The House of Hades: Heroes of Olympus

It has been nearly a decade since I read the first Percy Jackson book, and the latest novel The House of Hades, was absolutely amazing. It took me a little longer to read this novel than usual, but once I started reading it I couldn’t stop. I love that the Heroes of Olympus series follows so many different characters. It isn’t so much that things get confusing, but following a few characters gives the story more depth and shows more of the storyline.

Gaea is waking, and she isn’t happy with the Gods and Demigods. While this has been coming for many novels, this one takes it to a new level. Not only do the seven demigods chosen for the quest (and Nico makes eight) have to battle titans and giants, but Percy and Annabeth face the manifestation of Tartarus itself. Onc of my favorite things about this novel was that many people that Percy has met for the last nine books come back. Calypso and the titan Bob both play significant roles in this novel. If it wasn’t for the things that Percy had done in previous novels to help them and show them kindness, they would never have gotten as far as living through the end of the novel.

House of Hades follows Percy and Annabeth’s long and dangerous journey through Tartarus, something that no mortal has ever done. At the end of Mark of Athena the two had fallen into the pit, and fell for days. If it wasn’t for their love and determination to keep each other safe, I do not think they would have survived. Not only is the underworld dangerous and deadly on its own, but it is the place that monsters are reborn, and Percy and Annabeth have killed their share of monsters. It is those same monsters that they once slayed that are now coming after them with vengeance. Crossing over the many rivers of Hades’ realm, re-defeating monsters, and trying to survive solely on a liquid fire only to face Tartarus manifested at the Doors of Death push the heroes past their limits. But the two refuse to give up, their friends should be waiting on the other side, and if they can’t make it out, then Earth will be doomed.

While Percy and Annabeth travel the depth of Tartarus, the other five demigods with the help of Nico, head west toward the mortal side of the Doors of Death hoping to free their friends, and destroy the monsters that are trying to come through in order to side with Gaea. Things are not easy for the heroes on Argo II. Nico has to face his demons and isolation, made even more difficult when Jason discovers the real reason Nico tries to stay secluded and who he is in love with. Jason struggles with his loyalties. While he is a Roman demigod, he feels more of a connection to Camp Half-Blood and the Greek friends he has made. Hazel has to accept that she is a daughter of Pluto with the ability to control the mist and starts to ally herself with Hecate. Frank learns secrets of Coach Hedge, and starts learning to raise and control dead armies. And Leo, he was marooned during a battle with Jason’s old wind enemies, and it just happens to be the island of Calypso. Argo II tries to get to the doors of death, but old and new foes are everywhere, trying to break their spirits and their bodies.

I think this is the ultimate penultimate book in the epic saga of Percy Jackson. I hate that I have to wait a year for the final book, but it has been an amazing ride so far!!

The Obsidian Mirror

Years ago, Jake’s father disappeared while working on a mysterious project with his best friend Oberon Venn. Convinced that Oberon actually killed his father, Jake sets out on a mission to prove the man guilty. But things are not quite as they seem when Jake arrives at Wintercombe Abbey, and the longer Jake stays their the stranger things become. Oberon is obsessed with a mirror that he says can transport people in time, claiming that is what happened to Jake’s father.

While Jake isn’t entirely convinced that’s what really happened others are. Sarah, a girl with the ability to turn invisible shows up claiming to be a runaway, but she knows to much about Wintercombe Abbey and the mirror for her appearance to be completely random. And then there is Maskelyne, a man claiming that the mirror is a time traveling devise, that was stolen from him centuries ago. But its not just humans who are looking for the mirror. Minions from another time, and another place have been lurking around the manor, trying to find a way past the protective charms so they can steal the mirror and destroy the human race.

It’s a race not only to get the mirror to work, but to discover the secrets of the others. What are the true purposes of all these different people, and what is it they are planning on doing if they posses the working mirror. Jake doesn’t really care as long as he can find the answer to what really happened to his father. But the more Jake discovers about the mirror and those after it, the more he starts to question his own motives, and weather finding out what happened to his father is worth the consequences.

