Search

Search only in certain items:

Champions: at fire's end (Champions #1)
Champions: at fire's end (Champions #1)
Charlotte Jain | 2015 | Fiction & Poetry
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Champions: at fire's end (Champions #1) by Charlotte Jain
Champions: at fire's end is the first book in the Champions series, and we hit the ground running with the first chapter from Hermes' point of view as the scene is set over why the flames are here, and why they will live in children. After that, we jump 18 years to Kyle, the bearer of the blue (water) flame. We find out that he and April (red/fire bearer) have known all along what their purpose in life is, and have Hermes and Themis to guide them. Now, this is where it got a bit confusing for me. It sounded at the beginning that all the flames had to fight each other, with only one winner. Then we find out that Kyle and April are "battle partners". Kyle has the noble notion of finding the other two flames and helping them grow into their powers so that it becomes a fair fight, which still doesn't explain how the pairing is going to work. Kim and Noah are found, but you don't really learn much about them. With different points of view, time disappearing, and honestly not knowing whether Kyle was paired up romantically with either Kim or April at any given time, plus other things, this book quickly became mystifying.

The premise is a good one - after all, who doesn't love a good Greek mythology story in a book? It was the execution of the idea that let it down. I have given this story 3-stars because it was intriguing enough for me to finish it, and I think the premise and the series has a lot of potential. This may be a series where it is in the final book that everything becomes clear. I don't know. What I do know is that this book will appeal to some, and not to others. Personally, I enjoyed it, even if I was a bit lost!

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and my comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
  
40x40

Kyera (8 KP) rated The Hidden Oracle in Books

Jan 31, 2018  
The Hidden Oracle
The Hidden Oracle
Rick Riordan | 2016 | Children
10
9.1 (7 Ratings)
Book Rating
Another fantastic book by RR. We are introduced to our new main character in perfect fashion. "Just another meat sack." Quaint Apollo, or should I call you Lester Papadopoulos? That is an amazing name and starts the book brilliantly.

Apollo is written just as well as RR's other character. The sun God is forced into a powerless mortal body and dumped unceremoniously onto the island of Manhattan. Into a pile of trash. He must undertake a series of trials and get the Oracles back under his control or else he will remain mortal... and Lester. Accompanied by a feisty, sword-wielding street urchin and a bitey peach spirit, Apollo fights for the future. Camp Half-Blood is sparsely populated, campers are disappearing and all forms of communication are on the fritz.

The world building is just as beautifully done as the other Olympians novel. The reader is introduced to myths creatures and gods. Recommended that you read the two previous series before Trials of Apollo. There are characters (like our beloved Percy) and gods/monsters that you either meet or are mentioned in passing and it would be beneficial to at least be familiar with them.

The character development is also well-done. Apollo is his usual self-absorbed self but he also experiences some brilliant moments of humanity. You root for his success and roll your eyes at him simultaneously. Margaret, Meg for short, is his sidekick and occasional friend. Apollo doesn't like to admit that he is actually fond of the little urchin. She immediately reminded me of Megara from Disney's Hercules, sassy, cynical, questioning. The entire time that I was reading I kept expecting her to betray Apollo to the "Big Bad" but have grown fond of Apollo as well and regret her betrayal.

In case you are unfamiliar with some of the terms or gods, RR has a handy glossary at the conclusion of the book. Highly recommended, as are all of RR's novels. Great for YA reader that enjoy witty writers, well-developed characters, mythology, adventures and just general awesomeness.
  
I downloaded this novel free from Amazon because I was looking for a lighthearted paranormal romance to distract me. I assumed it was along the same vein as other paranormal romances I have made like Karen Chance’s Cassandra Palmer Series or Patricia Brigg’s Mercy Thompson series. I wasn’t too far off.

My favorite part of this book had to be the diversity of characters. Each character had their own personality, that it felt like you were reading about real people instead of caricatures. It seemed to come naturally too. There were no page long paragraphs tediously describing each character. You picked up bits and pieces along the way.

