Blog Challenge #4

This week's challenge was to reread a book and write how you understood the book this time compared to the last time you read that book. I decided to read Pendragon #1 Merchant of Death again because I'm currently reading book 9, and have read all the other books in the series so far. I expected myself to be able to understand everything easier and being able to know why this happened. Being a series, the first book is very important as it introduces the story and the characters.

Pendragon #1 was a great book when I read it the first time, it was even better when I read it the second time. I remember the night that I got it, I finished watching a scary movie and wanted to read so I could get my mind off of aliens coming to invade our world. I decided to read Pendragon as I just got it that day, so I flip the page straight to Chapter 1 and it says: 'I hope you're reading this Mark...' That freaked me out completely!!! (guess why) I was pretty relieved when I found out it was Mark Dimond not me, but I still remember the goosebumps running up my spine as I thought of how this could have happened.

Bobby Pendragon is the main character of the series, and starts the story off with one of his journals. The book is interestly written, with one part being Bobby's journal written in past tense, while is written in the present usually following Mark Dimond or Courtney Chetwynde. Originally, I found that really confusing and awkward which made things hard to understand. After nine books of that format, I pick up almost every detail although I do no what to expect for.

Bobby seems very shy and scared in the first book and doesn't have any courage, all he wants to do is to go home. By Book 9, not only does he know that to fight Saint Dane is his duty, he's more trained and fit and has courage and experience to take down Saint Dane in a fight, unfortunately he's seriously losing the battle. Bobby's humour stays the same though. He's still funny and makes funny puns, and always wants to make me laugh. Courtney is athletic and popular and is used to being number 1, somewhere in book 4 or 5 when they enter high school, Courtney realizes that she's not so perfect anymor eand starts to lose her confidence and gets depressed. Mark is interesting because he was always nerdy, and bullies always liked to beat him up. He invents new technology in book 7 and brings it to First Earth which messes everything up and causes a change in how the Earth advanced technologically.

In Book 1, the stakes seem very low as only Denduron is at stake, even though Uncle Press does foreshadow about what would would happen if they lost Denduron to Saint Dane. In Book 9, Bobby lost Denduron after he won it in Book 1 and was losing on the territories as Saint Dane looks like he is going to win and that there is little hope left to do anything.

It is also easier for me to picture everything happening and how every character looked like and acted like. It was easier to read and I already knew what was going to happen so I went over a quick scan picking up a few details that would affect the story later on in the series. The book goes under a similar plot chart as some of the other books with things looking bad, then Bobby helps a bit just to make things worst, and then they find out who is really the bad guy. Then when all hope looks lost, Bobby saves the day.(Though, they lost Veelox in book 4).

Pendragon was a great book. The first time I would have given it a

The second time, I'd give it a

Blog #4 part 2

I know I've been reading it, but I can't really get into it. Pendragon #9, the ninth of tenth book in what I'd say my favourite series (tops the mortal instruments). Pendragon is really good, but I can't really get into book 9 Raven Rise, like I did on the other books. I guess it's not really fair for Pendragon because as soon as I started reading it, I began the Mortal Instruments which was fresh, so I really liked it. Pendragon was still good, and I read 30 pages every 2 nights.

It got harder to pick it up instead of the City of Ashes later because a combination of the City of Ashes really getting good and Pendragon starting to get all cosmic and hocus pocus. It kind of lost the old action from the other books, with the secrets and funny humour. Then again, the stakes were getting really scary, unlike other stories where the world was in danger, in this book the worlds were in danger. What I found the spookiest was how Saint Dane had predicted every thing to happen, from his first failure on Denduron, to getting Denduron back and starting the Convergeance.

Then again, I also liked reading Pendragon because I liked the fact that they were winning and Saint Dane looked defeated. Then came the 7th book and things started to crash down. I still liked the 7th and 8th book because they wer still kind of winning, but in the 9th book, they just lose. Loads of travelers are gone now not to mention Spader and Gunny still trapped on Eelong.

And the world of Pendragon is getting really confusing with the time control that Saint Dane has comes in. Apparently he can control when he wants to pop out of the flume, but that means he could defeat the world when it was at it's early stages. Then there are the Earth's and there different times. 1st earth is in 1940s while 2nd earth is in 2000s and then 3rd earth is all the way into the 51st century! The numbering is also messed up because 3rd earth is the oldest, but they way they call it, it only makes sense if 1st earth was oldest.

Pendragon book 9: Raven Rise whould be a good book, but right now I can only give it awhich by the way is a 2/5