The Heroes of Olympus: The Son of Neptune (Book Review) – Rick Riordan

The second installment in Rick Riordan’s new Greek (and Roman) mythology series: “The Heroes of Olympus,” was released a couple of weeks ago and immediately shot up to the top lists of best sellers. The book’s publishers prepared a 3 million copy first run print, something unprecedented in their history.

“The Heroes of Olympus” picks up where Riordan’s first series: “Percy Jackson & the Olympians” left off. With the first book, “The Lost Hero“, released last Fall, we were introduced to Jason, a demigod with no memories whatsoever about his origins or how he ended up with two other demigods named Piper and Leo. Together, they faced a terrifying quest where they had to save the goddess Hera from having her force absorbed by Mother Earth Gaea who sought to rise, as our regular cast (comprised of Annabeth, Grover and Tyson) searched frantically for a missing Percy Jackson.

As “The Lost Hero” ends, it is revealed to us that while the events of that book were taking place, Percy Jackson was taking part in the events of another demigod camp (illustrated in “The Son of Neptune”) – one where descendants of the Roman gods train. Both camps had been kept separate because Greek and Roman demigods – although they share godly parents – have different forms of those same gods and tend to get into brutal fights around each other.

In “The Son of Neptune,” Percy Jackson also has no recollection of who he is – apart from his name. He is taken to Camp Jupiter where he is immediately perceived as an outsider, with more than one person knowing who he truly is and refusing to tell him. Soon enough, he finds himself on another quest with Frank, a Chinese-descendant boy with a heavy burden and family secret, and Hazel, a girl with a mysterious past: two demigods with secrets they would like to keep hidden. And as the trio travel to Alaska – a land beyond the protection of the gods – they will grow a tight bond that helps them through all the ordeals they will face to finish their quest and come back to Camp Jupiter before it is destroyed by an army sent by Gaea.

The interesting thing about “The Heroes of Olympus” is that it is way more interesting than “Percy Jackson & The Olympians” book for book. While the first two books in the latter series struggle to keep an older reader interested, these ones do so right off the bat, simply because Rick Riordan doesn’t have the need to establish a readership for them anymore. Those who are reading “The Heroes of Olympus” have already read “Percy Jackson & The Olympians” – and stuck with Percy to the end.

Rick Riordan manages to create interesting new characters without you feeling they are overloaded with too much side story. And in books made out to be a light, breezy read, this helps the purpose while keeping those characters interesting enough for you to keep reading. The main fuel for “The Son of Neptune” – what gets the story going the most – is not the necessary need to advance the plot but rather the small revelations you get about those characters, especially Frank and Hazel.

“The Son of Neptune” is a must read for whoever has stuck with Percy Jackson and Rick Riordan up to this point. This is definitely not the time to let go. And being an easy read, it won’t take much of your time, and with it alternating between the points of view of its three protagonists, provides you with different approaches to the plot. There’s everything you search for in a Rick Riordan book in this one: fight scenes, comedy, intrigue… and as usual Riordan delivers.

The third book in “The Heroes of Olympus” series, titled “The Mark of Athena” is scheduled for a Fall 2012 release.

Rick Riordan also has another series out – The Kane Chronicles – about Egyptian Mythology. Check out my reviews for The Red Pyramid and The Throne of Fire from that series.

13 Reasons to Vote for Jeita Grotto

You know what?

Lebanese suck.

We really do. We need to bash EVERYTHING. There’s NOTHING that can take place in the country that is not frowned upon or looked down upon or criticized.

The latest? People are criticizing the whole “Vote for Jeita” campaign, with about 3 weeks left on the vote. They can’t even accept that the competition is NOT scam.

“Jeita doesn’t deserve to be a wonder,” is one of the things I’ve heard. “Why charge for the SMS to vote?” is another. “If the government wants Jeita to win, why don’t they vote?”

All of us need to want Jeita to win. Not the government. Not anyone else. We, as a people, should be proud that our country has something that has gained enough international recognition from international panels that judged Jeita as being worthy of being one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature.

Regarding the SMS vote: The New 7 Wonders committee DOES NOT accept free SMS votes. The 10 cents charge we pay is one enforced by the New 7 Wonders committee. The government is not charging anything. I’ve voted 35 times so far and it barely caused a dent in my prepaid credit. And you know what, even if it did – I don’t care.

I recently stumbled on this blog post where they make out the vote for Jeita as some form of “national chauvinism,” saying that we need to study the other 27 finalists in order to make an informative vote. On that same post, a comment by “Noel” states that our “need” to have Jeita win is because we, as Lebanese, need “validation from some outside authority.”

