puddlejumper's reviews
726 reviews

This was poorly written, the pacing was off, it was front loaded with exposition and it was boring. 

I never got to experience this sweeping, technological advanced empire, every location was small and insular and could have been anywhere. 

It wasn't a space opera, or even really scifi, it was YA romance in space.

The romance was awful. The characters had no chemistry and I didn't like Gal, I never understood what Ettian saw in him and why he was willing to sacrifice so much for him. 

There's also the ‘he's the son and heir to the empire that colonised your home and killed your people’ angle which felt icky. 

I am divided by this book. All the way through I had to keep reminding myself this was a children's book because it is badly researched, weirdly paced, and very repetitive. 

Things happen to the characters, they don't make things happen. The characters themselves were rather bland and there was no connection between them. 

It was difficult to get into because the characters either don't know who they are or are keeping secrets even during their POV chapters.

It really did not need to be as long as it was! So much could have been cut out and it wouldn't have impacted the plot. 

I'm coming late to this series so hopefully things improve in later books/series but the writing of women was questionable

Now, onto the fun stuff. I'm going to preface this by saying, classicists by nature are pedantic assholes. 

First thing, Riordan's representation of the Greek gods is Romanised. He bases many aspects of their personality and history on Latin sources rather than available Greek sources. 

This makes things very messy when introducing the Roman facet of the Greek gods. He should have just made them a separate pantheon. 

He says the Roman gods are harsher because of the Roman empire. The Athenians would like to fight you about their lack of empire in this universe. 

The Greek city states were constantly warring with each other during the Archaic and Classical period. They weren't less ‘warlike’. 

Arguably, Rome sustained such a large empire for so long because they were amazing administrators. No one cares about that aspect of their godhood. Let me see Mars, arbiter of the war fund. 

Another gripe of mine is the representation of Aphrodite and her children. There's a denigration of femininity and this weird idea that beauty and femininity are the same thing. Aphrodite’s children are portrayed as weak because they are vain and interested in stereotypically feminine things. 

Thanks, I hate it.

When Piper is claimed by Aphrodite, she is transformed so that she is wearing a dress that makes her uncomfortable, make-up and better hair. What a shallow idea of beauty. 

Piper's strengths are always framed as ‘for a kid of Aphrodite.’ If you want your interpretation of Aphrodite to be vain and jealous then she should be terrorising these kids for their disrespect. Piper is amazing because she is her kid and not in spite of it.

Overall, it wasn't terrible but it's not something I particularly enjoyed reading. 

The suggested reading for this is as an adventure book - read a chapter a day until Christmas. I'm glad I didn't do that and read it all in one go, I wouldn't have finished the book otherwise. 

This didn't work for me. I didn't enjoy the writing, and the plot was predictable. 

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC