Comic Review: The Eagles of Rome by Enrico Marini

As I've said before, I tend to have very high standards when it comes to historical fiction.  I'm especially excited whenever I find a comic book that lives up to my standards.  That brings us to the comic we'll be reviewing today.  We're taking a look at The Eagles of Rome by Enrico Marini.

The Eagles of Rome takes places during the reign of Emperor Augustus.  The Roman Empire is seeking to expand its boarders into Germania.  Towards this end, a young Germanian prince has been sent to Rome to be fostered as part of a peace agreement with the Cherusci tribe.  To his people he is Ermanamer, but the Romans have given him a new name: Arminius.  Arminius has been sent to live with Titus Valerius Falco and his son Marcus.  The comic follows Arminius and Marcus as the grow into men and join the legion.  As they grow, Arminius finds himself increasingly drawn to the land of his birth.  Marcus and Arminius are going to find themselves on opposite sides of a great conflict.  In time it will be known as the Battle of Teutoburg Forest. 

Before we begin, I should note that The Eagles of Rome is not a finished series.  As of this writing, only five volumes have been published.  It's also pretty obvious that the story is not over yet as of volume five.  With that having been said, let's begin our review.

Like I've said, this book is very well researched.  Granted, there are a few minor liberties taken here and there.  The biggest being that Marcus and his family are completely fictional.  I'm fairly certain that Marini did this to give a Roman perspective on the happenings.  It is also through Marcus that we get to see Arminius grow and change.  This is very much the story of Arminius as witnessed by Marcus.  Fun fact, Enrico Marini wrote a Batman comic for DC Comics.  It was part of a program they did to hire famous European comics writers to write for some of their most famous characters.  Anyway, the design Marini used for Bruce Wayne is almost identical to the one he uses for Marcus.  Naturally, some have joked that Marcus is Bruce's several times great-grandfather.  I'll leave it for you to decide.

Now, I should mention that this comic does have a fair bit of nudity and sex to it.  I'd argue that this is fairly accurate to the time period.  Ancient Rome was pretty shameless, by modern standards, when it came to sex.  Granted, medieval Christian writers did tend to exaggerate this to an extent, but we do have archaeological and historical accounts to backup these views.  We also see several older men who are clearly in carnal relationship with younger eliminate men.  Pederasty war par for course in Ancient Rome.  At one point we hear the Romans taunting the Germanians with insults like "Woden sucks cock!"  To which the Germanians reply in kind.  This might sound anachronistic, but Roman graffiti is cover with such insluts, so points for accuracy.      

I did like how the parts set in the red-light district showed the seedier side of Roman life.  In a lot of ways, living in Rome was like living in a third-world country is you were a plebeian.  We see a lot of buildings made out of bricks and wood, and this is historically accurate.  Marble was reserved for the rich and elite.  Commoners had to make do with other materials.  Furthermore, the marble buildings we do see often contain quite a bit of paint and color to them.  Again, this is indeed how the Romans decorated their buildings.

Another mark towards historical accuracy is the way relationships are portrayed.  Marriages are done almost exclusively for diplomatic purposes, with marrying for loving being almost unheard of.  In the grand scheme of things, marrying for love is a fairly recent development.  This creates issues when Marcus falls in love with Pricilla, who has been betrothed to Quintus Aemilius Lepidus.  He is the grandson of Lepidus of the Triumvirate.  He's got a massive chip on his shoulder as he struggles to regain his family's good name.  He also isn't too fond of Emperor Augustus.  He's aware that Pricilla and Marcus are in love, and frequently takes his anger out on both of them.  As such, when the Battle of Teutoburg Forest happens...well, I won't spoil that.  Let's just say that Lepidus gets what's coming to him. 

Things only get trickier when Marcus and Pricilla have a son together, whom they name Titus.  It might seem odd that they named him after Marcus' abusive father, but there were only about seventeen common names in Ancient Rome.  Also, it was common practice to name children after other family members.  Lepidus thinks that Titus is his child, though he does connect that dots after a few volumes.  Strange that it took him that long, given that he is a redhead, Pricilla has light brown hair, and Titus has black hair like Marcus.  Also, little Titus does look quite a bit like Marcus.  As an aside, I always thought that Lepidus looked kind of like a younger version of Emperor Nero.  Perhaps this was intentional, to further underscore that Lepidus is not a nice fellow.

Arminius also finds love.  He gets married to a chieftain's daughter named Thusnelda.  Her father, Segestes, is seeking to marry is daughters to powerful Romans to forge alliances.  Fortunately, Thusnelda and Arminius are very much in love with each other.  Marcus' mother Albinia was also a chieftain's daughter who was married to a powerful Roman.  Arminius even considers tempting Marcus to join the rebellion by appealing this his Germanic heritage. However, he decides against it, reasoning that Marcus is too loyal to Rome.  As another aside, you'll notice that there are a few Romans wearing pants in Germania.  The Romans despised pants a barbarian clothes.  However, the legions stationed in Germania eventually had to admit that the barbarians were onto something; especially during the winter.

