, love this book. I just find the writing style, the commentary on writing, the delightful internal dialogue and just the straight wackiness of it. And so, so many librarian jokes.

I was really disappointed in the ending though because it didn’t really end. It was just over and the narrator insisted this was the end of the series and I believed it because I’d heard there was only supposed to be 5 books. It just totally failed to wrap up the story and it made me really sad.

But the more I thought about it, the more I thought it was okay. This abrupt, unhappy ending actually kind of worked with the genre bending, commentary on language and tropes. To have such a surprising, unpredictable ending like that, kind of genius and plays into the whole story really well, even if it didn’t make me happy.

Only then I found out there’s going to be a sixth book. So I guess I’ll have to wait and see how it all ends.

Anyway, I still love and recommend the series completely, even if they’re a little abstract for younger readers.

Last movie I watched:

The Santa Clause? I think. It’s a good one I feel.

Last TV show I watched:

Supernatural. This episode isn’t that great, but we’ll see how it goes.

Tiny Newts!

Rise of Herk: Nnewts #2 by Doug Tennapel

This is the second book in a great graphic novel series which is basically about amphibians and reptiles and lizards in space. The main character is a young Nnewt named Herk who, until the first book, has never grown legs. But as it turns out, he was always meant to be a hero.

I really, really enjoyed this book and like this series a lot. There’s a lot of great stuff in there – fun, bright, illustrations, fast paced, good language for early readers and no doubt a popular choice with young readers.

Last movie I watched:

Part of Sleeping Beauty. Not my favourite.

Last TV show I watched:

Supernatural. So bad and yet, so good.

Not the end of the trilogy?

City of Glass by Cassandra Clare

Okay, it’s been a long time since I actually read this book, but I didn’t want to skip it because I liked it so much.

I really, really liked this trilogy, although as it turns out, she wrote three more afterwards and I’m pretty sure they reprinted them as a … sixlogy?

Last movie I watched:

A Christmas Prince. A Netflix original that was clearly inspired by a Hallmark original. But it was good, for what it was.

Last TV show I watched:

Supernatural. So I guess Mary’s back then? Cool.

Cassandra Clare continues

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

While I had read the first book before, I had not read this one! I loved it of course, as I mentioned in a post not too long ago. For the sake of this, rather short post I am going to compare His Mortal Instruments to Harry Potter. I love them both, and I don’t have a favourite and that’s okay.

But let’s look at the similarities.

Both stories centre around a character who has grown up in the regular world, only to discover that they are in fact the children of supernatural beings and there is an entire world they have been unaware of their whole lives. They learn that an enemy everyone thought was dead is not, and is in fact coming after them. They learn that their parents were part of a secret order and together, with a group of friends and a slightly unusual power, even in this magical world, they defeat the big evil.

Of course, they are also very different. Mortal Instruments starts older – the issues it explores are more about identity, love, parent and child relationships, sexuality and the nature of good and bad. They are older, they have a more complex idea good and evil, their struggles with relationships are more about sexuality and expression and parents are really striped of any hero status.

It’s amazing how different those two stories turned out.

Also I could not adore Magnus Bane more. It’s simply not possible.

Last movie I watched:

A piece of Cinderella III. I didn’t love it, but the kid who I was watching it really seemed to enjoy it

Last TV show I watched:

Shadowhunters. I’m getting over it. Just not quite there yet.

A choice

I am almost 10 books behind on my blog and I was considering giving up. But I’m going to try not to. So here we go:

Summer Tree by Gavriel Kay

This book took me so long to get through, but it was absolutely amazing. It reminded me of Dune in some ways. Like Dune it suffers somewhat from having a million characters and several dozen story lines that can be hard to keep track of. Like Dune, it is a really serious commentary on humanity.

It’s the story of a small group of people who cross from the University of Toronto (which is cool, since I went there) into another world, a fantasy world, right as it needs them the most. Each of them struggle, suffer and make a massive sacrifice in their roles in it’s salvation.

While I read it took long ago to have anything really thoughtful about it now, I definitely recommend it. It’s an adult book for sure, and the writing is slow and careful, but so, so worth it.

Last movie I watched:

Part of Brave. Fun movie. Very Scottish

Last TV show I watched:

Part of Shadowhunters. I’m not sure it’s a great show, but I love it

Newest Obsession

His Mortal Instruments: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

This audio book set off a bit of a trend for me actually, a Cassandra Clare trend. After one really bad movie and one better, although not perfect, TV series, plus having read the book before there isn’t much to say other than, this book is great! I love it and I was happy to listen to it again.

Last movie I watched:

Pirates of the Caribbean. You know what? The first one was really fun. I really liked it.  Obviously they went down hill a little later, but they started off strong.

Last TV show I watched:

Friends.

7 Evil Ex Boyfriends

Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O’Malley

This is another one that I read months ago. I really liked it and understood how it became such a classic. It probably won’t  be my classic, but that’s okay. I support other people’s classics too.

Also, I feel really sorry for Knives the whole time.

Last movie I watched:

Die Hard 2. Not genius but fun!

Last TV show I watched:

The first episode of the Crown. Love it.

Cleopatra in Space!

Cleopatra in Space Book One: Target Practice by Mike Maihack

This incredibly fun little graphic novel for kids is just lovely. Despite having a female lead, it would be a great read for boys, if you can convince them to read. Well, any good book is a great read for boys, regardless of the gender of the main character obviously, but parents and kids tend to reject this radical notion for reasons. That I don’t know. Because that seems silly to me.

Not the point.

Cleopatra, legendary future queen of Egypt isn’t particularly thrilled with the life of a monarch, and would rather be running around shooting things with her slingshot. Until she’s teleported to another planet where everyone things she’s going to be the legendary leader they’ve been waiting for and depending on her incredible skills with a blaster to save them all. And Cleo? She’s always late for class, on any planet.

This graphic novel is fun, fast paced and well illustrated. Cleo is a really likably heroine, and her supporting cast, including her potential new friends and her mysterious cat mentor are great additions. There’s nothing shocking original about an unhappy princess changing her destiny, a reluctant hero or a prophesied saviour who isn’t sure they want to be, but it’s well worth the read anyway. Strongly recommend to kids who are looking for a solid graphic novel series to devour.

Last movie I watched: X-Men Apocalypse. I heard it was awful, went in with very low expectations and actually enjoyed it. So there.

Last TV episode I watched: Stranger Things. Seriously creepy show guys. Great. No regrets, but seriously creepy.