Gods of Manhattan (Gods of Manhattan, 1)

The text printed on most pages is 1/8-1/4 inch from the bottom of the page. Plenty of room at top. Means I have to move my thumbs holding the book with every page.

Given as a gift and after starting it she read it in two days!

You know those themed Monopoly games? If you like the game of Monopoly then the themed versions can be fun. If you don't care for the game, well then all the theme cleverness in the world isn't going to make the experience of playing it any better. That's sort of what you have here.The author has taken a classic action/adventure/magic/fantasy god-themed engine and has turned it to an interesting purpose. Instead of Roman Gods, or Greek Gods, or Egyptian Gods, or, most recently, Norse Gods, what we get are "Gods" drawn from the history and culture of New York City. Since New York City has been a profoundly influential place, historically and culturally, since the country's founding, there are many, many figures from which to choose.New Yorkers are notoriously possessive of the history and image of their city, and a lot of reviewers have complained about the author's god choices. I guess if there were still ancient Romans around they'd have harsh words for Riordan's Percy Jackson choices. As neither a New Yorker nor an ancient Roman, I was O.K. with both, and thought the author made a decent attempt to capture the spirit of New York City over time. I also appreciated the foldout map of New York City at the front of the book, since I'm not that familiar with outlying boroughs and neighborhoods.So, all of that said, is the book any fun to play, now that we have the theme in place? I think the answer is "yes". We have a fairly engaging hero who is bright and commonsensical and decent. We have "real" Manhattan and an overlying, alternate "fantasy" Mannahatta. We have a colorful cast of supporting characters. We have skads of interesting secondary characters, and oodles of cameos by famous former New Yorkers. The villains are fine. The handling of Native American characters is a bit disappointing, since it appears we haven't progressed much beyond "The Indian in the Cupboard", but the plight of Manhattan's original inhabitants is treated with a fair degree of sensitivity.There is a lot of action; the book starts quickly and the different plot threads come together early on. The historiosity of the God figures isn't beaten to death and almost any reader will pick up enough about these characters to follow the action. (This is not a history book and I would hesitate to even try to think about it or to use it as such.) This is a run-around-and-find-stuff-while-in-peril book, and the running and finding and peril are all just fine.There is less humor here than in some other God adventure books, but enough to keep the tone fairly light even as the action progresses. Dialogue and scene setting are decent, but again action, fantasy and adventure are mostly the order of the day. There are a lot of twists and turns and double-crosses and sub-plots. But, there is a fair amount of exposition early on and the characters are inclined toward extended monologuing, and as a consequence it's not too hard to keep track of what's happening and who's who.So, if you like this sort of book you will most likely like this book. If you don't, then you probably won't, New York angle notwithstanding. I like these sorts of books and I applaud any effort to try something new, clever and imaginative with them, so I was happy with this find.

When I read a book of this genre, I ask myself: Was it a captivating story? Did it come alive for me? Happily, the answers are Yes! and Yes! This is definite page turner with a fresh new approach turning Manhattan into an action packed spirit world filled with magic and history. Perfect for New York City lovers young and old!

Son is a big fan of Pearcy Jackson has read all the books he could from that line. Enjoyed reading this book and have already ordered the second

son read this-- enjoyed. very similar to Percy Jackson books

Good book I liked it a lot. I read all 3 books, and the third book is the best book

Reading it now with my son. So far so good. thanks