Title: The Sword of Summer (Magnus Chase & The Gods of Asgard #1)
Author: Rick Riordan
Publisher: Disney - Hyperion Books
Published: October 6, 2015
Number of Pages: 528
Genre(s): Mythology, Fantasy, YA
Date Read: November 1, 2015
Acquired: Walmart
Summary:
Magnus Chasehas just turned 16, but he's not like most other 16 year olds, Magnus has been living on the streets of Boston, on his own for the last two years since his Mother died. Well actually she didn't just die, she was killed, by inexplicable wolves. So Magnus hates wolves with a passion now, and really who could blame him. For many teens who've just turned 16 their looking forward to a birthday party with lots of their friends, and maybe learning how to drive. Magnus is just looking for his next meal and to stay out of trouble. Magnus doesn't get what he wants though because apparently turning 16 triggers something, something that he doesn't understand, some sort of destiny. Somehow he ends up on a bridge fighting a fire giant for a barnacle covered sword, while being defended by his two homeless friends who are wielding a make way for ducklings sign and a toy store bow and arrow, after listening to an Uncle he hasn't trusted since long before his Mom was killed.
After his fight on the bridge Magnus finds his way to the einherji where the strange things just keep on coming, and the more answers he gets the more confused he gets. The aforementioned homeless friends come to rescue him, and it turns out they've been protecting him from unseen enemies all along, and they're not really homeless humans either, one is a deaf elf and the other is a fashion conscious dwarf who turns to stone in the sunlight. They set off on a quest to find Frey's Sword of Summer and keep Surt from releasing Fenris Wolf and starting Ragnarok. Will they succeed?
Review:
I have been waiting for a Rick Riordan Norse mythology series since The Kane Chronicles (KC) so when this was first announced I was freaking out and I have been so excited for it. I followed all the progress updates on Facebook, I gleefully and eagerly counted down the days until the release date. I was jealous that my friend Rachel got her copy before me and resisted the urge to ask her for spoilers beyond telling me exactly HOW Magnus is related to Annabeth (it had been circulating for months that he was going to be her brother so I HAD to know whether he was or not and I was impatient). I hurried to finish the book I was reading when it was released and then the book that I had gotten while reading that book (Chess Queen Enigma) so that I could get myself a copy of Magnus and read it. So to say I had expectations and high hopes it putting it rather mildly. But oh man did it ever live up to my expectations. Once I got it it was near next to impossible to put it down. I would think about reading it while I was at work. I loved every single page of it, it hooked me right from the beginning and just stayed awesome all the way through.
Rick Riordan just has a thoroughly enjoyable writing style, he's informative and educational while being highly entertaining. His humour is spot on and perfectly irreverent which I love. My favourite chapter title in the book for example is the one where is breaks the fourth wall "Hearthstone passes out even more than Jason Grace (Though I have no idea who that is)". I was really looking forward to seeing how Riordan would make Magnus stand out from Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus (PJ/HoO) and the KC because he did so well at keeping those two mythologies from being too similar even though they were both dealing with the same type of character really (modern teenagers with ties of some sort to mythological gods/goddesses). In PJ/HoO, you'll recall, the kids were all children of first the Greek and then the Roman aspects of the Greek/Roman pantheons (Thanks for catching that I typed Freek instead of Greek the second time there Google) while in the KC the teens were descendants of Egyptian magicians who could channel the auras and powers of the Egyptian pantheon. What he does with Magnus and his companions definitely stands on it's own from the previous two series and perfectly fits the Norse mythology.
As with his other two previous series the world of Norse mythology is well woven into the modern world, this time in Boston instead of a borough of New York. I'm sure given Magnus's connection to Annabeth that as the series goes on we'll get more and more references to people and events from the other series' especially PJ/HoO and I am really looking forward to that. I don't know how many books Riordan has planned for this particular series but I plan to read all of them.
--Ren
Title: The Goddess Test (Goddess Test #1)
Author: Aimée Carter
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Published: April 19, 2011
Number of Pages: 293
Genre(s): Mythological Fantasy, Paranormal Romance
Date Read: January 23, 2012
Acquired: Wal-Mart
Summary:
Kate Winters and her mum have been on their own for as long as Kate can remember; she has no memories of her father and her mother never even goes near the topic and Kate is fine with that because her mum is her best friend. Things are about to change though, Kate's mum is dying and soon Kate will be even more alone. Her mother's dying wish is to move back to her home town in the middle of nowhere in northern Michigan. Kate agrees even though it means senior year in a new school, surrounded by new people who have known each other their whole lives.
