PANDORA 2

 
The second book in the Pandora series finds our three young heroines (and Pandy's dog) on board a ship and on their way to Alexandria. They're now accompanied by Homer, a large "youth" (as the girls refer to boys around their age) who had once attended gladiator school but now worked for his father's shipping company. Against his will, because he wants to be a poet. Because of course he does. Homer's father sold the girls their passage with the condition that Homer accompany them for safety, so they've now got an oversized cute (according to Alcie) bodyguard. 

This book is almost non-stop action and excitement. 

First, a storm hits the ship. Then...a tornado. Both come from Aeolus at the bidding of Hera. They're saved from the tornado by a squadron of dolphins sent by Poseidon, but they end up far down the Nile and away from Alexandria. 

Then on land once again, Pandy falls through the ceiling of an underground burial chamber. She's forced to use her fire powers to keep the punishment system in the chamber from impaling her on stakes. When she melts a golden one, its explosion leaves her with the little golden teardrop she's drawn with on the covers from then on. With the help of an undead skeleton, they each gain power over language, which is quite convenient. 

After they emerge from the temple, they're confronted by a large group of mysterious people and eventually taken in by what's basically a travelling circus. It's run by a Chinese man and his ancient mother, and there are loads of interesting characters here from all over the world. 

During a performance given to their new guests, Wang Chun Lo, the leader, performs his trick, which involves actually travelling to different locations across the globe via large crystal panels. Pandy has the idea that they can use these to get to Alexandria faster. In a private discussion with Wang Chun Lo, he agrees to help her, but tells her about the price for travelling that way: fifteen years of your life. Pandy willingly takes on everyone's fifteen years without telling them. They use the crystals to contact the family of an acolyte in the Temple of Delphi they met in the first book, and he's able to point them to the palace, where young queen Cleopatra is unable to tear herself away from her mirror. Being that they're after Vanity, it seems logical that the mirror is it. After going through the panels, everyone else is shocked to see than Pandy is now 73. Iole gets very angry with her, but they've got bigger problems. Cleopatra is wasting away because she won't eat, but she's also developed super-strength, so she's killing and blinding servants who aren't pandering to her beauty needs enough. Through some clever trickery, they're able to get the mirror away from her and get Vanity back in the box, though not before Pandora gets bopped by one of its bubbles. 

In an interesting twist, Wang Chun Lo reappears and reveals he isn't Wang Chun Lo after all. He's...Osiris. I loved so quickly seeing a non-Greek god involved and Osiris was written pretty awesomely. Osiris cures Pandy of her vanity problem and offers to grant a wish basically for each of the others. They all say they want Pandy back to normal and that's what they get, despite Iole having a broken arm and Alcie still having two left feet. (Osiris does fix Alcie's feet though, in a surprise to her that she notices as they're leaving.) After using the map, everyone is disappointed their next location is so far away, until Apollo drops in and pretty much hands them the keys to his sun chariot. 

On the way to the chariot, Pandy notices Dido is missing and remembers seeing her dog surrounded by peacock-colored cats. Yep, Hera's got him. 

Also, Homer and Alcie like each other. Her crush on him is obvious at the beginning of the book, but his feelings about her come a little bit out of nowhere. They're cute though, so why not?