Heroes of Olympus: The Demigod Diaries

Heroes of Olympus: The Demigod Diaries
Author: Rick Riordan
Genre:  Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: August 14th, 2012
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If you're a fan of the Heroes of the Olympus you'll love this book. It's great, fun and entertaining. It's written in the classic Riordan style with witty jokes here and there. But I guess I must be growing a bit too old for this series since I no longer found them as funny as I used to. The Demigod Diaries is written around 3 main short stories; The Diary of Luke Castellan, Percy Jackson and the Staff of Hermes, Leo Valdez and the Quest for Buford as well as the short story penned by Riordan's son, The Son of Magic.


The Diary of Luke Castellan takes place during the time Thalia and Luke were still living on their own, prior to meeting up with Annabelle. They get into a scrape when they follow a holy goat into an  abandoned house and become trapped there with a bunch of nasty leucrota, which by the way have got to be the weirdest monsters yet. The Diary tells how Thalia got her Aegis shield chains, and how Luke and Thalia met up with Annabelle after learning about their destiny.

Percy Jackson and the Staff of Hermes takes place shortly after the events in the last Percy Jackson book but before he disappeared. Hermes, God of Thieves, somehow managed to lose his staff to a thieving giant and now wants Percy to get it back. The thing is, it's Percy's one month anniversary as Annabeth's boyfriend and she's not too pleased about it (or the fact that he forgot/wasn't aware that he had to do something special, girls!)

The third short story by Rick Riordan is called Leo Valdez and the Quest for Buford. It's about a runaway magic table that has the components that make up the Argo II (the magic flying ship from Son of Neptune This one takes place after the events in the Lost Hero. During the search they come across some nasty party animals; the Maenads.

The Son of Magic is written by Haley Riordan. In my opinion he's got a great style and I found his take on the Percy Jackson universe to be unique and very interesting. It's got a darker, more serious kind of atmosphere, but suitably so considering what the story is about. In fact, I'd say his story is the best in the entire book. I found Rick's stories to be a bit annoying to read but Haley's story balances them out. I can't wait to see what else he ends up writing in the future. That kid has genuine talent!

However, I didn't really feel like this was his greatest possible work since the humor fell flat on me for the most part. With the exception of his son's story, the rest of the compilation didn't really stand out and wow me. So aside from the excellent The Son of Magic, the rest of stories combined would only give it an average score of 4/10 or 2 stars.

Overall scores:

Rick Riordan: 2 Stars

Haley Riordan: 4 Stars

The Serpent's Shadow

The Serpent's Shadow (Kane Chronicles #3)
Author: Rick Riordan
Genre: Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: May 1st, 2012
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In reading the third (and hopefully final) installment of the Kane Chronicles, I'm reminded as to why I loathed the other two books. They started out great. Then the awesome-factor started going steeply downhill until the very end where it sputters to a stop. To put it simply; it's like a bottle of coke that slowly loses its fizz. But The Serpent's Shadow did somewhat make up for the shortcomings of the second book.

Before I proceed with the rest of my review, I have to ask this question: Why are these beings even called Gods? They're some of the weakest fantasy creatures I've ever read about. Hell, even a mortal magician can overwhelm a so called God in one to one combat. Bes, the dwarf god of speedos' best weapon is screaming out...*drum roll* "BOO!" Apparently it works most of the time...on mortals. If it it doesn't then well...he has no other special powers. He's basically useless. In fact, when I was first introduced to his power in the second book, The Throne of Fire, I nearly died on of embarrassment (on behalf of Rick Riordan). This was the best he could come up with? It was almost lame enough to make me drop the book entirely.

That's another aspect I'm going to go over in my review. His sense of humor (or lack of). If you're like me, then you've read his previous series Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I was a die-hard fan from the first book on because it was hilarious. In fact, just reading the chapter titles alone had me laughing out loud (earning me quite a few frowns and raised eyebrows from passersby). But eventually something happened to change all that. Either I gradually became immune to Riordan's brand of humor or *gasp* it just wasn't funny anymore. Every time I came upon a joke or tongue-in-cheek humor, I recognized it for it was: an attempt to be funny. But at best my response was: "Meh." Maybe the pressure and the past precedence of being funny is getting to him. Maybe he's just trying too hard to continue what he started, and that is causing the quality of his jokes to drop drastically. Or maybe it's just me.

Despite the lameness of the jokes, the plot progression and background are quite impressive. Riordan is very good at researching background on Egyptian mythology and combining it to fit in with a modern interpretation. While I couldn't visualize it as well as the Greek mythology he used in his previous series due to lack of personal exposure to the former, I could picture enough of it in my head to make it enjoyable to read about. The ending of the book is very interesting since it hints at a possible spin-off involving the two different series he's created. Will I be reading it if it comes out? Hell yes.

Scores:
Cover: 8
Characters: 7
Story: 7

Overall:  7/10