The Throne of Fire

Young Adult fiction

by Rick Riordan

"Before publishing such an alarming manuscript, I felt compelled to do some fact-checking on Sadie and Carter's story."

This is how Rick Riordan begins his author's notes at the end of this book, the second in the Kane Chronicle Series.

The rest of the book is much like the first: Harry Potter-esque adventures of a brother-sister duo who are descended from the pharoahs of Egypt and battle both for and against the various gods of Egyptian mythology for nothing less than saving the world.

What intrigues me is the style the author chose to use. He says he found this story whole in the form of audio recordings made by Sadie and Carter (they alternate telling the story each chapter, with funny asides to each other to stop hogging the mic). That's what the quote above is about. I wonder what it is that makes us readers want to believe that a fictional story just MIGHT be true. It's not just young adult fiction--the book I read last year about Leningrad during World War Ii (City of Thieves) had a similar message at the beginning of the book. I mean, look at the cover of this book. It's clearly fantasy. But it's fun to think, since so much of the history in the book is true, that the rest may be possible.

Also interesting is how Riordan makes the two kids' voices different from each other.  Due to some custody issues, Sadie was raised in England by her grandparents and so uses a lot of British slang (I love words like manky and git!) Carter was raised traveling all over the world by his dad but is mostly American and talks like every teenager I know (um, yeah). It's great characterization through dialogue.

Can you tell I'm thinking more like a writer these days than a reader? I almost didn't even post about this book because I'm into writing my own book so much, but it's good to take a break and write something different for a while. And even though I'm trying to improve my own writing through what I read, it's good to read for just plain fun. These Percy Jackson and Kane Chronicle series are totally fun, even for adults. I heard the Percy Jackson movie stunk, though. I wish someone would make a good one about these books. I'd love to see them.

Fall of Giants

Historical Fiction by Ken Follett

I know it's been forever since I've written. I could give you as many excuses as my seventh grade students give me (I had to babysit, I'm really into this TV series right now), but here's my best one...this book is a behemoth. Nine hundred and eighty five pages!

I first read Ken Follett because my father-in-law insisted I would love his books about the building of a cathedral in the Middle Ages of England. And I did. They were fascinating. I loved learning about the changes in culture, architecture, government, and church that occurred over the generations in the two books. It really is a sweeping history, as book reviewers sometimes say.

Which leads me to this book, the first of three in a series. It's about World War I instead of the Middle Ages, and it has major characters in five different countries. Clearly also sweeping. But unfortunately, I don't have a lot of love for that era and I really didn't like all the war tactics and battle scenes.

I did like some of the characters, especially the suffragettes in England, and the ways that the characters end up meeting is interesting. I do like it when an author can weave it all together like that. I also learned a ton about how the war developed and if I read the sequels it will be to find out more about the next phases in history. Ok, now I sound like a nerd. I like sequels, though, because they offer new stories but with some comforting familiarity. I just know I definitely need a break before cracking open another thousand pager.