I should probably also talk about Marcus' father.  Titus Valerius Falco would probably be considered abusive by modern standards.  He constantly berates Marcus for his unmanly hobbies such as poetry and carving wooden figurines.  There's even a point in the first volume here he rounds up all of Marcus' figurines and burns them in-front of Marcus.  He also puts Marcus and Arminius through some very harsh training by hiring a former gladiator named Volcanus to train them.  Despite all of this, he would be considered a good father by Roman standards.  In fact, Augustus even applauds him for instilling fortitude in his son and foster-son. 

There's several times throughout the comics that Marcus has seemingly prophetic dreams.  For example, right before the Battle of Teutoburg Forest, he had a dream where an eagle and a wolf getting into a fight, and the wolf kills the eagle.  Obviously, the eagle is Rome, the wolf is Germania, and this symbolizes the Roman's coming defeat.  Of course, there is debate about whether if the dreams were really prophecies, or if it was all coincidence.  I'm inclined to think that there is something supernatural is at work.  Still, it is a minor potentially supernatural happening in an otherwise straight-up historical fiction comic.

I can't forget to talk about the art.  It is very well done.  It is made using watercolor, and looks absolutely gorgeous because of that.  It is very well drawn, and easily rivals anything that you'd find at Marvel or DC Comics.  In fact, it is better than a lot of the art on the current stuff they're putting out, but I digress. 

The big battle has already happened by the time volume five ends.  However, it is pretty obvious that the story isn't over just yet.  The battle is pro tray in all its glory and horror.  What made Arminius such a powerful advisory was that he'd been trained in Roman fighting style.  He could combine the best aspects of Rome and Germania, and he knew all of the Romans' weaknesses.  As I've said, fostering foreign princes was a common practice during the time.  The Romans figured that, if they introduced foreigners to their culture, the foreigners would grow to love Rome.  This would make conquering new territories much easier.  They never dreamed that one of these princes might stab them in the back. 

It goes without saying that Arminius is going to survive until the end of the story, and I'm fairly certain Marcus will as well.  I'm not really sure what's going to happen next, but I can't wait to find out.  There's usually a wait of a couple of years between volumes while Marini works on other projects.  Still, hopefully the wait won't be too bad. 

So there you have it.  The Eagles of Rome is one of the best historical fiction comics out there.  I cannot recommend it enough.  Well, I think that's everything I need to say for now.  I will see you guys next time. 

Book Review: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Sometimes there is a book or movie or what have you that I hear everyone talking about.  I might ignore them for various reasons, but eventually I just have to take a look to see what all the fuss is about.  Occasionally this is because my brother needs me to buy him an audiobook for school.  Now, in a roundabout way, that brings us to the book we'll be reviewing today.  We're taking a look at Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.

Ready Player One takes place in the 2040s.  America, and much of the the rest of the world, is reeling from economic recession and the world supply of oil starting to run low.  It's gotten so bad that many trailer parks stack trailers on top of each other into stacks like skyscrapers.  Still, there is some hope amidst the bad times.  There is OASIS, a massive multiplayer game that has basically replaced the internet.  Virtual reality is also very advanced, and you can basically be whoever or whatever you want in cyberspace, if you have enough experience points.  Enter Wade Watts, or Parzival, as he's known in OASIS.  James Halliday, the founder of OASIS, passed away a few years ago. However, he's left behind a virtual treasure hunt, and whoever solves it will gain control of OASIS.  Wade stumbles across the first clue, and overnight becomes a celebrity.  Wade will make new friend, and new enemies, as he joins the fight to determine the future of OASIS.

I've got to admit, this book pleasantly surprised me.  I didn't really have much love or appreciation for the pop culture of the 1980s.  I always viewed it as that thing that happened right before I was born.  I was born New Years Eve of 1992, for reference.  Well, I mean, I always liked Back to the Future and Bill and Ted, and I guess technically the original Star Wars counts, and so does Indiana Jones.  Still, after reading this book, I have a better understanding of why the 1980s are so highly thought of and remembered.  Halliday made all the clues based on his childhood, so they're all based on 1980s pop culture.  Since the prize is in the form of an Easter egg, those who search for it are called Gunters, a corruption of Egg Hunters. 

