Review: House of Hades by Rick Riordan

The House of Hades is the fourth book in The Heroes of Olympus series--and I think it might be my favourite. Written again in typical Heroes of Olympus style of alternating narratives, this story is the continuation of the prophesied seven demigods and their fight against the psychotic and murderous Gaea.

Picking up where The Mark of Athena left off, Annabeth and Percy are stuck in the underworld and must somehow survive long enough to close the doors of death and thereby stop Gaea's massive armies from proceeding into the world above. Meanwhile, Jason, Leo, Piper, Frank and Hazel must reach the other side of the doors of death.

Being a huge fan of the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series, I was thrilled at the amount of time dedicated to Percy and Annabeth. Their adventure through Tartarus is dangerous, deadly, and most of all, thrilling and did I mention amazing? 

We get to meet up with old monsters that have been defeated, old friends, and new friends. HoH has its share of new and exciting mythology, including my personal favourite, the personification of Tartarus himself. I really hope that this series will get onto the big screen because I would LOVE to see that final battle.

While Gaea is certainly waging a more terrifying war and she's more creepy than Kronos in that whispering, motherly, psychotic voice, but I'm still not convinced she's as evil as Kronos. She just doesn't FEEL as dangerous. Kronos was pure power, so it's an interesting comparison between the two villains from Riordan. I suppose we'll see how truly dangerous and deadly Gaea is in the next book when she will obviously make a grand appearance. I always saw Gaea as good in the myths, which might be behind my inability to really see her as terrifying.

The story is wonderfully stressful. I was so keyed up reading this book, desperate to know more and see what will happen next--this has to be the most exciting book of the series so far. It's all leading up to the final book of the series, which is guaranteed to be simply spectacular. Everything Riordan does is spectacular.

I do have a grudging criticism. Gaea managed to take away Percy's curse of Achilles--a curse that should have been unremovable, as Homer tells us and as Achilles himself tells us in The Last Olympian. Obviously taking away his curse was necessary for Riordan's plot and I won't pretend to know why or to know more than Riordan, but come on... we couldn't work around the curse? I feel like Percy's lack of heroics and powers was disappointing. He was so powerful with his godly powers without the invulnerability and extra speed, accuracy, etc. He just felt...weaker. It seems to me that as time passed, he should be even stronger now.

A more minor point--does Hades not have any idea that Percy Jackson is running around his realm? Does he really just not care? He hates Percy... I'd have thought he would have wanted to put in his two cents.

Rick Riordan is as talented as the great JK Rowling and I wish he received more attention in Canada.  His knowledge of Greek and Roman mythology, and more than that, his ability to write dialogue for the monsters, gods, and other mythological figures without sounding cheesy is outstanding.  He does his research. All of Riordan's books--The Olympians, The Heroes of Olympus, and The Kane Chronicles--are well-written, exciting, and also educational. Whether young readers know it or not, they will walk away knowing something about Greek/Roman mythology.

He is also my hero for throwing a twist in the characterization of Nico. [[BEWARE SPOILER]] The reason that Nico is bitter, short, and rude towards Percy and to his friends? Nico has/had a crush on Percy and obviously his feelings are unreturned. I love the humanity attributed to Nico! Moreover, Riordan just slipped this little detail in and moved on with the plot without making his sexual orientation a big deal and without making it a game-changer. It's a notable characteristic, but it's not everything he is. So not only does Riordan's stories make children with ADHD, dyslexia, single-parent children, orphans, or just kids who are different, feel like they too can be heroes, Riordan also makes one of his heroes gay. Riordan teaches his readers that anyone can be a hero. Anyone.

I also LOVE this cover and how it represents the struggle of journeying through the underworld. It's just so dark, fiery, dangerous and mysterious.

House of Hades is a powerful read and a nail-biting, thrilling ride into the deepest pits of the underworld. A war is about to break out as the prophecy of seven finally comes to light.

The really sad part? We have to wait until fall 2014 for the thrilling conclusion, The Blood of Olympus.

