Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds

 Brandon, can I call you Brandon? Brandon has done it again! 

Way to make me cry, dude... 

Stephen Leeds is... different. Not schizophrenic, doesn't have multiple personality disorder... He has something else. He knows his Aspects aren't real, many of them know they aren't real, too. But it doesn't mean they aren't there and they aren't helpful. Stephen is a detective of sorts who, with his Aspect's help, solves odd mysteries and tries to stay out of the press. Each of his Aspects are experts in their own fields. Historian, gunslinger, psychologist, photographer, crime scene investigator, computer tech, and 36-ish others who've helped him solve things in one way or another. They are how his brain processes the knowledge he gains. 

Brandon, at the beginning of the set of novellas, says that this was a very personal story for him to write and it hit in a squishy part in my heart for the writer part of me too.  This is a very interesting way to show what it's like to have so many "people" in your head, talking, knowing things you wouldn't know, or doing things you definitely wouldn't do. Brandon has put his own "People" who are in their own "worlds" and "influences" like I had very prominently in high school when I was writing many fiction and fantasy pieces and it was kind of a game with my friends--for me a game, for them (particularly certain people) maybe not so much. But it was fun and Brandon put a type of my world into words and got it published. Which is fantastic. 

For the story...ies, he has to find a guy, find a dead body, and find a girl. This three novellas in one was awesome and I'm glad I was able to listen them all together. The reader was great and he was really good at keeping me sucked into the book. It was well written as Brandon does. 

I am also BEYOND pleased with the ending, although I was crying as I was doing dishes, listening. It  made me sad, tender, and then happy. I love the characters so so so so so much. Well done, Brandon. This is one that I'm definitely going to be reading again.

The Last Olympian

The final book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series made me cry. 

Percy is less than a week away from turning sixteen, when the Prophecy is supposed to take place and he has the fate of the work resting on a decision. What decision, he doesn't know. What he does know is that there is going to be a major battle for Olympus and the Gods aren't here because they are trying to defeat Typhon, another titan, who is marching his way across the United States. 

The ultimate Hero's Journey and it's a, in the words of my best friends, "constant fight scene." For those who like action and battles, this one is jam packed full of it. Percy must save New York City and the known world from Kronoss. What could be more "final battle" than that? Though it is well balanced between fighting and plot and character development.  We now get the final "fleshing out" of characters whom, I felt, needed a little love. 

It very much did make me cry. Half-bloods die--though I do wish we had gotten to know more of them throughout the series then these final stands with characters whose names we knew and characteristics we remembered would have been even more heart wrenching. 

I also like when Percy does get to New York and we get to meet Hestia. Our Last Olympian. Goddess of Hearth and Home. We're reminded that Home is where you make it. I loved that theme throughout the book. 

I also enjoyed the ending. Not only "boss fight" but the conclusion to it, and their attempts to make it so then circumstances don't happen again that could give Kronoss power of Half-bloods again and that everyone will be claimed so we don't have a packed Hermes cabin. 

It was a good story. My son cried so much when it was over and asked me if we could re-read the series right then and there. He very much enjoyed it too.