I felt that everything was very well explained even when I hadn't heard of the game/show/movie before.  I loved when Wade earns the bronze key by traversing a Dungeons and Dragons dungeon and battling a lich king to play a video game about jousting on ostriches.  Sounds totally bonkers, and yet it works.  I also liked that there's apparently a new type of video game where it's a movie, like WarGames or Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and you have to act out and say the lines of various characters.  That actually sound really fun.  I think I'd buy that if it was real.  I thought the part with the Capin' Crunch whistle was clever.  Especially given how it relates to real history.  Of course, I'd always get excited whenever there was a reference I was familiar with.  For example, Wade's friend Ache own the ship from Cowboy Bebop, and he owns a Firefly ship named the Kaylee.  In fact, the part of OASIS he won it from is called the Whedonverse.  I felt like Captain America in the first Avengers movie "I actually got that reference!"

At the same time, it made me want to learn more about the stuff I didn't know. I'm kind of interested in seeing Blade Runner since the Tyrell Building factors into the plot.  I should also get around to watching WarGames at some point.  Not sure I'd be into the various video games.  Just could never get over how primitive the graphic of retro games are.  Still, Cline does a good job of making them sound engaging.  The part where Wade talks about all of the stuff he's studied was relatable.  It kind of reminded me of myself, talking about all the things I'm passionate about. 

There has been speculation among fans that James Halliday might be on the autism spectrum.  He certainly does show certain signs.  He was known to be socially awkward and reclusive.  About the only people he really opened up to where his best friend, and business partner, Ogden Marrow and Ogden's wife Kira.  I should also note that Halliday had a not so secret crush on Kira during their college days in Dungeons and Dragons club.  We also know that Halliday had anxiety and clearly was very interested in a lot of very specific areas of pop culture.  All of this leads me to suspect that he had high function autism, such as Asperger's. 

I also wonder if perhaps Wade is autistic as well.  Granted, he does seem to have somewhat better social skills; though he does learn to be a bit less abrasive and less of a jerk as the book goes on.  However, that same speech where he gushes about all the things he's studied does very much seem like something an autistic person might say.  I'm on the autism spectrum, and it sounded legitimate to me.  I can't say for certain about Wade and Halliday, but it is fun to speculate. 

Now let's talk about Wade's friends and enemies.  I should mention there will be some spoilers, so turn back now if you'd rather avoid that.  If everyone who wants out is gone, then let's begin.

Well, let's start with Shoto and Daito.  They're a pair of Japanese boys who are really into old samurai movies.  They're not really brothers, but they treat each other as if they are.  They're initially frosty towards Wade, but eventually they warm up.  For example, they help Wade with a quest that is in Japanese, but he gives them the prize, the Beta Capsule from Ultraman, because he thinks it should belong to a Japanese person.  Yeah, you can win special teams that give you superpowers by completing quests.  This impresses them quite a bit, and Wade earns their trust.  This is particularly important after Daito is murdered by IOI, and Shoto gives the Beta Capsule to Wade, saying that it's what Daito would have wanted.

That brings us to the main villains: Innovative Online Industries, or IOI for short.  Their goal is to gain control of OASIS and start charging people for access and placing ads everywhere.  By contrast, Halliday allowed anyone to sign-up for a one-time payment of twenty-five cents.  They're led by Nolan Sorrento, who has thousands of employees researching and competing to find the Easter Egg.  Nolan will do anything, including attempting murder, to stop Wade and his friends.  Though IOI we see one of the main themes of the book: don't let corporations monopolize the internet.  In light of the debates about net neutrality, this is certainly a timely message. 

Moving back to allies, we have Wade's best friend Ache.  Ache's avatar is a gray-skinned male orc.  In reality, however, Ache is a black lesbian woman named Helen.  She and Wade never actually met in real life, because they attend school in OASIS.  The school requires that everyone use human avatar that match their actual gender, but Ache faked her records.  Her mother used to work as a telemarketer, and advised her to use a male avatar and voice modulator to be treated better.  Wade is perfectly fine upon learning Ache's true identity.  As far as he's concerned, she's still the same person he's gotten to know, and who she really is doesn't matter one bit.  Wade and Ache often rag on each other, but in a good-natured way. 

Finally we have Art3mis.  No, the 3 is not a typo.  She eventually becomes Wade's love interest, though their relationship certainly has its ups and downs.   Her real name is Samantha, and it's always a bit awkward when I encounter a girl character named Sam, but I managed.  I know some people say it's unrealistic that she'd be bother by her, fairly minor, birthmark, but I disagree.  I've known people who have been sensitive about lesser things.  I liked when she and Wade went on a date to The Rocky Horror Picture Show planet.  Yes, it was indeed named Transylvania. 

