The Titan's Curse: Audiobook Review
So, as promised, here's my Titan's Curse review. I am breaking through the over-idle sludge that my brain has become. Anyway, it's funny because reviewing children's audiobooks used to be part of my job. Now I'm just doing it. Not like it wasn't always fun. But reviewing audiobooks is sometimes difficult, because unless the reader or company has done something spectacularly bad or good, there's not much to say other than what you would put in a normal book review. The reader Jesse Bernstien did all right, but I do have a few bones to pick with him.
First, though, the story itself. This will be a NON-spoilers review because I don't think anyone reading my blog has read the books. So, this third book starts a bit in the middle of things, so it took me a bit for me to catch up. But once I did I wasn't too confused. There are several new characters, none of them as likeable as the already established character. Percy has both a new friend and a new rival in the same person, and because you see this rival from Percy's eyes, it's hard to like her as much as Percy. Unless, you didn't like Percy. But I do. He's likeable enough. I did have sympathy for Percy's rival but never a great deal of liking.
The other new characters are still on notice in my opinion. Only one achieved a full story arc, the rest I'm still waiting to see what happens. Once again I guessed the god parent of the two new undertermined half-bloods long before the story revealed it. But I will NOT say who, of course. That would be a spoiler. (Another big sorry to my sister for my initial slip with Percy). However, I will say I didn't get as many clues from the writing this time. It was more a literary hunch that was deepened by a fan picture I saw of one of the characrters. There was nothing obvious in the picture to give it away, but something about the way the character was drawn did it for me. And that's all I'll say. Here's the picture for anyone curious who isn't afraid it might spoil them.
My favorite part of this book was the role Dionysus got to play. A small but integral one. I have to confess, Dionysus, the real Dionysus from Greek myth, is one of my favorite gods. Yep, I've never touched alcohol and my favorite god is the god of wine. Weird I know. But Dionysus is also the god of insanity which I've always found intriguing. Anyway, for most of the Percy Jackson books Dionysus is shafted and portrayed as pretty useless. But he actually got to do something in this book and show why you shouldn't mess with him. So that made me happy.
Once again I felt some things that happened in the real world, particularly toward the end, were too unbelievable for me, but I did think the character development by itself was quite good. I liked Annabeth's family. Probably the major beef I have with this book is that it's unresolved at the end. It's true the series has a running thread which remains unresolved, presuably until the end of the series, but this one was more so. I wouldn't exactly call it a cliff-hanger, but I always feel like stories like this are just interesting space fillers to the next story. They're dependent stories. Whether they're good or not depends on the events of the rest of the series. So I have to withhold judgement about the end of this book.
However, I don't have to withhold judgement on Jesse Bernstien's reading. Mostly it was fine. No qualms with any of the major characters which is the first thing one looks for in an audio version. He also does both genders all right which is another important feature. But I had a huge problem with how he portrayed Dionysus and Luke's voices. Dionysus sounds like Homer Simpson, which almost ruined his moment of glory for me, and Luke sounds like some kind of deranged surfer dude. Bernstien also has some weird fixation with making a lot of periphial characters sound mentally challenged. It might be because I already read the first two books and formulated certain voices in my head, but once again, not all the voices were off. The only other problem I had was Annabeth's step-mothe,r who is described as Asian. But--and this is important-- she is NOT described as having an Asian accent. Just because you look Asian, doesn't mean you sound Asian. Or, more specifically, a non-Asian's impression of Asian. Usually I'm not overly sensitive about these things. Quite the opposite actually. I generally roll my eyes when people make a big deal out of it. I have to admit it's not like it was over-the-top. It just felt unecessary and rubbed me the wrong way.
Well, that's all I have to say about it. Hope it was interesting.
First, though, the story itself. This will be a NON-spoilers review because I don't think anyone reading my blog has read the books. So, this third book starts a bit in the middle of things, so it took me a bit for me to catch up. But once I did I wasn't too confused. There are several new characters, none of them as likeable as the already established character. Percy has both a new friend and a new rival in the same person, and because you see this rival from Percy's eyes, it's hard to like her as much as Percy. Unless, you didn't like Percy. But I do. He's likeable enough. I did have sympathy for Percy's rival but never a great deal of liking.
The other new characters are still on notice in my opinion. Only one achieved a full story arc, the rest I'm still waiting to see what happens. Once again I guessed the god parent of the two new undertermined half-bloods long before the story revealed it. But I will NOT say who, of course. That would be a spoiler. (Another big sorry to my sister for my initial slip with Percy). However, I will say I didn't get as many clues from the writing this time. It was more a literary hunch that was deepened by a fan picture I saw of one of the characrters. There was nothing obvious in the picture to give it away, but something about the way the character was drawn did it for me. And that's all I'll say. Here's the picture for anyone curious who isn't afraid it might spoil them.
My favorite part of this book was the role Dionysus got to play. A small but integral one. I have to confess, Dionysus, the real Dionysus from Greek myth, is one of my favorite gods. Yep, I've never touched alcohol and my favorite god is the god of wine. Weird I know. But Dionysus is also the god of insanity which I've always found intriguing. Anyway, for most of the Percy Jackson books Dionysus is shafted and portrayed as pretty useless. But he actually got to do something in this book and show why you shouldn't mess with him. So that made me happy.
Once again I felt some things that happened in the real world, particularly toward the end, were too unbelievable for me, but I did think the character development by itself was quite good. I liked Annabeth's family. Probably the major beef I have with this book is that it's unresolved at the end. It's true the series has a running thread which remains unresolved, presuably until the end of the series, but this one was more so. I wouldn't exactly call it a cliff-hanger, but I always feel like stories like this are just interesting space fillers to the next story. They're dependent stories. Whether they're good or not depends on the events of the rest of the series. So I have to withhold judgement about the end of this book.
However, I don't have to withhold judgement on Jesse Bernstien's reading. Mostly it was fine. No qualms with any of the major characters which is the first thing one looks for in an audio version. He also does both genders all right which is another important feature. But I had a huge problem with how he portrayed Dionysus and Luke's voices. Dionysus sounds like Homer Simpson, which almost ruined his moment of glory for me, and Luke sounds like some kind of deranged surfer dude. Bernstien also has some weird fixation with making a lot of periphial characters sound mentally challenged. It might be because I already read the first two books and formulated certain voices in my head, but once again, not all the voices were off. The only other problem I had was Annabeth's step-mothe,r who is described as Asian. But--and this is important-- she is NOT described as having an Asian accent. Just because you look Asian, doesn't mean you sound Asian. Or, more specifically, a non-Asian's impression of Asian. Usually I'm not overly sensitive about these things. Quite the opposite actually. I generally roll my eyes when people make a big deal out of it. I have to admit it's not like it was over-the-top. It just felt unecessary and rubbed me the wrong way.
Well, that's all I have to say about it. Hope it was interesting.
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