For a girl who grew up in New York she thought she was used to weird. But the people at her school are weirder than she's used to but she can't pinpoint why at first; they seem more like a dysfunctional family than school mates, but maybe that's just a symptom of being in the same class with the same people from kindergarten on up? It doesn't take long before the weirdness comes to a head when her new friend takes her to a mysterious estate and that's when everything gets crazy. Ava ends up dead and the owner of the house, a handsome, brooding, dark young man (who we actually met in the prologue talking about his drowned girlfriend..and the other 11 girls who have died being with him in the last 84 years...) claiming to be Hades, god of the Underworld. He tells Kate that he can give her what she wants most, her mother's life, and all she has to do is pass seven tests. To prove to the doubting Kate that he means business, he brings Ava back from the dead.
Kate, overcome with optimism dives headlong into the tests, and the mysteries of Eden Manor and the surrounding town of Eden. The deeper she goes the more questions she has and the more her life begins to unravel. Has everything she's ever known been a lie? What is the truth? Who is she? And just what is her destiny? Most important of all though, can she survive long enough to learn the answers?
Review:
I love Greek Mythology; I know I've mentioned that more than once, but I'm reviewing another book in the mythological fiction sub-genre so I feel it needs to be reiterated. The story of Hades and Persephone (no Google Chrome spell checker I do NOT want to change that to "Phonephone"!?!) has always been one of my absolute favourites in the Greek canon. I've long since been fascinated by the intricacies in the relationship between Hades and Persephone, and each of their relationships with Demeter (huh spell checker has no suggestions for that one go figure!). I'm intrigued by complex relationships in fiction (and in life) and I think that's all thanks to this story. It never fails to pull me in. As a big fan of the story, I feel comfortable saying that Aimée's re-visioning definitely does it justice; in fact it's got more of the complicated interwoven relationships that I love from the original story!
Putting the Greek Pantheon and the Classic stories into modern day settings is obviously a huge trend right now, especially in the YA field. It seems to be one of several supernatural trends, including zombies, faeries, and werewolves, vying to take over the top spot of vampire romances. I for one hope that this trend wins because I think the stories are rich and vibrant and by bringing them to today's teens in recognisable settings they become a gateway to the original tales; tales which today's teens might not actually be inclined to read, which to me is sad because I started getting Greek Mythology from about the age of 6, so that's my bias.
Obviously it's not perfect, nothing ever is, and if it was it would be boring and uninteresting because perfect is no fun. One of the major problems I have with this story, but also the whole series, is the characterisation of James/Hermes. Being a fan of the Classic tales I find the behaviour of James/Hermes perplexing. In the myths, Hermes was a cheeky little bugger, he tricked Hera into suckling him by disguising himself as Ares, he stole Apollo's cattle as a newborn and then invented the lyre to apologise; he was a chronic giver and enjoyed his supporting duties as herald and soul conductor. In Goddess Test he's a mopey, emo, mean guy. He comes off as very unsympathetic to me, but I think Aimée meant for us to feel for him, I just don't. I'm also not a big fan of the characterisation of Calliope/Hera, but I can't get too much into what bothers me about that characterisation without spoiling the plot and I hate doing that, so I'll issue a warning instead. If you're a mythology fan and you actually know a bit of information about Hera, try and pretend you don't okay?
Oh and I'm still not sure I'm entirely sold on teenaged versions of the Greek Gods, I just feel like they should at least be portrayed as in their 30s, but given that this story is for the YA market, that's an understandable and forgiveable style choice.
What are your thoughts on the current trend of taking the Greek myths out of ancient Greece and plunking them down in the modern day? What about the de-aging of the gods in this series?
--Ren
Title: Death Has Come Up Into Our Windows
(The Zombie Bible Book #1)
Author: Stant Litore
Publisher: 47North
Published: August 14, 2012
Number of Pages: 93
Genre(s): Horror, Historical Fiction, Mythology
Date Read: January 13, 2013
Acquired: Chapters
Summary:
Yerusalem is being ravaged by a plague, so what else is new? It's biblical times, something bad is always happening in Yerusalem! This isn't just your normal plague though, this isn't wine and water turning to blood, it's not frogs or fireballs falling from the sky, and it's definitely not something as mundane as a plague of locusts. No, this is an old plague, true evil, a sign that the people of Yerusalem have truly failed God and are doomed, it must be; for why else would the dead be walking the earth?
Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah for those of you unfamiliar with the biblical spelling) tried to warn the people, he truly did. He tried to stop them, did everything in his power to try and make them see the error of their ways. He has failed; the city is besieged by Babylon and there are more and more dead wandering the streets, soon they will surely out number the living. He is of course terrified and appalled, with his fellow men and especially with himself. He blames himself for their downfall, for not doing even more than he did to stop it from coming to this. Yirmiyahu has given everything to try and save Yerusalem, even breaking his covenant with his wife to send her away so that he could stay and try to save the city he loves. But now he is alone, for even God has left Yirmiyahu.
WIthout God how can Yirmiyahu hope to save Yerusalem and its people from the tide of walking dead that they unleashed upon themselves?
Review:
At 93 pages this is a lovely little one sitting read, or at least it would have been something I could have read in one sitting were it not for the fact that I've been having a hard time concentrating on anything for more than thirty minutes at a time thanks to my wisdom tooth headaches (I'm headed to the dentist on Wednesday to get that looked at). I like books that can be read in one sitting, I'd much rather spend two and a half hours reading a book from start to finish than watching a movie. The book is a much richer world and I have a very vivid imagination; I usually much prefer my own visualisations to those in film adaptations for example. Because of my headaches, I wanted something that would allow me to get through it quickly because I knew it would be an effort to focus so I scoured the pile and came away with this and it fit my reading needs at the time perfectly.
This is not the type of book I would normally gravitate towards, when it comes to supernatural creatures I'm usually a vampire or werewolf fan. I always used find zombies to be incredibly lame but then I took a class back in 2008 and we studied zombie movies and even though I still thought they were lame I enjoyed the symbolism of them. Milla Jovovich and the Resident Evil series can be attributed with eradicating my dislike of zombies; the zombies in that series are not lame at all. So thanks to that class, and Resident Evil when I won the third book in the Zombie Bible series from Book Riot's Name that Author contest one week back in November I was super excited to read it because a) Hey I won a free book! Yeah! and b) Oooh Christian mythology meets modern horror! so I decided then and there that I would acquire the first two books and read them in order. I asked my local library to order them, and they did; but then I ended up getting a lot of book money for Christmas and just bought them myself.
I'm extremely glad that I did decide to dive in and give the zombie lit. a chance because this book didn't disappoint me. That being said, if you're a zombie fan a word of warning, do not be fooled by the gory cover image above, the title or the summary; the zombies are in there, assuredly, but they are not the stars of the action so if you're expecting gory action scenes all over the place and life or death chases this is not the zombie book you are looking for. I for one am okay with that because I really enjoyed the direction that the author took the story but maybe that's just the religious culture scholar in me? There's a lot of philosophical and religious waxing on the part of the main character; a good 90% of the book is him working through his own actions and those of his fellow Israelites, trying to figure out if they are capable or even worthy of redemption by God. For that reason the narrative is not linear it jumps around a lot between the present and several different points in the past through flashbacks.
On the plus side you really don't need to know anything at all about Christian mythology because Litore has taken little almost meaningless biblical incidents and imbued them with a new fantastical life. It is a bold undertaking indeed, and I know that there are people out there who are perfectly willing and ready to label this as sacrilege or blasphemy, but I am not one of those people. I applaud him for having the courage to take on this idea and it is a brilliant one. He has executed his vision amazingly, and he is so completely into this project that even his historian's note at the beginning and about the author section at the back do not break from the character he has created for himself of a zombie historian who has survived a 1992 outbreak of zombies in the Pacific Northwest. That right there is dedication to one's art.
I am excited to read the rest of the series and Stant Litore is now most definitely on my list of authors to watch for.
Check him and his zombies out at http://zombiebible.blogspot.com
--Ren
Title: Witches of East End: the Beauchamp Family Book #1
Author: Melissa de la Cruz
Publisher: Hyperion
Published: June 21, 2011
Number of Pages: 272
Genre(s): Fantasy, Romance
Date Read: July 2011
Acquired: Real Canadian Superstore book aisle
Summary:
North Hampton, New York is a sleepy, prosperous little tourist town, a place of old money and old traditions; all in all it's a quiet, normal place where nothing extraordinary ever happens. Or you know, not. The titular Beauchamp family of Freya, Ingrid and Joanna are witches, but sssh no one is supposed to know! They're just going to try to subtly work their magic and hope that the consequences of the ban against magic that was laid upon them (centuries ago no less!).
