The House of Hades by Rick Riodian (The Heroes of Olympus #4) (audio)

Annabeth and  Percy are stuck in Tartarus, making their way to the Doors of Death. Meanwhile, the rest of the group are going to find the doors in the mortal world to save them.

I always enjoy the Olympus books even if the action can be predictable. Predictable is fine as long as it isn't formulaic. And if the characters are good, then predictable is less predictable and more comfortable. Because we've been with Annabeth and Percy through one series and now partway through another we know how they will react to situations with Annabeth trying to talk her way out and Percy trying to fight his way out. So it's easy to see that they are going to get out of Tartarus using their skills. On the other side of the Doors are the rest of  the demigods who are making their way to mortal side in order to rescue Annabeth and Percy and then close them on their side therefore making Gaia unable to summon more monsters and making her weaker. I feel like we get more of Leo and Hazel than anyone but that's fine. I think I like them best anyway. Still it was nice to see Hazel and Frank step up and take charge and for Leo to get some self confidence.

So now it's all set up for the final book, The Blood of Olympus, out later this year. I can't wait though I'm going to be sad to, once again, not have a demigods book to wait on.

17 hours, 30 minutes

Nick Chamian is the narrator and I enjoyed his reading. He did a good job with the voices and the acting and I didn't really notice a difference between him and the last narrator other than he seemed ot have a "surfer" quality to his voice especially for Percy. 


The Heroes of Olympus
#1 The Lost Hero
#2 The Son of Neptune (not reviewed)
#3 The Mark of Athena
 

The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan (audio)

Finally the 7 have gathered together to go on the quest to unite Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter. They must travel to Rome, a dangerous place for any demigod to find the thing that has torn apart the camps for centuries.

I didn't review The Son of Neptune because I listen to it while I was on maternity leave and reviewing with a newborn was not something I was capable of. Nevertheless I loved it and couldn't wait for the next book. The Mark of Athena continues the adventure this time finally bringing all our heroes together on their quest. This book features alternating points of view from the main characters, a detail that I like. It is filled with lots of narrow escapes and ingenues plans, something you would expect from a Heroes of Olympus book. I thought the villain at the end was pretty obvious. There were clues left all over the books, but the ending was a surprise. It is a definite cliff-hanger and as soon as I was done I rushed to the computer to find out when the next book, The House of Hades, was going to be released. Not till October! *groan* I have to find out what happens next!

Joshua Swanson is the once again the narrator for this book. I'm assuming he is just going to do the entire series which is great because I hate it when they change reader mid-series. He does a great job and really brings the words to life.

The Lost Hero (audio) by Rick Riordian

 Jason wakes up on a bus holding the hand of a pretty girl with no memory of who he is or how he got there.  After a monster attack, Jason, Piper (the girl), and Leo (a friend) are whisked away to Camp Half Blood and there they find out about their parentage and are sent on a quest to save Hera and stop something worse than the Titans from rising from the earth.

Phew.  I was afraid after The Red Pyramid that I was off of Rick Riordian.  But The Lost Hero has saved me from that.  Because I really enjoyed it.  As much as I did the Percy Jackson series.  Partly, I think, because the characters are more familiar and I don't have to learn a whole bunch of new gods or monsters or how the world works.  There's something to be said for familiarity.  But this is a fresh approach to the Greek gods and demigods.  It centers around three new demigods, Piper, Jason, and Leo and alternates between their voices in the third person.  It was a good way of getting to know all three and getting to see everything that was happening.  My only problem is that sometimes there is just too much mystery.  Just say it already and quit jerking me around.  But that's par for the course in a Riordian book.  Still I liked the book and was eager to find out what happens next.  I'm curious about Annabeth and Percy and I hope the next book deals with their side of the story.  The cliffhanger at the end has been eagerly awaiting the next book.

Joshua Swanson is the reader and overall he did a great job doing all three characters.  His reading was a bit stilted in place and I don't know if that is his fault or the fault of the text.  It just sounded unnatural in places.  It wasn't anything that detracted from the story as a whole, but it was something that I noticed.  I like these books on audio, in general because they are exciting and absorbing.

