THE STORM RUNNER by J.C. Cervantes

If you’re a fan of Rick Riordan’s books, then you will love J.C. Cervantes’ The Storm Runner. Packed to the brim with fun characters, terrifying monsters, lazy gods, and lots of quick wit, The Storm Runner is a book every kid and kid-at-heart can enjoy.

The Storm Runner introduces us to the world of the Mayan gods through our thirteen-year-old hero Zane. Everyone likes an underdog, and that’s exactly who Zane is. Born with a limp that doctors can’t explain or fix, he’s been picked on his entire life. He’s a clever, likable hero who just wants to be normal and explore his backyard volcano with his dog Rosie. Of course – he is far from normal! We follow Zane as he discovers that he is a “supernatural,” a godborn, and the key to an ancient prophecy. 

The story is well-paced with plenty of action. I never felt like it was dragging, nor did I ever feel lost once the book got rolling. While Cervantes’ style is not quite as funny as Riordan’s, there was plenty of humor and clever dialogue. 

I’m an adult, so there were some things that I felt indifferent about and some things I had a problem with (I’ll get to that in a moment). But if I were a middle school reader – towards whom the books are geared – I would be hooked! It has everything kids like. It’s clean, well-written, and very entertaining. 

If you have not read Percy Jackson, you can pretty much skip the rest of this review. But as a Percy Jackson fan, I’m afraid I do have a few things to critique. 

The Storm Runner series is published under Rick Riordan Presents which publishes “middle grade authors from underrepresented cultures and backgrounds, to let them tell their own stories inspired by the mythology and folklore of their own heritage.” Essentially, we’ve got new authors writing stories like Riordan’s Percy Jackson, The Kane Chronicles, and Magnus Chase. These books introduce us to new mythologies, and they hold the general Riordan style and tone. I think that’s a great and needed thing! But I really wished The Storm Runner was just a little less similar…

The amount of similarities made it almost feel like Cervantes took The Lightning Thief (book one in Percy Jackson) and changed the names around. Examples:

• Zane is picked on in school, has no friends, et cetera. His personality is almost identical to Percy’s.  
  • Zane’s power is fire instead of water. Still, they’re counterparts.
• His mom is a single mom who knew about his father but hasn’t told him yet. She’s hard-working and beautiful. I mean, she’s basically Sally.
• Not only is Zane a supernatural, he’s a godborn aka demigod. I personally think it would’ve been neat if his dad had been something in mythology other than a god, just to make it different. 
• A trio goes on a quest. It’s two guys and a girl (Zane, Hondo, and Brooks), just like Percy, Annabeth, and Grover. 
• A big part of that quest takes place in Los Angeles; that’s where Ah-Puch goes. In The Lightning Thief, the entrance to the underworld is in LA. 
• The bad guy is the god of death Ah-Puch, so there’s a lot of underworld stuff going on.
• Above all else, Zane is trying to rescue his dog Rosie from the underworld, like Percy tries to rescue his mom Sally.
• Zane’s father is the god of storms (water/wind… kind of like Poseidon) who broke the gods’ cardinal rule to not have children with mortals – like the Big Three in Percy Jackson.
• If Zane doesn’t fix everything, then the gods will pretty much have an all-out war. In fact, they think it’s long overdue. Sound familiar?
• The gods are lazy, difficult, and everyone hates them – like all the gods in Percy Jackson. 
• The god of war is a motorcyclist… just like Ares. This one is minor, but I don’t understand why he couldn’t be something else. Anything else.

I’m disappointed it read so much like Percy Jackson. If a few things had been changed around to make the book a bit more distinct, I would have enjoyed it more. There are two more books in The Storm Runner series, and I’m choosing not to read them for now.

However, if I put that aside, I liked the book; I thought it was fun. I would recommend it for kids! But for me personally, I’d rather re-read Percy Jackson and let the next generation enjoy The Storm Runner. 

Jessica

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Copyright Jennifer Cervantes and Disney-Hyperion. Image from Amazon.com.