“As for Sadie, she didn’t appear interested in strategy. She leaped from puddle to puddle in her combat boots. She hummed to herself, twirled like a little kid and occasionally pulled random things out of her backpack: wax animal figurines, some string, a piece of chalk, a bright yellow bag of candy.
She reminded me of someone …
Then it occurred to me. She looked like a younger version of Annabeth, but her fidgeting and hyperness reminded me of … well, me. If Annabeth and I ever had a daughter, she might be a lot like Sadie.
Whoa.
It’s not like I’d never dreamed about kids before. I mean, you date someone for over a year, the idea is going to be in the back of your mind somewhere, right? But still – I’m barely seventeen. I’m not ready to think too seriously about stuff like that. Also, I’m a demigod. On a day-to-day basis, I’m busy just trying to stay alive.
Yet, looking at Sadie, I could imagine that someday maybe I’d have a little girl who looked like Annabeth and acted like me – a cute little hellion of a demigod, stomping through puddles and flattening monsters with magic camels.”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Crown of Ptolemy
“I tried to look confused, which is one of my most convincing expressions.”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Crown of Ptolemy
“Annabeth jogged towards us, giving me one of those annoyed expressions like, If you get yourself killed, I’m going to murder you.”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Crown of Ptolemy
“Setne’s dangerous,’ Annabeth said. ‘We can’t just go charging in. We need a plan.’
‘She’s right,’ Carter said.
‘I kind of like charging in,’ I said. ‘Speed is of the essence, right?’
‘Thank you,’ Sadie muttered.
‘Being smart is also of the essence,’ Annabeth said.
‘Exactly,’ Carter said. ‘We have to figure out how to attack.’
Sadie rolled her eyes at me. ‘Just as I feared. These two together … they’ll overthink us to death.’
I felt the same way, but Annabeth was getting that annoyed stormy look in her eyes and, since I date Annabeth, I figured I’d better suggest a compromise.
‘How about we plan while we walk?’ I said. ‘We can charge south, like, really slowly.”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Crown of Ptolemy
“Charge!’ Sadie barrelled into the clearing, her staff in one hand and her Greek scroll in the other.
I glanced at Annabeth. ‘Your new friend is awesome.’
Then I followed Sadie.”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Crown of Ptolemy
“WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?’ Wadjet roared. ‘YOU DARE TAKE A SELFIE WITH THE COBRA GODDESS?”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Crown of Ptolemy
“Mine is a khopesh ,’ Carter said. ‘The original Egyptian version. What you’re holding is a kopis – a Greek design adapted from the Egyptian original. It’s the kind of sword Ptolemy’s warriors would’ve used.’
I looked at Sadie. ‘Is he trying to confuse me?’
‘No,’ she said brightly. ‘He’s confusing without trying.”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Crown of Ptolemy
“I kissed her, because 1) when you’re a demigod going into battle, every kiss might be your last, and 2) I like kissing her.”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Crown of Ptolemy
“Percy, explaining things to you is like lecturing a gerbil.”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Crown of Ptolemy
“Her face had an imperious, timeless quality that I’d learned to recognize. It meant I’m a goddess; deal with it.”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Crown of Ptolemy
“Annabeth has my number,’ Sadie said. ‘Which, honestly, brother, is a much easier solution than writing invisible hieroglyphs on your friend’s hand. What were you thinking?”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Crown of Ptolemy
“I’d have to play this smart … which was not my usual style.”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Crown of Ptolemy
“Do you know how to mix our powers?’ I asked.
Carter’s shoes squished in the mud. ‘Well … not exactly.’
‘Oh, please,’ Sadie said. ‘That’s easy. Carter, give your wand to Percy.’
‘Why?’
‘Just do it, brother dear. Annabeth, do you remember when we fought Serapis?’
‘Right!’ Annabeth’s eyes lit up. ‘I grabbed Sadie’s wand and it turned into a Celestial bronze dagger, just like my old one. It was able to destroy Serapis’s staff. Maybe we can create another Greek weapon from an Egyptian wand. Good idea, Sadie.’
‘Cheers. You see, I don’t need to spend hours planning and researching to be brilliant. Now, Carter, if you please.”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Crown of Ptolemy
“Giant-chicken mode,’ I remembered.
‘Dude, my avatar is a falcon-headed warrior .’
‘I still think you could get a sponsorship deal with KFC. Make some big bucks.”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Crown of Ptolemy
“Knock it off, you two.’ Annabeth handed her scroll to Sadie. ‘Carter, let’s trade. I’ll try your khopesh ; you try my Yankees cap.’
She tossed him the hat.
‘I’m usually more of a basketball guy, but …’ Carter put on the cap and disappeared. ‘Wow, okay. I’m invisible, aren’t I?’
Sadie applauded. ‘You’ve never looked better, brother dear.’
‘Very funny.’
‘If you can sneak up on Setne,’ Annabeth suggested, ‘you might be able to take him by surprise, get the crown away from him.’
‘But you told us Setne saw right through your invisibility,’ Carter said.
‘That was me ,’ Annabeth said, ‘a Greek using a Greek magic item. For you, maybe it’ll work better – or differently, at least.’
‘Carter, give it a shot,’ I said. ‘The only thing better than a giant chicken man is a giant invisible chicken man.”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Crown of Ptolemy
“Looking at her was disorientating. The ‘Percy’ part of me saw my usual awesome girlfriend. The ‘Nekhbet’ part of me saw a young woman surrounded by a powerful ultraviolet aura – the mark of a Greek demigod. The sight filled me with disdain and fear. (For the record: I have my own healthy fear of Annabeth. She has kicked my butt on more than one occasion. But disdain? Not so much. That was all Nekhbet.)”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Crown of Ptolemy
“Setne stopped chanting when he saw me.
