A Great Return

You may have seen my previous reviews for Rick Riordan's series Percy Jackson and the Olympians (see "Riordan Makes it Work" and "Ridiculous"). If you haven't, then here's a summary: The Lightning Thief I liked. It was a good idea, and the author delivered it pretty well. The Sea of Monsters, though, was not good at all. The jokes were ridiculous, and it stunk.

But Riordan made a successful comeback with the third book in the series, The Titan's Curse. It wasn't perfect, but compared with his last try, it was worthy of Zeus.

The Titan's Curse opens with Percy Jackson going to a military school with some companions of his. They heard that there is a new half-blood or two there, waiting to be brought to Camp Half-Blood. (A half-blood is a child of both a human and a Greek god, and Camp Half-Blood is their summer camp.) Soon enough, both members of Camp Half-Blood and some Hunters of the godess Artemis are on a search and rescue team to find half-blood Annabeth and Artemis, both of whom have been captured by the titan Kronos.

Riordan is definitely not my favorite writer. (As a side note, that would be Orson Scott Card and J. R. R. Tolkien.) He cannot write particularly well, and he can be borderline offensive in some cases. But The Titan's Curse was really good for his standards. Some of the jokes were actually kind of funny. The story was pretty good and pretty well developed. The characters were plenty and had their own personalities. I wouldn't recommend it per se, but it was definitely better than its predecessor.

Riordan made a great return with his third book in the series. Hopefully the fourth will follow in its footsteps.

http://www.amazon.com/Titans-Curse-Percy-Jackson-Olympians/dp/1423101456/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206984644&sr=1-2

Grade: 7

Time Rages Not

When writing a book that takes place 50 years in the future, there is a large element of danger and a small margin of error. If it is read when the setting takes place and it is too far away from reality, it becomes history (literally and figuratively). If one were to read a book that takes place in modern-day but has too many differences from modern culture, it's a joke. Some authors can make it work. But there are not too many people who could make it near perfect.

Enter Ray Bradbury.

The Martian Chronicles, the second book by one of science fiction's most renowned authors, is one of those that work. True, there are a few instances where a 1950s writer can mess up in foretelling the 2000s. A modern-day rocket cannot fit as many people as it did in the book (at least to my knowledge). And there is one chapter which, if it were to take place today, might cause a small uproar. But there are not too many of these instances, and it's not like Back to the Future Part II, where there are already flying cars and 3-D posters in 2015.

The book takes place from 1999 to 2026, mostly on the planet Mars. People seeking new lives, astronauts, and murderers alike come to Mars looking for adventure. The Martians don't take it all that well, but, as one character near the beginning of the book says, since when has humanity cared about anyone but itself?

The book provides suspense, terror, philosophy, and adventure alike for anyone who reads it. Even though it is 50 years old and takes place today, there are only minor inconsistencies. Bradbury successfully tells a tale using several short stories, each from a different person's perspective, to create a whole novel. Anyone interested in science fiction should add this to their collection because, as Ray Bradbury can prove, time rages not when you're talking books.

http://www.amazon.com/Martian-Chronicles-Grand-Master-Editions/dp/0553278223/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206463171&sr=8-2

Grade: 8.5

A Seventh Son's Saga

Orson Scott Card is an excellent author, as I said in a previous blog (see "Ender Scores"). He has written many books, most renowned of which are the Ender Saga books (Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind). Card has proved his skills again in Seventh Son, the first book in The Tales of Alvin Maker.

The story begins with Alvin Miller's family crossing the Hatrack River. It is a raging current, and the mother is about to go into labor. It is very important that they get to safe ground. If the child is born, he will be seventh son of a seventh son, said to have certain qualities, or hidden powers, that separate them from everyone else.

Years later, Alvin Junior is a young kid, growing up with his parents, brothers and sisters, and a new church being built that Alvin Senior and his wife disagree on. The father is not much of a Christian, but the mother would rather die than be a heretic. There are many characters that have different sides in the church, and others with no sides at all.

The story is very interesting and intriguing, and has many thought-provoking lines. The characters are very interesting, and if the story has a fault, it is that it ends all too quickly. With only 200-odd pages, I feel I could go on for another several-hundred more. But I guess that's what the six sequels are for, including the one that has yet to be released.

I hope to get my hands on the second in the saga of a seventh son of a seventh son soon, for Orson Scott Card has proved again just how good of a writer he is.

http://www.amazon.com/Seventh-Son-Tales-Alvin-Maker/dp/076534775X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204931910&sr=1-1

Grade: 8.5

Never Thought I'd See the Day

I love to read books, as it is obvious from my previous entries and the whole subject of this blog. And there are almost no books that I would quit reading in the middle because of their worthlessness.

Notice the word "almost." That wouldn't be there before I started Donita K. Paul's DragonSpell.

The book was so terrible that I stopped reading it in the middle of the book. The story isn't very good, the author is not a good writer, and the only appealing part of the book is the front cover.

The story is about a girl named Kale, who finds a dragon egg and is sent to the center of the country she lives in. She has to deliver the dragon egg and figure out what to do with it. But she gets sidetracked from her quest, and then is told by people from the center to not go there. It is not bad yet, but read on.

There are so many characters and weird words that it gets confusing to the point of ridiculous. What is an o'rant? Who is Paladin? What are the seven low races, and what is their difference from the seven high races? What in Wulder's name (by the way, who is he?) happened to the people that were sent to help Kale but were lost on the quest, or were they even lost?

Is this confusing to you? If your answer is yes, don't read the book. It is full of several characters with weird names and weird roles, characters who disappear and never show up, and weird species (o'rants, emerlindians, mariones, grawligs, etc.) And Donita K. Paul cannot write. It is like reading a novel by a teenager who thinks she can be like Tolkien or Shannara author Terry Brooks. Most good authors can do good descriptions. Paul thinks she can, and tries to, but can't. She describes a cup of tea at one point of the story, and it is ridiculously boring.

One of the things I despise in most books is when one author tries to copy another. Reading DragonSpell is like reading Eragon, by Christopher Paolini, but worse. Most of the themes are the same. A mind-link with dragons. Dragons cannot be owned, only befriended. Try to block your mind so others can't read it. You almost expect to have Saphira, the dragon from Paolini's novels, appear. It is like a terrible rendition of the Inheritance Cycle. Don't get me wrong, Paolini is a great author, and his stories are really good. Not so for Paul.

I never thought I'd see the day where I would actually quit reading a book in the middle. But after reading a boring 100 pages of DragonSpell, I couldn't stand 200 more. I'm sorry, Donita K. Paul, but you can't write.

Grade: 2