A series of posts about Authors who's stories have captivated me, and who I find inspiring.
1. John Flanagan. The Ranger's Apprentice series.
So yeah, if you've read my blog long enough you should know that I love his Ranger's Apprentice series to bits. I have yet to own all of them, I'll get them all eventually! One of the best book series ever! Humour, action, great characters! Most disappointing was however, his Brotherband series. The first was good. The second wasn't even needed and the third was just like he saw this plot-line that he re-used over and over again. And now we're just reduced to Brotherband, either he'll need to get some better story-lines otherwise I am going to be vastly annoyed. And one day a book signing, yep! Great idea that! Just need to go to Sydney, there is bound to be one there! My favourite characters are obviously: Will Treaty, Alyss Mainwaring, Halt, Selethen, Erak Starfollower and Gilan. And just so everyone knows I thought that Evanlyn and Horace were pretty pathetic parents in The Royal Ranger. My least favourite book out of the series is the Lost Stories as it was just a collection of short stories, with no main bad guy. The Royal Ranger was also a bit slow because you have to go through all the same training that Will undertakes in the first book. Also there wasn't as much Halt or humour. :)
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Just this year, we discovered the movie. Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief, which though from a book to movie view is not the most loyal, was still a good movie. After that we discovered the books. The Percy Jackson series. Out of them all, I think my favourite would be the Battle of the Labyrinth. Strangely, I think that Percy Jackson and Hiccup from How To Train Your Dragon, actually are very much alike. Especially in the first movie when Percy first sees Mrs. Dodds. Percy Jackson, Nico Di Angelo, Annabeth Chase, and Tyson. They are the best characters.
I pretty much died of boredom in the Lost Hero. Percy wasn't in it! The other main characters who you really like, aren't really in it either! The most interesting chapters were from Leo's point of view. I had guessed that Percy was at the other camp at the end of the Lost Hero, and I read the first chapter of Son of Neptune right away.
The Heroes of Olympus is very different from the Percy Jackson series. One is written in first person, (PJ) the other in third (HOO) but they both have the same flavour of adventure and fun. The best chapters are from Percy's point of view and Annabeth's. My least favourite characters have got to be Piper, Jason and Frank. Coach Hedge seems to be trying to be humorous but falls a little flat. The Mark of Athena is currently my favourite HOO book. I am currently reading House of Hades and getting a little worried as I think that Nico is going to die! Ahhh! Oh, and Camp Half-Blood beats Camp Jupiter
John Flanagan and Rick Riordan are two of the authors who make me laugh out loud the most!
For instance:
“Without thinking, Will spoke. 'Halt? Are you awake?'
'No.' The ill humor in the one-word reply was unmistakable.
'Oh. Sorry.'
'Shut up.' He pondered whether to apologise again and decided this would go against the instruction to shut up, so remained silent.
“Will'd barely been asleep a few minutes when Halt's voice woke him.
'Will? Are you asleep?'...
'I was,' he said, a little indignantly. 'I'm not now.'
'Good,' Halt replied, a trifle smugly.
'Serves you right.”
-Rangers Apprentice: The Emperor of Nihon-Ja
""A Demigod!" one snarled. "Eat it!" yelled another. But that's as far as they got before I slashed a wide arc with Riptide and vaporized the entire front row of monsters."Back off!" I yelled at the rest, trying to sound fierce. Behind them stood their instructor--a six-foot tall telekhine with Doberman fangs snarling at me. I did my best to stare him down."New lesson, class," I announced. "Most monsters will vaporize when sliced with a celestial bronze sword. This change is completely normal, and will happen to you right now if you don't BACK OFF!"
To my surprise, it worked. The monsters backed off, but there was at least twenty of them. My fear factor wasn't going to last that long. I jumped out of the cart, yelled, "CLASS DISMISSED!" and ran for the exit. --Percy Jackson: The Battle of the Labyrinth
I hope you enjoyed reading this! I certainly enjoyed writing it!
God Bless
