Cast of Characters- The House of Hades by Rick Riordan

Last Tuesday, I started and finished The House of Hades by Rick Riordan. This is the fourth book in the Heroes of Olympus series, a sequel series to the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. The summary is as follows: At the conclusion of The Mark of Athena, Annabeth and Percy tumble into a pit leading straight to the Underworld. The other five demigods have to put aside their grief and follow Percy’s instructions to find the mortal side of the Doors of Death. If they can fight their way through the Gaea’s forces, and Percy and Annabeth can survive the House of Hades, then the Seven will be able to seal the Doors both sides and prevent the giants from raising Gaea. But, Leo wonders, if the Doors are sealed, how will Percy and Annabeth be able to escape?

They have no choice. If the demigods don’t succeed, Gaea’s armies will never die. They have no time. In about a month, the Romans will march on Camp Half-Blood. The stakes are higher than ever in this adventure that dives into the depths of Tartarus.


Percy Jackson

Percy is a son of Poseidon. He was the subject of the first great prophecy in the war with the Titans. Percy has discovered his fatal flaw, loyalty. Percy has proved time and time again that he will do anything for his mom, his friends, his camp and the world. In The Lightning Thief, Percy goes to the Underworld to rescue his mom and save the world. In The Sea of Monsters, Percy journeys to save his friend Grover and Camp Half-blood. In The Titan's Curse, Percy sets out to save Annabeth and the goddess Artemis. The Battle of the Labyrinth shows Percy saving his camp from Kronos' forces. In The Last Olympian, Percy saves the world once again. Percy has showed that he is a caring person and is willing to sacrifice for the benefit of others.


Annabeth Chase

Annabeth Chase is a daughter of Athena. She is very intelligent, but she is also very stubborn and does not like to believe that she is wrong. For example, when Percy challenges her plans in The Battle of the Labyrinth, she freaks out. This ties into her fatal flaw of hubris, the idea that she can do something better than anyone else. She is also not afraid to break rules. Also in The Battle of the Labyrinth, she challenges the idea of only having three demigods on a quest. She takes four people instead of three. She is a very dynamic character throughout the first series. At the beginning of the first book she hates Percy. Towards the end of the first book they are friends, almost like how Ron and Hermione became friends after fighting the troll. They are together at the the last book in the first series, also very similar to Ron and Hermione.



Jason Grace

 Jason Grace is a son of Jupiter and the younger brother of demigod Thalia Grace, leader of the Hunters of Artemis. Jason disappeared as a gift to Hera when he was very young. He went to Camp Jupiter/ New Rome. He became a praetor (leader). He defeated the Titan Krios during the Titan War. Jason is similar to Percy in that he is always the first to put his neck on the line. However, Jason has Annabeth's aspects as a good leader. His decisions are strong and he is a natural leader. However, Jason likes to bend the rules. In The House of Hades, Jason says that he had tried to change the rules of the Twelfth Legion, and that the rules were a little too much for him. In this book Jason becomes more Greek and makes the conscious decision to stay at Camp Half-blood which he thinks of as home.

Piper McLean

 Piper McLean is a daughter of Aphrodite. You might think this would make her a complete girly girl but it doesn't. In fact, she hates that kind of people. Piper is a lot like her older half- sister Selena Beauregard. They are both the kind of person who would do anything for the people that they love. However, Piper sticks to the side of the demigods and of Jason even above saving her father. This is similar to Percy's choice to not hand over the lightning bolt to Hades, even to save his mother, which was his motivation for going on his first quest. Piper is very protective of Jason and can be a bit hostile towards Reyna sometimes. Piper doesn't want to be the spoiled rich girl, and just wants to be able to spend time with her movie star dad and with her friends.

Leo Valdez

Leo Valdez is a son of Hephaestus. Leo is a jokester and has a hard time taking things seriously. He is always really hyper. Jason once described his appearance as "a Latino Santa's elf" Leo is very mischievous and is good with his hands like all children of Hephaestus. Leo likes to flirt with girls completely out of his league. He frequently annoys and makes fun of Frank Zhang. Unlike most children of Hephaestus, Leo can control fire, a very deadly power. Leo has a very strange connection with Hazel Levesque, she was in love with his great-grandfather. Frank knows this and Leo puts strain on Frank and Hazel's relationship. Leo comes up with some crazy plans, but they usually work out in the end like with Echo and Narcissus. Leo is very all over the place.

Frank Zhang

Frank Zhang is a son of Mars. He is not a warmonger however, he is more like a big fluffy panda bear. Frank often needs help getting out of difficult situations and is most often helped out by his girlfriend Hazel Levesque. Frank is also descended from Poseidon and can shape shift into different animals. Since Frank is so powerful, his life force is tied to a piece of wood that almost perished in a fire when he was young. Throughout The House of Hades Frank makes an astonishing transformation into a warrior when he receives a blessing from his father Mars. He becomes much more fit. In the battle against Pasiphae to unchain the Doors of Death, Jason gives up his position as praetor to Frank.

Hazel Levesque

Hazel Levesque is a daughter of Pluto. She has been reborn and died before the World War II took place. Hazel likes horses, unlike most children of the Underworld would. Hazel is cursed. She draws precious minerals to her, but they bring the people who possess them bad luck. Hazel loves her half-brother Nico di Angelo very much. She is often placed in awkward situations with Leo and Frank such as with Narcissus and Echo, and the Archimedes spheres under Rome. Hazel looks up to Jason as a leader. She is also very unsure about Frank's transformation into a super-warrior. She likes the shy old Frank better than the new confident one.