16 hours, 48 minutes

Hogwarts: Ancient Runes
Whisper in my Ear

The Red Pyramid (audio) by Rick Riordan

Description from Goodreads:
Since their mother’s death, Carter and Sadie have become near strangers. While Sadie has lived with her grandparents in London, her brother has traveled the world with their father, the brilliant Egyptologist,Dr. Julius Kane.  One night, Dr. Kane brings the siblings together for a "research experiment" at the British Museum, where he hopes to set things right for his family. Instead, he unleashes the Egyptian god Set, who banishes him to oblivion and forces the children to flee for their lives.  Soon, Sadie and Carter discover that the gods of Egypt are waking, and the worst of them--Set--has his sights on the Kanes. To stop him, the siblings embark on a dangerous journey across the globe--a quest that brings them ever closer to the truth about their family, and their links to a secret order that has existed since the time of the pharaohs.

I never thought I was going to finish this effin book.  Now that's a way to start a review.  But, seriously, I didn't.  I'm not entirely sure what my problem was.  Well, I do know but I'll get to that in a second.

The inevitable comparison to Percy Jackson:
I kind of feel like this is a less worthy follow-up to the Percy Jackson series.  The first one in that series was so great and made me want to read more.  Even the audio book was great!  Not all the Percy Jackson books are great, but the first one was a showstopper.  This was like reading one of the less great Percy Jackson books.  There were too many locations, too many gods, too much mystery.  And the big bad felt a lot like Kronos.  I wasn't feeling it.  It was too much like Percy Jackson with siblings and an Egyptian goddess instead of Percy, Anna and Grover.

How I felt about the narrators:
This is one thing I hate saying.  I wasn't enamored of the narrators, particularly Katherine Kellgren as Sadie.  I found her voice to be particularly grating though she was much funnier in her reading than Kevin R. Free as Carter.  I found him much easier to listen to and his voice really lent itself to the audio book.  His characterization of Sadie left much to be desired though.  Kellgren actually did better as Carter for her parts than Free did as Sadie.

Further things I didn't like:

Part of my problem is all me.  I'm not as familiar with the Egyptian gods and so I didn't care about meeting them so much.  I'm interested in learning more, but they were never my favorite subject growing up like the Greek gods were.  But like I said, there was too much jumping around and I got a little confused.

Things I did like:
Bast was the most awesome god.  I loved her.  She was so fun and kickass and an all around great character and I was happy to see a good solid character.  I missed her when she wasn't around.

The humor was good.  Very funny and sarcastic.  And there were a few genuine laugh out loud moments for me.

Overall:
I really think I would have liked this more as a middle grader.  I was much more willing to deal with formula back then.  Now though I have a hard time excusing it.  I'm sure others will disagree with me because if you like Percy Jackson, then you should like The Red Pyramid.  Maybe it because it was on audio, I don't know.  But I do know that I was so happy to be done with the whole thing.

Hogwarts: Ancient Runes
Library

The Last Olympian

Percy Jackson has been through a lot in the past 4 years. He's been fighting monsters and gods, all because he is the son of a god, Poseidon. The Greek gods are alive and well and Olympus is located at the top of the Empire State Building. Now the Titan Lord Konos is back and trying to destroy Olympus and the gods. While the gods are off fighting some of the other Titans, it's up to Percy, Annabeth, and the other demi-gods to protect New York and Olympus. But Percy is also grappling with his destiny and a prophecy about the child of an elder god. What will Percy's choice be and will he find out what it takes to be a true hero?


This was a stellar ending to an already fantastic series. All the questions were answered and the pay off was great. I don't want to say too much since I don't want to spoil anyone. But Percy finds out about the prophecy and makes some interesting choices to help save the world and defeat Kronos. The wrap-up for the secondary characters, Annabeth, Thalia, Luke, Grover, was great and it was nice to have closure on all of them. I cried a little at the end, it was so touching. Basically I devoured this book, I couldn't put it down. It was one of those books that ends a series the right way.