Review: The Colossus Rises

The Colossus Rises (Seven Wonders #1) by Peter Lerangis

I give this book a 4.

I read and listened to this book on my Kindle which may account for some of the comments I make below.

This is the story of Jack McKinley and some others kids who find out that they the descendants of Atlantians and are all about to die, oh but they all get superpowers before they kill over. It may not sound like it, but I liked this book. It’s very middle grade and sometimes annoying, but overall quite entertaining. When I first heard of this new series it was compared to the Percy Jackson series, but I don’t think that is a good comparison. I think this story is something a little different.

The only character I really fell in love with in this first book, I haven’t read the others yet, is Jack. Not that the other characters weren’t likable, but Jack was the only one who seemed to be in touch with reality. He seemed accessible to me beyond this world of mythology and magic in a way none of the other characters were.

While this story is very clever and full of action, is lacks sophistication and with good reason. This is a story about kids battling against the world to save their lives. These are not hormonal teens, yet, caught up in adult activities, but kids just trying to get through the day. I like that there is a real sense of innocence to this story that many middle-grade and YA stories just don’t have.

The mysteries, the history, and all the clues of this story were really cool. Some things were a discovery for me while quite a few were not. It didn’t take me long to figure out what was happening each time a new problem arose, but I will admit there were some turns I didn’t see coming.

The descriptions in this story and the world building were pretty good, but sometimes I had trouble figuring out which literal direction things were happening in. On the plus side, I thought the illustration were a nice added touch. Throughout the book there is tons of humor to lighten a mood when needed.

I’d recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mythology, history, and is willing to read middle-grade fiction. The kids should really enjoy it.

This review has been posted to GoodReads. If you’d like to obtain a copy of this book, try this link.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

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