Double book review: 4 stars each. Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone (Rowling) Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (Rick Riordan) These are two very different books, aimed at roughly the same age bracket and both the start of a multiple volume series. To appreciate Harry Potters book, one has to have acquired a taste for quality writing, attention to detail and subtlety. To appreciate Percy Jacksons one only has to be able to read (a penchant for Greek mythology will also come in handily). Harry Potter is very well written, using a language that is simultaneously sophisticated and accessible to younger readers, a no mean feat. It is also the epitome of Britishness. There is a posh quality to it, an underlying assumption that readers must make an effort and have cultivated some sort of good literary taste. This is a book that goes well with shoegazing, faded wallpapers (the ones on actual walls, not the digital ones) and unbelievably bad sartorial choices. On the weak side (yes, I know it sounds odd, but I was being appreciative...) the book is slightly boring, doesnt have that much of a plot and sounds more like a diary than an adventure story. Percy Jackson is pure American entertainment industry fodder. It is competently written, but just so. It is imaginative and evolves at a regularly fast pace. It is a page turner (which Potter struggles to be) and is easily enjoyable. In a sense, and within the constraints of both books being roughly the same genre and for the same public, they are the opposite of each other. This is a book that goes well with Aerosmith, baseball caps and deluded world views. In the end both books get four stars but for very different reasons. Rick Riordans book reaches the epitome of everything it sets itself to be, but its goal is one that, even if honed to perfection, is never worth more than four stars. Rowlings book aims higher but doesnt quite get there, so fails to earn the last star, which it could have earned had it managed to be more of a page turner without losing any of its present qualities.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 15:08:22 +0000
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