Afrah Jamal

First Published in Daily Times / 5 Jan 2013 Reviewed by : Afrah Jamal Demigod fans who bade farewell to Percy – (son of Poseidon) & the Olympian franchise a few years ago must have wondered what the writer was up to as they came across a ‘final’ Prophesy conveniently left unresolved at the end of the saga. ‘ The Last Olympian ’ concluded the five part series wrapping up Percy Jackson & his merry band of demi-gods' extended arc with a high-octane finale and an emotional send-off. Though Rick Riordan had moved on to explore Egypt in ‘ The Kane Chronicles ’, he wasn’t done with Olympus, its ever shifting centre of power or its hoity-toity god population for that matter. The cryptic warning heard in the final pages is used to establish the credentials of this spin-off. The gods return in the ‘ Heroes of Olympus ’ series - distant as ever and in Roman form heralding a brand new dawn with the promise of new crusades, a shiny new quest, fresh faces and an ancient th...

First Published in Daily Times / Saturday, September 04, 2010 Reposted at Liberty Books Blog Published under the title : Of gods and men Reviewed by: Afrah Jamal Olympian gods and goddesses are not the best role models; their moral compass is frequently out of order and no one dares suggest they get it fixed. The (stormy) age of the gods was great while it lasted but it is over. Rick Riordan reawakens the gods, gives them another shot at (eternal) life with a brand new home, creating a new legion of heroes and heroines in the process. He then combines all these elements to launch his fantasy series making mythology the centrepiece and family values the essential pillars of his newly redesigned universe. How do these extinct entities fare in a (literary) world already overrun with vampires, witches, werewolves and wizards? Set in the present day, Riordan’s young adult fantasy novel tries to survive the onslaught of other supernatural beings by giving neglected Greek gods a ...