Wade himself goes through some character development throughout the book.  At the start he's a bit of a loner, but as the book goes on, he learns to care about other people.  He also learns the importance of exercising and healthy eating.  There is a point where he makes his OASIS rig not let him long on unless he gets in his workout.  As a result, he becomes quite ripped.  He also deliberately gets himself sent to debtors’ prison so that he can hack into the IOI database, and then he manages to escape.  Yeah, debtors’ prisons are back, and so is indentured servitude.  It's technically not slavery, so the government doesn't ban it, but it's still pretty shitty and sketchy.  Although it was kind of funny seeing Wade deal with stupid customer service callers.  I liked how the ending of the book reminded me of the ending of The Last Olympian; the last book of the original Percy Jackson series.

Also, random though, how do trailer stacks work?  Its implied that they don't have staircases or anything.  So how do the inhabitants get up and down?  Then again, after the trailer stack Wade, initially, live is is blown up, the authorities don't seem terribly concerned.  Maybe the government doesn't consider that terribly important? 

Anyway, I do think that the anti-escapism message of the does work for the most part.  As Halliday, or rather, his recording, says, reality is real.  Escapism can be good and even necessary.  I've said before about how the Percy Jackson books were one of the things that kept me going through high school.  I needed a way to get away from the daily grind, and imagine a world outside of my confines.  All the same, eventually you have to face your problems in the real world.  The book tries to impart this, and yet there no denying that OASIS certainly sound very cool and appealing.  The fight at the end where everyone was using giant robots was just awesome.  Personally, I'd I'd been there I probably would have used the original Megazord for mine.   

You can't discuss this book without touching on the controversy it has generate.  Just why is there so much hate for this book?  This is by no means a perfect book, and there are certainly legitimate criticisms that can be leveled at it.  That being said, I think there's another explanation.  Deconstruction is very much in the vogue among the big wigs of the speculative fiction community.  There's an increasing push to deconstruction, and in many case delegitimize, the past.  They may claim to be fighting racism and sexism, but really, when you get down to it, they're judging works of the past by modern standards of morality.  It reminds me of in Fahrenheit 451 where Captain Beatty explains to Guy Montag how the firemen where founded.  For those who don't know, one of the big pushes was people getting offended over everything, and demanding that everything even a little offensive be banned.

The point is, given how diametrically opposed to this mindset Ready Player One is, it's no wonder it has ruffled feathers of the woke brigade.  Ernest Cline wrote it as a love letter and celebration of his childhood.  It's also odd in that, as previously mentioned, the book does talk about the importance to being accepting of different people.  Albeit, it does so in a way that isn't preachy or pretentious, and does so in a way that is actually organic to the story. 

Now let's talk about the audiobook version.  It is narrated by Wil Wheaton.  Personally, I'm with Sheldon Cooper, the dude is insanely annoying and smug in real life.  However, all things considered, he's a pretty good narrator.  Amusingly, it is mentioned that Wil Wheaton is vice-president of OASIS.  Cory Doctorow is the president proper. 

Well, I think that covers everything of note.  As I said, I was genuinely surprised at how much I enjoyed 

Book Review: Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time by James Gurney

Dinosaurs have captured the imaginations of many people, myself included for generations. Wouldn't it be something to get to see living dinosaurs? Preferably, without getting killed. Just what would a world where humans and dinosaurs co-existed look like? Well, in the book we're reviewing today, all of that and much more is possible. We're taking a look at Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time by James Gurney.

Dinotopia begins in the year 1862. Father and son Arthur and Will Denison have been on a two year voyage of discovery. They’ve been washed up on a mysterious island following a particularly nasty storm in the South Pacific. Ah, but this isn't just any island, it's Dinotopia! It is an island where dinosaurs survived the K-T extinction and live side-by-side with humans. The book follows the Denisons as they explore the strange and wonderful world of Dinotopia.

Technically, this is a picture book, but it isn't just for kids. The texts tends to be fairly substantive paragraphs, and while there's isn't anything inappropriate, there are a few jokes and references that older readers would be more likely to catch. For example, when Arthur and Will attend a performance of hadrosaurs, Arthur remarks that he hasn't heard such a ruckus since he sat-in on a meeting of congress. The text and illustrations work together to tell the story. As such, I consider this to be something of an honorary comic book.

James Gurney used to work as an illustrator for National Geographic, and it certainly shows in his art. All of the illustrations are photorealistic oil paintings. Gurney even went as far as to build miniatures and models just to make sure that the visions in his head were represented in their full glory. The man has some serious dedication to his craft, and the book is all the better for it.

I'm not sure that I'd call this book alternate history per se. Other than the existence of Dinotopia, and they made a point of stay out of world affairs, the world isn't too different than our own. It's more akin to those 19th Century adventure stories where the heroes find lost world's and exotic new lands. In fact, the framing story is that the book is an adaption of a long-lost journal that Gurney found at a library. Thus, history went just as it did in our world. That having been said, this book should appeal to alternate history fans. Dinotopia is home to shipwrecked people from across the world, and consequently, is home to a wide variety of cultures.

