Reviews: The House of Hades, Siege and Storm, and My Thoughts on Trilogies.

I am behind on my book reviews, but I will do my best to catch up.

For today, I will review two sequels that I read about a month and a half ago. It's been a while, but I will do my best to recall their highlights.

The House of Hades
Rick Riordan

Book Four in the series "The Heroes of Olympus," Riordan continues to deliver quick-paced, enjoyable, yet informative stories.

This book, and those before it, follow after the events of "Percy Jackson and the Olympians", but now the series includes a wealth not only of Greek myths, but of Roman ones also and the differences between the Greek and Roman myths. Without revealing too much, I'll just say that in this book, Percy and his girlfriend Annebeth must travel through Tartarus and make it through alive, while above ground their friends seek to meet them in the place where they will exit, The House of Hades. As usual in Riordan's novels, each chapter feels like a climax unto itself and yet somehow there manages to be a major climax at the end anyway.

Overall, I feel that in the last couple books, Riordan's novels have continued to improve. Characters are beginning to undergo meaningful character arcs and the plot is really coming together. That being said, to enjoy these books, any of these books, you have to be okay with not really knowing what is going to happen in advance. The truth is, with the wealth of possible stories that Riordan can draw from, there's no chance of predicting how things will go even within a single chapter, let along between chapters. Sure, there's some foreshadowing on the larger elements of plot, but not so much on the smaller details.

It's a romp to read and this book goes deeper than some of the ones before it. I'm looking forward to the final book in the series because Riordan has shown me many times over that he knows how to write a good story.

Siege & Storm
Leigh Bardugo

Siege & Storm is about the girl Alina who is trying to run from her past and from the Darkling. She hides her power to summon light, and yet she longs to be able to use it. She can't stay away for long and soon she is thrust back into the center of the power struggle taking place in the land of Ravka, but at what cost to her and to the one she loves?

It's hard to give a summary for a sequel without giving away too many spoilers, but overall the plot is interesting and enjoyable.

This book is also a sequel, albeit by a less established author in a smaller series. The first book here was called "Shadow and Bone". The first book was good, but not great, and that's about my feelings on the follow-up. Oh, they are page turners and there's plenty of romance, but the endings just leave me feeling like I haven't finished a book. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed reading it and I'll read the final book when it comes out, but I can't recommend it until the final book is out, because who knows if the trilogy will end well or not.

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And speaking of trilogies, I've been thinking lately how nice it is to just read a book or watch a movie that isn't part of a series, but a self contained story told succinctly and beautifully. There are too many series that appear to be good only because we have no idea how they end until we buy the final book years later. I haven't read "Allegiant" by Veronica Roth yet. The reviews have sort of turned me off from reading it for a little while, though I'm sure I'll pick it up at some point in time. Around this time I'm also reminded of the "Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins. Not a bad book, just not the most well done ending I've ever seen. And then there's "The Death Cure" by James Dashner. The first two books were good, and then the last book just killed it.

There seems to be a current trend of trilogies, as if authors, or perhaps their publishing companies just want authors to extend their stories just to make them trilogies instead of self contained books. As a result, the books themselves suffer. Sure, these current YA trilogies are exciting, but that's about it. The series rarely leave a lasting impression on me beyond the initial excitement of gobbling them up. I say rarely because there are exceptions. For instance, the first Hunger Games novel feels self contained to me. It has merit by itself even without sequels. I feel that each book in "The Chaos Walking Trilogy" has merit in itself due to each book haven't clearly different themes, narration styles, and topics. Ender's Game is technically part of a much larger series. Having read all the books in that series, I'd say that most of them have merit in themselves. 4 out of 8 of those books I could pick up without having ever read any of the other books and enjoy it just for itself. Don't get me wrong, the other books are also good, but there is something special about finishing a book and feeling like you have actually completely a full story, like there has been a change both in the characters in the book, and in you. I just finished reading an old story "The View From Saturday" today. I'll review it later, but I can't help feeling like it does in 160 pages what many trilogies of today fail to do in 1000 pages. That, to me, is very sad.