Review -- The Colossus Rises by Peter Lerangis

Title: The Colossus Rises
Author: Peter Lerangis
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: 05 February 2013
Date Read: January 2013
Rating: ★★☆☆☆

One Boy
Jack McKinley is an ordinary kid with an extraordinary problem. In a few months, he’s going to die.

One Mission
Jack needs to find seven magic loculi that, when combined, have the power to cure him.

One Problem
The loculi are the relics of a lost civilization and haven’t been seen in thousands of years.

Seven Wonders
Because they’re hidden in the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
 

Jack McKinley is our main character, thirteen and one of the Select tasked to find the Loculi, ancient artefacts from the lost world of Atlantis hidden in the Seven Wonders of the world. Along with Jack, members of the Select include Marcus, Aly (I think) and some other kid. I don't even remember his name.

The characters were all very bland and one dimensional. I feel like Lerangis just followed some recipe to write a middle grade adventure book he found in the Internet. Jack is the typical kid who thinks he's just a Nobody when it's clearly obvious he's Somebody. Marcus is ridiculously strong, athletic and big. He also annoyingly puts 'brother' or 'sister' before people's names when he talks to them. It sounds stupid. Just please, stop. Aly is a movie geek and the punk (as punk as a thirteen-year old can get) of the group. The other kid is the nerd, their go-to guy when a task involving the use of a brain needs to be done. He speaks backwards whenever he's nervous, or you know, for fun. That's pretty much what the characters were about. They just all had their parts to play and they played it, not so well, I might add.

A lot of time was spent setting up the Karai Institute. Most of the book was whether or not the kids could really trust the Institute, the ones in charge of the Select. Are they really doing this to protect the Loculi or do they want it for themselves? That kind of thing. It took time away from building a good, solid Atlantean mythology. I could only go so far until I got tired of it and I just wanted them to find the dang Loculi already. Once they got around to the Seven Wonders part, I really couldn't care less about any of it.

The Colossus Rises is packed with action. But it got to the point where the characters did things just for the sake of adding another action scene and just generally have another way of endangering their lives. I know they've done quite a lot of very idiotic things. Veering off a jungle path and rock climbing up a mountain just because you're guide pissed you off? Really? Really?

I can see it's intended audience enjoying The Colossus Rises very much. I am not it's intended audience. I'm probably too old for it now but I mean a good children's book can be enjoyed not just by children, right? I had hoped I would be entertained the same way I was with Percy Jackson or Artemis Fowl. It's nowhere near as good as other series in the same genre. I most likely won't return to this for the next instalment. But like I said, middle-grade readers might enjoy it more than I did

An ARC was received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.