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Book Review: Percy Jackson: The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #4) by Rick Riordan

Oct 12, 2013

First Published: April 7^th 2009

Pages: 361 (paperback)

Publisher: Disney Hyperion Books, Puffin Books

ISBN: 1423101499

Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US

Synopsis

Percy Jackson isn’t expecting freshman orientation to be any fun. But when a mysterious mortal acquaintance appears on campus, followed by demon cheerleaders, things quickly move from bad to diabolical.

In this latest installment of the blockbuster series, time is running out as war between the Olympians and the evil Titan lord Kronos draws near. Even the safe haven of Camp Half-Blood grows more vulnerable by the minute as Kronos’s army prepares to invade its once impenetrable borders. To stop them, Percy and his demigod friends must set out on a quest through the Labyrinth-a sprawling underground world with stunning surprises at every turn.

Full of humor and heart-pounding action, this fourth book promises to be their most thrilling adventure yet.

Review

Rick Riordan has done it again. Each Book seems to get better and better and I don’t even know how. Each book lives up to the expectations that the Percy Jackson series holds. I never got bored reading The Battle of the Labyrinth. There was always something that got me interested and pulled me in. I never wanted to put the book down when a book makes me feel like this, I loved it.

The signature humour of Rick Riordan still is very much present in this book but I also feel that The Battle of the Labyrinth had this serious tone to it. I think it’s because Percy and the rest of the character are becoming older and that the prophecy is impending. I also think it could a metaphor in such sense of Greek Mythology stories in the terms of tragedy and consequence. As well the characters are maturing and changing realistically from year to year so The Battle of the Labyrinth is also richer in romance and the dark elements increase as the characters age up.

Again it’s an action packed, cliff hanging book that you don’t want to put down. I love action and the action in The Battle of the Labyrinth is pretty awesome. Practically from the first few pages we have action. You have no idea when danger is near and you want to scream at those characters that go straight into the danger. And then you have those moments when the ends of chapters leave you on the edge of your seat wanting more.

I love Greek Mythology and one of my favourite myths is Thesues and the Minotaur. So having a whole book based on the setting of the Labyrinth is pretty epic. In the book we get more in depth of some of the well-known Greek Characters, like Daedalus, the father of Icarus. I think that Rick’s take on Daedalus about his life after the fall was very original and intriguing.

There is trouble again forming in Camp Half Blood. There is another way to get into camp and that’s through the Labyrinth (I don’t think this is too much of a spoiler as it is said in the title that they are going into a Labyrinth) So the Gang set off to try and find a way to stop this from happening.

There is trouble again forming in Camp Half Blood. There is another way to get into camp and that through the Labyrinth (I don’t think this is too much of a spoiler as it is said in the title that they are going into a Labyrinth) So the Gang go down to try and find a way to stop this from happening.

As I read the journey through the Labyrinth I was captivated and so into the story as the Labyrinth is believed to be one of the only architecture that constantly changes. So you don’t know what was going to happen next, what tunnels would change, new tunnels pop up, traps are in the most unexpected places and monsters could be anywhere.

I love how we get to see new and old characters. Percy is growing and maturing. He is finding more about himself and others. Annabeth is finding it hard to let go of her past and how much Luke really means to her. We also get to see Tyson again and I just love him alot. The way that Rick writes him, makes me put a smile onto my face.

I also believe that in all the Percy Jackson books the young characters are always faced with difficult decisions that affect more than just their individual lives. You can change your actions but the impact of your choices can sometimes be everlasting. This is shown alot through The Battle of the Labyrinth and I think that is something that everyone can get out of reading the books.

Some Quotes that I liked;

“Be careful of love. It’ll twist your brain around and leave you thinking up is down and right is wrong.”

“People are more difficult to work with than machines. And when you break a person, he can’t be fixed.”

So I Give Percy Jackson: The Battle of the Labyrinth 5 stars out of 5.

Have you read The Battle of the Labyrinth? What did you think of it? If you haven’t do you want to read it?

Book Review: Percy Jackson: The Titian’s Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #3) by Rick Riordan

Sep 27, 2013

First Published: May 5th 2007

Pages: 304 (paperback)

Publisher: Puffin Books, Disney Hyperion Books , Hyperion Books for Children

ISBN: 0141382899

Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US

Synopsis

IT’S NOT EVERYDAY YOU FIND YOURSELF IN COMBAT WITH A HALF-LION, HALF-HUMAN.

But when you’re the son of a Greek god, it happens. And now my friend Annabeth is missing, a goddess is in chains and only five half-blood heroes can join the quest to defeat the doomsday monster.

Oh and guess what. The Oracle has predicted that not all of us will survive…

Review

Rick Riordan knows how to write! The Percy Jackson and the Olympian Series just seems to get better and better by each book. More Action, More characters, More Shocks.

There is so much more action in The Titian’s Curse and I love it. Between the demigods and the Gods there is bound to heaps of action and I was not disappointed I could not put the book down, as I just did not want to miss a thing. Now that might sound wired but that is how I felt when I was reading. I love that it is fast paced and in that it is packed with so much action.

We also get introduced into so many different characters. Some of those are “The Hunters” and their leader Artemis. The Hunters are a group of girls who have renounced adulthood, men, and love. They are an immortal group of maidens who follow Artemis on her hunts and where-ever else she chooses to go. I found them very intriguing and interesting. They are very different to what I have seen in other books and I really enjoyed it.

