The conclusion to the Blackwell Pages trilogy. Ragnarok is arriving and nothing Matt, Fen, Laurie, and their friends have done seems to have slowed it down at all. Now comes the final battles when Fen and Laurie must fight on opposite sides and Matt must face the Midguard Serpent alone to save the world. They have all come so far but still, they are only barely teenagers even if they are descendants of the Norse gods and to have the fate of the whole world resting on their shoulders gets heavy no matter who you are but this news may just be the straw that breaks them.
A satisfying conclusion with plenty of well written action for the epic battles while still portraying the emotional toll on 13yr olds who have everything riding on them. I hadn't read anything by M.A. Marr before but am a long time fan of K.L. Armstrong so I was very happy to see that the same care went into these books that I've seen in her adult books. The characters are consistently strong but flawed and the growth is good to see, especially since children reading these books are still growing and trying to figure themselves out so I think it's good for them to see that even Thor reborn has doubts and second-guesses himself and asks for help, makes mistakes but learns from them.
Page count: 360p/20,415p ytd/235,349p lifetime
Showing posts with label Blackwell Pages. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blackwell Pages. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
77:120 Odin's Ravens by K.L. Armstrong & M.A. Marr
The second book in the Blackwell Pages trilogy. Matt, Fen, and Laurie are headed to Hel to try and bring Baldwin back from the dead in an effort to avoid Ragnorok by changing the events leading up to it. While they are successful in finding and bringing Baldwin back with them, Ragnorok is still coming. Matt must find Thor's Hammer if any of them are going to have a chance of coming out of this alive and preventing the end of the world. Unfortunately, Matt is still a teenager and a trusting one at that and in this installment he has to learn some very hard truths.
A good second installment which is a nice change from the several trilogies I've been reading lately where the second book has completely fallen flat. This kept the pace going, some character growth was evident (sometimes sorely lacking in children's literature), with enough humor in place to keep it from being too scary. My 14yr old has been loving the series and I'm pretty sure my 9yr old will as well once he tries them.
Page count: 342p/19,607p ytd/234,541p lifetime
A good second installment which is a nice change from the several trilogies I've been reading lately where the second book has completely fallen flat. This kept the pace going, some character growth was evident (sometimes sorely lacking in children's literature), with enough humor in place to keep it from being too scary. My 14yr old has been loving the series and I'm pretty sure my 9yr old will as well once he tries them.
Page count: 342p/19,607p ytd/234,541p lifetime
Thursday, March 26, 2015
New Releases I'm Looking Forward To: 2nd Quarter 2015
My usual disclaimer:
Let me state, this is really based on authors or series that I'm already reading since those are the things I follow. I'm not paid to write this blog nor do I have any affiliations with any publishers so I don't receive free books or advance notice of things except what I glean off Facebook from people who do have those contacts or what I research on my own (which again, leads back to authors that I'm already reading). Maybe someday I'll be one of those who has the contacts and gets ARCs but it's not today.
Well, I'm still behind in a lot of my reading. School reading has been quite crazy plus, you know, life but things are finally nearing completion so I'm hoping to be able to deal with backlog of lots of stuff around the house including my reading. Thankfully, it looks like another quiet quarter so maybe, just maybe I can get a handle on things.
Dark Heir by Faith Hunter sees Jane Yellowrock pitted against one of the biggest, baddest vampire witches around who has a personal motive to bring chaos and destruction to New Orleans. When is she getting a raise if these are the types of things she is going to keep getting set against? I'm currently a book behind in the series so I still don't know how she got out of the last mess but apparently she did.
Release date: April 7
The only other book coming out this quarter is the final book in the Blackwell Pages trilogy, Thor's Serpents by M.A. Marr and K.L. Armstrong. This is one of the kids' books but I've been enjoying the series. It's banking on the success of books like Percy Jackson with kids who are direct descendants of the Norse Gods and trying to save the world from Ragnarok.
Release date: May 19
And that's it for the quarter. The next quarter isn't looking very heavy either but the last quarter is going to be nuts again. Maybe I can be caught up by then?
Let me state, this is really based on authors or series that I'm already reading since those are the things I follow. I'm not paid to write this blog nor do I have any affiliations with any publishers so I don't receive free books or advance notice of things except what I glean off Facebook from people who do have those contacts or what I research on my own (which again, leads back to authors that I'm already reading). Maybe someday I'll be one of those who has the contacts and gets ARCs but it's not today.
Well, I'm still behind in a lot of my reading. School reading has been quite crazy plus, you know, life but things are finally nearing completion so I'm hoping to be able to deal with backlog of lots of stuff around the house including my reading. Thankfully, it looks like another quiet quarter so maybe, just maybe I can get a handle on things.
Dark Heir by Faith Hunter sees Jane Yellowrock pitted against one of the biggest, baddest vampire witches around who has a personal motive to bring chaos and destruction to New Orleans. When is she getting a raise if these are the types of things she is going to keep getting set against? I'm currently a book behind in the series so I still don't know how she got out of the last mess but apparently she did.
Release date: April 7
The only other book coming out this quarter is the final book in the Blackwell Pages trilogy, Thor's Serpents by M.A. Marr and K.L. Armstrong. This is one of the kids' books but I've been enjoying the series. It's banking on the success of books like Percy Jackson with kids who are direct descendants of the Norse Gods and trying to save the world from Ragnarok.
Release date: May 19
And that's it for the quarter. The next quarter isn't looking very heavy either but the last quarter is going to be nuts again. Maybe I can be caught up by then?
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