Review: The Titan's Curse (Graphic Novel) By Rick Riordan

   

     I love the cover image for this graphic novel. It's absolutely my favourite cover image out of all Riordan's books. There's something about Percy looking all powerful--looking like a true son of the sea god--but this image really stands out to me. I love the ghostly images of the Big Three, with Poseidon front and centre above his son. Each god looks ancient, powerful, and a little frightening. Poseidon looks wise and thoughtful, while we see Zeus' power and fury in his dark expression, lit up by a bolt of lightning. My sole complaint about the image is of Hades. He looks so...unappealing; unappealing and maybe a little Voldemort-esque (yes, I just made up that word and used it in a sentence!). The lord of the underworld shouldn't be appealing in the sense that Zeus is often depicted as appealing, but he's certainly not sinister. I do like the dark, celestial background his face appears in. It's alluring and makes me think of the afterlife. The flecks of gold make me think of the fires of Tartarus, though maybe I'm reading too much into the image after reading through HoH. Regardless, his expression and colouring of his face and eyes bothers me. Hades is misinterpreted 98% of the time as being a villain. If you read mythology (or Riordan, for that matter, it is clear that Hades is not evil. He's bitter, but not evil).

      Moving on, the artist has Thalia is on his left, holding Aegis, her terrifying shield and summoning lightning in her typical "daughter of Zeus" style, with Zeus' face above her. On Percy's right is Hades above poor little Nico Di Angelo (someone who I'm really starting to feel sorry for after reading HoH). Nico's skills are depicted with the skeletal zombies crawling out of the ground. 

     I really could go on and on about how much I love this image. Everything from Percy's expression to Nico's frightened, but determined stance in the background fits well with the content of the novel. I also am a fan of depicting Percy as a teenager, though in the book he's only in grade eight.

     This graphic novel is as action-packed as the other two before it, although my overall lower rating comes from my disappointment in one particular area: the representation of Riordan's characters. Aside from Hades, what really bothers me is the depiction of Thalia. I spent several minutes trying to figure out who the dark-haired boy with Percy was. Thalia is supposed to be a little bad-ass, with short, spiky hair, a leather jacket and combat boots, but I quite literally could not figure her out until Apollo showed up and named her as the daughter of Zeus. There were SOME pages where Thalia is shown very close up with thick lashes and feminine features (the cover included), but for the most part, she looks like a scrawny, poorly drawn male. I'm disappointed in the artist here, but also in Riordan failing to ensure that even if the artist wanted to do an interpretation of the characters, that at least the readers would be able to recognize Thalia for who she is.

     I mean, really, we really couldn't make Thalia LOOK like Thalia, when Riordan himself already has included an image of her in his book The Demigod Diaries; an image that also has appeared many times over Facebook?

     I also struggle with the fact that all the faces of the older men in this book look too intense and almost mean, no matter what emotion they are trying to convey. There's one scene where Chiron is comforting Percy, but his expression looks just downright cruel. I'm sad to critique the art of this graphic novel, but it really does bother me that there's a breakdown in the characters, which in turn, affects the narration of the story. Subjective interpretation is always a factor in these graphic novel-spin offs, but Thalia is so undefined and poorly represented that I, as an adult reader with an English degree, who has read the Percy Jackson book multiple times, had a lot of difficulty figuring out who the tall, scrawny boy was.

     The expressions of the characters are just as important. The dialogue is almost secondary to the images in a graphic novel, but in many of the scenes, to take away the dialogue would be to completely alter the story in the reader's interpretation. The book does a good job at capturing the story and it follows a trimmed version of he plot of The Titan's Curse but if you're looking for a more faithful adaptation, the first two graphic novels were far better. Here's to hoping The Battle of the Labyrinth is a bit more on the mark...

Book Recommendation and Review: Rick Riordan

Until this year, I'll admit that I never knew very much about children's literature. As I enter the professional world of the publishing industry and completed an internship with Scholastic Canada, it really opened my eyes to the amazing books and talented authors of children's literature. Now I've got quite a collection of AMAZING authors and books for young readers, and a whole LIST of authors to recommend to parents or kids who want something new to read.

But right now, I'd like to focus on one author in particular, that I think deserves more recognition.

J.K. Rowling, up until last summer, was my sole favourite children's author. Sure, I appreciated other talented and up-and-coming authors, as well as iconic names and titles like Dr. Seus, Clifford, and Robert Munsch, but Rowling's Harry Potter books quite literally changed my love for books. I was hooked, and I developed tunnel vision in book selection, thinking that NOTHING could rival my love for Harry Potter.

