Thursday 25 October 2012

HEROES OF OLYMPUS: THE MARK OF ATHENA - RICK RIORDAN - REVIEW

Book: The Mark of Athena
Author: Rick Riordan
Publisher: Puffin
ISBN: 9780141335742
Rating: A

The phenomenally successful Rick Riordan is back with the next thrilling installment of the "Heroes of Olympus series". Can "Percy Jackson" and the "Half-blood" Heroes succeed on their quest to find "The Doors of Death" or will the Greek Gods of chaos win their battle to stop them? Percy and his fellow demi-gods face the most important quest of all - the Prophecy of Seven.

Hear my screams of pain as I long for the next book. Riordan has taken the world cliffhanger quite literally and I need the House of Hades. No really, this book swept me of my pegasus! Such a fantastic book, and after waiting for it for a year it did not disappoint. I adore Rirodan and all of his writing and he just seems to get better all the time!

This book picks up pretty much from where the last one left off, with the gang on their way to meet the roman camp. However, Gaia as she is, did everything in her power to start a way and she did. Then Nico is dying, annabeth has to follow the park of athena and the quest begins. The face many monsters and challenged all the way to the end when...

The plot of this one s a lot more complex that the other book in this series because it follows to main stories this time, because within one quest their are too separate quests! Hazel's and annabeths. This plot definitely had a lot of time put into making it perfect and spectacular. The plot was so refined and perfect it was practically squealing with delight!

The writing in this book is the same as ever with Riordan. Perfect. Her has such a way of building magical worlds and pictures in our mind. He has the amazing ability to spin the fantastic stories together with mythology to create these beautiful masterpieces. The Writing was just perfect, a balance of dialogue and description to build up vivd pictures in your mind.

The characters were all already known so it was really a case of building them up in your mind. You got a sense of them all and became closer to them learning more and more about them all, especially some rather unexpected history to certain characters. You felt closer to the characters in the book and they became your friends.

M favourite characters would have to be Annabeth. It's mainly because i felt she really had a chance to shine in this book, because for as long as we can remember she has always been in the sidelines in every single Percy Jackson or HOO book and in this one it's her turn to be the main role. Her turn to take the lead and it was really nice to take a look at a annabeth and get to know her better.

My favourite scene it more a collection, but it's definitely when Annabeth starts the quest for the Mark of Athena in greece. It's just such a tense, suspenseful part of the book and it totally hooks you. Rioridan has mastered to art of enthralling a reader, because annoyingly, he seems to know exactly where leave a cliffhanger...

Overall I absolutely adored this book and it was just such a beautiful yet fiercer thrill ride to read. I need the next one now.

Tuesday 16 October 2012

THE RISE OF NINE - PITTACUS LORE - REVIEW

Book: the Rise of Nine
Author: Pittacus Lore
Publisher: Michael Joseph
ISBN: 9780718156497
Rating: A

Until I met John Smith, Number Four, I'd been on the run alone, hiding and fighting to stay alive. Together we are much more powerful. But it could only last so long before we had to separate to find the others ...I went to Spain to find Seven, and I found even more, including a tenth member of the Garde who escaped from Lorien alive. Ella is younger than the rest of us, but just as brave. Now we're looking for the others - including John. But so are they. They caught Number One in Malaysia. Number Two in England. And Number Three in Kenya. They caught me in New York - but I escaped. I am Number Six. They want to finish what they started. But they'll have to fight us first.

When starting this I had heard that the author had changed so I was slightly more aware and paying attention to the writing style when reading this but it was a perfectly written novel. I absolutely adore this series. It's unlike any scifi I have ever read and for someone who isn't a scfi fan this series pleases me so much, so when I got my proof of this, I quickly sniffed the book and started to read.

I feel like things are finally starting to come together in this book! All the numbers (remaining)) except for 5 are all together and it seems like they are finally getting somewhere. This book was just as action packed if not more and has so much technology that it was practically already on my good list before I had finished it. The plot is definitely a lot deeper and more complex now the story lines is progressing and relationships are progressing. Furthermore i really like the variations of POV's and the age differences which provide a different insight to each of the situations.

The writing as I mentioned didn't cause much of an issue but I did sometimes feel like the writing was treating the reader a tad too much like a child but apart from that there were no qualms. It was pleasure for sad, just the right amount of description and dialogue, creating vivd and sharp scenes in you minds as you read the book.

The characters were all much more built up in this book. Pervious characters became more emotionally connected and real and new characters gave a thrill and excitement to the book. Also there were some extremely interesting things revelled about many a character in this novel. All of the characters have really solid foundations and and really strong roots, most of which we have had an insight too, especially for, but many others are explained further in this book. In this book my favourite character had to be Marina. I don't know why but I just seemed to take and instant liking and warming to her and she just seemed so sweet and innocent and understanding.

Overall this a fantastic book, jam packed with action and thrill ready to keep you entranced till the very end!

STOLEN NIGHTS - REBECCA MAIZEL - REVIEW

Book: Stolen Nights
Author: Rebecca Maizel
Publisher: PanMacmillan
ISBN: 9780330520454
Rating: A

The pulse-quickening, heartbreaking, devastatingly powerful follow-up to INFINITE DAYS. Lenah Beaudonte should be dead. But having sacrificed herself to save another, she finds herself awakening with strange powers that are neither vampire nor human - and with a new enemy on her trail. In her vampire life, Lenah had thought that being human was all she ever wanted; but the human heart suffers pain, heartbreak and loss. With her new powers growing and the dark force of the Nex after her soul, Lenah faces a choice: between the mortal love of gorgeous Justin, whose passion fed her human soul, and taking a different path to become the mistress of her own destiny, wherever that may lead ...

Now this is what I"m talking about. This is what I have been waiting for way too long and it was exactly what I wanted. Picking up right after the dramatic events of the predecessor Stolen Nights follows Lena and Vicken as she struggles to keep Rhode within her grasp but deny their love whilst realises her true feeling for Justin. 

Boy did this blow me away. This is a really deep emotional book. The plot was amazing. The amount of time and effort that was poured into this book and the plot is absolutely amazing and this was well worth the wait. The plot was so delicate yet extravagant and dramatised at the same time that it simply mesmerised, sending you into a trance, from which you could not break. It was glued to this.

The writing was amazing as ever. Maizel ha this beautiful simplicity to her writing that makes it a absolute pleasure to read. The writing just flowed so smoothly and perfectly like a river so to speak and it just sent you reeling in awe. The combination of the plot with the writing was an utter match made in heaven.

Now this goes in a complete different direction introducing Vicken, who we TBH don't particularly like from book 1 and in this book that completely changes. As he becomes a main character you get let into his head and you really warm to him. You realise what he is truly like and you get to hear his story which is extremely different to Lena's.

This book verges a lot more onto the magic side, and I really like that, because I always find that YA fiction seems to try and stay to real and I am perfectly happy with a full blown Fantasy because who doesn't love a bit of magic. This is definitely a good to read.

After waiting for this was so long I was not disappointed and I honestly can say this book was a pure and utter pleasure to sink my fangs into. (if you'll pardon the pun)