PANDORA 7

Ah, here we are at the end. And what an end! 

Pandora's final journey takes her to the Underworld, where she runs into various personages before finally locating the final big evil: Fear. 

Cerberus is there for a brief time. Sisyphus. Tantalus. The lesser known Ixion and the Danaids. The Danaids scene was gross but I loved it. 

Persephone, easily my favorite immortal in this series, makes several appearances. I KNOW!

Achilles is a slightly more featured character, though I really don't like how she portrayed him. It seems stereotypical. I'm not going into further detail, but it wasn't a good idea.

The human characters have to pass through the Styx to get into the Underworld and it leaves each of them with a metallic coating of some trait of theirs. Alcie is copper. Pandy is bronze. Homer is iron. And Iole, with her very large, dense brain, becomes lead, which makes her sadly dull-witted. With Persephone's help, they break Iole out of her leaden skin, making her more confident in her genius and less worried about what people will think of her being so smart. My only problem with this scene is where she says "I can't get any smarter." We can always learn, Iole. You're not omniscient. Homer loses his iron coating in the Danaids scene and basically becomes more mature and gentlemanly. Alcie loses her copper nearer the end and just gets more beautiful. And Pandy? Well, Pandy doesn't lose hers until the very end, after being frustrated that all her friends are new and improved and she's still the same. I don't believe there's any mention of her changing at all, unlike the other characters. So she does get a little shafted. 

So there's a final battle with Hera and Pandy defeats her by finding Fear and completing the quest. Then everyone is whisked away to Mount Olympus where the heroic foursome is rewarded and the treacherous Demeter and Hera are punished. Demeter's punishment is to live forever without her goddess powers, being forced to watch how humans fuck up the planet. Hera, Juno and Ceres are depowered and transported to the future to work as maids in Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. 

I love this series. It's always fun to reread. 

PANDORA 6

 
Wow, I left poor Pandy hanging for slightly over a year. Sorry, Pandy! 

I finally picked up #6 again and finished it. We last left Pandy and crew in Baghdad after their adventure there. Hera was made into sandals and then left buried in separate places, so she's in pieces. 

Now we're in Rome and the search for greed is not going well. Pandy and Alcie are slaves. Iole is a Vestal. Homer is a gladiator/stable boy. 

And Julius Caesar is in it. 

The history-minded might see a bit of a problem there. Yeah, it takes a few chapters for Pandy and friends to be told they've travelled into the future. 

 Both versions of each god are around, which gets entertaining. And Juno of course is the one to figure out what's going on and put all Hera's pieces back together. 

It's not the most interesting or action-packed of the books, but it's good. I loved Cloacina, the Roman sewer goddess playing a large role. 

The final quest...find fear in the underworld. Let's finish this, Pandy.

PANDORA 5

 
Like the second book, this one is almost non-stop action. This might be my favorite one, though I do love the Egyptian setting for #2. 

Iole, Homer and Pandy are struggling through the Arabian Desert trying to get to Baghdad. They meet up with a caravan, which contains Mahfouza, one of the dancing girls from Wang Chun Lo's carnival. The point of the caravan is to take a famous physician and his son to Baghdad, where the physician's execution will take place. This is a story from the Arabian Nights, where the physician is executed, but he gives the prince a book with poisoned pages, so he dies as well. Pandy and Iole trap some lesser evils that were stuck inside the prince. 

Meanwhile in the underworld, Alcie is being shown around by Persephone, who is decidedly goofy but also loveable. I like their version of Hades, who isn't really scary at all. At least they did well by him, despite falling into the trope of making Hera the big bad. Hades goes to Lachesis, one of the fates, and she brings Alcie her life thread. Because Hera's actions went against what the fates had planned, they did cut the thread but had not yet cast it into the final flames, so they were able to attach a new thread to it. Alcie is now the only person in Greece who has control over her own life. (There was a heavy belief that everything was fated.) Thanks to one of Hades' devices, Alcie is able to talk to Pandy not once but twice. Hades sends her to Earth, but she's stuck in a tree in the hidden garden of the djinn, so it's up to the others to go find her. 

