Series Review: The Red Pyramid

When the Percy Jackson series came to a close with The Last Olympian, many readers were left despondent.  With no promise as to whether they would ever see Percy again (which they will), young fans were thrilled with the release of The Red Pyramid, the first book in The Kane Chronicles.  Does it live up to their expectations of tensely woven action, witty (if unrealistic) dialogue, and a fantastic world-within-a-world?
In a word: Yes.

The Red Pyramid  begins with Carter and Sadie Kane's father blowing up the Rosetta stone and promptly being kidnapped by supernatural forces.  (Read the first chapter here.)  What follows is the wonderful but chaotic romp that usually occurs when gods and humans meet.  Because of the subject material (children connected to the gods through a hidden past, unusual powers, saving the world on a schedule, etc) it feels much like the Percy Jackson books.  Riordan does not, however, plagiarize his own material.  The Red Pyramid is a story all to its self.



Title list:
Book one: The Red Pyramid
Book two: TBA (release date Spring 2011)
Book three: TBA (release date Spring 2012)



Ups:
A homeschooled character--Finally!
Exciting; non-stop action
Good narrative, no distracting habits on the
     writer's part
No cussing (that I can recall)
No inappropriate sex, drugs, or alchol



Downs:
Oh my G*d's
Flat characters (because Carter and Sophie switch off narrating,
 we don't see in to their heads like we see into Percy's)
Unbelievable dialogue (while amusing it is much to "action hero-ish"
to sound plausible from a twelve year old and fourteen year old.)
"Transcription" narrative device doesn't work.

Eoin Colfer's "Artemis Fowl"

"Stay back, human. You don't know what you're dealing with."

Artemis Fowl is a headstrong, determined young man with a vampire smile and a cutthroat attitude. He's a genius at the head of underground crimes across the globe, having written several papers and novels under various psuedonyms and has accomplished more than any person could ever dream of doing. And to think he's only twelve years old.

Artemis' story begins in a crowded city in Vietnam. Accompanied by his rather large, seemingly brutish bodyguard, known only as Butler, he acquires a copy of something known only as "The Book" from a supposed sprite with a drinking problem and hastily returns to his home in Ireland. From there, he begins decoding the information in this text with one goal in mind: gold. His plan? To kidnap a fairy.

This book, the first of seven in the series, is the start of the tentative truce between genius Artemis Fowl and the Lower Elements Police (LEP). Throughout the course of the series, Artemis finds himself slowly abandoning his criminal ways (albeit very, very slowly...) as he helps Captain Holly Short and the rest of the LEP keep fairies safe from humankind, and save humankind from crazed fairies.

Colfer has done an outstanding job, managing to create a world entirely his own, yet still coexisting with the one we live in. He's created his own language, which can be read at the bottom of each page of the books, and he's succeeded in bringing the age-old fairy idea back entirely as his own. This man deserves a high five and a plate of cookies.

Pros:
-believable characters with very human qualities
-very little romantic side-stories
-magic
-some odd love
-clever humor (including such obscure things as "quarks")
-environmentalist undertones (especially in the last two or three books)

Cons:
-technobabble, and lots of it
-occasional Mary-Sue-esque characters
-mild language (both English and Gnomish)
-slightly unbelievable ratio of criminal and do-gooder in Artemis, though it does even out as the series goes on
-odd love (while its a good thing, its also very, very strange)

The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott

The world as we know it does not exist.

In fact, it is populated by monsters and magic wielders who work under the noses of modern society-

Wait.

You've heard this before?

Michael Scott, author of the (yet to be finished) Secrets on the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series knows this is an old premise for fantasy. His prescription for reviving this trope involves magicians that actually acknowledge they live in a technical world, pleasantly unique vampires, teens with lives apart from magic wielding, and the ambitious use of every major world mythology.

The plot revolves around fifteen year old twins Sophie and Josh Newman. The book store Josh works at is attacked and burglarized by an unusual man. He leaves the place in chaos and with the book store owner's wife Perry. In the aftermath that follows Sophie and Josh are forced to flee with the store owner, who calls himself Nick Flemming.

The major premise of the story inevitably involves twins with powers that could save or destroy the world. But the world that they live in is so well constructed while operating within our own that it is more believable than, say, the world of Harry Potter. Unlike the aforementioned series, Secrets draws heavily on mythology, and unlike Percy Jackson and its sister books, Scott utilizes nearly every major world mythology. The mish-mash of monsters and gods that results will enthral any myth buff. Even the casual fantasy fan will recognize names and creatures, adding to the fun of this light, adventurous series.

Title list:

The Alchemyst

The Magician

The Sorceress

The Necromancer

The Warlock (to be released in 2011)

The Enchantress (to be released in 2012)

The Ups:

*Characters that use magic but live believably in our world, too

*Little swearing

*No sexual content (unless crushes count)

*No inappropriate drug or alcohol use

*Fast and complex plot

*Generally good dialogue and description

The Downs:

*Juvenile narrative style

*Scattered uses of "Oh my G*d"

*Characters "borrow" things occasionally