The House of Hades - My Favorite Thing...

My Favorite thing about the House of Hades, and about all of Rick Riordan's books for that matter, is that they contain such believable characters. All of them seem to have flaws and are more human than the image of perfection we see so many times in stories.

In all of his greek and roman mythology books, Riordan attributes conditions such as Attention Deficit Disorder to being a demigod. He says that the characters are like this because their brains are hardwired to read greek/roman, not english.

Flaws such as this allow many people to connect with the characters and get a sense of what they are going through. These traits that would normally alienate someone, now bring them closer together with the hope of being a "demigod".

House of Hades - Figurative Language

One thing that I really like about the book House of Hades by Rick Riordan, is the copious amounts of figurative language. He seems to love to chalk his writing full of similes and metaphors.

One such is example of this impressive talent is on page fifteen. While describing one of the main characters, the text says "he looked as if he had been run over by a locamotive." (Riordan 15)

Another example is on page 30. Riordan, at this point, is describing something moving across the landscape. He says “something small and beige racing across the fields at incredible speed, leaving a vapor trail like a plane’s.”

Both of these examples contain great similes that really inspire the readers imagination.

Excerpts From: Riordan, Rick. “The House of Hades.” Disney Hyperion. iBooks.
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House of Hades: Setting in Chapter I

The first chapter of this book is full of imagery.

I was able to pick up this book, having not read any of the books in the series for a long while, and visualize exactly what was going on. The setting was vivid, and the figurative language was plentiful.

One of my favorite passages from this chapter reads: "The fog cleared. Below them, morning sunlight illuminated the Italian countryside--rolling green hills and golden fields not too different from those in Northern California." This is from a part of the story where the protagonists are looking down from their airship, and admiring the view. This really allows the reader to envision the places that the characters are travelling to.

I really enjoyed this section

"The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan

The House of Hades by Rick Riordan

For the next couple of weeks, I am going to take you on my journey through reading the book "House of Hades" by Rick Riordan.

 To start off, I want to tell you a little bit about the author.

Rick Riordan

Rick Riordan was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. He then went to, and graduated from The University of Texas. From there, he taught Social Studies and English for several years

Riordan has created many book series. Most of us know him from his books for young adults, which include the Kane Chronicles, The Percy Jackson Series, The Maze of Bones from the 39 clues, and the series from which this book is from, the Heroes of Olympus. In addition to these series, he also wrote an adult mystery series called Tres Navarre.

The last book in the Heroes of Olympus series, the Blood of Olympus will come out in Fall 2014

These series have become, in my opinion, some of the most beloved books by children nationwide. They spark creativity in the form of Greek, Roman, and Egyptian mythology in the imaginations of kids of any age. 

Rick Riordan has announced that he is going to write a series of books that are based off of Norse mythology. As of now, the first book is unnamed and will be released in 2015.