Thaidakar the Ghostblood

It's time to talk about one of the worst tools of description a writer has in their toolbox, a tool that should not be used as the initial description especially when you don't put really any character description in your book after the first one or two times you meet a character.

Saying that a character looks like some other character from another property that you do not own is the laziest way to describe a character.

It is time to talk Daughter of the Deep by Uncle the Rick Riordan (is it rye-or-dun or ree-ur-din?)

Aight, because I don't remember his name, I'm just going to call him: Hot Black Mormon Dude. So, basically, Hot Black Mormon Dude was introduced in the book as a cool character and I loved him instantly. I think a lot of people did. But the way he was described was this: "He looked like Miles Morales from Into the Spiderverse." Rick might have had like another sentence to what he looked like, his features and all, but there was almost nothing else besides that! Nothing! Uncle Rick, I love you, we all do, just don't describe our fifteenth favorite child from your books (right behind most of the Heroes of Olympus characters), Hot Black Mormon Dude, in the worst way possible!

Now, for those of you who think that this is a little unfair, let me tell you this. This is the writer who wrote Percy Flippin' Jackson. Percy Blue-Pancakes-McGee Jackson. While I could let this slide for newer writers, for rough drafts, for quick scenes written, for authors that have not refined their craft, I cannot, will not and shall not excuse Rick for something like this. Rick has been releasing bangers since 2005. Daughter of the Deep is a wonderful book, but you gotta write good prose, my man! Even Brandon Sanderson, whose most recent prose is passable, is better than that! Rick, my main man, the guy who turned to Fox and said "My fans don't want this crap you call an adaptation", you can do better than this! I better not open the Triple Goddess, book seven of the go Percy Jackson books, and find a description of some God that says "He looked like Tony Stark" and doesn't describe him ever again. 

To get back to what I was saying- Rick has been writing wonderful, amazing, characterized books that have pretty great prose all through. Not Robert Jordan or Terry Pratchett levels, mind you, but solid well written prose. By jove, he's one of the most famous authors alive right now along who can match a lot of the big writers right now. He's more of a household name than our boy Brandy the Sandy Branderson. Bro has to at least not fall on this crutch of just describing a character as Miles Morales. What he should've done is, when he was looking for inspiration and saw Miles and went "Eyyy, it's Hot Black Mormon Dude, just like I pictured him," he should've written a description of what Miles looked like, used similar things throughout the story, then said he looked like miles Morales through playful banter between characters at like the two thirds point.

See, Uncle Rick, it aint that hard.

Then again, who am I saying, I'm just Ken a writer still trying to figure out how to do all this himself. Who am I to question the greatness of the author of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, of Heroes of Olympus, of Magnus Chase, of the Kane chronicles?

Well...

I'm just knock off ken