Tuesday, December 30, 2014

My Year in Books! What I read in 2014

It's been fun!


I first read Cress, which was a good book in the Lunar Chronicles series.



Then I read a few Stargate SG-1 books. Especially liked Sacrifice Moon, and if you like the series, then if you don't read anything else, read that. The Barque of Heaven was interesting, but not as good as the other one.



After that I saw the Vampire Academy movie. At first I didn't want to watch it, but I saw a preview of it in Project Runway, and it looked fun. The books were a lot of fun, totally not Twilight. So I do recommend for vampire lovers the Vampire Academy series. I went on to read her second series in the universe, Bloodlines, but it just got too much, so I decided to read something else.



Meanwhile, I also finished a Doctor Who book, Autonomy. It wasn't one of the better ones, sadly.



Last, I started the Heroes of Olympus books after the last one came out. I actually started the last book tonight. The series is very exciting. I only got around to reviewing them after I've read four. I'm also happy to see that Rick won't leave me without demigods any time soon. There is a new series coming next year. I haven't even read the Egyptian series yet. That's something to look forward to.

Monday, December 29, 2014

The House of Hades (The Heroes of Olympus #4) by Rick Riordan * * * *

This was the book that made me glad that I waited for the series to end. The end of the previous book was a major cliffhanger, and if I had to wait for it, I would have been really agitated.

The story branched off in two directions. One was the path that Annabeth an Percy took. I really liked the emotional side of it. The hardship, the fight to stay together, and the people they meet there. I could see real character development in them, growing up. Especially Percy.

The rest of the group, who took the other route to the House of Hades, also did some growing up. Frank, I didn't pay much attention to before. However, in this book he came into his own. I loved Leo's story, and it was quite a surprise. I had forgotten about that part in the previous series. Hazel found new powers, and it was interesting how Piper and her could develop their own while working together. It was good to see that kind of cooperation between the two girls. Jason was more support in the story. He often went with the others on the small side quests that they had, but didn't seem to take the lead in any of them. Still, I would love to have him as a friend, he sounds like good support. Nico, I was so happy to have in the story. He had always been my favourite minor demigod, and I really didn't see the secret that was revealed about him. It made me very happy though, to have such a character in the series.

Overall, a really exciting book. It even felt longer than the previous ones. I did take longer to read it, but that was more about not having time to even sleep these past weeks, let alone read more than the page on the metro.

Saturday, December 6, 2014

The Mark of Athena (The Heroes of Olympus, #3) by Rick Riordan * * * *

This book was actually quite frustrating. I was promised a trip to Rome. It took the majority of the book to actually reach Rome. Once there, it was fun to remember the places they were visiting, where I've also been. I actually wrote a short travel memoir of my trip there.

This is the first time when the full cast comes together. It was interesting to see how they clashed with one another. The two groups kind of did remain, but that was understandable.

I was happy to see Annabeth playing such an important role in the story. It's been a while since I read the first series, but I can't remember her being so prominent even in that. The love story with Percy continues, and they are quickly becoming one of my favourite couples.

In this story, most people have coupled up. This would probably make other books too full of sap for me, but while the relationships were there, the quest, and the fate of the world was more important. 

Leo often felt like the odd one out, partly because he was the only single person on the ship, though in a way he seemed to be married to his gadgets. Still, he seemed to be happier tinkering with everything.

The book probably has the biggest cast that I've ever seen in this series. However, all of the demigods and even the satyr played an important role in the story. It would have been easy to side-line someone, but no, everyone had a purpose.

Overall, a good edition. It breaks the usual mould of these books, except for the boss fights at the end. It marks the start of the real quest. The big one, probably the last one.