Most of the heroically posed figures in Lazo’s realistically modeled illustrations are light-skinned. A climactic battle features a horde of bloodthirsty kittens and a ravenous, punning monster-followed by hints that surviving librarians may be taking up worthier missions and, since Bastille insists on the veracity of this account, credible reasons why people the world around have talents for being late, breaking things, and like peccadillos. Despite her own forewarnings of a disastrous ending and stern suggestion to start with Volume 1 for the backstory, she does fill in enough of what’s going on for readers to keep pace-and in characteristically take-no-prisoners tones, lays out a rip-roaring tale in which she fulfills her role as Alcatraz’s protector with plenty of brisk (if bloodless) sword work and an unshakeable loyalty that, along with the occasional punch, draws him out of a paralyzing slough of guilt and self-loathing.
#Books like the mark of athena free
Switching narrators in the wake of devastating deeds at the end of The Dark Talent (2016), the co-authors pick up the action with stern, stab-happy Bastille describing her rescue of traumatized Alcatraz Smedry from a Library of Congress that is filling up with lava, then a desperate effort to keep ultra-evil librarian Biblioden the Scrivener from forcing the world’s remaining Free Kingdoms to check themselves out permanently. Previous prognostications of failure and doom notwithstanding, this bustling entry features miraculous survivals and just deserts for the biblio-baddies. Here, Riordan’s infectious love for his subject matter really comes through, even as he takes some real risks with his characters.Ī literal cliffhanger leaves eager readers hanging next stop: Greece-and Tartarus. A Luddite god rails against what he calls the “b-book,” which displaced the far superior scroll technology Annabeth gets a crash course in the cult of Mithros far below the streets of Rome. Once the Argo II leaves the United States, though, the pace picks up, and the comically instructive set pieces Riordan’s so good at emerge.
With sweethearts Annabeth and Percy once again united, much of the tension that powered earlier books is gone. As the trireme crosses the country, the pace drags while the demigods sort out relationships and work to figure out both cryptic prophecy and nightmare visions.
They seek the titular Mark of Athena, which they hope will provide the key to defeating the vengeful Earth mother, Gaea, or at least some of her giant offspring. With his now-trademark zero-to-60 acceleration, the author engineers a ghostly possession to set Greeks and Romans at odds and initiates the Prophecy of the Seven, hurtling Annabeth, Percy, Piper, Leo, Hazel, Frank and Jason into a pell-mell flight on the magical trireme Argo II. After waging two separate quests ( The Lost Hero, 2010 The Son of Neptune, 2011), the Greek and Roman demigods of Riordan’s Heroes of Olympus quintet join forces.
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