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

This week I started reading The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater. This is the second book in her series, The Raven Cycle, the first being The Raven Boys which was the subject of my August 2013 post. This book starts by talking about Ronan and his secrets, giving a background on the three Lynch brothers and Ronan's very special secrets. They are about to fly a toy plane without batteries. Ronan has revealed that what he dreams becomes reality, as in the case of his raven, Chainsaw. They manage to successfully fly the plane, proving to sceptic Adam that Ronan really does haev this power.

Then, the point of view switches to a new character who refers to himself as 'The Gray Man'. The Gray Man shows up outside the oldest Lynch brother, Declan's, room which he shares with the youngest brother Matthew. He attacks Declan and Declan pulls a gun out of his drawer, like he was expecting to be attacked at some point, and it was inevitable. They keep fighting and the Gray Man gains the advantage over Declan. He is looking for the 'Greywaren'. Declan promises to find it for him.

Originally, I thought that the Greywaren might be a person, Ronan, because of Ronan's newly uncovered secret to his friends and the fact that it ws unusual. Although that would be almost stereotypical, which Maggie Stiefvater is not. The evil villain wants to use one of the protagonist's powers for evil or for money. But that was too typical for Maggie Stiefvater's imagination and writing style.

It goes back to the Raven Boys and Blue, talking with Gansey's English friend, Roger Mallory, about hwo to find the tomb of the Welsh kign Owen Glendower hidden under several hundred years of mud and grit. They go back to Gansey's Camaro, called the Pig, and head back to Monmouth Manufacturing, the converted warehouse where the boys live. On the way they see a classmate who wants to street race while Gansey and Adam say no. Since this book so far is mostly in Ronan's POV with a bit of Blue's and the Gray Man's we are hearing a lot of Ronan where in the previous book it was in the POVs of Blue, Gansey, Adam and their Latin professor.

The next chapter goes on to talk about the Gray Man and his employer, Dr. Colin Greenmantle. Greenmantle tells the Gray Man that he needs to hurry up because there are other people looking for the Greywaren. Other people that are now looking in Henrietta.

I now suspect that the Greywaren is either another name for the tomb of Glendower or another name for Cabeswater, the place where Glendower's tomb is hidden. The other people that are looking for it, I believe, are Blue's aunt and Blue, Gansey, Ronan, Adam and Noah. I still haev doubts about this theory however, because the Gray Man makes the Greywaren sound more like and object than a person or a place, by saying '"You're going to find that thign for me, and when you do, you're going to give it to me,"'. Now, another theory I have is that the Greywaren could possibly be Gansey's  journal or perhaps some sort of Lynch family heirloom that could be the key to the tomb of Glendower, one that only the eldest Declan knows about.

It seems that Blue and the others are in even more danger now in the second installment of the Raven Cycle.

My Thoughts and Feelings- The Empty City

I just finished reading The Empty City by, no surprise here, ERIN HUNTER!!!!
Seriously, go read their books, one of my favorite authors, right up there with J.K. Rowling, Rick Riordan, Maggie Stiefvater and Chris Paolini. If you don't know who they are, you've definitely been living under a rock or something. Go read their books too! Anyways, you might have seen in my Shopping Cart blog post that I got the third book in this series, Darkness Falls, so I am re-reading to catch up and remember some facts. The Survivors series is about a group of dogs that are trying survive after a 'Big Growl' or earthquake. Lucky plans on going it alone, but then he is saved from some foxes by his litter-sister Bella and some of her 'packmates' Leashed Dogs, also known as you know, pets. Their 'longpaws' (humans) have left them in the aftermath of the huge earthquake that has left huge cracks in the earth and no place for the Leashed Dogs to go. Lucky and Bella lead Sunshine, Daisy, Martha, Bruno, Mickey and Alfie out of the city to survive in the wild. They find home, but have to leave because they tried to take some food from another group of dogs.

This book combines a little bit of doggy spirituality with the harsh dangers of survival in the wild and is a must-read for any dog lover.

My Reviews- Betrayed by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

Betrayed is the second book in the House of Night series by mother daughter team P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast. This series is about vampyres. Vampyres are people blessed by Nyx. In the last book, Zoey was chosen to be a vampyre by Nyx. But she is even more special, her mark, a crescent moon on her forehead has been filled in, signifying that she is a chosen one of Nyx. On the night of Samhain, also known as Halloween, Zoey defeated the leader of the Dark Daughters, Aphrodite. But two fledglings died in that short time Zoey was there, and now Zoey has seen their ghosts. Except ghosts don't bleed. Weird. This book starts off with Zoey meeting her mother, step-father and grandmother for a visitation day. She enjoys seeing her grandmother but her parents don't respect High Priestess Neferet's wishes and have to leave forever. Erik is back form a monologue competition but Zoey may have feelings for full vampyre Poet Laureate Loren Blake. Not to mention Zoey has an intense bloodlust for ex-boyfriend Heath Luck, and that bloodlust comes with some rather uncomfortable feelings. When two Union football players go missing and are found dead, missing a lot of blood, the vampyres are the first suspects. With one of Zoey's friends getting sick and  he relationships getting tangled the last thing Zoey needs to deal with is the Dark Daughter's full moon ritual, and since she is now the leader, its her responsibility.

I rated this book a full five stars. I loved the plot and there was easy continuation from the previous novel and the twists, turns and lies made for an intriguing and suspenseful read. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes vampyres, or the supernatural.