The Colossus Rises

So I tend to have 0 expectations when it comes to books like this one other than I want it to be fun, and as far as I'm concerned Lerangis did that. I was impressed with the characters - the Professor (ha!) was clearly using the kids as pawns, but it's clear at times he cares for them more than he lets on. The kids also are very clearly kids, which is very well done on Lerangis' part. They all had their own personalities, questioned authority, fooled around and missed their parents. I think that's something that's often not mentioned, but it's a very real aspect of this book and a detail I appreciated.

It seems a lot of the buzz about this book touches on how it was slow, did a lot of world building and people were a little confused as to where the series is going to go. I'm not going to argue with that, but I will throw in my two cents that the books target audience is middle school kids - and I think the topic is unfamiliar enough to that audience that a little world building for a series is probably a good thing.

Basically the book is the beginning of the kids tracking down the seven powers - or seven wonders of the ancient world. I love this, because I'm enough of a history/classics geek and I think every kid should get to be awed by the ancient world once or twice. I also admittedly love searching for things that have been long lost to history - it throws in just enough reality to make a fantastical book plausible enough for imagination to go wild.  I'm fairly sure this book was a set up for the series, and I certainly wasn't disappointed with it. I think it's appeal to a middle grade crowd is really strong - I feel that by the end of the book it was already setting itself up for a fun action filled ride, and I can't wait to see where they take the rest of the series.



***Full Disclosure - I received an ARC copy of this book from the publisher at OLA Super Conference, not specifically for reviewing but because they're promoting it to librarians. So I feel half bad about not getting my things together enough to do an early review, and then for doing a post-publication review on an ARC. Generally I'm fairly confident not enough has changed, but apologies none the less.