The Red Pyramid

This is a review of the audio book.

Author: Rick Riordan

Reader: Kevin R. Free and Katherine Kellgren

Producer: Brilliance Audio

Production Year: 2010

Most of the listeners will be: 5th through 8th grade boys and girls.

Listener's Advisory: For another great series opener about children helping to battle the forces of evil, listen to Over Sea and Under Stone by Susan Cooper. 

Summary: After their mother's death six years ago Carter and Sadie Kane were separated. Carter travels around with their father, a respected Egyptologist, and Sadie lives with their grandparents in England. They only see each other two days a year. Carter and his father arrive in England for their scheduled Christmas Eve visitation with Sadie and they are all admitted to the British Museum after hours. After Mr. Kane has his children lock the curator in his office, he uses the Rosetta Stone to attempt to summon one of the Egyptian gods. The firey man Sadie and Carter see imprison their father in a golden sarcophagus laughs that he tried to summon one, but got five. Which gods have been unleashed? What has happened to Carter and Sadie's father? And what will they do now?

My favorite passage:

Sadie's cat Muffin is really the goddess Bast and she is charged with protecting them. Not long after Muffin changes in to Bast the three of them are running through the streets of New York together when she pauses to demolish a large wrecking ball with her knives. Carter asks if the ball was really a threat, to which she replies "You never know." It is strongly implied that even a cat goddess can't resist playing with a ball. 

What I really think:

Even though I enjoyed The Lightening Thief, the only other of Riordan's books I've read, I didn't go into The Red Pyramid with the highest of expectations. I mean, the man publishes so many books. Can they all really be that good? And I'm into Greek and Roman mythology. Egyptian? Meh. And I actually only read it because one of my book clubs chose it. However, I immediately fell in love with this book to the point of mild obsession (I do also get more attached to audio books than print, I have found).

There is a lot going on - so many characters, settings, things to accomplish before Set takes over the world. But it is such a pleasure to read (or listen to) that I went right along with Carter and Sadie, only thinking later of how far we had come. All the characters (gods and mortals) are so well developed that even those that have a small part are rich and memorable. I mean Toth in Memphis, Tennessee? I really hope there is more of him later in the series!

The readers both did an excellent job. I was especially impressed that they coordinated the way they did voices for other characters - and each other! It must have been a difficult undertaking and having two narrators could have been jarring for the listener, but they worked together beautifully. 

Cursing the fact that my library doesn't have book 2 on CD. I need more Kanes and I really need to hear them. 

Gregor the Overlander

This is a review of the audio book.

Author: Suzanne Collins

Reader: Paul Boehmer

Producer: Listening Library

Production Year: 2005

Most of the listeners will be: 4th-7th grade boys and girls. 

Listener's Advisory: For another book involving a quest, a hidden fantasy world, and battle scenes, listen to Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising. 

Summary: 

Gregor (11) and his two-year-old sister Boots fall through a grate in their laundry room into the Underland. He discovers there not only giant bats, cockroaches, spiders, and rats, but a society of humans. His father, lost for almost three years may be in the Underland. But most interesting of all is the possibility that Gregor is the warrior promised in a cryptic prophesy. He doesn't feel like a warrior, but he could pretend to be one if the Underlanders will help him find his dad. 

My favorite passage:

When Gregor and Boots first land in the Underland they are discovered by giant cockroaches. Boots is immediately fascinated by them and calls out to them, "Big bugs!" The cockroaches also like Boots, asking "Smells what, so good, smells what?" The smell they like is emanating from Boots's diaper! The cockroaches soon decide that Boots is a princess and one carries her on his back as they travel to the human city. 

What I really think:

I have been trying to sell the Underland books to students who bemoan the fact our elementary library doesn't have The Hunger Games. Now I can report that the Underland is a difficult place to live and the first novel at least does contain some gruesome fights and death...if that's what young readers are after. However, it is tamer than The Hunger Games, so I still feel comfortable recommending it. 

I, personally, got so in to the beginning of the story that I forgot about my rule about sparing myself from books in which babies and toddlers suffer. I get very upset by this and it maybe isn't worth it. I was happily enjoying Princess Boots as a character and then Gregor takes her on a fast-moving, underground river in a boat made of skins with no life-jackets! And then they are attacked by rats! Fortunately, Boots survives this episode and isn't put in much danger during the rest of the book, so I was able to listen comfortably. 

Gregor is a very standard hero. Reluctant at first to step up to this role, but ultimately the master of his own fate. His willingness to sacrifice himself for the group in the end is an especially nice touch. 

The ending is a little unsatisfactory in that it isn't clear why no Overlander has returned to the surface before, but Gregor, Boots, and their father are flown there by bat without much trouble. Gregor begs to go home when he first arrives and it seems impossible. Maybe the currents weren't right at the time, but more explanation would have been better. 

I found Boehmer's voice for Gregor not 11-year-old-like enough. I'm not sure I can explain, but it just seemed too formal. My favorite was his voice for Rip Red, the rat that betrays his own people to help the humans on their quest. He sounds bored and sinister - love it!

It is certainly old news that Collins is a thrilling author, but I'm glad to see for myself that her early work is every bit as good as her recent hits.