The Red Pyramid

I finally got it finished and wrote the review! I’ll do a little review at the start without spoilers, but it’s a great book and I want to do a more in depth review, which will no doubt have spoilers in every other sentence.

Rick Riordan has written another brilliant beginning to what I hope is another great series. He, once again, has his mythology down to a tee and makes it interesting. Even for the people who aren’t mythology nerds. Which is a huge attraction of his books. The whole book keeps you on the edge of your seat, with various twists and turns. I found the book a little predictable, but the very ending I did not see coming at all.
When I started reading this book, I was skeptical if Riordan could pull off another modern mythology series. However, he pulled off another great feat. After conquering Greek mythology, Riordan moved straight to Egyptian mythology and pulled it off just as easily. I recommend the book if you enjoyed Percy Jackson, because the writing style is the same and just as entertaining. I give it a solid four out of five stars.

Since you might not read on in avoidance of spoilers, I'll put my little announcement here. The next book I hope to review is Artemis Fowl and the Atlantic Complex by Eoin Colfer. Which will be up in a week or so.

Now, we move into the spoiler part of the review. If you haven’t read the book yet, I don’t suggest moving on, unless you aren’t even planning on reading the book anyways.





THERE ARE LOTS OF SPOILERS AFTER THIS POINT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(in case you don't know, I hate spoilers, so I feel obligated to warn you so a horrid fate does not fall upon you)





Parts I absolutely loved (pros):
Wonderful, engaging characters. In particular, I especially liked Bast and Anubis. (I’m a girl, whaddya expect?)
The “godling” concept and how the second consciousness in Sadie’s and Carter’s head was presented. It was told in a very simple way and not overused. I loved it.
Learning about things with the characters. The magic, the hieroglyphics, what happened with their mom.
I don’t know if I’m crazy, or this was in every copy of the book, but the random hieroglyphics in the book. I want to figure out what they mean at some point, I have all of them post-it noted.
The little plot twist with Amos and Desjardins (sp? I don’t have the book with me) and who was supposedly hosting Set.
The whole Zia isn’t really Zia.

Stuff I wasn’t too crazy about (cons):
There didn’t really seem to be a difference between Sadie and Carter’s voices in the writing – which proved itself a little confusing. After a while, I got used to looking at the name at the start of the chapter or looking at the top of the page, where it conveniently tells you which character’s point of view you’re in.
The only other thing I really didn’t like is how it was presented as a transcription of an “audio recording” and randomly there would be in brackets of them conversing with each other in the present.
I wish they went more in depth into the bloodline thing. The Kane family is mentioned a lot, but they didn’t say much about the mom’s bloodline. Or even her last name if I remember correctly.
Other than that I really loved the book.

Inception

I am fully aware that this movie has been out for a long time, but I still feel the need to review it. I believe I’ve put together a completely spoiler free review, so no worries to those who haven’t seen it yet.

Inception is another great movie from Christopher Nolan (who also directed The Dark Knight among other movies) Another amazing, mind-blowing movie. I went into the theater expecting a great movie, just because of all the hype I’d heard from friends. I came out of the theater unable to think. It was quite literally “mind-blowing”. It makes you think about so many levels of reality and so many aspects of the inner workings of the mind. I congratulate everyone who worked on this movie for not going insane.

Now, going into the theater, I actually didn’t know that much about the movie. I was aware that the movie was about dreams and creating them. Other than that, I knew that it starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page, two very popular, talented actors. Besides them, this movie was full of familiar faces: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who I recognized from G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra as well as a number of other movies, and Ken Watanabe, who many will recognize from The Last Samurai.

As well as a star cast, this movie had great writing and dialogue, which, nowadays, is a rare thing. I was surprised at the lack of romance in this movie, but not disappointed. It would have taken away from the plot itself.

The plotline in this movie is very complicated, and I don’t suggest it to someone who just wants to casually watch a movie. It makes you think the whole time, and if you left to go to the bathroom, you’d come back more confused than when you left. As well as thinking the whole duration of the movie, you’ll be thinking about the movie the rest of the day and well into the night.

The special effects in this movie were great and like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Not that they were anything special in and of themselves. However, the way they are used within the movie and plot is great. I’m a little disappointed that it wasn’t made in 3D, but with the intenseness of the movie, it might have been a little too much and a little too overwhelming.

I did see the movie in IMAX, which, in the case of this movie, is exactly the same as regular showing, except on a much larger screen with better sound quality. Would I recommend seeing it in IMAX? If you have money to spare, it will add to the experience, but you won’t lose anything if you just see it in a regular showing.

All together, I give this movie 5 well-earned stars. A great movie I highly recommend seeing to anyone who’s looking for a new, interesting movie. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen.

New Writing Excerpt Up!

Well, as you can tell from the title of this post, I put a new writing excerpt up. However, I use the word "new" loosely. It was written during JulNoWriMo last year, but it was really edited and polished from the original version. Including a POV swap. Which was interesting.
I'm still working on this story and trying to get as much edited as I can before Writers Conference, which starts in like 13 hours. I should probably finish packing and stuff, but this, I have decided is an essential part of getting prepared for writers conference. Especially the new excerpt.

And I know I said my next post would be a review of The Red Pyramid. I lied. I'm sorry. I'll finish it as soon as I can. I was a bit busy today. I promise I'll get it up as soon as I finish the book though! Which should be in the next couple days.

Oh, and a review of Inception, which is a mind blowing movie of epic proportions. That should be up soon too.