The garden adventure is really good. I feel like this was also in Arabian Nights. I need to read that. They go one by one through a pitch black room surrounded by snakes, then into three successive rooms, each filled with either copper, silver or gold. Voices tempt them to pick up the coins or try to frighten them. As soon as a coin is touched, the person becomes a black rock on the floor. Pandy, Iole and Douban (the decapitated physician's son and Pandy's love interest) each try and fail. It's Homer with his love for Alcie who's able to resist and get through the rooms to her in the garden. He gets her down from the tree, though she does have a small branch growing through her shoulder. Then the two of them discover that the black stones are transformed people and using oil from the djinn of the garden's lamp, they restore them all. All the djinn who created the garden are grateful and give them jeweled fruit from the trees, then move the garden so no human can find it again. 

Next, they're off to Mahfouza's house. The point of the Baghdad adventure is to capture wrath/rage and they discover it's in the djinn who was trapped in the garden but learned how to escape. Mahfouza's youngest sister was poisoned by three lesser evils and her actions led to the family peri being killed. The garden djinn loved that peri, so he's filled with rage and cursing the family members. Mahfouza's parents were killed, but her brothers and sisters all have had horrible, body-mangling punishments. When she returns home, while the others are in the garden, Mahfouza gets taken apart and put back together incorrectly, so she's a mess of mixed up body parts.

The others realize that the fix is in the jeweled fruit, so they slowly figure out which fruit is which person, feed it to them and they return to normal. Each is a small riddle. Mahfouza had her pieces mixed and the only fruit that can be in segments is the orange. Another person is being pitted like a peach, another was split into halves (a pair/a pear), another is being cored like an apple. This is definitely the most gruesome part in the series so far. I love that it doesn't shy away from being more realistic in that way. It's not light and fluffy, no way. 

Pandy is able to defeat the garden djinn using the old "I don't believe you fit in that tiny lamp" trick. Ah, they always fall for that. Then they save everyone in the house, box up the lesser evils that had possessed the youngest sister, and...then Hera shows up. The sidestory with Hera in this book was so annoying. I hated it. Like every bit of it. Enough crazy crap happened that they could have skipped her part entirely and it still would have been well dramatic enough. Hera's taken care of with some help from the tiny rocs (which control djinn and magical powers in the land), then they're off to Rome to capture greed. 

Despite the boring, annoying Hera bit, I think this is my favorite so far. Lots of good characterization, characters and details. 

PANDORA 4

Pandora #4 is pretty much nonstop craziness. 

First, the gang knows they have to go to Mount Pelion to find Lust. The problem is...Lust is 1300 years back in time. 

The gods help out more in this book than any of the 3 previous. Hermes takes them to the mountain and then sends them back in time, where they find themselves working as temp serving help for the wedding. 

What wedding? 

I'd say the most famous wedding in Greek myth: Thetis and Peleus. 

AKA: The one with the For the Fairest golden apple that sparks the Trojan War. 

I loved the time at the wedding itself. It was handled really well, including a conversation between Pandy and her father, who at that point is of course not married and not a father. 

Eris shows up, the apple is delivered and chaos ensues. The challenge is issued and Hermes will take Aphrodite, Athena and Hera to Mount Ida the next day where Paris will make his judgment. 

Pandy received a coin from Zeus and she and Alcie both got them from Hermes. They can be exchanged for godly assistance in travel, but it costs them two weeks of their allotted time. 

They give one to Hermes and he gets them to Mount Ida, then turns the girls into dogs so Homer can pretend he's got 3 dogs with him, instead of 4 kids randomly appearing on Paris's mountain. 

Then just as at the wedding, everyone kinda stands around and watches the myth play out. Dog Pandy finally goes after the apple when Paris tosses it to Aphrodite, but Aphrodite systematically injures Pandy, Alcie and Iole as she stops their dog forms from taking her precious apple. 

Hermes helps them get back to the present, where Pandora's broken arm is now badly healed and whatever happened to Iole is also badly healed, but Alcie remains blinded. Hermes can't fix curses done by other gods, so they're stuck that way. 

The gang plans to use another coin to get to Aphrodisias, where a temple to Aphrodite is being built. They're going to ask present day Aphrodite for the apple. 

However, Hera's been working behind the scenes to get back at Pandy for a ridiculous slight from years ago. She tortures Hermes to get information, then traps both him and Aphrodite while Hera herself impersonates Aphrodite. Hera/Aphrodite agrees to give Pandy the apple in exchange for one thing: one of their lives. 

