"The House of Hades" (2013) by Rick Riordan REVIEW

Note: If you have not read the previous books in this series, get off your butt and read them now before you end up finding spoilers below.

Wait, am I really only one book away from finishing this amazing series? NOOOOOOOOOOO!

Shortly after the events of Mark of Athena, the Argo II crew are in a race against time to stop Gaea, the Earth goddess, from awakening. Now they know the date she plans to rise: August 1, just barely a month away. However, before the demigods can figure out where the giants plan to resurrect Gaea, they must first find the mortal end of the Doors of Death and close it to keep the monsters at bay. Meanwhile, in the depths of Tartarus, Percy and Annabeth struggle to survive. Weak, injured, and starving, their chances of closing the Underworld's end of the Doors of Death are thin. Can the seven demigods of the prophecy still succeed?

Told from the perspectives of all seven demigods, Rick Riordan's House of Hades did something I didn't know was possible: it surpassed it's predecessor and left it in the dust. Riordan masterfully paces the story, going back and forth between the normal world and the Underworld. The humor remains strong, the action is edge-of-your-seat, and the writing in both the dialogue and narrative flow naturally.

I don't want this series to end. It's just too good. Alas, like all good things, this series will be coming to an end. Here's hoping it's a great one!

5/5 Stars

Comments

"Need for Speed" (2014) REVIEW

I know I'm not the only one who thought this movie was going to be a flop. I mean, not only is it a high-speed street racing movie, but it's also a videogame movie. Still, I gave it a shot, but mostly for the D-Box experience. Even with the earnings from winning illegal street races, Tobey Marshall (Aaron Paul) is still unable to keep his auto repair shop from his father open. For a chance to get $500,000, Tobey takes an offer from his street racing rival and successful car dealer Dino Brewster (Domonic Cooper) to finish building the Ford Mustang that Caroll Shelby was working on when he died. After building the car and selling it without Dino's consent, Dino challenges Tobey and Tobey's friend, Pete, to a street race for the money. Nearing the end of the race, desperate for revenge, Dino pushes Pete over a bridge and drives away, leaving Tobey to be blamed for vehicular manslaughter. Two years later, fresh out of prison, Tobey seeks out to knock Dino off his p...

"The Eyes of the Dragon" (1987) by Stephen King REVIEW

I was pretty excited to read this book, being it is Stephen King's only novel appropriate for a younger audience. In the kingdom of Delain, King Roland is poisoned. Framed for the crime of murdering his father, the king, Prince Peter is thrown into prison and his younger brother, Thomas, is crowned king. Although, little do the brothers know, Flagg, a magician and closest advisor of the now dead King Roland, is working behind the scenes to make sure King Thomas completes his plans in turning the kingdom towards chaos. However, even the greatest plans leaves room for failure, including Prince Peter's plan of escape and the dark secret Thomas had seen through the eyes of the dragon. Though the main plot of the story is quite basic, Stephen King take this tale to the next level. Characters, both main and side, each have their shining moments and are very well fleshed out in this story. Simple enough for a child to understand, the story moves at a slow but steady pace. Also...

Blue Beetle Rebirth Vol. 1: The More Things Change (Rebirth #1, #1-#6)

2/5 Jaime Reyes as the Blue Beetle has interested me and been on my reading list for a while. When I first discovered the character watching Batman: The Brave and the Bold , seeing Jaime as a relatable teen arguing with the sentient suit that gives him his powers, his New 52 line had already been cancelled. Then Geoff Johns wrote Rebirth and added a little scene with Jaime Reyes that I thought was both very interesting and promising. In short, Keith Giffen doesn't deliver in this volume until issue #6, where he kind of gives a small splice of what the series could be. Getting the obvious out of the way, the dialogue here is absolutely horrible. I tell myself it feels like a first draft, but then there are moments of repetition and sentences upon sentences of nothing going on. By then, it feels more like a very bloated outline with the characters speaking mostly hot air. The dialogue here isn't flat, it's completely empty. This, in turn, makes all the charac...

Kevin Lau

Search This Blog