Reading List (3/22/2011)

Currently Reading:
The Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
Dreamless by A. H.

To Read:
Poison Study, Magic Study, Fire Study by Maria Snyder
Chasing the Nightbird by Krista Russell
The Vespertine by Saundra Mitchell
No Place Like Holmes by Jason Lethcoe

The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

When his small mountains country goes to war with the powerful nation of Attolia, Eugenides the thief is faced with his greatest challenge. He must steal a man, he must steal a queen, and he must steal peace.

But his greatest triumph-as well as his greatest loss-can only come if he succeeds in capturing something the Queen of Attolia may have sacrificed long ago.

This is the sequel to The Thief and it surpassed the first both in plot and the way the conclusion came about. In The Thief, Turner spins an entire tale about a thief that's been caught and forced on a mission for a sacred relic, the entire plot is so tightly wound in this mission, that the very few clues to how the story ends got fully buried and the ending came as a total surprise to me and many other readers as well. For many this was a complete turn-off, but it kept me interested in how the next few novels would play out. The Queen of Attolia does not disappoint.

Not only is Attolia and Eddis given more face time, the plot is more involved and also easier to follow. I was far more pleased by this second novel than the first and gladly sunk myself into Turner's fictional world in a way I hadn't been allowed to in the first novel. Even though the next two books have already been published, there were moments where I could delude myself well enough that Eugenides would not live out the story. The most fascinating aspect was how everyone was, in some way, a pawn and a player in their own endings to this novel and overall I was very satisfied.

Percy Jackson and The Olympians Series by Rick Riordan

The Lightning Thief
Percy Jackson is a good kid, but he can’t seem to focus on his schoolwork or control his temper. When his mom tells him the truth about where he came from, she takes him to the one place he’ll be safe—Camp Half-Blood, a summer camp for demigods (on Long Island). There, Percy learns that the father he never knew is actually Poseidon, God of the Sea. Soon Percy finds himself caught up in a mystery that could lead to disastrous consequences. Together with his friends—a satyr and other the demigod daughter of Athena—Percy sets out on a quest to reach the gates of the Underworld (located in a recording studio in Hollywood) and prevent a catastrophic war between the gods.

The Sea of Monsters
After a summer spent trying to prevent a catastrophic war among the Greek gods, Percy Jackson finds his seventh-grade school year unnervingly calm. But things don’t stay quiet for long. Percy soon discovers there is trouble at Camp Half-Blood: the magical borders which protect Half-Blood Hill have been poisoned by a mysterious enemy, and the only safe haven for demigods is on the verge of being overrun by mythological monsters. To save the camp, Percy needs the help of his best friend, Grover, who has been taken prisoner by the Cyclops Polyphemus on an island somewhere in the Sea of Monsters—the dangerous waters Greek heroes have sailed for millennia—only today, the Sea of Monsters goes by a new nameL: the Bermuda Triangle. Now Percy and his friends must retrieve the Golden Fleece from the Island of the Cyclopes by the end of the summer or Camp Half-Blood will be destroyed. But first, Percy will learn a stunning new secret about his family—one that makes him question whether being claimed as Poseidon’s son is an honor or simply a cruel joke...

The Titan’s Curse
When Percy Jackson receives a distress call from his friend Grover, he immediately prepares for battle. He knows he'll need his powerful demigod allies, Annabeth and Thalia, at his side; his trusty broze sword Riptide; and... a ride from his mom. The demigods race to the rescue, to find that Grover has made an important discovery: two new powerful half-bloods whose parentage is unknown. But that's not all that awaits them. The Titan lord, Kronos, has set up his most devious trap yet, and the young heroes have unwittingly fallen prey. Hilarious and action-packed, this third adventure in the series finds Percy faced with his most dangerous challenge so far: the chilling prophecy of the Titan's curse.

Battle of the Labyrinth
As an incoming freshman, Percy isn’t expecting his high school orientation to be any fun. But when a mysterious mortal acquaintance appears, followed by demon cheerleaders, things quickly move from bad to worse.

In this fourth installment of the blockbuster series, time is running out as war between the Olympians and the evil Titan lord Kronos draws near. Even the safe haven of Camp Half Blood grows more vulnerable by the minute as Kronos’s army prepares to invade its once impenetrable borders. To stop them, Percy and his demigod friends will set out on a quest through the Labyrinth—a sprawling underground world with stunning surprises at every turn. Full of humor and heart-pounding action, this fourth book promises to be their most thrilling adventure yet.

The Last Olympian
All year the half-bloods have been preparing for battle against the Titans, knowing the odds of victory are grim. Kronos’s army is stronger than ever, and with every god and half-blood he recruits, the evil Titan’s power only grows. While the Olympians struggle to contain the rampaging monster Typhon, Kronos begins his advance on New York City, where Mount Olympus stands virtually unguarded. Now it’s up to Percy Jackson and an army of young demigods to stop the Lord of Time.

In this momentous final book in the New York Times best-selling Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, the long-awaited prophecy surrounding Percy’s sixteenth birthday unfolds. And as the battle for Western civilization rages on the streets of Manhattan, Percy faces a terrifying suspicion that he may be fighting against his own fate.

I raced through all five of these books in under one week. Having them all in my hands at the same time hastened the compulsion to speed through them. I'd rate them on the same level of enjoyability as the Harry Potter series, but unlike the Harry Potter series, which started as a series for children but ended far past that mark, this series felt and read like a juvenile fiction series and I lost none of my love for it because of that.

These books were feel good in a familiar, exciting way that made it hard to step back and do something else once you got started. The plot's zipped past before you even realized they were starting and once you've read two you'll be hooked.