We also met Nico and Bianca Di Angelo. I really don’t want to give too much away about these two, but they are two demigods. I liked Nico at the start and he grew on me to the end. I understood why he said and did some stuff and I don’t hold him to what he said. As for Bianca I just could not connect her and she got on my nerves alot and I don’t even know why.

Most of our favourite characters are back, like Grover, Thalia, Annabeth and of course Percy. Who of which I love all, and glad they are back. I love Grover and I always will he knows how to put a smile on my face, Rick I think writes him perfectly humorous. I am loving Thalia, we did not get to see much of her in the previous book, but in The Titan’s Curse we do and I really enjoy her. I have mixed feelings about Annabeth, I do like her, I really do but sometimes she just gets on my nerves. Percy is a lot stronger and smarter in this book to the previous 2 and I guess as he is getting older he is becoming older and also coming to terms with the prophecy. He can come up with strategies that can help them defeat or overcome a monster.

We get to see more of the God and Goddess in The Titian’s Curse and I love this. I love Greek Mythology and I love seeing the Gods as Rick perceived them in the book. It was different and really interesting. The Gods and Goddess have more of spotlight in this book than the previous 2 books. We meet Ares, again but we also meet Aphrodite and Apollo and obviously Artemis. We also see alot more of Mr. D and find alot more about him. I love how they have this more modern vibe to go with the modern world that Rick Riordan created. I never feel bored and I love the view he takes on different mythology stories.

There were many cliff-hanger moments and some very unexpected moments that rocked me to my bones. I don’t know how many events, Rick can put into such a small, but I love it. There is also some new evil arising and some old as well. There were many shocks in the book good and bad.

The tone of the book also becomes a little darker. This time, even though Riordan’s trademark humour remains, the demigod’s choices take on new significance and have real implications for the future, both personally and cosmically. It makes sense since everyone is getting older and the inevitable prophecy is getting closer and closer.

I just love the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series so far and Rick Riordan knows how to capture an audience.

Some of Quotes that I like;

“Ever had a flying burrito hit you? Well, it’s a deadly projectile, right up there with cannonballs and grenades.”

“That’s us,” he said. “Those five nuts right there.”
“The little deformed one,” Zoe suggested.
“Oh, shut up.”

“Grover was sniffing the wind, looking nervous. He fished out his acorns and threw them into the sand, then played his pipes. They rearranged themselves in a pattern that made no sense to me, but Grover looked concerned.

“Which one is me?” I asked. “The little deformed one,” Zoe suggested. “Oh, shut up.”

I Give The Titian’s Curse 5 Stars out of 5

What are your thoughts on The Titian’s Curse?

Book Review: Divergent (Divergent #1) Veronica Roth

Sep 24, 2013

Published Date: May 3rd 2011

Pages: 487 (Paperback)

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books and HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks

ISBN: 0007420412

Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US

Synopsis

In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue–Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is–she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are–and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she’s chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she’s kept hidden from everyone because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her

Review

I went into reading Divergent with high expectations and I wasn’t disappointed. Divergent is action packed and I couldn’t put it down, I was just hungry for more.

Veronicas’ writing is simply amazing and the world she built was unbelievably real. The way that she categorized each human into 5 different types of people, into 5 different factions; Dauntless, Abnegation, Erudite, Candor and Amity. They way that Veronica came up with a way to separated people in that, is beyond me. They world she created and set up was perfect, I could picture what everything that was happening, and where it was happening. At first I was a little confused with the world but after a while I did get used to it and it made a whole lot more sense to me. I also loved the concept of how they became a part of a faction.

The heroine of Divergent is 16-year-old Beatrice. I love her character. Firstly she is female 2^ndshe is totally, well she comes to be. She is everything I ask for in a main character and since it’s in her perspective it’s perfect. She is vulnerable in the right times, and strong when we need her to be.

Four what can I say about Four? He is just amazing. From our first impressions, some people might not like him that much as he brought forward as this tough strong character. But once Tris (Beatrice) gets to know him so do we. There is so many under layers and you understand why he built this wall. I also loved with a passion of the foreshadowing we had of Four in one of the first few chapters.

I loved how the relationship grew slowly between Tris and Four. It was nice for a YA novel to have a relationship to grow slowly. It was different and I think it was perfect. And I communed Veronica for that.

ACTION, ACTION, ACTION. I loved all the Action it was just ideal. If you love action then this book is for you. Guns, jumping off buildings, fighting, jumping on moving trains come on, if this does not sound epic, don’t know what does. There was so many heart- pounding, nail biting worthy moments. Especially the last part of the book, gave me an adrenaline rush. I also think that the villains in Divergent were very unexpected well to me at first they were and I did not expect things to happen the way that they did

I also liked that Veronica explore the theme of fear and how everyone has fears. And we need to sometimes overcome those fears in our lives. But sometimes we need to live with those fears. Which is demonstrated through Four and Tris. The concept of the tattoos, love it. I adore tattoos so I was very fascinated by it. It was very different and drew me in so much to the book.

The ending was wow, just so many things happening at once, but I was so happy that there was not a major cliff-hanger. I sometimes dislike these major cliff YA novels but Divergent didn’t have that.

There is only one thing I have negative to say and that’s I had no connection to most of the characters and this is very, very rare for me. I just did not feel anything for them (there will be a little spoiler here) when some characters died, I felt nothing. I was just like ‘oh they died.’

Some of my Favourite Quotes;