The Fifth Cycle: A New Hero is Forged (Colin Caulfield and the Irish Gods Book 1)

Let me be honest. Percy Jackson has practically owned this space for two decades. So when a book comes along does it actually work, or is it just Percy Jackson with a shamrock stamped on it? Turns out, it mostly works. The story follows a 13 yo kid carrying the weight of not knowing his father. What I genuinely enjoyed was how different this feels from Percy Jackson even when the structure is similar. The fact that Irish mythology is far less explored in fiction gives this one real advantage. There were moments reading about the otherworld where I genuinely wanted to know more. It made me curious enough to look things up. The pacing is tight. At under 200 pages this is a quick read. I wanted more time with some of the side characters. It is a middle grade book so the writing is clean. Author tries to give younger readers a hero who feels real. And this book does that genuinely well. If you have a young reader in the house or if you are an adult and want something fun, this is worth your time. It is the start of a series and it does its job as a first book well. Cleverly, it ends with you wanting the next one