Each of the Beauchamp women has a specific skill; and apparently all of the people that live in or pass through North Hamtpon have a life issue that these forbidden magically abilities can solve. Freya the Wild Child bartender is stuck in a love triangle (of course), with two gorgeous brothers (a given) the good boy and the bad boy (duh?); her magical abilities lie in the realm of fixing people love lives (through cocktails!) but she can't even fix her own (what a handy power!). Then there's her older more studious and sedate (see: spinster-y) (stereotypical)librarian sister Ingrid, who is being pursued by a handsome police officer (and very annoyed by it!) while working to unravel a long-lost secret about the town's most famous property (which just happens to be owned by the family of Freya's boyfriends by the way); oh and on her lunch breaks she uses her magical powers to help people with fix their domestic and health situations. Finally there is their mother Joanna, all she wants is the piter pater of little feet in her house again because she's realising that her daughters don't need mothering any more and she misses her son (Freya's twin brother); the young son of the their housekeepers makes a wonderful surrogate. She performs small acts of magic to make this little boy happy; and then her abilities to resurrect the dead and heal most serious injuries becomes important.
Amid the use of their magic a mystery befalls the town, people start to go missing and get ill and dark forces seem to be gathering. The Beauchamp women are convinced that their use of forbidden magic is the cause. But the cause is actually much more sinster and...Norse? Not going to give it away but it is of supreme importance that you know that this series is a re-envisioning of the classic Norse mythological tales.
Review:
When I first saw this book at the grocery store (yes I buy books from the grocery store; put me in any store with a book aisle and I will find a book to buy!) I was instantly drawn to it because of the title. At the time I was on a Witches of Eastwick kick thanks to the short lived remake Eastwick and my brain was convinced that this book must be in some way connected to that. I was a little disappointed for a moment when I read the teaser on the back and realised it wasn't. That disappointment quickly faded when I read the name Freya and realised that this book was going to have ties Norse mythology. I LOVE mythological fiction. I had just finished the latest instalments of both of Rick Riordan's series at the time and I was on the look out for more mythological fiction. So I immediately picked this book up and brought it home with me.
Definitely one of my better literary impulse purchases (I've made a few disappointing ones); this was one of my favourite books of 2011. It's enjoyable and fun from start to finish. There are no boring or draggy parts. There's fantasy (obviously) and romance for both Freya and Ingrid and there's even an element of mystery as you try along with the ladies to figure out just what on earth is happening, and who exactly the bad guy is. You spend most of the novel not entirely sure which of the Gardiner brothers you should be trusting. And then of course there's the obligatory epilogue that throws another twist into the mix. Melissa is REALLY good at keeping the reader on the hook. She just reeled me right in, I put Serpent's Kiss on my Amazon wishlist the minute I saw it announced, although I didn't actually buy it until a few weeks ago if you remember back to The Gift of Reading post...
Norse mythology has never been my area of expertise I've always been more partial to Greco-Roman, Egyptian, and Christian mythologies, probably because they're more common in fiction; but I do know a little, enough that I can really enjoy the way that Melissa has interpreted and adapted the tales and characters. I must admit though I did suffer a few instances of envisioning certain characters as their Stargate Asgardian counterparts...don't judge me...which made certain scene at least a little bit awkward. Obviously it's not historically accurate or completely in-line with the mythology, but it makes no apologies for that and I like it for that reason. As an unapologetic re-envisioning it is well aware of it's identity and it embraces it and runs with it creating it's own rich world that parallels the original myths. I think that mythology is a perfect vessel for that reason, it encourages embellishment and adaptation. I have a reference book on my shelf, The Dictionary of Mythology and you start to see right off the bat just how many versions of certain myths there are so when a modern author decides to work with those ancient stories in our modern world I am happy as can be.
Also enjoyed the way that she threw in a reference to her more well known work, the Blue Bloods series, which I have never read, but the little taste of it in this novel did sort of make me want to, although I still haven't.
What do you think of the current trend of re-envisioning ancient mythologies from other cultures? Should it stick around or should it just go away? Personally I hope it sticks around and bring on the more obscure mythologies!
--Ren