The world and story that Chase created were also pretty interesting. I am partial to ghost stories, which is what drew me to the book in the first place, so that whole aspect and how they dealt with the ghost was fantastic. The rest of the Chase’s mythology, however, is what was really interesting. After looking at future novels in the series, however, I feel that the series will become way to complicated and in depth for me. I also don’t enjoy reading about angels v. demons.

The novel has a couple twists. The one concerning the ghost didn’t feel like a twist to me. I figured it out much earlier in the novel so when it was confirmed I really didn’t even notice. The secret surrounding Kane, however, was pretty surprising. I wasn’t expecting it even though I knew he had a secret.

All in all, Haunted on Bourbon Street is a well-rounded novel with engaging characters, an interesting world, and plot that keeps you reading til the very end. I cannot think of a single thing I didn’t like about the novel. I am not sure I will read the rest of the series, however, after reading the synopsizes and seeing where the story is headed.

If you are looking for an enjoyable quick read, I highly recommend downloading it, especially since it’s currently free!
  
Song of Blood and Stone
Song of Blood and Stone
L Penelope | 2018 | Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
8.3 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
Great fantastical world, excellent characters
I greatly enjoyed reading this one. Not only was the fantasy world written well and different, but the characters had excellent chemistry and the plot flowed to make the reading enjoyable and quick.

The world building is excellent and different. The story alternates in between with Jack and Jasminda’s point of view, but also there are some chapters that tell the background story of how their world was created. I enjoyed these alternating chapters. It provides better structure of the setting, it provides the mythology and a better understanding of the “True Father” and “The Queen who Sleeps”. It’s well written and everything comes together seamlessly.

The plot itself is also excellent. I love the concept of “Silents” and “Songbearers” and both are living side by side but marred by war and prejudice. And did you ever see the hate towards Jasminda throughout the book. You get angry at her treatment but Jasminda bears it and she does it well. The plot is pretty fast paced and it’s feels like a fast read - not to mention the fact that it’s very interesting. There’s a good mix of fantasy, action, and romance. What wasn’t really necessary was the Lizvette part. It made that aspect predictable and it didn’t really mesh well with what was going on with all the other things. It felt like it was placed there for filler reasons (I mean, we all know who Jack was going to go for a this point…)

Now for Jack and Jasminda.

I LOVED both of them together. They had this chemistry going on and you could feel it throughout the novel. It was heart wrenching in various parts of the book and you wanted to reach out to them and MAKE them go together (Jack you deserve some slaps of stupidity for some of the stuff you said). They’re both great characters and Jasminda’s development throughout the novel was excellent. Despite the changes she went through she didn’t lose her sass and her ferocious independence (love how this exasperates Jack by the way lol)

Definitely looking forward to the second book of this series! The ending was great (and I’m sure there’s way more battles to come)
  
40x40

Jordan Binkerd (567 KP) rated The Kid Who Would Be King (2019) in Movies

Aug 15, 2019 (Updated Aug 15, 2019)  
The Kid Who Would Be King (2019)
The Kid Who Would Be King (2019)
2019 | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
The script is excellent and a clever take on the classic mythology, with some good allusions to previous incarnations. (2 more)
The cast is amazing all around
The effects are stellar, with the undead warriors hitting the right balance between too scary and not threatening enough
Merlin's hand magic pulled me right out of the story and made me think "That's the stupidest thing I've seen in quite a while...." (1 more)
Pacing was a bit off; the runtime was a bit long and there was a false climax with about half an hour to go in the film.
Surprisingly good family-friendly fantasy
I'm not sure why this bombed, aside from the fact that I barely remember seeing it advertised. It's a good film, well-executed on nearly every level. It was a bit long, perhaps, dragged a bit in the middle, but otherwise the only thing I have to complain about is the hand-waving tomfoolery they gave Merlin to execute his magic - that crap looked dumb as @#$&. I've seen lots of complaining about young Merlin, but for me it was just that his magic looked dumb - he was weird, but Merlin's supposed to be like that. The acting was top-notch across the board, though Patrick Stewart and Rebecca Ferguson were under-utilized. What set it apart for me, though, was that it refused to dumb itself down for its audience as so many kids' movies do. This film references obscure versions of the legend and makes them integral to the story without feeling they have to over-explain everything. For example, Merlin ages backwards. It's not that he looks like Patrick Stewart and is in disguise as a sixteen-year-old, but that he looks like a sixteen-year-old and occasionally puts on the guise of Patrick Stewart to prove a point or gain credibility. (I think in the original take it's less that he ages backwards and more that he lives backwards, but close enough.) I'd have loved this as a kid, and one day I'm sure my kids will love it as well.
  
