Percy Jackson and the Olympians

[Sunken Valley]

I was wondering if anyone has read this series of books by Rick Riordan (not the awful film). They are really good and I am fascinated by how much research the author has done into greek mythology. What do you all think?

[Zale]

I rather liked them.

The names of the chapters were highly amusing.

Three old ladies knit the socks of death, Indeed.

[lightningcat]

I ran across the first book in the series in the Lost & Found at my job, and liked it well enough I now own the entire series as well as the books in both of the other two series set in the same universe.

Of course I started reading it right after I found Scion, so that might have something to do with my liking the series.

[Sanguine]

I have read the entire series and the one book out of The Heroes of Olympus. I enjoyed them greatly. Also I concur with the above posters that the chapter titles are amusing and that it is great inspiration for Scion, though I came upon Scion after reading the books.

[MammonAzrael]

I have not read any of the books, but I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that found the movie atrocious. :smallsmile:

[Xondoure]

I enjoyed the books a lot and never saw the movie which is probably a good thing. It did feel a little HP with myth but the myth was excellent if not always accurate and I loved the characters. I did not however, like the fifth book. At all.

[Sunken Valley]

I have not read any of the books, but I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that found the movie atrocious. :smallsmile:

The movie probably would have been good if it wasn't connected to the books. They missed out the following in the film:
A Sword fight with the God of War
The Bigger Bad whose presence creates room for the sequels.
Hades played straight as a neutral god of death and not a villain (he was attacking Percy and co because Luke stole his helmet).
Ares being the big bad of the film.
An aesop about the greater good being better than your own personal desires (in the book Percy does not save his mother but she comes back anyway).
The fact that the sandals are not trapped makes Luke look like an idiot.
And most glaringly: Persephone should not have been able to save the team because she should have been on the surface at the time of the solstice (the book gets this right).


@Xondure: what was wrong with book 5?

[Xondoure]

I was not a fan of how the prophecy was handled, and the fact that the whole foreshadowing with Mount Saint Helens in the previous book meant I wanted to see him use that power. And he never did. Sure he defeated a Titan but it wasn't a big bad just a powerful foe. I understand the aesop behind it but when you've been building up to this moment for four books the last one better be damn epic, and it wasn't. At all.
I did enjoy the very end where everything gets wrapped up nicely but I couldn't forgive the book for failing its purpose so badly after everything we had seen in what came before it.

[Venom3053000]

i love this series and can't wait for the next book especially reading the first chapter online at http://www.rickriordan.com/Files/Documents/Son_of_Neptune_preview.pdf

[Jerthanis]

I liked the series alright, although I kind of felt like the relationship between Annabeth and Percy went from something kind of unique early on to something much more generic as the series progressed.

I also didn't like how perfect Percy was. He never seemed to have serious doubts or character flaws, save being 'too loyal' to his friends. Sometimes he was a little rash, but never reckless. It really came to a head for me in the fifth book:

He was told by pretty much everyone that bathing in the River Styx was a terrible idea, not because of the physical weakpoint it would give him, but because it would make him overconfident... it would steal his perspective and his wisdom, and that would make him weaker than he would be with his normal vulnerability.

Then he bathes in the River Styx and still makes the humble choice with Pandora's vessel and sees the subtleties in Luke that let him make the connection in the final battle and wisely do the right thing at the right moment... he still does everything right, and after all the ridiculous stuff he's had to do over the previous few days, it's clear if he hadn't bathed in the River Styx, he'd have died a dozen times before the final battle and everyone would've died. Where's that downside to that River Styx process after all?

It was really fun, however, to see the characters basically roll, "Hyperion" on the random encounter table and have them hand him his rear end on a platter by the end of the chapter. (Or was it the son of Hyperion? Who is it I'm thinking of?)

Then he makes all the gods promise to be extra-special-nice to all their kids and also to give them all ponies and to do X, Y, and Z, and all the Gods are like, "Totally kid, we'll do it all and won't smite you for mouthing off to us"


It was really cool and a lot of fun, but the big draw of Greek stories is how capricious and weird the gods are and how flawed humans are, and Percy Jackson didn't really have a lot of either.

The series is great at showcasing various monsters in really fun scenes where Percy outsmarts or outfights them in interesting ways, but the metaplot to the whole series is merely servicable, and the characters don't stand out enough to make it really character driven. The movie kind of shared this problem (although to a much greater extent). The scenes where they just sort of ran into monsters and killed them were a lot of fun, but everything else about it was a lot weaker than these parts.

I think if I use the word "Fun" one more time in this post I'll have to punch myself in the face... but it's really the best word I can think of for this book series.

[Sunken Valley]

Is the hyperion you are talking about that one who makes a good tree? Because that is the real Hyperion. Also how were Percy and Annabeth ever unique? There love was always generic.

[Admiral Squish]

Great series! I'm actually playing in a D&D 3.5 campaign with slightly modified rules based in the series.

[Jerthanis]

Is the hyperion you are talking about that one who makes a good tree? Because that is the real Hyperion. Also how were Percy and Annabeth ever unique? There love was always generic.

They weren't in love in the first book, they were friends but didn't always agree, but weren't also at each other's throats 99% of the time. It felt like they went from a friendship that worked to a love story that REALLY didn't.