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The Siren Song (Cronus Chronicles, Book Two)
Anne Ursu, Eric Fortune

Atheneum, 2007 - 448 pages

average customer review:based on 9 reviews
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   highly recommended  highly recommended





Yay!

My friend and I love this book so much! So if your someone looking for a nice gift, buy this! I recomend this from the mind of an eleven year old! I love all of the Cronus Chrinicles, so you should try them all, the last book will come out in fall of 2008, and I cant wait!!!
The people are the best ever, my friend and I truley love Philonecron, the villian who causes a great conflict. This is a very suspensful book, and you'll have to read # 1 first: The Shadow Theives!

Our favorite quote is "Philonecron did not like being wet." It's at the very end and is truely true! We also like to pronounce his name Fil-ne-cron leavimng out the "o." It sounds better, try it!



This is a wonderful book for everyone! Trust the bookwormish mind of me, an eleven year old! Yay for Philnecron, and bookworms, and Anne Ursu!



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Fantastic Follow-up To "The Shadow Thieves"

"The Siren Song" picks up where "Shadow Thieves" left off. Charlotte and Zee saved the world from the evil Philonecron, yet you would never know it. Charlotte has been grounded by her parents and is being forced to go to therapy, and Zee, well, he just isn't himself. To make matters worse, Philonecron isn't finished with the two cousins, and now he has a relative (with a lot of power) who is on his side. This book mainly focuses on Charlotte because Zee is out of the picture for most of it. She winds up not only battling her parents, but a powerful Greek deity as well. It's interesting to see how much Charlotte loves her family and is willing to sacrifice herself for them, even though they drive her crazy. Anne Ursu portrays the Greek Gods as possessing the same faults as the humans that they despise. Charlotte on the other hand while only being a "measly" human, always manages to rise to the occasion. Quite often the middle book of a trilogy is the weakest. Not so in this case. I enjoyed "Siren Song" as much as its predecessor. I think any lover of the Harry Potter books and the Percy Jackson books whether they be a child or an adult, will love the Cronus Chronicles.


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Ye Gods (and Goddesses), This is a Gem!

Well, we're all going to read the final Harry Potter book aren't we? But I just discovered another constellation in the firmament just as brilliant: Anne Ursu's second installment in her Chronos Chronicles trilogy, The Siren Song. My children, 17 and 13, and I were delighted by this book. The Greek gods with their laughably vain and all too human foibles again threaten to wreak havoc on the lives of the two teen protagonists. Fortunately, Zee and Charlotte again outwit the immortals but not before we're treated to captivating encounters with Poseidon and his aquatic circle of sycophants, clueless (but very recongnizable) parents, and the deliciously evil Philonecron. What separates this effort from the sea of other teen books is its inventiveness, wit, and comfortable intelligence. It's suffused with such easy charm that you're captured and carried along until the sea voyage ends all too soon. No better time can be spent than in the company of this author. Bon Voyage.


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Funny Fishy Fantasy

A lot of writers TRY to be funny, but Anne Ursu actually pulls it off. You know you're in for a good time when the four parts of a fantasy book are titled "Fish," "Fishy," "Fishier," and "Fishiest." Ursu has a field day with the fact that a girl who disappeared one night (in the last book) to save the world did not get praised when she came home; instead she was grounded for life and sent to a therapist:

"After they call the police to tell them you have returned home safely, and then they hug you a lot and cry for a while, well--after that, they want to know where you've been. (And, for that matter, why you are covered in weird-looking slime, purple cobwebs, and Harpy poo, and why your cat's leg is broken.) And when you don't tell them, they tend to get pretty upset. And after a few days, when you still haven't told them, they stick you in therapy. They're going to give you speeches about how DISAPPOINTED they are in you and how family is all about TRUST and how you worried them to DEATH and you don't have the decency to explain where you WERE and they have to assume the worst--which is that you can't be trusted. And then they ground you. A lot. Charlotte Mielswetzski had once thought that she could talk her way out of any situation. This was before she came back from the Underworld."

That's just a small sampling of the tongue-in-cheek style, which supports the microscope Ursu turns on human nature even as she moves her adventure story along. Ursu is especially good at showing the basic disconnect between kids and grown-ups: adults say they want to hear what kids are thinking, but when the kids venture to share their true thoughts, they are met with disapproval or even punishment.

Surprisingly, another set of feelings the author spotlights are those of her villain Philonecron. Ursu gives us his point of view about being defeated and wanting revenge. Even as readers are laughing at what an astonishing megalomaniac the man (or rather demigod) is, they will be able to relate just a little to his feelings. After all, it's hard to be a perfectionist. For example, Philonecron is bothered by the (siren) lounge singer on Poseidon's yacht's "tendency to be one sixty-fourth of a note sharp on anything in her upper register or the fact that the ship had lounge singers at all."

