Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan

I clearly have been on a supernatural kick lately!  I also read the first two installments of  Heroes of Olympus.  These books follow the Roman Gods - where the Percy Jackson series followed the Greek Gods.


There is also a Roman camp - run very differently from Camp Half Blood. Everything is very military, very controlled, very scary.  Sort of the antithesis of the Greek camp. But the prophesy says that both the camps must work together to save the world. A little difficult since the camps don't even know the other exists...so on single goddess has an idea...

What if we took the heroes from each camp - bonked them on the head so they lost their memories and then dumped them in the opposite camp.  Sound like something a meddling goddess might do??

So in the first book The Lost Hero - Jason ends up at Camp Half Blood - where everyone is mourning the disappearance of Percy and are more than a little concerned about this very talented kids appearance.  The same thing happens in the next book Son of Neptune. Except this time Percy ends up at the Camp Jupiter.
Both of these boys are given a quest to prove themselves and a couple of misfit kids to help them out...

All the while both camps and campers are moving closer to fulfilling this prophecy...

Seven half-bloods shall answer the call,To storm or fire the world must fall.An oath to keep with a final breath,And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death.

I enjoyed these books - I continue to be in awe of the understanding and research that Riordan brings to these stories! They are like textbooks for the ancient gods.  Incredible!

Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan

 The Kane Chronicles are Riordan's newest journey into the ancient world of gods and their children.  These are the tales of the Egyptian gods - those who fill mortals with the spirits and fly through sand filled portals at any Egyptian relic site.

Riordan's  main characters are two siblings - Sadie and Carter Kane. Two teenagers as different as their parents were - Sadie raised rather prim and proper by her English grandparents and Carter raised by his Africa American Egyptian archeologist father roaming from one dig site to another.

In each of these books the Kanes must work together to attempt to save the world from the ever approaching god of Chaos.  Each book connects known well known places with Egyptian gods and their cohorts.  Each also reminds the reader of the importance of Egypt in the past and the present.  The Kanes slowly become more of a family as they accept the difficulties of trying to train future godlings and keep the world from succumbing to chaos.

As I read these I was reminded again and again of the other Riordan books and have become quite curious about his ease in describing gods in many different lands and ways.  It makes life quite interesting.