(Title, author) I’ve also come to realize how tricky it can be to deal with metadata and how a lot of it can get lost so easily. I have learned that when it comes to text on the cover art design, to get rid of anything that isn’t absolutely necessary so you can emphasis those that are. The process of creating this audio book has taught me how much thought you have to give to designing something that can and will most likely be viewed off a small device. (Unless the computer counts as a third test because boy was I testing on that a lot) In Conclusion Unfortunately due to some oversight on my part I was unable to test my audio book on a third device that wasn’t iOS, android, or a computer. One of the first and biggest things I wanted to change was the cover, while I do find the Audible version of the book cover to look cool, I also find it to be very cluttered with too much going on for an audio book cover. Therefore I figured that children would be much more likely to engage with this novel as an audio book. The reality of our time is that no matter how much we try to teach kids how important reading is, it’s doesn’t change that fact that more and more kids move away from a physical medium, such as books, to a digital medium, such as YouTube, Podcasts, etc. However, the main reason I chose this book is because of it’s target audience, children.
It’s part of a series that, while it may still be going today, does seem less and less relevant over time and is, in a way, a product of it’s time. So when I was tasked to rework an existing audio book, my mind immediately jumped to The Lightning Thief. (I personally did like the first movie, but that second one…. The stories of Percy and his friends connected with so many kids around that world and I fully believe that if the movies had been better handled it would have been a massive franchise. Everyone I knew had read the books, in fact it’s the series that really got my little brother into reading. When I was a kid, the Percy Jackson series was on it’s way to becoming the next Harry Potter. Note on content: No sex, no strong language that I can remember (besides words like “stupid”), and the violence is pretty veiled.Audible’s Design: A lot of this text would be difficult to read on a mobile device Introduction
It will be interesting to see that dynamic evolve over the next books. The gods and creatures really make the story, much more than the protagonists. This was a fun listen it totally drew me in, despite (or maybe because of) the similarities to the little boy wizard. Instead, Jesse Bernstein does his best eleven-year-old voice, aka annoying voice, and the accents are just bizarre (Zeus was my “favorite”). I wish Jim Dale – the superb narrator of the Harry Potter audiobooks – had narrated these. It got me excited about re-reading some of the Greek mythology that I enjoyed so much as a youth.
We meet all kinds of major gods, minor gods, demigods, mythical monsters, and other characters. What’s different? Rather than the magic of Harry Potter, we learn that the Greek gods are alive and well, working behind the veil of human vision. Of course, no adults can help save the world. He then goes on a quest to save the world with a really smart girl named Hermione – sorry, Annabeth – and a goofy friend named Ron – sorry, Grover.
He learns that he is special and goes to a special school – sorry, camp – where there is a kindly teacher who likes him, Dumbledore – sorry, Kairon, and a mean teacher who doesn’t, Snape – sorry, Mr. So there’s an eleven year old boy who lives with a nasty step-dad named Mr. Fun adventure, but too much like Harry Potter and annoying narrator for the audiobook