The reason Dinotopia avoided detection is that it is surrounded by a massive storm system and an equally massive reef. Hey, it's called Shipwreck Reef for a reason. Thankfully, friendly dolphins are at the ready to escort new arrivals to shore. In fact, new arrivals to Dinotopia are called Dolphinbacks. This is how you know this book was written in the 1990s. If it was written today, some nitwit would probably wrongly assume Gurney was making racist remarks about Mexicans with a name like that.


The plot is mostly just there as an excuse to explore the world the Gurney has created. Hey, I've got no complaints. I had an absolute blast getting to explore the wonders of Dinotopia. Why don't we discuss some of that? So, the only animals on Dinotopia, besides humans and dolphins, are extinct animals. Most obviously, you see the dinosaurs, but there are also ice age mammals up in the high mountains. Hmm, I wonder is there are any animals that were driven extinct by humans such as dodos, quaggas, and moas on Dinotopia? Anyway, all of the dinosaurs and ice age mammals have human-level intelligence. However, only a few, such as protoceratops, are capable of human speech. This is because they have parrot-like mouths. Naturally, protoceratops, such as the Denisons' friend Bix, often works as translators.

As you can imagine, having so many sentient species creates some dietary restrictions. Pescatarianism is pretty much mandatory for everyone who needs to eat meat. Though, curiously, we never see anyone eating eggs. Maybe dinosaur find the concept too icky, and humans follow suit? Also are extinct humans like Australopithecus and Neanderthals somewhere out there in Dinotopia? There are certain carnivorous dinosaur who can't do this, or don't like civilized society, and choose to live in the Rainy Basin. We're talking dinos like tyrannosaurus, allosaurus, carnotaurus, giganotosaurus and the like. I liked that these predators aren't demonized as is so often the case in fiction. It's just part of who they are, and it's treated as an alternative lifestyle more than anything else. In fact, some dinosaur who are close to the end of their lives will journey to the Rainy Basin to donate their bodies as their final gift to the world. All the same, it is best to bring offerings of fish and eels when journeying through the Rainy Basin.

Though I have to ding some points for teosinte being a major crop. It is explained that it was brought over by a shipwrecked Aztec. To honor his contributions, many plates have miniature drawings of the Aztec riding a dolphin. Problem is that teosinte isn't a very good crop. Oh, it was useful for teaching the Mesoamericans the basics of agriculture, but it had a lot of room for improvement. Teosinte is very small, way smaller than corn, and you only get a few grains per stalk. Said grains are also very tough. Thankfully, through years of selective breeding, and a lot of patience, the Mesoamericans bred teosinte into the corn we know today. It is a testament to Mesoamerican civilization that they were able to do this. I'm not so sure we'd have the skill of patience to do such a thing today. Point being, there's no way teosinte would be a major crop on Dinotopia.

In many ways, Gurney was ahead of the curb when it came to Dinotopia. For example, he portrays oviraptors as loving parents and devoted nurses at hatcheries. At the time, paleontologist assumed that fossil of oviraptors clutching eggs were because they stole from other dinosaurs. This is why their name means "egg thief" in Latin. However, we now know that these eggs were in fact oviraptor eggs, and Gurney was right all along.

Of course, there's also a couple things that now look inaccurate with our current paleontology knowledge. For example, when the Denisons are in Waterfall City they meet a troodon time keeper named Malik and a deinonychus librarian named Enit. Both of them have no feather, which is probably why they don't appear in the later books, when Gurney added feathered dinosaurs. Though, personally, I think they look perfect just the way they are. Plus, you could always chalk any differences up to evolution. After all, Dinotopian dinosaurs have been around for an extra sixty-five million years. There's bound to have been at least some evolutionary changes that happened in that time. Gurney was aware that the dinosaurs should have evolved more, and that it didn’t make sense to have them basically unchanged from the Mesozoic era. However, he didn’t want to get bogged down in the details. Hey, you’ve got no complaints from me. 

 Gurney also portrayed deinocheirus as being the Dinotopian equivalent of a race horse. In fairness, only the arms has been discovered at the time. Little did paleontologist know that deinocheirus had a prominent hump, a skull like a hadrosaur, and claws like a therizinosaur. In fact, its overall body plan was like therizonosaurs, but Gurney couldn’t have known that.

