Meg-A-Rae Episode 16: A Very Special Super Spy Episode

On this week's episode of Meg-A-Rae, Meg and I discuss espionage and even try our hand at the trade! Meg, of course, talks about Ian Fleming's Bond series, plus a couple of books about the Bond movies (I'm keeping the one with Daniel Craig on the cover!). I discuss the awesome Gallagher Girl series by Ally Carter, a story about an all-girl spy school.

Be sure to check out our next installment: A Very VERY Special Victorian Christmas Episode!

Teen Reviewer: The Lost Hero

The Lost Hero (Heroes of Olympus, #1)
By: Rick Riordan
Reviewer: Emily Reeves

“It'll be dangerous," Nyssa warned him. "Hardship, monsters, terrible suffering. Possibly none of you will come back alive."
"Oh." Suddenly Leo didn't look so excited. Then he remembered everyone was watching. "I mean... Oh, cool! Suffering? I love suffering! Let's do this.” 

Description from Goodreads:
Jason has a problem. He doesn’t remember anything before waking up in a bus full of kids on a field trip. Apparently he has a girlfriend named Piper and a best friend named Leo. They’re all students at a boarding school for “bad kids.” What did Jason do to end up here? And where is here, exactly?

Piper has a secret. Her father has been missing for three days, ever since she had that terrifying nightmare. Piper doesn’t understand her dream, or why her boyfriend suddenly doesn’t recognize her. When a freak storm hits, unleashing strange creatures and whisking her, Jason, and Leo away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood, she has a feeling she’s going to find out.

Leo has a way with tools. When he sees his cabin at Camp Half-Blood, filled with power tools and machine parts, he feels right at home. But there’s weird stuff, too—like the curse everyone keeps talking about. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist that each of them—including Leo—is related to a god.

Join new and old friends from Camp Half-Blood in this thrilling first book in The Heroes of Olympus series.

Emily's Review (minor spoilers ahead):
In the first book of the second series that involves the same people along with some new ones, Jason doesn’t remember anything before waking up on a school bus holding hands with Piper. Apparently she’s his girlfriend. His best friend is named Leo. Everything seems very wrong. Piper’s father has been missing for three days, and her vivid nightmares reveal that he’s in terrible danger. Piper, Jason, and Leo are whisked away to Camp Half-Blood. The most troubling thing is the curse everyone keeps talking about, and that Annabeth’s boyfriend is missing. This is one of the best books that I have ever read; I totally recommend it. My favorite part of the book is when Jason saves Piper from falling to her death. My least favorite part of the book is that Annabeth does not find Percy. I cannot believe that Hera would to this to her own family; I mean she is the goddess of marriage for crying out loud!

Teen Reviewer: Percy Jackson and The Olympian Series, Books 1, 2, and 3

The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and The Olympians, #1)
The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and The Olympians, #2)
The Titan's Curse (Percy Jackson and The Olympians, #3)
By: Rick Riordan
Reviewer: Emily Reeves


The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and The Olympians, #1)

“My name is Percy Jackson.
I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.
Am I a troubled kid?
Yeah. You could say that.” 

Description from Goodreads:
Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school... again. And that's the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he's angered a few of them. Zeus' master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.

Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus' stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.

Emily's Review (minor spoilers ahead):
In the first book of the Percy Jackson series, twelve-year-old Percy Jackson is on his first dangerous quest. With the help of Grover and Annabeth, Percy must catch a thief who has stolen Zeus’ lightning bolt. He must come to terms with a father he has never known and betrayal by a friend. I would recommend this book. My favorite part of the book is when Percy finds out who is father is. My least favorite part of this book is when Percy’s mother gets abducted by a monster. I would freak out if I found out that I was a half-blood. I mean could you imagine never knowing one of your parents? Most times the mortal parent does not even know that the other parent is a god. I would be having nightmares of all of the monsters that would be attacking me.



The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and The Olympians, #2)

“Families are messy. Immortal families are eternally messy. Sometimes the best we can do is to remind each other that we're related for better or for worse...and try to keep the maiming and killing to a minimum.” 

Description from Goodreads:
After a summer spent trying to prevent a catastrophic war among the Greek gods, Percy Jackson is finding his seventh-grade school year unnervingly quiet. His biggest problem is dealing with his new friend, Tyson, a six-foot-three, mentally challenged homeless kid who follows Percy everywhere, making it hard for Percy to have any normal friends. But things don't stay quiet for long.

Percy soon discovers there is trouble at Camp Half-Blood: the magical borders that 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 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 name: The Bermuda Triangle.

Together with his friends, Percy must retrieve the Golden Fleece from the Island of the Cyclopes 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.

Emily's Review (major spoilers ahead - read the review with caution if you haven't read the book yet!):
In the second book of the Percy Jackson series, the magical borders of Camp Half-Blood begin to fail. Now Percy and his friends have just days to find the only magic item powerful enough to save the camp before it is overrun by monsters. Percy must stage a rescue operation to save his friend Grover. He learns that he has a half brother that is a Cyclops. I would totally recommend this book. My least favorite part of this book is when Percy denies that Tyson is his brother. My favorite part of the book is when Thalia comes out of the tree that her father turned her into years ago to prevent her from dying. Another one of my favorite parts of the book is when Percy saves Annabeth from the sirens that are showing her what she wants to see about the future to lure her to her death.



