Percy Jackson & The Olympians

Major Spoiler Alert: Read At Your Own Risk
Thread Rule: Feel free to discuss anything openly that has happened in the first four books (The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, & The Battle of the Labyrinth), however anything partaining to the latest fifth book (The Last Olympian) is required to be in Spoiler Tag format

Wow! Where do I begin? I first heard about this series two years ago from a friend that asked "Do you like Harry Potter?" Eh "Do you like Greek Mythology?" Yeah I do! but since that conversation, I've forgotten all abou tit until 2-3 weeks ago when the cover of The Last Olympian (tLO) caught my eye at Borders. Since then I read the first book The Lightning Thief (tLF) during a camping trip throughout Memorial Day weekend and got hooked, bought the next three books and haven't stopped reading until this very moment. I have a weird thing when it comes to books: I highly prefer to read in paperback than in hardcover. tLO has just been released so when it comes to purchasing a copy I'll have to wait until they publish it in paperback, but that's not stopping me from (dreadfully) reading the hardcover edition at Borders (for free! It will just take longer to finish).

To those of you whom don't know what the series is about, it's a Harry Potter-esque tale about a boy named Percy Jackson who has learned he's a demi-god and all the Greek gods & monsters of the past still linger on to this very day.

Speaking of Harry Potter, you'll see plenty of similarities between the two: Both main characters have famous/powerful parents, talk to animals, go to special hidden place to learn about their abilities, are in a trio of friends (girl is the "smart one", the other boy is the "comic relief"), etc... However, I believe that author has acknowledged these facts when he gave homage to J.K. Rowling's creation in a line in the first book saying

Originally Posted by Page 336

"I went up to the gaurd...He was reading a huge book with a picture of a wizard on the front. I wasn't much into fantasy, but the book must've been good because the gaurd took awhile to look up.

Ironic since the character is in an adventure/fantasy book, and the author is writing this, admitting his conection to J.K. Rowling.

One great thing Rick Riordan has done is not only tap into the Harry Potter fan base but also use characters that really haven't been touched since the Hercules & Xena t.v. series. It's as if he's breathing a new modern life into these ancient greek characters & gods. Of coruse he had to create new characters along the way but introducing a few well known greek myth characters didn't take too much effort considering they each have long backstories of their own.

The Lightning Thief: With my knowledge of Greek Mythology, I already had my premenitions about who was the Lightnight Thief. Lightning clearly had to do with Zues and the God of Thieves is Hermes so to be very honest I thought Hermes was going to be the main villain. Once they introduced Luke and the various god cabins at Camp Half-Blood I knew that he would be the antagonist from the start

The Sea of Monsters: Simply put, Rick Riordan was just reiterating the best moments of Homer's Odyssey and Jason & the Argonauts. Knowing those two tales I found this book to be a little predictable to say the least (however using the Bermuda Triangle as a huge area full of Mist was clever). I had two favorite moments in the book. 1. When Tantalus was trying to grab a marshmallow, it commited suicide in the fire. 2. When Grover & Clarisse were bound together by by metal, Grover tried to free them with a pair of safety scissors and said something along the lines of "Just a few...more...years!". I also found it funny that Grover was even dressed for the part of "Damsel in Distress".

The Titan's Curse: This was the first book where I found it that the action really started, things were less predictable than the previous two titles, and Grover finally became useful! Not to be rude, but all he's really been used for is to pick up the scent of monsters and used as the "funny character". I find that Grover finally got more character developement in this book. The last three chapters of the book is what really caught me (making it my favorite book so far), however what makes the gods believe nobody can steal the orphitauros when they've been robbed before in the past? Are the gods just arrogant of their power, or do they really have a plan to protect it?

The Battle of the Labyrinth: I just finished this a few hours ago. It was an ok story (Titan's Curse is still my favorite), but I'm glad that Nico has become an ally. With these first four books it seems like they're really pushing to introduce at least one child of each major god to fight in the last battle in "The Last Olympian". I mean we have Percy (Zues), Percy (Poseidon), Nico (Hades), Clarisse (Ares), Annabeth (Athena), The Stoll Brothers (Hermes), Charles (Hephestus), Natile (Aphrodite), & Grover (Pan).

The Last Olympian:Well this was by far the greatest book from the series. I honestly can't wait for it to be turned into a movie. I loved how Percy didn't have to kill Castigan, and he just comitted suiside to get rid of Kronos. But what really got me excited was the next Great Prophecy and how it will be reflected upon the next generation of kids (Will this next generation be decades down the road? Or will it be just a few years from now that we still may be able to see some familiar faces). Since Percy's wish, I also wonder how the wives of the Big Three must feel. At first Zues, Poseidon, and Hades promised not to have any children (of course two of them broke that rule...but it seems like there wasn't any consequences. Hmmm), and now Percy says that it's ok to not have that rule. How will Hera, Amphitrite, and Persophone must feel that their husbands are allowed to mingle with mortal women again. And introducing Mrs. de Angelo (an italian woman) and saying that children from around the world are coming to Camp Half Blood, it makes you wonder: Will the next child staring the The Olympians series not be from the U.S.? Will they be a child of the Big Three, or yet of a lesser known god/goddess? The ending of the book ended at a sweet tone, but it makes you wonder what will happen to the next generation.

I'd love to hear everybody's take on this great book series (tell me how you first found out about it, which books have you read, who's your favorite character, etc...), and not to upstage the book series (since we are in the Misc section of Entertainment and not Movies & Hollywood) I'd like to briefly mention that the director of the first two Harry Potter films (Chris Columbus) is currently filming The Lightning Thief. I suppose with the Harry Potter movie franchise slowly coming to a close, they needed another book series to pick up the reins for all the avid young adults to read & watch.

-BGS