Wrath of the Titans (2012)
Wrath of the Titans (2012)
2012 | Action, Sci-Fi
8
6.2 (14 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Sequels often struggle to live up to the expectations set by their predecessors. Wrath of the Titans delivers. Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, and Ralph Fiennes reprise their roles as Perseus, Zeus, and Hades in this continuation of the Clash of the Titans remake from 2010. They’re joined this time by Rosamund Pike, who portrays the strong, female love interest as the beautiful Queen Andromeda.

Perseus has settled down to become a fisherman with his son. His wife has been written out of the story — either by design or because the actress was not available. She seems to be dead for no particular reason. Perseus has chosen to live life as a mortal, despite his father, Zeus (Neeson), offering him a seat of power on Olympus. Early in the movie, Zeus comes to his son and asks for help, telling him something big is coming. Only Perseus, a demi-god, would have the strength to ensure humanity’s survival.

The rest of the story involves Perseus’s journey to save the world from the reawakening of Chronos. Mythology geeks and fantasy buffs will appreciate the severity of this situation.

While the makers of this film certainly didn’t reinvent the wheel, or even attempt to one-up their previous film, they surely succeeded in making an entertaining screenplay. In short: if you liked the first, you will like this one. It has all the action, sword-swinging, flying-horse-riding, and titan-killing you would expect from the series. The CGI is impressive, and the 3D effects were not too objectionable.

One scene in particular stuck out as ill-conceived. The kiss at the end of the film felt forced. There was very little romantic build-up throughout the movie, so it felt as if the filmmakers included the kiss because moviegoers expect to see romantic resolution. Perhaps this is one of the several endings they filmed, at which point they let focus groups make the call. Either way, it felt awkward.

As I said before, if you enjoyed the first, seeing the second is worth your time and money.
  
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel
1998 | Folk, Indie, Rock
9.0 (6 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I think that this is one of the best albums of all time. It's hard to talk about. I feel like that album is the Sgt Pepper's of my generation. It's a record that knits together a whole generation of music-lovers. The fact that it's separate and isolated is sort of poetic. My generation wasn't connected by a band; we didn't have a Beatles. We had our own bizarre little pockets of music, our own separate ways of listening and connecting. That record functions in the world unlike any other record. I've never seen anything like it. It is a religious record. People feel so fondly about it, in such a profound way. Beyond time and space, on different continents, at different parties, the name of that band will come up and you and stranger will grab each other's hands. There's not a whole lot of music that can do that. Something about that album and those songs created a deep thread of human connection through a lot of people. I think it's incredibly rare. I think all musicians inherently want to connect, because that's what music is. Music connects you, through this magical medium, to another human being. Listening to Neutral Milk Hotel and looking at the artwork for that record and listening to how it was made, and thinking about the mythology of the Elephant 6 collective, it's like Sgt Pepper's – you imagine that there's this magical world somewhere, with all these crazy musicians, living down the road from each other, banging on pots and pans and playing brass instruments, and you want to be there. You get to soak that magic up just by listening to the record. Brian [Viglione], the drummer in the Dresden Dolls, got to see Neutral Milk Hotel when they were touring that record. He was the one that turned me onto it. In the middle of the night, after our very first band rehearsal, he took me over to his house and said 'I can't believe you've never heard this record. We're not doing anything until we sit in the dark and listen to it from beginning to end.' That record was always really important to us."

Source