Sure, our country is messed up in many ways. But I believe we have a lot to be grateful for. However, can we – FOR ONCE – stop being so pessimistic about everything that has to do with Lebanon? Can we just chill for a bit, sit back, relax and not overanalyze everything? Can we seriously cut it with the know-it-all attitudes and for once feel good that Lebanon is actually getting a reputation for itself apart from the whole war-torn country now sex-capital of the Middle East?

But here are 13 reasons why we all need to vote for this wonder:

1) Jeita is spectacular

2) Jeita is wonderful

3) Jeita is grandiose

4) Jeita is brilliant

5) Jeita is gorgeous

6) Jeita is poetic

7) Jeita is angelic

8) Jeita is radiant

9) Jeita is exquisite

10) Jeita is majestic

11) Jeita is sublime

12) Jeita is elegant

13) Jeita makes me proud to be Lebanese. And so should you!

Also quick info for you out there:

Jeita is the only limestone cave among the 28 nominees. Most of Jeita cannot be accessed by visitors. For instance, the lower cave is over 6000 meters long, only 500 of which are accessible to visitors via boats. Moreover, the upper cave is over 2000 meters in length, only 750 of which are accessible to the public. Jeita also has the world’s longest stalactite at 8.2m high.

And for those of want to vote, you can go to this link or check out this picture:

And for those outside Lebanon, you can vote via the website: http://www.new7wonders.com or text Jeita to your country’s corresponding number:

Also check out this ad featuring opposing Lebanese politicians, beauty queens and actors to promote the vote:

Back in 2008, the US was invited to Barrack the vote. This is our time to rock the vote, Lebanese-style.

3G in Lebanon: Prices, Launch Date and Testing Experience

For those who don’t know, minister of telecommunications Nicolas Sahnaoui unveiled the 3G packages we’ve all been waiting for today.

The main package will be 500MB for a $19 monthly fee.

A smaller 100 MB package for $10 exists as well for those who don’t need extensive data.

Nothing has been mentioned about more data extensive package or if there will be a package suitable for those who need a laptop 3G connection via a dongle only.

Each extra MB of consumption will be charged at 4 cents/MB.

The service will launch on November 1st in Beirut and Mount Lebanon on both carriers Alfa and MTC and will be available for both prepaid and postpaid lines.

Sahnaoui also announced that 4G will be available in Lebanon starting Summer 2012, allowing speeds up to 100 Mb/s, after the initial phase of the fiber optics infrastructure upheaval ends.

What do I personally think of the proposed plans? The $10 one (if true) doesn’t make sense. I’d rather pay double to get five times the allowed quota. But is 500MB enough with 3G? I hardly think so. It’s very easy to burn through them without knowing due to the great speed the service provides. On the bright side, the cost of an extra MB isn’t that much so it might help a little.

However, does the claim that Lebanon’s 3G is the cheapest in the region hold up? Let’s look at 3G prices in KSA:

1GB for 50 Riyals (20,000L.L. or about $13.5), 5GB for1 100 Riyals (40,000L.L. or $36), Unlimited for 350 Riyals(140,000L.L. or $93)
So we definitely do not have the cheapest 3G in the region.

However how is 3G? I can answer that question.

After testing the service for four weeks, I can attest to its reliability – especially in Beirut – on alfa. I was getting speeds no less than 2 Mbps in Achrafieh and faced next to no data interruptions using my iPhone’s hotspot feature to connect to my laptop. I’ve gotten download speeds nearing 300 KB/s, which is more than what I got using 3G in Spain. For reference, a 350 MB episode of the Vampire Diaries took me about 20 minutes to download, which is almost unheard of in Lebanon.

Cynics have been saying that the 3G speeds the 4000 testers were getting are good just because you only have 4000 testers. However, after speaking to an alfa representative, he confirmed that they were not deploying the whole bandwidth they had for those 4000 testers so it could be that when 3G becomes available for the public, speed degradations will be rare.

3G coverage in Jbeil, however, has been very spotty. I didn’t manage to get 3G almost anywhere I went in the city and the moments I did get 3G, download speed was horrible, knowing that Jbeil was one of the covered cities during the testing period.

Tripoli, which wasn’t on the map my carrier alfa provided me with, had great 3G coverage, with speeds averaging 1.7 Mbps as well.

It is interesting to note, however, that I managed to get up to 5Mbps on 3G in Sodeco area in Achrafieh:

MacRumors Fail – Apple Fourth Quarter Revenue Announcement

While announcing the revenue for Apple’s fourth quarter, which totalled $28 billion, bringing the company’s total revenue for 2011 fiscal year to over $108 billion, MacRumors committed a huge error, one that is fail-status worthy.

Check it out for yourself:

Of course it was fixed now. But when it’s online, it’s for everyone to see, right? Maybe next time they won’t be careless enough to have a “blah blah blah” ready draft for anything Apple.