Rip-Off – DaneCobain.com

Rick Riordan – Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief | Review

Title: Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

Author: Rick Riordan

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 376

Rating: 4*/5

Rick Riordan – Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

I suppose there are a few things to note here. The first is that I’m behind the times, because it seems like everyone under the sun has already read Riordan’s Percy Jackson series. I’ve read one of Riordan’s other books, and I didn’t think much of it, so I put off starting this one. I shouldn’t have.

See, this book is basically the best start to a series of this ilk that I’ve come across. It even beats out Harry Potter, because the first Harry Potter book was only okay. But this book drew me straight in, and while I couldn’t necessarily relate with the main character – Percy Jackson – I think that’s more because I’m not really the target audience, rather than a problem with how the character was written.

Of course, there were one or two one-dimensional characters, but that was largely intentional – and it played into Riordan’s unique take on Greek myths and legends. In fact, I’ve noticed a trend of late of authors imitating the approach, a little bit like what happened when Dan Brown released The Da Vinci Code. The funny thing is that it never really happened with J. K. Rowling – sure, people were influenced by it, but nobody reduced themselves to literally releasing an imitation.

Rick Riordan

Now, this might sound weird, but this book reminded me of a cross between R. L. Stine and Neil Gaiman. It has much of the world-building that Gaiman used in American Gods, and it has a similar feel, like an epic road trip. Stine, meanwhile, used simple language and near-childlike plots to hook his young readers into the story. But Riordan’s work feels in no means like a rip off – in fact, he has a new, original voice, at least in this book. Perhaps he becomes more jaded over time, but I wouldn’t know.

Overall, then, I’d definitely recommend Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, even if you don’t go on to read the rest of the series. It might not be for you – but if you like myths, magic and mayhem, I reckon you’ll probably like it.

Rick Riordan Quote

Click here to buy Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.

Alex Connor – The Rembrandt Secret | Review

Title: The Rembrandt Secret

Author: Alex Connor

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 553

Rating: 8/10

Alex Connor – The Rembrandt Secret

I should start this review by mentioning the weird reason behind why I read this book in the first place – I have a friend called Alex Connor, and so when I saw posters for this book plastered along the London Underground, I knew I had to get a copy. I let it stew for a while, and a couple of years later I saw it in a charity shop – the rest, as they say, is history.

That said, while you might be quick to dismiss it as a Da Vinci Code rip-off, especially because of the title, it’s actually not that bad – in fact, I found it somehow more engaging than the Da Vinci Code, perhaps because it seems like there’s more talk and less action, which enables the author to flesh out her characters and make them seem real.

Broadly speaking, the story-line follows the son of a murdered art dealer as he tries to uncover the truth about his father murders, stirring up the hornets nest along the way. You see, it turns out that Rembrandt had a bastard, and he had the child’s mother sectioned to keep her away from him – the child, meanwhile, grew in to a prodigy, and he painted much of Rembrandt’s work for him.

Alex Connor

As you can imagine, such a revelation would totally disrupt the art world – prices for Rembrandts would drop dramatically, and nobody would really know what to believe any more. So what if there was proof? Well, it just so happens that there is, and the novel follows Marshall as he tries to decide just what to do with it. In some ways, that causes a moral dilemma, because his father loved the art world and Marshall could bring it down almost single-handedly, if he wants to.

As always, I’m n0t going to risk spoiling the ending, but I can tell you that there’s a surprise in order when the mastermind of the murders is eventually revealed, and there are enough twists and turns throughout the novel to keep you guessing until the end. In fact, if anything, you could argue that the ending is too sudden, because it’s almost like one final twist in a series of twists, a subtle ending rather than a fanfare-blowing declaration that the author has ran out of paper.

My only real problem, though, is something that I’ve mentioned multiple times already – it’s simply very difficult to write about the Rembrandt Secret without somehow comparing it to the Da Vinci Code. I think that this novel could well be overshadowed by its predecessor, and that’s a shame because I, for one, preferred it. If you only read one of the two of them then you should read this for sure.

Final thoughts? One of my colleagues raised a good point, when he asked me if I’d prefer to read the real history of Rembrandt, rather than to read a fictional one. I’ve thought on it, and I’ve decided that I made the right choice – I was never in to paintings anyway, but if anything, I’m more in to them now. A non-fiction book would’ve scared me off – this was entertaining enough to keep me hooked.