I should probably talk about Waterfall City, and the many other destinations throughout Dinotopia. Waterfall City, as its name suggest, is a city located directly on top of a waterfall. There were three paintings that served as the basis for what would become Dinotopia, and one of them was of Waterfall City. It has a somewhat European feel, brining to mind Venice, but it also has Mayan pyramids. It is the cultural and intellectual heart of Dinotopia, though not the capital. You can only enter the city via special gliders.

Moving along, there's also Canyon City. It is built into the tops and walls of a massive canyon. It is the home of the Skybax Riders. Skybax is what Dinotopians refer to quetzalcoatlus as. I always did find it a little weird that Skybax were the only creatures not referred to by their scientific name. It does make sense that quetzalcoatlus would be giving humans rides, given that they were the largest pterosaurs. Plus, most series would probably have given the role to pteranodon, though I do love my pteranodons. Oh, but pteranodons do exists too. They're the guardians of the World Beneath; the underground cavern the ancestors of the Dinotopians used to survive the K-T extinction. More on it when we review the next book in the series.

Treetown is, unsurprisingly, a series of giant tree houses. It is where young people get a taste of independence under the watchful eye of resident cool old lady Nora. Youths who do well in Treetown have the opportunity to be Habitat Partners. Habitat Partners are a pair, one human and one animal, that protect the various ecosystems across Dinotopia.

Sauropolis is the capital of Dinotopia. It is built in the style of an Ancient Roman city. The larger dinosaurs prefer the large streets and wide avenues of Roman architecture. There's a scene towards the end where there's a big dinosaur parade in Sauropolis. This was another painting that served as the basis for Dinotopia. This one scene was so influential that George Lucas used it as the basis of the parade at the end of The Phantom Menace. Well, he's more or less admitted to it. For his part, James Gurney doesn't mind. He's just glad that his books are providing others with inspiration.

There's some interesting architecture throughout Dinotopia. For example, engineers have been able to build more efficient bridges by studying sauropods. Certain cities, like Pooktook, have a very Art Nouveau style to them. Dinotopia is, in many ways, a utopia where humans and dinosaurs live in harmony. This makes its name slightly ironic, as Dinotopia means "terrible place" in Greek.  Though, admittedly, that’s more in the archaic sense of the word.  Terrible as in, awe inspiring in a way words can’t properly articulate.  Think like how the wizard in The Wizard of Oz is called Oz the Great and Terrible.  

About the only person with any complaints is Lee Crab. He's convinced that it's all a sham, and that the humans are slaves to the dinosaurs. Though his main gripe seems to be that there's no red meat to eat. He claims to have tamed a pair of pachycephalosaurs, but in reality, they only pretend to be under his control. They're keeping an eye on him to make sure he doesn't get into too much mischief.

Overall the places and cultures we see in this book have a somewhat European feel to them. Granted, the characters do visit a Tibetan-style monastery in the mountains, they meet a Yoruba blacksmith, and there are plenty of non-white background characters. Maybe Gurney was trying to evoke fantastical settings like Middle Earth or Narnia, or maybe that's just what he felt like painting. We also see some ruins that look like something out of Ancient Egypt. However, it's the other way round. Over the years some Dinotopians ventured out into the wider world and founded civilizations such as Ancient Egypt, the Indus Valley, the Minoans, and Sumeria. And not just humans, dinosaurs got in on the action too. In fact, one dinosaur traveled to Egypt and inspired the myths of the god Thoth. I wonder if all those tales of dragons were actually misremembered encounters with travelers from Dinotopia.

I actually watched the Hallmark Channel miniseries adaptation of Dinotopia before I read the books. Having now read the books...wow, Hallmark Channel did not do this series justice at all. I might eventually review the miniseries, but maybe not for a while.

Well, I don't think there's anything more to add. James Gurney has created a world as rich, detailed and varied as anything you might find from J.R.R. Tolkien or George R.R. Martin...well, it's way more idealistic and lighthearted than anything Martin has written. Also, nobody gets killed or...oh, you know what I mean. If I haven't made it clear by now, pick up Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time today. You'll be glad that you did.

I will see you guys next time.

Riordan Retrospective: The Burning Maze

Welcome back to my Riordan Retrospective.  For those just joining the fun, this is my look back at Percy Jackson, its sequels and spin-offs.  This is less of a formal review and more of laid-back retrospective.  Last time we returned to Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard for a look back The Ship of the Dead.  This time we're returning to The Trials of Apollo.  We're taking a look back at The Burning Maze, The Trials of Apollo book 3.  As per usual, let's have a brief summary. 

Things are heating up as Apollo and Meg make their way to Southern California with their new companion Grover Underwood.  California has been hit by a drought of mythological proportions.  Apollo suspects that the third member of the Triumvirate is behind it.  Apollo and his new friends will have to brave the fires of the labyrinth to end the drought and taken down the third emperor.  Apollo is going to need all the help he can get if the third emperor is who he fears it is.  

