Storm Runner – J.C. Cervantes

The Storm Runner by J.C. Cervantes

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

The Storm Runner is a new series that is being published under Rick Riordan’s imprint at Disney Hyperion. As a huge mythology nerd and writer of the popular Percy Jackson series, Rick Riordan wanted to bring more mythology to readers even if it wasn’t mythology that he was as familiar with. As a result, he partnered with Disney and this fantastic imprint came into being. The Storm Runner deals with Mayan mythology and gods, which I was incredibly interested in. Despite being a mythology nerd myself, I only have cursory knowledge of the Maya gods and heroes. I am always excited to learn more, especially as it was own voices and the author was talking about her own culture.

The mythology in this book is what shone for me. I adored getting to learn about the Mayan gods and heroes, the land of the dead, and everything else that Cervantes wove into the story. It was the actual story and characters that let me down. A small part of that was the fact that I listened to this as an audiobook and the narrator was not particularly enjoyable to listen to. It did not allow me to form a connection to Zane, although I am not sure that I would have particularly liked him as a character even if I had been reading the physical book.

The supporting characters were there… yeah, I can’t give you much more than that. I didn’t like Brooks. Hondo could be funny at times, but in a week or two, I don’t know that I would find him particularly memorable. Ms. Cab was honestly just really naggy and yelling all the time (although that obviously was more annoying when listening to the audiobook, she was so screechy and nasal.)

The plot was interesting and I enjoyed it, but the whole book was clearly emulating Rick Riordan’s style. The characters tried to be quippy and make hilarious one-liners (sometimes succeeding and being funny, but sometimes just being forced and cringy). It just felt like a parody of Percy Jackson. Like I said previously – it was the mythology that I loved most in the story. That was amazing and I want more of it.

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