Percy Jackson : Heroes of Olympus. The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

Book: Percy Jackson Heroes of Olympus. The Lost Hero.

Author: Rick Riordan

Publisher: Puffin Books. (www.puffinbooks.com) Penguin group.

ISBN : 978 0141325491

This is the first book of the Heroes of Olympus series.

Jason got up in the back seat of a Wilderness School bus, not knowing who he is, why he is here or even where he is from.

And like a perfectly normal demigod day, he takes a dive down the Grand Canyon and fights some storm spirits. By coincidence he is rescued by Annabeth, who gets the message that Percy, who had gone missing will be there.

Getting to camp wasn’t any better. He realized that he had already been claimed and that the queen of Olympus had taken away his memories intending to use him as a ‘bridge’.

As if the day could get any more eventful, he gets a prophecy that Hera is being held hostage and that he is supposed to rescue her. Leo has another task, helping his cabin to destroy the dragon, Festus, to lift the curse from his cabin, but how can they do what nobody has done in all these years. And Leo can’t stand the thought of this beautifully crafted dragon to be destroyed, so he has to tame it, thinking that it could also help in the quest, but he has little time to do it.

The questions and possibilities are many, answers scanty…….

Will they succeed in rescuing Hera, will Jason get his memory back and  does the arrival of Jason have anything to do with the disappearance of Percy. 

Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

Book: Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian.

Author: Rick Riordan

Publisher: Puffin Books. (www.puffinbooks.com) Penguin group.

ISBN : 978 0141346885

Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian is the last book in the Percy Jackson series.

On his sixteenth birthday, Percy gets a prophecy that could save or destroy the world…

“A half blood of the eldest gods

 Shall reach sixteen against all odds

 And see the world in endless sleep

 The hero’s soul, cursed blade shall reap

 A single choice shall end his days.

 Olympus to preserve or raze.”

The Titan lord Kronos, is starting to attack New York City. The dreaded monster Typhon is by his side. As if things could not get any worse, the enemy reports that they have a spy at camp….

Percy and just forty of his demigod friends set out against untold evil. Nico has a plan, but Percy doesn’t think he’s ready yet, it could kill him.

Hades and Poseidon have their own issues down there and cannot join the war.

But, like always, things don’t go the way they’re supposed to… Annabeth gets stabbed, Chiron gets buried, Rachel gets recent visions and the Ares cabin at camp refuses to come to the battle till they get the chariot back….

Is this Kronos’ way of dividing them to conquer Olympus? And things get more complicated when Percy gets Pandora’s jar as a gift from a Titan, who said that if they open it, and release ‘HOPE’ they will know that they have surrendered.

Percy’s only hope is to convince Luke to turn over and destroy Kronos, but it seems unlikely.

As the demigod of the prophecy all of this is on Percy’s shoulders….. Will they beat the Titan Kronos or will they be taken over by monsters….

Hack into your creativity by author Michael Burns

Book: Hack into your Creativity

Author: Michael Burns

Publisher: Penguin Books, Penguin Randomhouse, Penguin group.

ISBN : 978 0670090105

American Michael Burns is a university teacher, writing coach, actor, editor and storyteller. He has a BA from Georgetown University, an MS from UMass Amherst, and holds a PhD in documentary film history from the University of Birmingham in the UK. He has directed five films for international television and his work has been seen in over twenty countries. He moved to India in 2011, and founded Tall Tales, the country's longest-running, live storytelling event series. He also conducts popular writing workshops around India. 

Everyone of us has a tale, a story that only we know best and can tell it with emotions, humor, insights. And yet when we pick up the pen , our words are stymied. We are unable to put it into a coherent narrative, into a style, that tells the tale to a reader sitting far away, in a different country, in the same passion and style that we narrate it. You know this feeling well. I certainly do !!!

This book holds your hand and takes you through the initial jitters to how to get the narrative going, how to get the creative juices to flow through your pencil. How to get a story and its subplots to stick together.

This book is divided into various segments : Character building, Genre, Integration, What next , Everyday magic, and on and on. It literally teaches you how to build a story. That same story, that you know the best, all your life, and yet it is stifled inside you.

If you’re a veteran of writing prompts from the Internet or newspapers, you will find comfort in familiar formats right next to brand new ones. So challenge yourself with types of prompts that you’ve never seen before and discover writing interests and abilities that you didn’t even know you had! Whether you are a casual flash-fiction author, scriptwriter, non-fictioneer or branding executive, this book will set your creativity on fire. Be a story alchemist. Transform your writing. And above all, have fun doing it!

The biggest laurel for this book is, a young reader of 11 years of age, who helps me write the kiddy books on my blog, picked it up and read it for some minutes and said “Wow, just the way you are teaching me to blog, this book is teaching me how to write”. And that young budding author, has since then picked this book up thrice and sat down to read it !!!

Percy Jackson & Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

Book: Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth.

Author: Rick Riordan

Publisher: Puffin Books. (www.puffinbooks.com) Penguin group.

ISBN : 978 0141146830

Percy Jackson and the battle of the Labyrinth is the fourth book of the Percy Jackson series.

The labyrinth was thought to be lost a millennia ago, but when they find a secret entrance right in the middle of camp, things start to go terribly wrong, and that’s just the beginning….

The Labyrinth was created by Daedalus, a maze, connected to his life force. It is a maze used to trap the Minotaur, a maze that is alive, where time and space are meaningless, keeps shifting and is full of horrors.

