This series is so highly rated, and I am five books in wondering what I just don’t understand. It’s not terrible, but from my view it’s a very middling, derivative fantasy series. I guess every series just has its fans who do connect with it, and I’m certainly guilty of fanning all over series whose appeal leaves other people stumped. I should have reviewed this sooner. It’s been nearly a month and I don’t remember anything that really happened in Baptism of Fire, and it’s […]
I might not quit Rick Riordan after all because I liked this book a lot????
This is my favorite thing Riordan has written in years. I think partially I liked it so much because I had such trouble with the first two books in this series, enough that I was almost 100% sure I would stop reading his books after this series was through. I think I’m going to reevaluate that decision based on how much I enjoyed reading The Burning Maze. We’ll see. But aside from liking it simply because it was better than the first two is not […]
How he trained his dragon
Captain Will Laurence has spent his life in the Navy, and expects it to continue that way. However, being currently embroiled in the Napoleonic Wars, that life soon comes to an end – but not through death. Instead, having captured a French ship, Captain Laurence’s ship takes its cargo as a prize…a large dragon’s egg, whose inhabitant decides upon hatching that Captain Laurence will do nicely for a handler. In this alternate history, dragons that aren’t paired with handlers tend to go feral, therefore losing […]
You’ve really got a hold on me
As I have mentioned before, fairy tales were my jam when I was younger. I also love some good remixes — musical or cultural — and humor, so things like Texts from Jane Eyre were absolutely delightful to me. When I heard that Daniel Mallory Ortberg was putting out a book of retold fairy tails (as Mallory Ortberg), I immediately put in a pre-order. In my haste and my assumptions based on the humor of Ortberg’s other work, having missed the “Children’s Stories Made Horrific” […]



