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Tricks and Transformations (Legends #5)

3.0 of 5 stars 3.00 · rating details · 4 ratings · 3 reviews

Don't mess with the gods. And if they mess with you? Run like hell . . .

Myths and legends are full of stories of the transformation of humans and animals into other things through the magical intervention of the Gods. From better-known characters like Actaeon, the famous Greek huntsman who was doomed to become a stag forever chased by his own dogs, and Glaucus, the f

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Hardcover, 160 pages

Published July 17th 2012 by Kingfisher (first published June 19th 2012)

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Jan 01, 2013 Jerry Xu rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: action, awesome, december, non-fiction, horror, romance, transformations

This book is all about legends from the past in the early B.C.s and it talks all about legends in Greek, Japan, and more. I will tell the plot of one legend in the story because there will be too much paragraphs and paragraphs of words to tell every single one of them. The legend "The Hounds of Actaeon," there was a famous and skilled hunter named Actaeon and 50 hounds that are loyal only to Actaeon each have special skills and abilities that aid in killing their prey for example, one of the ho...more This book is all about legends from the past in the early B.C.s and it talks all about legends in Greek, Japan, and more. I will tell the plot of one legend in the story because there will be too much paragraphs and paragraphs of words to tell every single one of them. The legend "The Hounds of Actaeon," there was a famous and skilled hunter named Actaeon and 50 hounds that are loyal only to Actaeon each have special skills and abilities that aid in killing their prey for example, one of the hounds named Theron the fearless is so fearless that he would hurl himself towards the prey's throat even if they are slashing him with their claws or punching and kicking them with all their might. One day, Actaeon was stalking his prey until he saw a beautiful girl along with around a dozen admirers in a tiny shallow pond and he noticed that the beautiful girl was Artemis and the admirers were water nymphs. Somehow, Artemis had noticed Actaeon spying on her in the pool when she was naked and she was screaming in rage and in an instant, she had transformed the hunter Actaeon into a stag which made Actaeon confused and furious. He had heard right after he had been transformed the barks of his hounds coming his way and he knows that they're coming to hunt and in the end, he was hunted and killed by his own hounds because that was exactly what he had taught the hounds to do.
The reason why I had picked up this book was because I think that the cover had looked very interesting as the spider looked like if it was the main part of the story and when I had saw the title that included Tricks and Transformations, I thought that it was about humans that transformed into spiders or something related to that which I thought was interesting and something worth reading to.
The reason why I had finished this book was because when I had read these ancient legends I have noticed how there were things that they have written that we know can never come true and an example would be how somebody transforming into a spider or a stag and gods and goddesses that were immortal and perfect in every single way. When I noticed that these legends are unbelievable I had realized how much the modern era can decrease your creativity and imagination and the reason why is because people want to make up of things like vampires and werewolves and such but nobody will ever believe them because it didn't seem like if something so strong would exist/it's unrealistic and also nobody had ever seen them face to face unlike the early years where technology was not so advanced and people believed in anything that people had said. For example, when people talk about gods, many people(like non-Christians and atheists) would not believe them but in the older times, when people talk about gods like in Egypt and Greek they would agree that they exist 100%. Now that I have realized that these legends are unbelievable, I've tried to think of these legends in a different perspective and instead of thinking like a modern person, I think and imagine like a person at the time the legend was made which may be difficult, but it makes the legend more interesting rather than just thinking "What's the use of reading this if I know that these can't exist?" I enjoy reading the legends in this way which is why I've finished the book and read all of the legends.
I would recommend this book to historians because these legends are in the past and also to people who like to think of things in a different way(for example people who usually think outside the box).
I liked this book and rated it 4 stars because when reading legends like these make me really want to think and be creative depending on the type of it.(less)

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Aug 19, 2012 VaultOfBooks rated it 2 of 5 stars

By Anthony Horowitz. Legends #6. Grade B+.
Tricks and Transformations is the sixth and the last book in the series Legends by Anthony Horowitz.
The theme of the series is that “Legends and Myths make life interesting”. Here is an extract from the introduction of the book which I was immediately drawn to:
Take a look at the sky. Does it delight you to know that a solar eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when the Earth intersects the umbra portion of the Moon’s shadow and that it can last u...more By Anthony Horowitz. Legends #6. Grade B+.
Tricks and Transformations is the sixth and the last book in the series Legends by Anthony Horowitz.
The theme of the series is that “Legends and Myths make life interesting”. Here is an extract from the introduction of the book which I was immediately drawn to:
Take a look at the sky. Does it delight you to know that a solar eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when the Earth intersects the umbra portion of the Moon’s shadow and that it can last up to seven minutes and thirty-one seconds? Or would you prefer to imagine that it is the result of a vain and foolish Goddess being trapped inside a cave by a beautiful woman who turns out to be her own reflection?
I immediately decided on the latter and decided to give this book a go.
Don’t mess with the gods. And if they mess with you? Run like hell… You might consider yourself a master of pranks and practical jokes. But throughout time there are those who truly deserve the name trickster – read their stories and you will soon discover you have much to learn…
All books in the series are based on a similar theme; it is the short stories that offer the variety. T&T concerns itself with the tricks the powers that be use to entertain themselves – mostly at the cost of us morals. The word ‘transformations’ in the title is used because there are also some stories wherein when pissed off, the Gods transformed the annoyance into something else.
In the first story, we meet Actaeon, who couldn’t tear himself watching a beautiful Goddess bath and for his conduct got turned into a stag forever. He spent the rest of his life chased by his own dogs, whose hunting prowess he was especially proud of. Another interesting story I found was of Glaucus, a fisherman who got transformed into a fish and fell in love, which was never to be returned for his maiden found him ugly. He used everything to win his maiden’s love to the extent of Love Potions but it seemed destiny had some other things planned for them.
The book concludes with ten points which tell you what you the “morals” you learnt from the book. For example, “Do not mess with Gods” or “Do not fall in love with any God” were attached with the stories I just recapped.
All in all, I believe that this book would do great as a Children’s book. It is educational, and at the same time fun to read.

Originally reviewed at http://the-vault.co.cc (less)

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May 28, 2013 Eddy Allen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: entertainment-sports

Don't mess with the gods. And if they mess with you? Run like hell . . .

Myths and legends are full of stories of the transformation of humans and animals into other things through the magical intervention of the Gods. From better-known characters like Actaeon, the famous Greek huntsman who was doomed to become a stag forever chased by his own dogs, and Glaucus, the fisherman who became a fish himself, only to fall hopelessly in love with a naiad, to the Japanese tale of the Goddess Amaterasu, wh...more

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Shelves: j-fiction, j-blx, j-maybe

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About Anthony Horowitz

Anthony Horowitz is perhaps the busiest writer in England. He has been writing since the age of eight, and professionally since the age of twenty. In addition to the highly successful Alex Rider books, he is also the writer and creator of award winning detective series Foyle’s War, and more recently event drama Collision, among his other television works he has written episodes for Poirot, Murder...more

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Tricks and Transformations (Legends #5)

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