As per usual, there will be spoilers beyond this point, so turn back now if you don't want that.  If everyone who wants out is gone, let's being.

It isn't even a spoiler that Caligula is emperor number three.  I mean, he was the poster boy for Roman emperors behaving badly.  This book doesn't even cover a fraction of the batshit insane things Caligula did during his reign.  For example, he liked to have sex with his sisters...in public.  He also collected hermaphrodites.  After his first year as emperor he completely blew through the imperial treasury.  So, to raise funds, he murdered wealthy senators and confiscated their money and property.  He constantly threw orgies, both the Roman party kind and the sexual kind, for the poor.  He feared that the poor would revolt if he ever stopped.  He believed his horse to be the reincarnation of Alexander the Great's horse, had it elected to the senate, and forced the priests to declare it a god.  He also had his sisters declared goddesses after he murdered them.  

Eventually, he slapped one of the pretorian guards and called him a naughty word.  The praetorians decided that they'd officially had all they could stand, chased after him, and turned Caligula into a human pincushion.  Caligula's uncle Claudius, who served as a court jester, was hiding behind a tapestry and nearly got killed himself.  However, the praetorians decided he'd be a much better emperor, and Claudius was known as the emperor elected by the praetorian guards.  They turned out to be right, and Claudius widely regarded as the smartest emperor that Rome ever had.  For example, he wrote a multivolume work on the Etruscan people, which was sadly destroyed by Christians.  Claudius was also the emperor who conquered England.  Everyone called him cabbage head, because his face was partially paralyzed after he had a stroke, but his mind remained sharp.  

It really is saying something that Caligula struck fear into Apollo even before he rose to godhood.  Instead of running around, clearly crazy out his head, Caligula comes across as cool and calculating.  This serves to make him even more intimidating.  We'll talk more about Caligula in a minute, but for now let's talk about the other characters. 

First of all, yay, Grover is back at last!  He's only been away for maybe a year or two in-universe, but it sure has felt like forever since we last saw him.  We also get to meet the various dryads and nature spirits that he's been living with.  They're all named after the various types of plants that they are.  Also, Joshua Tree is notable because he's the first male dryad we've ever met.  I also like to think that maybe Aloe Vera was a nod to Vera, the artist Rick hired to make official character portraits for his website.  I loved getting to meet all the new plant characters.  Also, apparently, they love cheese enchiladas just as much as Grover does.  Must be a nature spirit thing.  I wonder if some of them are reverse vegetarians, avoiding plants, but eating all the animal products they like.  Hey, there are carnivorous plants, such as venus fly traps and pitcher plants.  

In other developments, Piper is back, and has gotten knocked on her ass.  She and Jason broke-up, because they didn't have any chemistry when the world isn't in danger.  The Triumvirate has been messing with her dad's finances, saddling him with massive debt, and Mr. McLean his slowly losing his mind.  Piper's not holding up too well herself.  Oh, how the mighty have fallen.  Hey, Piper, remember when you said you wished your dad wasn't rich, and that you could be normal and not live in Malibu?  How's that working out for ya?  As I've said, it feels like Rick is course-correcting with this series, and actually having Piper and Leo fail and get knocked on their asses a few times.  I'm all for it. 

There's even a scene where I almost sympathized with Piper.  Almost, but not quite.  She says that, because Cherokees trace lineage through the mother, she technically isn't a Cherokee.  Doesn't matter that her father is full-blood, or that she's also, for all intents and purposes, full-blood as well.  As Elizabeth Warren infamously discovered, Cherokees don't do the blood percentage thing.  They only care about tracing your lineage.  Obviously, she can't tell the tribal council that her mother is a Greek goddess, at least without getting thrown in a looney bin.  She and her dad are moving to Tahlequah, Oklahoma.  It is the heart of Cherokee culture.  It is the only place where you'll find signs in both English and the Cherokee language. 

Now let's talk about Jason.  Unfortunately, he's still just as perfect as ever.  At times he seemed way too much like Jesus, and I don't mean because he's the son of a god.  He feels like the weight of the world is on his shoulder because of his promise to build shrines and temples to all the gods.  He even keeps a miniature model of where they'll all be placed.  He also weeps because it's just so hard that he can't help everyone at once.  Ugh, I still contend that Percy could have been handled better, but his reaction to Apollo seems way more realistic than Mr. Perfect.  Riordan seemed like he was trying to make Jason's death more impactful, but he overshot the mark, and made Jason seem inhumanly perfect.  We'll get back to his death in a minute. 

