Sep 21 2018

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The Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan – Series Discussion [No Spoilers]

: The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

: The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan

: The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan

: House of Hades by Rick Riordan

: The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan

Series Review (and some musings):
Heroes of Olympus
by Rick Riordan
2.5/5 stars

Let’s talk about Heroes of Olympus for a minute. I Buddy Read this series with some lovely ladies over at Fantasy Buddy Reads, and I have to say… I think I enjoyed talking to them about the books a lot more than I enjoyed actually reading them.

This is a shame, because I loved the Percy Jackson series, so why did I have such a hard time getting into this one? Especially considering it’s a continuation to the tale with more large-scale dynamics? It comes down to one thought:

These books me feel like I’m getting too old to appreciate middle grade.

…or am I?

Last week I started an ARC of Brandon Mull’s Dragonwatch: Wrath of the Dragon King (a comparable middle grade book) and am loving every second of it. So that made me wonder if perhaps my issues with Heroes of Olympus might have more to do with the story itself rather than my not being the target audience.

For one thing, the books take a lot of time introducing new characters and building up your enthusiasm for them. The first book felt more like a set-up novel, which meant I had a hard time getting into it.

For two things, I found the actual plot in all the books to be way too drawn out, filled with so many tangents that you couldn’t possibly get any sort of momentum from it. It followed a formula: meet “x” mythical creature, have a conflict with it, then move on to the next one. Over and over and over again. It was tedious.

In some ways, I can appreciate the educational appeal of learning about so many mythical beings, but from a purely plot-progressing standpoint, I think it was the biggest reasons why the series wasn’t as good as PJ. If all of those tangents had been cut down to just the events that furthered the end-goal for our characters, the books could have been amazing.

Basically, they were too long and too drawn out.

Granted, a younger reader might have relished in all of the additional details and creature conflicts. I certainly wouldn’t have been so dissatisfied had I read it when I was a kid, but there are so many amazing middle grade books out there enjoyable to all audiences that I don’t feel as generous about blaming my age for lack of enjoyment.

So with that said, I’m curious – do any of you feel like you’re outgrowing certain genres? Do you think it’s you? The books? A little of both? I’d love to hear some thoughts. :)

by Niki Hawkes

Apr 30 2018

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Niki’s Book Journal [April 2018]

This book journal idea may have just revolutionized my reviewing process. I open up the draft for this post after finishing a book (motivated by the fact that I only have to write a paragraph or so), and before I know it I have a full-length review that merits its own post. The combination of retraining my brain to open WordPress right after finishing a book along with a couple other reading trackers have definitely made a positive impact on my reviewing process. Long story short: I only have two books reviewed in this format for April, but I’m okay with that.

I love this new change in my habits because I’m finding myself drawn to writing more throughout the day (which will hopefully culminate into actually working on one of my novels). And as a HUGE bonus, I’m producing more book content both here and on Goodreads, which is in line with making me the consistent book reviewer I’ve always aspired to be.

During this process, I started a tracker in my bullet journal and discovered that on average I’m finishing 2.5 books per week, but generally I’m only reviewing about 1 pw. I don’t think I’d wrapped my head around that particular disconnect of why I never seemed to catch up on reviews (I mean, really, it’s not rocket science). I knew my efforts weren’t enough, I just didn’t realize precisely how ineffective I was being. No more! I have a new system in place to help me even out that ratio.

I created some tracker in my bullet journal. I’ve had several (basically unused) tracking methods over the years, usually just a list on Goodreads, but a couple of months ago I started a bullet journal and it has drastically improved how I organize all the things. I start with a book progress status bar tracker at the top of my weekly spread:

As you can see, I finished three books that week. Then I take those finished titles and put them into my (ugly but functional) new review tracker:

They key here has been creating a category at the top for each step in the process. Composing a review can take a couple hours, so if I just write “write review for x” I have to be able to commit a lot of time to it before I can check anything off. As I’m super motivated by striking things off lists, having each step listed separately allows me to do just one component of it at a time without getting overwhelmed. It’s definitely making a difference. My next step is to beatify the tracker. :)

Journaling done. On to the books!

Carpe Corpus (Morganville #6) by Rachel Caine [3/5 stars]

I always enjoy the atmosphere and mood Morganville books create, so Carpe Corpus gets a decent rating for that alone. I went into this series (a bit late than most) under the impression that there are a few different story arcs within it. With this novel, I fully expected that supposed culmination of events to really wow me… yeah, not so much. The story seemed to resolve itself so quickly that I was left feeling like I missed something. I mean, I know the books are super short, but still. What I did like about this novel in particular was the stellar character dynamics and relationship progressions. I maintain that these characters feel a lot more rounded and realistic compared to many other YA. I’m definitely still looking forward to continuing the series because reading each one feels like coming home, but overall Carpe Corpus didn’t make much of an impression.

