The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan

Today's review is on:

The back reads:

Ever since their mother's death, siblings Carter and Sadie have been near-strangers. While Sadie's lived with their grandparents in London, Carter has traveled the world with their father, the brilliant Egyptologist Dr. Julius Kane.

Then one night they are reunited when their father takes them to the British Museum, hoping at last to set things right. Instead, he unleashes the Egyptian god Set, who banishes him to oblivion and forces the children to flee for their lives.

Soon, Carter and Sadie discover that the gods of Ancient Egypt are waking, and the worst of them - Set - is after the Kanes. To stop him, the siblings must embark on a dangerous journey across the globe - a quest that brings them ever closer to the truth about their family and its link to a secret order that has existed since the time of the pharaohs...

If you like the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, you need to pick this one up! It has all the witty humor of Rick Riordan along with Egyptian gods and goddesses and it's respectable monsters. Just like Percy Jackson, these siblings have powers that they never could've dreamed of, and an amazing amount of royalty in their blood to boot. Along with the siblings, you discover their abilities, their strengths, their weaknesses. All wrapped up in one hell of a story line.

What I liked most about this book is that it was dictation from a taping that the author found (or so we're told). That just makes it even easier to believe that what is happening really happened. It skips between Carter and Sadie telling their story so far, which really makes it a fun book to read. Carter speaks in an American accent, and Sadie in an English accent, so you can pretty easily tell by the spelling of certain words who is talking into the mic. (Mum, for example, is used by Sadie and Mom by Carter.)

My favorite part:

"You're forgetting something, Horus told me.

A little busy here! I thought back.

You might think it's easy steering a magic boat through the sky. You'd be wrong. I didn't have Amos's animated coat, so I stood in the back trying to shift the tiller myself, which was like stirring cement. I couldn't see where I was going. We kept tilting back and forth while Sadie did her best to keep an unconscious Zia from flopping over the side.

It's my birthday, Horus insisted. Wish me happy birthday!

"Happy birthday!" I yelled. "Now, shut up!" "

Well, that's all for now, folks!

See you in the next one!

~Sea-Solo out!

Currently reading:

 

More Egyptian stuff:



Learn more about the Kane Chronicles!:

http://www.kanechronicles.co.uk/site/author.php

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Today's review is on:

The back reads:

Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely traveling any farther than his pantry or cellar. But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard Gandalf and a company of dwarves arrive of his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an adventure. They have launched a plot to raid the treasure hoard guarded by Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon. Bilbo reluctantly joins their quest, unaware that on his journey to the Lonely Mountain he will encounter both a magic ring and a frightening creature known as Gollum.

I'm going to be perfectly honest here: I tried reading The Hobbit during 8th grade and hated it! I think I got up to the part where Bilbo finds the ring, and then I put it down, vowing to never pick it up again. That being said...

I loved it the second time around!

I don't know if it was because I've gotten older, or if I'd seen the movie and wanted to see how it ended (who can wait three years for the ending?!), but I was really drawn into the story, and actually cheering for the heroes! (Well, at least in my head...)\

The only part that I absolutely hated was when Bilbo and the dwarves (Fili, Kili, Dwalin, Balin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Ori, Nori, Dori, Oin, Gloin, and Thorin Oakenshield) were captured by some HUGE spiders!

Explanation: I'm arachnaphobic!

(^Even this creeps me out!)

Reccomendation:

Read this book after you watch the movie! It is so cool to be able to see the characters as they were in the movie as you're reading epic battles against Trolls, spiders, and the mighty Smaug!

In conclusion, this is one of the books that you need to read before you die, at least once. It's the sort of book you put on your New Year's resolutions for reading, something you put down on your bucketlist. IT IS A MUST-READ!

My favorite part:

" "Good Morning!" said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining, and the grass was very green. But Gandalf looked at him from under long bushy eyebrows that stuck out further than the brim of his shady hat.

"What do you mean?" he said. "Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?" "

Well, that's all for this book! I'll see you in the next one!

~Sea-Solo out!

Other Hobbit things:

 

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An introduction and Earthsea: A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

Hello, readers! :)

My name is Sea-Solo (a pen name, obviously), and I hope to review books that I've read on this blog, and also do book-related things.

Today's book review is on:

The back reads:

Ged was the greatest sorcerer in all Earthsea. But he was once called Sparrowhawk, a reckless youth, hungry for power and knowledge, who tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death's threshold to restore the balance.

This book is about a wizard of Earthsea named Sparrowhawk. I'm sure those of you who have seen the movie created by studio Ghibli will be squealing, I expect, because the movie is so good, but you didn't really get that much into Sparrowhawk's story of how he became a wizard, how he got his legendary scars, and how he got to be who he was in Tales From Earthsea (which just so happens to be the 5th book in this series).

What I find funny is when you read the afterword in the back, you will see that Ursula K. Le Guin didn't want to write a teenage book when the publisher asked her to. She says that it was the idea of writing with a specific audience in mind that scared her. The only well-known fantasy books that were out when she started to write the Earthsea series was J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. A Wizard of Earthsea was the first of its kind.

I would reccomend this book to high school readers and adults, because even though it is short, it is as well worded as The Hobbit or any other adult fantasy novel.

Well, that's all for today! Catch you in the next one!

~Sea-Solo out!

Currently reading:

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

and

Confessions of a Murder Suspect by James Patterson