I thought this book was incredible. I loved the characters, and how their stories unfolded and intertwined with eachother. I couldn’t put it down and was able to finish it in two days. 

There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom!

Growing up in the 90s, Louis Sachar was one of my favorite authors. I read anything and everything by him. Recently I stumbled across a copy of There’s a Boy in the Girls Bathroom while photographing at a school. Apart from the Wayside School Series, had been my favorite book by Louis Sachar. I have a couple hours to kill and stared rereading it. While I am fourteen years older than the first time I read this novel, I still loved it. I smiled at the funny and sweet parts, and honestly cried at a few section toward the end.

            Bradley Chalkers sits in the last row, in the last seat of his firth grade class. No one likes him, and he doesn’t like anyone. He never pays attention in class, always doodling and ripping pages out of his school books. He picks fights and threatens to spit on anyone who doesn’t give him what he wants. Things start to change for his when Jeff Fisher moves to his town. Jeff sits next to him, and tells him he doesn’t mind sitting by him. While they are bot skeptical at first, the two become best friends.

            While Bradley is testing the waters of his newfound friend, the school and his parents worried about his failing grades and lack of social skills force him to start seeing a councilor. Miss. Carla Davis is not like other adult’s. She listens to Bradley, believes what he tells her, and doesn’t force him to do anything he doesn’t want to do. With Carla’s help, Bradley slowly starts to believe in himself and even tries to pay attention in school and do his homework.

            Of course, fifth grade is never that simple, and when Jeff starts to become friends with the other boys in class, it slowly tears him away from Bradley. Bradley begins to retreat back into himself and his old ways, but Carla continues to encourage and believe in him.

            Will Carla’s guidance be enough to help Bradley repair his relationship with Jeff and the other boys, his family, and pull up his grades? Or is Bradley so far gone and full of doubt that no one can help him.

            I love this novel, even as an adult is was a great to reread. I love the dynamics of fifth grade peer pressure and family pressure that this novel deals with. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys Louis Sachar books, Jerry Spinelli novels, and books written by Beaverly Cleary. In general this novel is probably for ages 8-12.

ASYLUM: a thrilling horror tale by Madeline Roux

Dan Crawford cannot wait to start his summer program at New Hampshire College Prep, for once he’ll be around other teenagers who want to learn and who care about their academic futures. When he arrives at the school, he is shown to his dorm in the old sanatorium. Because the regular dorms are being renovated he and the other high schoolers are staying in the old towns asylum that was closed nearly thirty years ago because of the awful torchers and escaped mental patients.

Despite the oddness of his rooming situation, Dan manages to make friends and even lands himself a girlfriend by the first week. However, things don’t stay bright and chipper for long. While exploring the asylum Dan and his friends start to discover weird things, and begin to learn things about the asylum, and the town that the citizens are trying to keep hidden. Soon Dan begins to receive strange notes, and begins blacking out and having visions and dreams of the old torchers and methods the warden used on his patients.

One night, while Dan and his girlfriend Lucy are exploring the “locked” areas of the asylum, one of the college students acting as guide and hall monitor is found murdered in a fashion similar to one of the asylums patients. He is but the first person to be murdered, and even more have murder attempted upon them. To make matters worse, Dan has been blacking out more than ever before, and while exploring one day finds that the old warden shares his same name.

Could there be an explanation for Dan’s blackouts and the reaction people in town have toward him and his name? Is there something to the crazy experiments the old warden wrote about in his journals? Or come someone with a sick fascination for the old towns history just be acting out? Dan is determined to get to the bottom of it, even if it means finding out things about himself and his friends that he didn’t want to know.

  I really enjoyed this book, that is until the last five chapters. It was a fast paced thriller, with a lot of moments when I was truly scared and glad that my front door was locked and the lights in my house were on. I love a good horror/thriller, and the potential for this was great. Unfortunately the ending did not live up to the rest of the book.

