My first foray into the world of Rick Riordan

Yes, I’ve never read Percy Jackson. I don’t even own any of that series. But so many people talk about his works and I like him as a person on the internet, so when I saw that he had an Ancient Egypt series I knew I had to get it! As a child, I had 3 favourite periods in history: WWII, Ancient Rome, and Ancient Egypt.

I can see why you guys love Riordan now, these are definitely kids books but as a 22 y/o I was really enjoying myself and felt fully immersed within the world! I can only imagine how much I would’ve loved these when I was younger. I felt like I was learning so much as well, which I love in children’s books (and adult ones but it’s rarer).

I 100% will be carrying on with the rest of this trilogy and I’ll be looking out for more of Rick Riordan’s books in charity shops and discount stores in the future! I really love his writing style. After this, I also really want to look into his publishing endeavour: Rick Riordan Presents, to expose myself to mythology from different cultures than my own.

Mortals and Immortals of Greek Mythology, a review

So as you can tell from the image, this book was originally published in French. Sadly I can’t read (or speak!) French, but Edelweiss provided me with an eCopy of the English translation of this book in return for an unbiased review. One thing to note is that this is translated into US English, with the Americanised spellings. I’m sure most won’t notice, however as a Brit I noticed the “mom” etc.

Now, onto the actual contents of this book! This graphic novel/illustrated book covers Greek Mythology in a simplified format to allow children to understand the events. As anyone who is familiar with the Greek gods will know, the stories surrounding them are normally filled with violence and gore as they commit various acts of revenge. However, this book has made these tales more child-friendly without removing the essence of the tales. There is still violence present, however, there are no details and the frequency of the violence has been reduced where not integral to the story. So I definitely think that the author did a great job with making these tales suitable for the younger generation.

I am not intrinsically familiar with Greek mythology, however, I do have some knowledge of it and this book seems to remain faithful to the source material and the accompanying illustrations are pretty and simplistic enough that a child can notice the links to the events in the stories.

This is a lovely book to introduce children to the world of mythology and I’m glad that both French and English speaking children will be able to enjoy this work.

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman, a review

My boyfriend read this book, incredibly quickly for him, and then brought it along when he came to visit (we’re long distance) in order for me to read it! So I decided this was going to be my 2nd book for the 7in7readathon. I am so so grateful that he did as I absolutely loved this! I have only read one of Gaiman’s works before, The Ocean at the End at the End of the Lane (click here for my review!), so I was excited to get back into some of his writing. I also haven’t read any Norse mythology before, and I absolutely love mythology from Romans and Egyptians so I was excited about expanding my horizons within this area! Due to me never having learned anything about these myths before, I can’t attest to their accuracy so if that’s what you’re looking for here you might want to try a different review. However, if you just want to know about the book itself then please stay! I’ll tell you more!

This book is told in shorter stories, which I didn’t realise at first, and they all link together really well. They create one larger story overall and follow on from each other well. It also meant that I got through this book pretty quickly, as I always tend to do with short stories, and made it absolutely fly by. This is unlikely to be a long read!

The book introduces you to every single character and doesn’t assume you know anyone, which is great for a newbie like me, but it also doesn’t linger on them for too long. As a Marvel fan, I know about a few of the Gods such as Thor, Loki, Odin and some more, but the explanations and introductions given to them didn’t feel overly long or imposing, so if you’re already acquainted with these individuals you shouldn’t have to wade through much unnecessary backstory.

Each story comes from the mythology already present, passed down through history, and Gaiman explains where he took liberties and his reasons for this. Again, allowing more knowledgeable readers to understand his process a little more whilst also explaining to newcomers what is happening here.

If you couldn’t tell, I really enjoyed this book. The stories were written beautifully and I love how they flow into one another, also this book cemented my dislike for Loki! However, I also absolutely loved how this book was put together, with the narration style, the explanations, the flow and more. Sadly there wasn’t the little spark I get with some books, so this book is “just” a 4.5/5* read for me. There is literally nothing wrong with it that I can think of! I definitely recommend and hope that you enjoy this book as much, or a little bit more, than I did!