Further irony anchoring this plot: having stopped the bad guy in Book One, Charlotte and Zee are now on the recieving end of payback from Philonecron's powerful relatives, namely, his grandfather Poseidon. We find out that Poseidon lives on the world's most massive, beautiful and tacky yacht, tacky because the gawdy decor has a distinctive "Poseidon's face" theme and the god tends to wear white pants with gold chains and not much more, showing off his blue chest hairs.

Did I mention Anne Ursu is funny?

Anyway, the story gets going when Posiedon's people start messing around with Zee and Charlotte at their school, but they don't catch on until it's too late. By that time, Charlotte's parents have already taken her on an educational cruise, little realizing that the whole thing is a setup to allow Poseidon to carry out his revenge scheme.

I think the only bit that didn't quite work for me was the giant squid character, but that's merely a quibble compared to the overall success of this fresh and funny book. I liked The Lightning Thief, but I have to say: Anne Ursu really gives Rick Riordan a run for his money when it comes to throwing Greek gods and contemporary kids together.


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Is It As Good?

As the first book in Annie Ursu's "Cronus Chronicles" series "The Shadow Thieves" was one of my favorites of 2006, I highly anticipate buying my copy of the sequel, "The Siren Song" when it came out this summer. Though it wasn't quite as good as its predecessor, the writing still has that same quality. It reads like J. K. Rowling-lite with a bit of Lemony Snicket sprinkled throughout for flavor, with dialogue that snaps and zaps across the pages like a blast from Poseidon's trident.

While it lacks the sentimentality of the last book in some aspects (particularly the story arc of Zee's grandmother from "The Shadow Thieves") the sense of humor is certainly taken up a notch. Resident hero Charlotte Mealswetski deals with the repercussions of her actions in the first book, both from her parents (who've grounded her) and a few angry Greeks gods (who want nothing less than her untimely death). Without revealing the plot, I can say this: Unlike the first book in the series, this is much more of a solo adventure for Charlotte. Zee is... let's say incapacitated for the majority of the novel, which is good and bad. On the good side, we get to know Charlotte a lot better, as her character develops radically, but yet till subtly, throughout these four hundred and thirty pages. A negative about not having Zee around as much is that we don't get as much dialogue between the two of them as we did last time, which was always a treat. However, I daresay it was worth it to see Charlotte venturing bravely by herself into a new aquatic world to take on Poseidon and Philinecron (once again). The world Ursu shows us in this book is as quirky as the underworld from "The Shadow Thieves", but also as different from it as can possibly be.

One thing that I felt was both good and bad was the fact a lot of time was spent with Charlotte dealing with being grounded by her parents after the events of the previous book. What could've been covered in two or three chapters was given an entire quarter of the book to play out. However, it's a testament to how good Ursu's writing is that she kept me entertained during this not-so-perfect section of the book. But while there are parts that aren't as good as the first book, there are also explosively good sections--such as the page-turner of a climax--that easily trump "The Shadow Thieves."

So if you liked "The Shadow Thieves" last year, and you want to read something with a little bit of drama, a little bit of epic, and a lotta bit of funny, I highly suggest you check out "The Siren Song."

8/10


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reviews: page 1, 2



Inside an ordinary middle school in an ordinary city, a small redheadedeighth grader is doing something very ordinary, indeed.

Ever since Charlotte Mielswetzski and her cousin, Zee, saved the world, life has been rather ordinary. Ordinary, that is, if you call being ultramegagrounded (in Charlotte's case) or treated as if you might fall to pieces (in Zee's case) ordinary. Either way, heroes deserve better.

Of course, no one knows Charlotte and Zee are heroes. It's not like they can simply announce that Greek myths are real or proclaim they have returned from the Underworld, where they rescued all of mankind from Philonecron, a deranged demigod with delusions of grandeur. Instead, they are forced to keep this terrible knowledge to themselves, and are stuck in a state of extraordinary ordinariness.

But things aren't quite as ordinary as they seem. For Philonecron is the grandson of Poseidon, and you don't mess with the progeny of the second most powerful god in the universe. And Philonecron himself isn't so happy about having all of his delicious plans thwarted by mortal children. He wantsrevenge, and with his grandfather to help him, he is going to get what he wants.

For Charlotte and Zee, their not-so-ordinary lives are about to be disruptedonce again. This time it's not the world they must save -- it's themselves.

In the thrilling second installment of the Cronus Chronicles trilogy, author Anne Ursu brings her trademark wit to a spectacular adventure on the high seas.


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