I don’t know if the author was rushed for a deadline, backed herself into a corner, or just wanted the easy way out but the ending was rushed and overly simple. It left a lot of unanswered questions, and not the kind that makes you hope for a sequel, but the kind that makes you say WTF out loud and roll your eyes. I think the ending had so much wasted opportunities, and if the author had taken the time to actually flush out the themes and ideas of the book, maybe add an additional forty pages it would have been amazing.

My Feelings On Ender's Game (non-summary)

Ender's Game is my all time favorite book. I have read it over 20 times cover to cover, plus own in on CD and I just recently purchased it on audible.com so I can listen to it in preparation for the movie coming out in less than a month. It would be difficult, very difficult to write a review without becoming emotional, in fact I don't think that I can. Ender's Game makes me smile, and at times cry hysterically no matter how many times I have read it.
The first time I read Ender's Game was New Years Eve in 2008. I had just gone to the Miley Cyrus MTV party and was at my best friends house waiting for midnight when I started reading it. I missed midnight, I missed the party, midnight kiss, ball dropping, everything. I was so engrossed in the story that I couldn't see or care about anything else. The next few weeks I spent reading the entire series, at least everything that was published at the time. I loved the series, but as someone who rereads books all the time I wasn't in a position to say it was my favorite book.
Ender's Game becoming by favorite book happened almost by accident. The next few years, it was always a book I recommended or gave as gifts to friends and family. When my brother was driving his car to college, a two day journey, I bought him the book on tape. Yes, I reread it a few times, and bought all the books in the series that had been published, but it wasn't until I was having a horrible christmas break in 2011 that I realized Ender's Game had gone from one of the best novels I had ever read, but it had become the best book I had ever read. I reread it two and a half times in less than a week, and whenever I was out of the house I put on my headphones and listened to the CD. Ender's Game had become my escape from being sad, and more than that I still wanted to read it when I was happy. It made bad days better, and when I was happy I want to read it to stay happy.
I think that Ender's Game is the most beautifully written novel in history, and I encourage everyone to read it. I will write an actual review on the book, shortly before the movie and then a comparison of the two as well.

METAtropolis:: Review

I am usually not a fan of anthologies, so I don’t know why I keep buying them and reading them. To be honest, when I bought this book I didn’t know that it was an anthology (it’s what I get for ordering books online I guess), but I was actually surprised by how much I liked the stories. I think that a huge part of that is because the anthology wasn’t just a bunch of random post-apocalyptic and dystopian stories, but rather a collection of stories that focus on what major cities would all be like in the future. In theory, every single story in this anthology could be taking place around the same time since it focused on specific cities, but not in a way that lead the reader to think the rest of the world had been obliterated. In the introduction, the editor talks about how he wanted it to feel like the old Greek City-States, each one governed and living very differently at the same time. It worked, and it made the anthology one that I actually enjoyed.

         This anthology is the working of five authors: Elizabeth Bear, Tobias Buckell, Jay Lake, Karl Schroeder and the editor John Scalzi. I think this is also why this anthology worked, to often anthologies try to get to many authors, which shortens the stories and leaves the reader feeling incomplete. Now that I have said I enjoyed the anthology overall, skip the first one. It was long, slow moving and very boring. In the Forest of the Night written by Jay Lake has the name of the main character is Tyger Tyger… yeah, does that tell you anything about how lame this story is going to be? Other than that, its all great, well good.

         Stocasti-City by Tobias Buckell takes place in a future Detroit bent on abandoning cars in favor of using bikes. The Red in the Sky is Our Blood by Elizabeth Bear deals with the future of the Russian Mob and a woman trying to protect her step-daughter. Utere Nihil non Extra Quiritationem Suis by John Scalzi might have been my favorite. Set in a future city with a zero footprint, this story was funny to the point of laughing out loud. Its good to know that in the future, spilling pig feces on your enemies is considered  heroic. To Hi from Far Celinea by Karl Schroeder was the final story. If you want good characters, this isn’t the story for you as I found them lacking depth, but the ideas and the plot were great, and this was the only story to deal with the cyber world.