The Titan's Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympian's, #3)

“In a way, it's nice to know that there are Greek gods out there, because you have somebody to blame when things go wrong. For instance, when you're walking away from a bus that's just been attacked by monster hags and blown up by lightning, and it's raining on top of everything else, most people might think that's just really bad luck; when you're a half-blood, you understand that some devine force is really trying to mess up your day.”

 

Description from Goodreads:
When the goddess Artemis goes missing, she is believed to have been kidnapped. And now it's up to Percy and his friends to find out what happened. Who is powerful enough to kidnap a goddess? They must find Artemis before the winter solstice, when her influence on the Olympian Council could swing an important vote on the war with the titans. Not only that, but first Percy will have to solve the mystery of a rare monster that Artemis was hunting when she disappeared—a monster rumored to be so powerful it could destroy Olympus forever.

Emily's Review (minor spoilers ahead):

In the third book of the Percy Jackson series, Percy gets an urgent distress call from his friend Grover, and he immediately prepares for battle. He knows he will need his powerful demigod friends at his side and his trusty bronze sword Riptide. The demigods rush to the rescue to find that Grover has made an important discovery. The titan lord Kronos has devised another plot to get his revenge on the gods. An ancient monster has arisen. One rumored to be so powerful it could destroy Olympus. Artemis, the only goddess who might know how to track it, is missing. Now Percy and his friends have only a week to find the kidnapped goddess. I would definitely recommend this book. My least favorite part of the book is when Annabeth falls of the cliff during the rescue mission of the two new half-bloods. My favorite part of this book is when Percy meets with Aphrodite because she is suggesting that Percy like Annabeth, but he gets so flustered.

Book Review: Only the Good Spy Young

Only the Good Spy Young (Gallagher Girls #4)
By Ally Carter
(*****)

From Goodreads:
When Cammie Morgan enrolled at the Gallagher Academy, she knew she was preparing for the dangerous life of a spy. What she didn’t know was that the serious, real-life danger would start during her junior year of high school. But that’s exactly what happened two months ago when she faced off against an ancient terrorist organization dead set on kidnapping her.


Now the danger follows her everywhere and even Cammie “The Chameleon” can’t hide. When a terrifying encounter in London reveals that one of her most-trusted allies is actually a rogue double-agent Cammie no longer knows if she can trust her classmates, her teachers—or even her own heart.


In this fourth installment of the New York Times best-selling series, the Gallagher Girls must hack, spy, steal, and lie their way to the truth as they go searching for answers, recognizing that the key to Cammie’s future may lie deep in the past....


From Me:
Another great book! Cammie is still the target of a rogue group made up of the world's top spys and assassins, but now people she knows and trusts could be the enemy.


By the time I got to the end of this book, as Carter was setting up the next installment, I almost felt like books one through four were all part of a prequel - that the story is about to really take off. Maybe it's more like Harry Potter's Half Blood Prince - the game changer that leads to the final act. Or maybe it really is a set-up for many more books. Or maybe I'm just reading into it and the next book will go back to the status quo. Guess I won't know till I can get my hands on the next one - which is waiting for me at home!

Only the Good Spy Young (#4) and Out of Sight, Out of Time (#5) are both new at our library! Come check them out!

Audio Book Review: The Red Pyramid

The Red Pyramid (Kane Chronicles #1)   *****
by Rick Riordan  

Audio CD, unabridged, read by Kevin R. Free and Katherine Kellgren

From Goodreads:
Since their mother's death, Carter and Sadie have become near strangers. While Sadie has lived with her grandparents in London, her brother has traveled the world with their father, the brilliant Egyptologist, Dr. Julius Kane.

One night, Dr. Kane brings the siblings together for a "research experiment" at the British Museum, where he hopes to set things right for his family. Instead, he unleashes the Egyptian god Set, who banishes him to oblivion and forces the children to flee for their lives.

Soon, Sadie and Carter discover that the gods of Egypt are waking, and the worst of them —Set— has his sights on the Kanes. To stop him, the siblings embark on a dangerous journey across the globe - a quest that brings them ever closer to the truth about their family and their links to a secret order that has existed since the time of the pharaohs.
From me:
The Kane Chronicles are a new series by the author of the Percy Jackson books. And by new, I mean different - this book is a couple of years old now, but the series is not connected to the Percy books (at least to my knowledge). Where the Olympians series focuses on figures from Greek mythology, the Kane titles feature the Egyptian gods. One of my favorite parts of this book was how Riordan made history interesting.

Riordan did an excellent job of creating a world that was exciting and fun. It really lends itself to the audio format, as the main characters switch back and forth with the narration as though they're making a recording for future listeners (that, and Kevin R. Price and Katherine Kellgren did an amazing job voicing the narration). The reader/listener is drawn in by the adventure and mystery, but the story is also kept light by the teasing asides between Sadie and Carter as they're narrating. I like how Riordan kept this good-versus-evil, save-the-world tale more fun than scary. The reader also gets drawn into the story as though they may be one of the children with the "blood of the pharaohs."

A great read for the prescribed age-group of grades 4-9, but I got a real kick out of it, too!