So what's Jason been up to lately?  He's attending an elite all-boys private boarding school.  Yeah, if his goal was to be a normal kid, he failed miserably. Most kids don't go to fancy expensive single gender boarding school!  What, did he base his idea of a normal life off of Harry Potter or something?  The fact that he's at an all-boys school really adds fuel to my theory that Jason was originally going to be gay, but Riordan got cold feet.  Hey, he's admitted that he considered making Reyna a lesbian, but was afraid that would play into negative stereotypes.  As in, she was only a lesbian because Percy and Jason rejected her, was the fear.  Make of that what you will.  Also, some have wondered how Jason could have been in the legion since he was a toddler.  Well, a lot of Roman legions used kids are their mascots.  That's what Caligula did when he was a kid.  My guess is he started there and moved up to practical things when he got older.  

As I've said before, Riordan's characters have a bizarre fixation on high school.  Jason used to be the leader of the twelfth legion, a praetor of New Rome, and his goal is to go to high school?  Again, he's forgetting that high school is still school.  It isn't the idealized wonderland he seems to think it is.  There's tests, projects, bullies, and suffering of plenty.  You could say that high school is murder. 

Speaking of which, let's address the elephant in the room: Jason's death.  Well, the madman surprised us yet again.  Riordan killed off one of the seven, and unlike Leo, this time he's playing for keeps.  I never thought I'd see this day.  Jason is gone!  Yes!  Yes!  Yes!  He's toast, he's history!  Caligula did nothing wrong...hmm, there's a sentence I thought I'd never write.  In a way, Caligula is kind of a badass.  He did something that Kronos and Gaea could only dream of: offing one of the seven.  I haven't been this elated in a long, long time.  Overrated Jason is gone for good, and Piper and Leo are reduced to tears.  

One down, two to go.  Come on Ricky boy, off the other two.  You know you want to.  Oh, and while you're at it, let's get rid of Alex and Samirah.  Hey, I can dream can't I.  Of course, we do have to hear the characters moaning and wailing about what a great guy Jason was.  I suspect that we'll be getting a lot of that in The Tyrant's Tomb.  Curse you, Jason Grace!  Even in death you continue to spite me!  

Speaking of deaths, one of the biggest surprises is that Helios appears...sort of.  He's been brought back by Medea and Caligula, but only partially manifested.  Given that it had been previously established that Helios and Selene had faded long ago, I was certainly surprised by this.  Though I've always been a bit baffled by this, given how popular Sol Invictus, Helios' Roman form, was.  It was necessary for Apollo to convince Helios to fade again, but also a bit sad.  It is too bad that he couldn't find a way for Helios to properly manifest, and break free of Medea and Caligula.  

Moving along, we also get some revelations about Meg's past.  Her father was a botanist who was try to revive a group of powerful dryads called the Meliae. He also grew a house, including all the furniture, completely out of living plants.  Naturally, he caught Demeter's eye, and thus Meg was born.  He and Meg were happy with all their plants, but then Nero came along.  It was sad that Hercules, Meg's beloved saguaro cactus, died before he could be reunited with his girl.  Well, at least he never lost faith that she would return.  So, when nature spirits are reincarnated, do they retain memories of their past lives, or are they completely different individuals?  Are they okay with this, or do they feel any injustice that they are denied a proper afterlife?  

On the topic of nature spirits, Coach Hedge and Mellie are back.  They've both mellowed out considerably, probably because they have a son to look after now.  As I've previously stated, Coach Hedge seems to work better when he's only around a few characters, rather than chaperoning a whole group.  We also finally find out why demigods don't use guns.  Turns out that celestial bronze bullets evaporate after they hit their targets.  Since celestial bronze is so rare on Earth, this isn't a good set up.  Plus there's also concern over the monster not being killed by the time the bullets run out.  Some demigods accept these risks, and use guns, but most prefer swords and spears.  

I also enjoyed getting to meet the pandai.  Believe it or not, the Greeks and Romans really did believe the pandai were lurking out there in India.  You should read some of the crazy stuff Herodotus wrote in The Histories.  By the end of the book, Grover feels he's no longer needed thanks to the Meliae, and decides to head by to Camp Half-Blood.  You earned it buddy, and we've all missed you very much.  As per usual, you know I'm going to plug the audiobook version.  Though, from some reason, Robbie Daymond gave Grover a southern accent, despite there being no evidence that he has one.  

Now let's look the cover.  We see Apollo, Meg and Grover traversing the labyrinth.  They're on the run from the fires of Helios, and from a flock of strix.  

Well, I think that covers everything.  Jason is dead, Piper and Leo are miserable, and I can safely say this is one of the happiest endings we've seen in a long time.  Pity that we have to switch gears are review a less than stellar book next time.  Join me again next time when we finish our look back at Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard with a look back at Nine From the Nine Worlds.  I will see you all next time.