Rick Riordan: The Titan's Curse

I had been avoiding reading this one but with good intentions. It wasn't that I thought it would be a bad book. Contraire to that, I expected quite the reverse. I knew the arrival of book five was around the corner, and was fully aware that upon reading one book a reader wants to sweep up the rest of this series to read right away. I should know that especially well since I had already read books one and two. (Follow this link to read what I had to say about the previous book in this series, The Sea of Monsters.)

My waiting was all due to wanting to keep my books in the same edition, paperback. I was shopping one day, and not in a bookstore, when I was shocked to see book four. I had thought it wasn't published yet. I bought it. I still didn't read it, however, nor this book. Book five was released at last, and though in hardcover, a bunch of my friends were talking about the series as they read it and I had a moment of weakness. I bought it. I'd like to think that I was already reading The Titan's Curse by then but I can't be sure.

This book was action packed and had me laughing out loud. I haven't heard of anyone who doesn't enjoy this series and found myself to be the most critical of book one, The Lighting Thief. I know the true reason for it had just been that I hadn't had the time to really read so I became uninterested as I spent too long on the book. Now I really wish I had gone back and reread the beginning of the series, not for the matter of missing anything, but for the enjoyment.

The true audience age is for people younger than myself and so I wonder about people out there who might think it silly or an unenlightening read. Being completely honest, knowing the myths already is very entertaining and enjoyable in itself. There are still surprises and everything else a good book has. It just lets you be in on some little things the intended readers may not know about even after finishing the books, which are things that had me laughing myself as I said before.

Rick Riordan: The Sea of Monsters

It was eight months ago that I read the first book of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. I had spent too much time on it from being busy and so had grown tired of it while reading The Lightning Thief. I had felt the book was very funny but that, at a time when I was trying to not buy any books because of my summer trip, that I wouldn't read any other books in the series for quite a while. Seven months later, I found a copy of book two available on PaperBack Swap, and a month later than that I read it.

The Sea of Monsters suggests a journey in the ocean, a place which seems natural for hero and Half-Blood Percy Jackson who should feel right at home and find more strength in the ocean since he is the son of sea god Poseidon. His first journey of course is meeting up with those tied to the mythological world in the first place after Percy has spent the school year away from Half Blood camp while living with his lovable blue-pancake-making mom.

It's the last day of the school year and Percy has been having some strange dreams about his four-hoofed satyr friend, Grover. His mom seems to know something that she is holding back but promises to tell all at the end of the day. Percy meets a friend and heads to school. . . Trouble surrounds those Percy knows from Camp Half Blood and despite warnings his intention is to do the best he can to help. Two friends accompany Percy as he goes off on a quest in the sea of monsters.

I find myself regretting that though I took two mythology classes in college that I've forgotten some stories over the years. Thankfully this book does well to hint and explain them. Like the first book this one is very funny and I laughed out loud a few times wishing there was someone right there beside me that I could discuss it with. I can't wait to find out what happens next.

The end of this book had such a huge surprise that I want to jump into book three right away, a book I bought early before reading this one. I had decided against it because I would then want to read book four while I really wanted all my books to be a matching paperback set. A search online didn't have good news for me in the way of a release date for the paperback. It did, however, tell me something else. The release of book five of this series whose title suggests it may be the last is to be released on May 5th, 2009. Whether I give into hardcover or not is still a question at large.

53 / 70 books. 76% done!

Rick Riordan: The Lightning Thief

This funny YA book has a lot of Greek mythology in it. While it held my interest, I knew from the beginning that I wouldn't love this book though I thought it might be entertaining. Having finished it, I don't think I will ever reread it, but I may read the next book at some point to find out what happens next. It will definitely be a while before I can buy any more books and even then, there are many I would buy before the next one up in this series.