Son of Neptune (Heroes of Olympus #2) by Rick Riordan [3.5/5 stars]

Son of Neptune was a solid sequel to The Lost Hero and an improvement on all accounts. My biggest complaint of the first novel was the senseless repetition, so it was refreshing for book 2 to have a consice plot where everything had a purpose in building towards the overall arc of the novel. There were still lots of “tangent” monsters to fight, but I thought the encounters were integrated much more seamlessly. And as an added bonus, the main POV was a familiar face that I’ve missed (Percy!!). Son of Neptune also introduced some brand new characters who have the potential to land among my favorites for this author. I’m finding myself eager to pick up Mark of Athena sooner than later, which is an excellent sign.

by Niki Hawkes

Apr 25 2018

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Book Review: The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan Title: The Lost Hero

Author: Rick Riordan

Series: Heroes of Olympus #1

Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy

Rating: 3/5 stars

The Overview: Jason has a problem. He doesn’t remember anything before waking up in a bus full of kids on a field trip. Apparently he has a girlfriend named Piper, and a best friend named Leo. They’re all students at a boarding school for “bad kids.” What did Jason do to end up here? And where is here, exactly? Piper has a secret. Her father has been missing for three days, ever since she had that terrifying nightmare about his being in trouble. Piper doesn’t understand her dream, or why her boyfriend suddenly doesn’t recognize her. When a freak storm hits during the school trip, unleashing strange creatures and whisking her, Jason, and Leo away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood, she has a feeling she’s going to find out. Leo has a way with tools. When he sees his cabin at Camp Half-Blood, filled with power tools and machine parts, he feels right at home. But there’s weird stuff, too—like the curse everyone keeps talking about, and some camper who’s gone missing. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist that each of them—including Leo—is related to a god. Does this have anything to do with Jason’s amnesia, or the fact that Leo keeps seeing ghosts? -Goodreads

The Review:

Admittedly, I was a bit late to the Percy Jackson party. I ended up loving PJ enough to purchase hardcovers for all things Riordan, the set for Heroes of Olympus being among my favorite things on my shelves (so pretty!). However, it did take me a long while (5+ years) to get around to reading these, mostly because I was unaware it had anything to do with PJ until my best friend clued me in.

This series is not just a spinoff, it’s a bonafide continuation with a mix of old and new characters! I definitely would’ve started it sooner had I been aware of that. The newby characters were exceptionally well-developed compared to other middle grade series. It actually surprised me how much depth of character I got from their rich backstories. It made their motives and actions have a much bigger impact on the overall arc of the story, which really helped build my enthusiasm for what’s to come.

So, good characters aside, I have mixed feelings about the actual plot of The Lost Hero. Other than the chapters spent in Camp Halfblood (like Hogwarts, I think any time spent in magical establishment for kids is golden material), I found the plot unnecessarily long and repetitive. Meet a new mythical monster, fight it, lather, repeat. It didn’t give me a whole lot to latch onto and I found myself putting it down in favor of other things after getting that “wait, didn’t I just read this?” feeling every time I picked it up. The good characters and some of the other cool components (like the metal dragon on the cover) kept me reading (plus that weird motivation that comes from the mindset that I “should” love this series), but overall it didn’t knock my socks off. It got a pass because it has all the makings of something great, and I know the level of awesomeness Riordan is capable of. Even so, I believe this first book could’ve been pared down a bit for a much more concise and interesting story. Maybe it’s just me.

All that said, I think (it has been a while) I had similar issues with the first PJ book, and ended up absolutely loving the second one and beyond. Now that I know the main conflict of this series (introduced at the end of Lost Hero, which might be part of the initial issue even though I really loved the “reveal”), I like where Riordan is going with the story. I’m hoping to see my ratings increase with each installment.

Recommendations: I think at this point most people interested in this author have already tried him. However if you’re like me and late to the party, I would only recommend this Heroes of Olympus series if you’ve already read (and loved) Percy Jackson. It’s a direct continuation with spoilers abound for the first series. I think the saga is an awesome rec for middle grade readers, and as a bookseller I saw it spark a love of both reading and mythology in kids, which is pretty friggin cool.

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