But after watching the movie Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief in theatres back in 2010, I found a new appreciation for the fantasy genre within children's lit. I didn't remember that this movie began as a book until I spotted it in my monthly trip to Chapters. I bought the first book after hesitating greatly over buying one or buying the whole set right on the spot. I really enjoyed the movie, but I've had bad experiences buying a book set and then discovering I hated the books. But from the moment I started reading the first book of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, I was hooked. I read the first book in a matter of hours and drove back to Chapters to buy the rest of the books the next day.

Now, I own The Olympians set, The Heroes of Olympus set, The Demigod Diaries, and The Kane Chronicles set. I'm anxiously awaiting the release of House of Hades, as well as the release of the film The Sea of Monsters. Logan Lerman? The PERFECT Percy Jackson.

I do have a preference for The Olympians series, but read anything by Riordan and you won't be disappointed. As someone who received my minor in Classical Studies (I would have double majored if my university hadn't been cutting classical studies courses every year!), I can honestly say that Riordan is the only author I've ever read who can write about classical mythology! I'm grateful and beyond impressed that he gets the mythology right and does not make it sound...well, bad. I don't know how many times I've seen the myths destroyed for the sake of entertainment. These myths don't need exaggeration or embellishment--they do perfectly fine on their own, if you're a talented writer. And Riordan proves that you don't need to change anything about these ancient tales.

The amount of research and effort that Riordan puts into his dialogue and descriptions of mythological monsters, the retellings of the myths, the history of the Greeks and Romans, as well as the characterization of gods and heroes is amazing. I cannot express how much respect, appreciation, and awe I have for Riordan and his writing ability.

I recommend anything Riordan has written to young readers (when I say young, I mean school-age readers to teens readers. Readers who can handle some violence, plot depth, and novel-length books). I also recommend Riordan's books to readers who love Harry Potter, Eragon, or other similar fantasy books. It's a fantastic choice for readers who are ready for the bigger chapter books, but also for kids to actually LEARN something, without feeling like they're in school. Riordan's writing style draws you in so it doesn't feel like you're learning about ancient mythology, history, and legends from two of the greatest civilizations in history.

I feel that Riordan is under-appreciated in Canada, considering his fan-base seems much larger in the States. For example, there are Camp Half-Bloods summer camps for kids, huge promotional book launches, etc. That, and his name isn't as well-known to people that I talk to. This makes me sad, but anytime I'm asked for a book recommendation from parents or friends, I always encourage them to pick up Riordan's Percy Jackson series.

The language is accessible for young readers, but Riordan's narrative addresses a large audience. There's excitement, drama, a teenage romance, suspense, and of course, mythology! Kids can learn about monsters and creatures that appear in other entertainment mediums, such as centaurs, Medusa, the gods (watching Disney's Hercules should become an eye-opening experience with all the changes that they made to the mythology!), differences between Greek, Roman, and Egyptian myths, and legendary heroes like Hercules, Perseus, and Theseus.

For teenage readers, the books are fast-paced, so don't let the slightly longer length intimidate you. Also, much like the Harry Potter books, you'll notice an intensification in the reading level and plot of the Percy Jackson books from book one (The Lightning Thief) to book five (The Last Olympian). The last book is my favourite as the demigods finally face Kronos and his army in New York, and the fate of the world is up for grabs in this final showdown between good and evil.

It is so incredibly important to get kids and teens reading. Spelling, language, reading abilities, critical thinking skills, and other beneficial skills come out of reading. Fostering a love for reading will help kids in school, not only in their reading comprehension, but in studying, in the ability to take information away from reading, and so much more. Finding a book that will interest young readers can be a daunting and seemingly impossible task, but I sincerely argue that if you're looking for an author who can capture your attention, imagination, and devotion to reading, it's Riordan.

Whether you're a younger reader, a teenage reader, or a die-hard Potter fan like myself, looking for another fantastic book addiction, Rick Riordan's books are the perfect choice. Exciting, an easy-read, and subtly educational, Rick Riordan's book series' ranks a spot on my favourites shelf, right next to J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter.

And this is the highest compliment I can give a book and its author. Trust me.