There's a horrible scene where they fight over who gets killed and Alcie finally insists it has to be her. She's bitten by a snake and dies. Then Hermes and the real Aphrodite arrive as Hera reveals her ruse. Pandy (with Aphrodite's permission) slaps Hera and then sets her on fire. Zeus arrives as this is dying down and the others lie to cover up Hera's deceit and all the assistance they've given Pandy. Zeus gets Hera out of there and returns Dido to Pandy. Aphrodite heals Iole and Pandy's injuries, but she cannot bring Alcie back. She does give them the apple though, so that's four down, three to go. 

Next up, it's off to Baghdad for Wrath (Rage in the book). 

And down in the underworld, Alcie is causing a ruckus. Go, Alcie!

PANDORA 3

For Pandora's third adventure, they find themselves headed to Jbel Toubkal, which is the highest mountain in the Atlas range. 

Pandy is separated from everyone else, gets some help from Dionysus and his team of crazy squirrels, and meets two young boys who accompany her for most of the rest of the book. 

Alcie, Iole and Homer end up being taken captive and find themselves on a ship newly-captained by the same guy that was the captain of the ship to Egypt. He recognizes them and puts them in his care. While onboard, Homer works for the captain while the girls mostly cry about Pandy, thinking she's dead. They then have a run-in with one of the lesser evils: Misery. 

Nearer the end, once everyone is reunited on Jbel Toubkal, Pandora has to get Laziness, which exists in the form of an ugly nose hair on her uncle Atlas. Homer is one of the men baked waist-down into a column so he can help support the heavens because Atlas is now too lazy to do so. Pandora's father Prometheus is there in disguise along with Hermes, who's helping him out as much as he can. Prometheus sees Pandora in action and realizes what his daughter is capable of. 

The book ends with our foursome getting on a ship again, bound for Thessaly where they're after Lust next. 

I found this one not quite as strong as the second. The first is slow going because it has to set the story, but the second was non-stop new characters and action and of course I also favor Egypt. This third book is good, but it dragged on in a few places. I still love all the characters and the storylines though. 

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? 

PANDORA 1

 
 

I was instantly smitten with the Pandora series when it came out in 2008. 

Pandora, daughter of Prometheus, does what she's known for: opens the box containing all the world's evils. 

From there forth, she's on a quest to recapture them and she's only got 6 months to do it. (If you think that's a lot of time, try imagining travel in the ancient world and how time-consuming it was.)

Pandora is your standard awkward heroine. Brown hair she wishes was curly. Brown eyes she wishes were blue. An overbite she thinks makes her look like a horse. She feels like a loser and that's how she and her two best friends are treated. Beautiful redhead Alcie is descended from Medusa, so that's what makes her different. And Iole, who's a year younger than the other two, is very smart, but physically more delicate. She was sick as a child and would have died if not for Apollo's help. 

Pandora unleashes the evils after taunting by her mean girl bullies. She and her family are then whisked away to Mount Olympus where Zeus gives Pandora her task. Recapture the evils within 6 months without any help from her family. Not being family, Alcie and Iole get away with coming with her. 

The three girls do have assistance from the gods though. None of them want to see Hera use the world's evils to take control of everything. Artemis, who gave Pandy a talking wolfskin diary years ago, tells her to make sure to take the diary along. It also communicates with Pandora's dog, Dido. (My one real sticking point in the first book is this dog's name. Dido the dog is male, but Dido is a classically female name.) Athena gives her a small bust of herself which can answer questions, though the voice sticks a bit, so it's not always clear what it's saying. Hephaestus has crafted her a net to help with capturing the evils. Hermes brought Prometheus two shells that can be used as a phone so he can communicate with his daughter. There's also a magic map that tells where the next evil is, what it is and keeps track of how many days are left.

Pandora herself is a demigod with power over fire that she's just learning about. She's always used it to start up her fire in her bedroom, but she's far more powerful than that. 

Most of the book is the setup for the story and the capturing of Jealousy takes up far less time near the end. It takes place at the temple of Delphi and I liked the oracle characters. 

Almost every character in the book is likable, except those not meant to be. Even Hera is written as powerful and cunning, bent on revenge and world domination, yet also sympathetic at moments. I  honestly can't remember how this story ends, so it will be fun to read through it all again.