Books For October

The 39 Clues by Rick Riordan

Review

The 39 Clues is the first book in an exciting new series. Grace Cahill, the grandmother of Amy and Dan Cahill, has recently died, leaving behind her a very odd will. It either allows the family members to take a large amount of money and leave it at that, or to join a globe-trotting quest where success could mean great riches, knowledge and power, but defeat could mean death. In The Maze of Bones, Amy and Dan Cahill must brave the catacombs of Paris in a attempt to find the answer to an ancient puzzle. But will they survive increasingly dangerous attacks by family members, who are seeking to eliminate all opposition? Are they smart and brave enough to face the challenges ahead?

The Battle for the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

Review

In the battle for the Labyrinth, Rick Riordan really gets his story going. Percy Jackson and his friends must venture into the labyrinth, a huge, sprawling underground maze full of monsters and danger at every turn. They must find the elusive god Pan, who no one has seen for thousands of years and stop a monstrous army from pouring into Camp Half-Blood through an opening into the maze. The only way to do this, unfortunately, is convincing the ancient Daedalus to give up his life, something he has clung to unnaturally for centuries. If he dies, the maze will collapse. And Kronos, the titan lord, has finally found a mortal body to inhabit, and is ready to begin a chain of events that will lead to a future where the Titans' will rule. Can Percy Jackson and his friends stop all this and still survive to breath another day?

The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan

Review

The Titan's Curse is the third book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series. The basic premise of the series is the all the Greek myths and gods are real and live in the 21st century. Percy Jackson is a Half-Blood, the child of both a god (Poseidon) and a human. In his adventures, he has faced many monsters and mighty enemies. But now a titan has escaped from his eternal punishment, and is raising an army to crush Mount Olympus. Also, a mighty monster is on the loose, Artemis the Hunter has been captured, and Percy and his friends are the only ones that can go on a quest and save the day!

I really enjoyed this book, and I am looking forward to reading more in the series.

The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul by Douglas Adams

Review

The Long, Dark Tea-Time of the Soul is a hilarious murder mystery involving green monsters emerging from the netherworld, a hot potato song (don't pass it on, pass it on, pass it on), and Norse gods starring in commercials. Not recommended for people without a sense of humor. This book is the sequel to Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, where the holistic detective Dirk Gently, who spends most of his time explaining to clients what a holistic detective is, solves a murder with connections to a classical-music loving ghost and a time machine. The sequel is another murder mystery, obviously, but a very different one. It involves an ancient rivalry between the head god Odin, who prefers to be called Mr Odwin, the thunder god Thor and a goblin named Toe Rag. I won't give too much away, but it is a great book. Douglas Adams seems to lose focus a few times in the book, but he rounds all the lose ends up by the end.

The Merchant of Death by DJ Machale

Review

In this, the first book of the Bobby Pendragon Series, Bobby is just about to go to an important game when his uncle Press arrives and whisks him off to another world, to combat an evil demonic man called Saint Dane. Not surprisingly, Bobby feels a bit bewildered. But soon after they arrive, his uncle is captured by a couple of nasty looking knights and carted off to a hidden cliff-side palace. Bobby must learn how to survive in this desperate world of Denduron, or fail and let Saint Dane win. Because the stakes are higher than Bobby could ever have imagined, and a victory for Saint Dane could mean the end of the world.

Betrayal on Orbis 2 by PJ Haarsma

Review

In the sequel to Virus on Orbis 2 (which I personally have been waiting for for a long time), Johnny Turnbull must face new dangers as he struggles to learn more about the secretive Samirians, who tend underwater crystals that provide a large amount of money to Orbis 2. The Samirians have been getting very angry lately, trying to smash the sides of their enclosure. Only Johnny can talk to the Samirians and figure out what is causing their behavior. But when he does, he discovers that more corruption than he could ever imagine lurking just under the surface of Orbis 2's society. Will he be able to help the Samirians escape their imprisonment?

EPIC by Conor Kostick

Review

In EPIC, Conor Kostick has created a fantastic tale of heroics and villainy, by taking everything that people love in an online role-playing game and expanding upon this to create the virtual world of EPIC. EPIC is a computer game on the planet of New Earth, which serves as an economy, legal system, and way of settling disputes for the planet. As any violence on New Earth has been outlawed, and even a slap on the face could get you exiled, people hold EPIC duels to settle disputes. But the system is flawed. An clique of enormously wealthy and powerful characters, who essentially rule the world through EPIC, allow no one to challenge them. But Eric and his friends decide to enter a desperate race to stop the tyrannical overlords and restore order and peace to New Earth. Success could mean a better future, but failure could mean death, both in the game.... and without.

Matilda by Roald Dahl

Making Comics by Scott Mccloud

The Never War by DJ Machale

Review

Saint Dane, the evil traveler, seeks to once again bring war and ruin to a territory. (Territories are other worlds you can pass into through tunnels called flumes. Trust me, it'll make more sense if you read the book.) But this time, the territory is much closer to home. Well, actually it is home, but it's not the earth the Bobby Pendragon knows. It's back in time, before the second world war has started. And Bobby is dropped straight into this world of gangsters, spies and deadly consequences for those that make just one wrong step. It all makes for a wild adventure!

The Reality Bug by DJ Machale

Review

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you could have anything you wanted, and live in a paradise all the time? Well, on the world of Veelox, they have perfected a virtual reality program that allows you to live out your fantasies in your mind, while your body is contained in a tube. The only problem with this is that the program, called Lifelight, is really addictive. The cities are deserted, the crops are dying, and the world is falling apart because almost everyone is in a tube on their Lifelight journeys. But the traveler from the territory has a plan to release a virus, which she entitles The Reality Bug, into the system. The Reality Bug will make people's fantasies less than perfect, so that they will begin to leave Lifelight. But the Reality Bug turns into a monster, a monster that's bent on escaping into reality. The only way to stop it is to get help from the creator of Lifelight. However, the problem with that is the fact that he has been in Lifelight for over 50 years.

-- JackW - 03 Oct 2008