‘Awesome!’ He grinned. ‘You brought the vulture with you. Thanks!’
Not the reaction I’d been hoping for. I keep waiting for the day when the bad guy sees me and screams, I give up! But it hasn’t happened yet.”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Crown of Ptolemy
“That’s – that’s not fair,’ Sadie said, her voice trembling. ‘Tempting me with destruction.”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Crown of Ptolemy
“My host needs a certain level of simplicity," the goddess continued. "Percy Jackson is perfect. He is powerful, yet his mind is not overly crowded with plans and ideas."
"Wow," I said. "Really feeling the love here.”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Crown of Ptolemy
“My mouth went dry. I imagined Annabeth invoking hieroglyphs at Camp Half-Blood, blowing up chariots on the racetrack, hurling giant blue fists during capture the flag. ‘So my girlfriend is a magician now, like, permanently? Because she was scary enough before.”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Crown of Ptolemy
“For once you’re right, brother dear,’ Sadie said. ‘As much as I’d love to be a literal goddess, I suppose I’ll have to remain a figurative one.”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Crown of Ptolemy
“She kissed me, and I decided that I was glad too. A kiss in the sunset and the promise of a good bacon cheeseburger – with that kind of payoff, who needs immortality?”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Crown of Ptolemy
“Across the field, Carter’s voice yelled: ‘STAHP!’
I guess stahp is actually a word in Ancient Egyptian. Who knew?”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Crown of Ptolemy
“I mean … we’d just passed our one-year dating anniversary. I figured I was a sort of long-term investment for her. She hoped I would pay dividends eventually; if I died now, she would’ve put up with all my annoying qualities for nothing.”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Crown of Ptolemy
“Annabeth rubbed the clay beads on her necklace, the way she does when she’s thinking. She looked beautiful. But I digress.”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Crown of Ptolemy
“We need a very potent hybrid attack, an abomination even Ptolemy would approve of.’
‘Why are you looking at me?’ I asked. ‘I’m not abominable.’
‘You are a son of Poseidon,’ the goddess noted. ‘That would be a most unexpected combination.’
‘Combination? What –’
‘Oh, no, no, no.’ Sadie raised her hands. She looked horrified, and anything that could scare that girl I did not want to know about.”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Crown of Ptolemy
“When I realized I was hovering at the centre of a giant glowing purple vulture, my first thought was: Carter will never stop teasing me about this.”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Crown of Ptolemy
“Also he stole my sword,’ I said. ‘I want it back.’
The three of them stared at me.
‘What?’ I said. ‘I like my sword.”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Crown of Ptolemy
“I guess he, like, passed the test, so he threw away his notes.' Annabeth looked horrified. 'Are you crazy? You throw away your notes after a test?' 'Doesn't everybody, Miss Brainiac?”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Crown of Ptolemy
“Being dyslexic, I’m lucky if I can recognize English words, but, being a demigod, Ancient Greek is sort of hardwired into my brain. ‘Ke-rau-noh,’ I pronounced. ‘Blast?’
Annabeth gave me a wicked little smile. ‘Closest term I could think of. Literally it means strike with lightning bolts .’
‘Ooh,’ Sadie said. ‘I love striking things with lightning bolts.”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Crown of Ptolemy
Rick Riordan
Born place: in San Antonio, Texas, The United States
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“In fact the "mask" theme has come up several times in my background reading. Richard Sennett, for example, in "The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism", and Robert Jackall, in "Moral Mazes: The World of Corporate managers", refer repeatedly to the "masks" that corporate functionaries are required to wear, like actors in an ancient Greek drama. According to Jackall, corporate managers stress the need to exercise iron self-control and to mask all emotion and intention behind bland, smiling, and agreeable public faces.
Kimberly seems to have perfected the requisite phoniness and even as I dislike her, my whole aim is to be welcomed into the same corporate culture that she seems to have mastered, meaning that I need to "get in the face" of my revulsion and overcome it. But until I reach that transcendent point, I seem to be stuck in an emotional space left over from my midteen years: I hate you; please love me.”
― Barbara Ehrenreich, quote from Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
“It's a landscape that controls you, sits you down and says, Shut up, pal, I'm in charge here.”
― Russell Banks, quote from The Sweet Hereafter
“Since it was announced that I had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has condemned my works and criticized them harshly. All of my works are now banned from getting into China or being published in China. What author would want to return to a country that banned his or her books?”
― Gao Xingjian, quote from One Man's Bible
“In a city like San Francisco, you can throw a rock out your front door and hit someone with a nice ass and pretty brown eyes. But to find someone you want to fall asleep with, someone you want to breathe and dream next to, is terribly rare.”
― Will Christopher Baer, quote from Hell's Half Acre
“For fiscal policy, the appropriate counterpart to the monetary rule would be to plan expenditure programs entirely in terms of what the community wants to do through government rather than privately, and without any regard to problems of year-to-year economic stability; to plan tax rates so as to provide sufficient revenues to cover planned expenditures on the average of one year with another, again without regard to year-to-year changes in economic stability; and to avoid erratic changes in either governmental expenditures or taxes.”
― Milton Friedman, quote from Capitalism and Freedom
A Hope Undaunted
The Wisdom of Insecu...
Blackveil
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