30 day meme, fast track version
Ah... this is one of the icons I made all by myself. *pets Jonas* Oh, I miss you, Jonas, my first serious fandom boyfriend...
The 30 Day Meme
Day 01 → Your favorite song
Day 02 → Your favorite movie
Day 03 → Your favorite television program
Day 05 → Your favorite quote
Day 06 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 07 → A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 → A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 → A photo you took
Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobby of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book
Since I just finished it over the weekend, finally, I'm going to go with The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan.
I love the Percy Jackson series. I love taking this journey with Mr. Riordan, not just in discovering what happens to Percy, his friends, and all the gods, but in watching the writing getting progressively more rich and full. The first Percy Jackson felt like a whimsical romp, purely for adventurous fun. It was very good, but the books that have come after it have gotten progressively better and better, I think. Riordan is really coming into his own as far as balancing his telltale irreverent pop-culture laden humor with a faithful devotion to telling the Quest archetype over and over and over and never making it redundant. His characters are so varied and relateable. There are moments that almost bring me to tears (The culmination of Zoe Nightshade's journey in The Titan's Curse, Piper's father grieving at the grim reality of the world when it finally shattered his walls), and moments that have me laughing so hard that it... well, brings me to tears.
Oh! And the ship! There's always ship, and it's fun and not dragged-out-angsty!!
The good news is, looks like the author's really digging deep into this trench and we have lots of modern myth adventures to enjoy in the foreseeable future.
I didn't love The Son of Neptune quite as much as I did The Lost Hero, but not for any particular reason. I think sometimes it just depends on where you are in your life when you read a book. My love for The Lost Hero might be slightly higher from the general euphoria and delight to realize Riordan was doing things the same and yet totally different, and he was doing it well, and it was going to be an amazing series, and he could change structure and POV and you barely noticed. Also, there was a giant, devoted dragon made out of bronze. I distinctly remember as soon as the Greek vs. Roman stuff became perfectly clear towards the end of the book feeling a thrill in my heart of THAT IS SO AWESOME! and grinning rather stupidly.
The Son of Neptune doesn't have the benefit of this particular reveal, and obviously I can't hold that against it. One thing I really loved was that Riordan didn't try to drag out Percy's amnesia the way he did Jason's. The reader knows what's going on-- performing literary calisthenics to try and shuffle around that fact is stupid and insulting. Also, the two books don't take place simultaneously-- Percy really starts to get vague clues to his past probably around the same time Jason did. It would've been a bad move for continuity anyway. So, bravo, Mr. Writer, well done.
One thing The Son of Neptune definitely has over any other Riordan book to date is the most hilarious marriage of mythology and the modern world EVER. Namely, that in the book, Amazon.com was founded by THE Amazons. And it wasn't even that which made me literally LOL (and have to stop and send an email of squee to grav_ity), it was all the little details, such as, while Percy & Co were touring the Amazon warehouse, seeing things like chariots and celestial bronze sheilds for sale with signs reading "Customers who bought this also bought_____" or the team being instructed to steal Amazon security badges with "one click purchasing enabled"
Seriously. I just... yeah. Too scrumptious for words.
And then there are the characters, and the new variants of demigod powers based on Roman god interpretations instead of Greek, all the usual geography and famous places of interest with which these books are usually packed (seriously? I'd love to know how many 10-11 year olds want to go see places like the St. Louis arch or the Smithsonian or Hubbard glacier as a result of reading Percy Jackson).
I love Hazel, I love Frank, I love Arion, Hylla, Reyna, and even Octavian for being a truly insidious fountain of potential trouble (and him ripping up Percy's panda pillow pal almost made me laugh as much as Percy's panda pillow pal being part of his "essential" hero survival kit to begin with-- trust Riordan to actually make a Panda pillow pal relevant to the plot and characterization even if it was just a little bit).
In short, if you're fan of great books and you haven't gotten on board yet, what are you waiting for?
The 30 Day Meme
Day 01 → Your favorite song
Day 02 → Your favorite movie
Day 03 → Your favorite television program
Day 05 → Your favorite quote
Day 06 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 07 → A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 → A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 → A photo you took
Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobby of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book
Since I just finished it over the weekend, finally, I'm going to go with The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan.
I love the Percy Jackson series. I love taking this journey with Mr. Riordan, not just in discovering what happens to Percy, his friends, and all the gods, but in watching the writing getting progressively more rich and full. The first Percy Jackson felt like a whimsical romp, purely for adventurous fun. It was very good, but the books that have come after it have gotten progressively better and better, I think. Riordan is really coming into his own as far as balancing his telltale irreverent pop-culture laden humor with a faithful devotion to telling the Quest archetype over and over and over and never making it redundant. His characters are so varied and relateable. There are moments that almost bring me to tears (The culmination of Zoe Nightshade's journey in The Titan's Curse, Piper's father grieving at the grim reality of the world when it finally shattered his walls), and moments that have me laughing so hard that it... well, brings me to tears.
Oh! And the ship! There's always ship, and it's fun and not dragged-out-angsty!!
The good news is, looks like the author's really digging deep into this trench and we have lots of modern myth adventures to enjoy in the foreseeable future.
I didn't love The Son of Neptune quite as much as I did The Lost Hero, but not for any particular reason. I think sometimes it just depends on where you are in your life when you read a book. My love for The Lost Hero might be slightly higher from the general euphoria and delight to realize Riordan was doing things the same and yet totally different, and he was doing it well, and it was going to be an amazing series, and he could change structure and POV and you barely noticed. Also, there was a giant, devoted dragon made out of bronze. I distinctly remember as soon as the Greek vs. Roman stuff became perfectly clear towards the end of the book feeling a thrill in my heart of THAT IS SO AWESOME! and grinning rather stupidly.
The Son of Neptune doesn't have the benefit of this particular reveal, and obviously I can't hold that against it. One thing I really loved was that Riordan didn't try to drag out Percy's amnesia the way he did Jason's. The reader knows what's going on-- performing literary calisthenics to try and shuffle around that fact is stupid and insulting. Also, the two books don't take place simultaneously-- Percy really starts to get vague clues to his past probably around the same time Jason did. It would've been a bad move for continuity anyway. So, bravo, Mr. Writer, well done.
One thing The Son of Neptune definitely has over any other Riordan book to date is the most hilarious marriage of mythology and the modern world EVER. Namely, that in the book, Amazon.com was founded by THE Amazons. And it wasn't even that which made me literally LOL (and have to stop and send an email of squee to grav_ity), it was all the little details, such as, while Percy & Co were touring the Amazon warehouse, seeing things like chariots and celestial bronze sheilds for sale with signs reading "Customers who bought this also bought_____" or the team being instructed to steal Amazon security badges with "one click purchasing enabled"
Seriously. I just... yeah. Too scrumptious for words.
And then there are the characters, and the new variants of demigod powers based on Roman god interpretations instead of Greek, all the usual geography and famous places of interest with which these books are usually packed (seriously? I'd love to know how many 10-11 year olds want to go see places like the St. Louis arch or the Smithsonian or Hubbard glacier as a result of reading Percy Jackson).
I love Hazel, I love Frank, I love Arion, Hylla, Reyna, and even Octavian for being a truly insidious fountain of potential trouble (and him ripping up Percy's panda pillow pal almost made me laugh as much as Percy's panda pillow pal being part of his "essential" hero survival kit to begin with-- trust Riordan to actually make a Panda pillow pal relevant to the plot and characterization even if it was just a little bit).
In short, if you're fan of great books and you haven't gotten on board yet, what are you waiting for?