When a Labyrinth entrance is found in the heart of camp half blood, the enemy decides to use the Labyrinth to get inside camp. If they succeed, thousands of bloodthirsty monsters will invade camp.

But the enemy will only be able to navigate through the maze with Ariadne’s string. The string was kept with Daedalus, who was thought to be dead a million years ago, but as a demigod you can’t be sure…

Percy, Annabeth , Tyson and Grover are trying to find Daedalus before Luke can and convince him not to give Luke the string…

Percy, Annabeth, Tyson and Grover descend into darkness with the prophecy,

“You shall delve in the darkness of the endless maze.

  The dead, the traitor and lost one raise,

  You shall rise or fall by the ghost’s king hand,

  The child of Athena’s final stand.”

Will they accomplish their mission of will they end up with something else inside the Labyrinth………

Percy Jackson and the Titans Curse by Rick Riordan

Book: Percy Jackson and the Titans Curse.

Author: Rick Riordan

Publisher: Puffin Books. (www.puffinbooks.com) Penguin group.

ISBN : 978 0141146816

Percy Jackson and the Titan’s Curse is the third book of the Percy Jackson series.

Percy, Grover, Thalia and Annabeth are off to a new boarding school, Westover Hall and almost get themselves killed in two hours.

Grover had caught scent of two unclaimed demigods, powerful, he called them, and the four were off to rescue them. Percy didn’t have a good history with teachers, but this teacher at Westover Hall, Dr. Thorn, turned out to be a monster, captured Annabeth and warned them about a legendary doomsday monster… and all of it is connected to his old frenemy, Luke.

The hunters come to camp with the news that Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, has disappeared. A quest of five, hunters and campers set off to find the goddess, her disappearance being linked to the capture of Annabeth and the rise of the doomsday, with the prophecy….

“Five shall go west to the goddess in chains,

 One shall be lost in the land without rain,

 The bane of Olympus shows the trail,

 Campers and Hunters combined prevail,

 The Titan’s curse must one withstand,

 And one shall perish by a parent’s hand.”

The problem being, Percy is not part of the five demigods of the quest.

Will Percy sneak out of camp to go look for his friends or will he leave it up to Zoe and Thalia to get Annabeth back? And what do the two new demigods have to do with this quest?

Percy Jackson & the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

Book: Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters.

Author: Rick Riordan

Publisher: Puffin Books. (www.puffinbooks.com) Penguin group

ISBN : 978 0141146847

Percy Jackson and the Sea of monsters is the second book of the Percy Jackson Series.

It’s not easy being a demigod, even when Camp Half Blood is guarded by Thalia, a demigod who sacrificed her life and got turned into a tree way before Percy came to camp. The tree guarded the camp for years and kept out the monsters and mortals but things start to go terribly wrong when the tree’s magic starts fading, no one knows for what reason.

There is only one option from stopping war and the whole camp getting invaded by monsters, an option that was thought to be lost forever thousands of years ago … The Golden Fleece has to be found.

As if the worst is yet to come, Chiron, the activities director is replaced by Tantalus, a spirit from the Underworld, who seems to care nothing about the safety of camp and has already termed Percy as a problem and enemy.

Percy, Annabeth and Grover are denied the quest for the Golden Fleece, but they are not ready to give up, not yet. Percy is warned by Tantalus that he will be kicked out of Camp if he leaves for the quest.

Things take a turn when Percy discovers he has a brother, supposedly.

Now being turned into a guinea pig, being captured and given a makeover by an immortal sorceress and fighting Cyclopes seems normal to Percy.

Will Percy risk it and leave in search of the Fleece, or will he let Tantalus disregard the safety of camp…

A definite must buy for my teenage readers.

Sita, Warrior of Mithila by Amish Tripathi

Book: SITA Warrior of Mithila.

Author: Amish Tripathi

Publisher: Westland Publications Ltd. (www.westlandbooks.in)

ISBN : 978 93 86224 58 3

My personal opinion, already expressed, in my previous reviews of author Amish Tripathis books has been, he is an awesome author, he has picked up the vastly neglected genre of Indian mythology and he has a very deft interweave of storyline and fiction and culture. I thought there were some areas which he could improve on. He has vastly improved over his first 2 books.

This is the second book of the Ramachandra series, of the epic  Indian Hindu mythological tale Ramayana. The basics of this tale are known to every child of India. It is played out by travelling theatre troupes every year in the villages and towns of India culminating in Dusherra.

Author Amish has tried a unique technique with this series, he takes the same story and explores it only from the view of one character. Also another unique thing that he has done is picked up all mythical mythological creatures and made them more humane and less magical, more relatable.

Here Amish focuses on the favourite female idol and ideal of entire India, Sita or Ma Sita as we fondly call her. The daughter of Raja Janak, of the Himalayas. Avatar of Divine female Shakti. Goddess for millions of Indians. And maybe India’s most loved female protagonist.

The story is nicely traced through the growing up of the princess Sita. Her character, her strength.

Then the story suddenly tries to weave the event of her Swayamvar into the narrative. Swayamvar is an ancient Indian tradition, respecting the choice and wishes of female, where the female picks the suitor who she wishes to marry..

I repeat, my favorite part of this book is the scene where Lord Rama encounters his future wife, Sita, Divine goddess in her own right. I have yet to read any romantic encounter that has moved me so much.

This book too explores the brief encounters between Rama and Ravana.

And ends at the abduction of Sita to the island kingdom of Ravana, due to  which the epic battle of Ramayana took place.

I am a definite Amish Tripathi fan. Any book of author Amish is a must buy for me.