Spoiler

Really, my biggest source of hatred over this thing is the most basic and your sort of touched upon it lightly. This just shouldn't be Leo's story. He feels shoved in because he was--he has no place in this particular tale. This should be Percy's story, setting old scores and righting old wrongs. He was the one who met Calypso first, who fell in love with her, and who left her because he had to. He was the one of traded Godhood for the sake of her and the other demigods. He's the one getting screwed over her as much as Calypso--and in this same book, he realizes it. All the old stuff he'd forgotten returns, his world shakes when he feels Calypso's curse, all of that happened to Percy.

He should be the one responsible for this plotline for simple narrative reasons. The fact that he's not--the fact that Leo's in charge of it instead, literally out of nowhere--is like Han being responsible for facing Vader instead of Luke.

This just isn't his story.

Also, yeah, I'm glad I wasn't the only one thinking Leo was kind of a douche in this book.

 

You mean Percy/Bianca?

 

Eh close enough. Dat gender bend fetish >.> Also... if Nico swings that way Bianca is probably a dyke D8

 

Well, she was one of Artemis' hunters...

 

http://percyjacksony.tumblr.com/post/64417516354/rick-riordan-about-nico-in-hoh-spoilers

Right on, Rick.

 

I personally rank it behind Son of Neptune, but ahead of the other 2 books.

Spoiler

I didn't have issues with the calypso appearance, but I did have issues with her getting screwed. I imagine Percy having a very long talk with his dad and uncles when this is all over. As powerful as Percy is, even without the invincibility, I can't believe the gods would ignore their deal.

The other main issue I have with it is Percy and his abilities. All of the sudden Percy seemed helpless. Yes he was in Tartarus, but still, after the epic battles in Son of Neptune, I thought Percy had forgotten his command over water for the first 2/3s of the book. He knew he could command the Styx after he used it against Hades in The Last Olympian, so why shouldn't he be able to command the other rivers?

At times Percy seems like he has become far more powerful, I always think of the battle against the ghost legion in SoN; but other times he doesn't seem like the same guy who beat Ares, Hades and Hyperion, held his own against Cronus, caused a volcanic eruption, survived the throne of Poseidon, killed countless legendary monsters (including some that had never been defeated, survived the river Styx, was offered and turned down godhood, fought a ghost legion, and then defeated a giant. Then in Tartarus he seemed so helpless at times. It's just frustrating in my opinion.

On a side note, I always liked Jason's speech in The lost Hero about his resume, and then I think about what all Percy's would contain if he did something similar. It would take an entire chapter just to go through everything.

 

Spoiler

All I'm hearing about Calypso from everybody is that they're really pissed she's moving on from Percy. You also seem to forget that she fell in love with Percy rather fast as well and that whole situation also came out of no where.

The only difference here was Calypso was pissed off that the gods were toying with her after they reneged on their promise to free her.

Personally I'll find it awesome if Leo manages to find her again and after Percy's theory is proven true they still end up building a relationship.

Other then that Tartarus was both better and worse then Ryuugi's portrayal. In some ways Ryuugi's is more horrifying, but really Riordan's is more epic than horror, which fits the theme much better.

Spoiler

Also wasn't it mentioned that Tartarus can change its appearance? Or am I misunderstanding that line?

Overall best book of the new series so far. The whole thing came off as one big character development book; which everybody but Percy and Annabeth sorely needed.

Also really glad to see Jason coming more into his own character instead of just being Percy light.

And Frank.....just Frank man.

 

New book is about to come out, believe my preorder was shipped out already.

Rick Riordan also released a trailer for The Blood of Olympus

 

I'm a few chapters in, and it's been pretty good so far.

 

Its been a long time since I read and PJ books and now they seem to be badly written fanfics rather than proper books. Maybe I'm just used to more adult/mature writing styles (LOTR, Chronicles of Amber and such) but I just couldn't get into this book which has left me quite disappointed. I think it was just the use of ALL CAPS nearly every time someone spoke and the fight scenes which weren't that detailed.

Also G.R.R Martin just made me want lots of boobs in a book and there were none here

I'm not trying to ruin the book for anyone or trying to troll I'm just saying that I was disappointed by the book.

 

Haven't read it yet but it is a bit unfair to go into a YA series, which has a specific tone established for years now (9 books, I believe), and expect it to suddenly have changed to dark fantasy with the tenth volume. You are not going to find sex scenes in it, ever, in any of his YA books. Think I can even remember him saying so in an interview.

Can't speak for the fightscenes or the caps. Hopefully, the book arrives in the next two days. While I had been disappointed in the books of the second series, it was mostly for abandoning Percy as the sole main character. However, with the exception of the first book, books 2-4 have been solid and a ton of fun to read, albeit flawed works. Still, loved the Annabeth, Percy and Nico parts.

 

I wasn't expecting the series to change, I was just hoping I would still enjoy the series. And, like you, I think the first five books were much better because there was only one main character, with more than one it seems like everything is a bit too manic. Although, SoN was quite brilliant as it had lots of awesome Percy moments.

 

Okay, started and finished the book last night and overall, yeah, agree with you Jpzh2d, just couldn't get that into it. Also, yeah, fight scenes were mostly bad. Didn't have the problem with caps, though.

I mean, I still finished it rather quickly, but that was more due to my overall curiosity on the end of this tale rather than the merits of the book alone.

For those of you who want to know this before reading the book, we have 5 POVs: Jason, Leo, Piper, Nico and Reyna.

It has still the usual weaknesses of Riordan's multiple POV writing, in that characters who are not the POV character in that chapter get nerfed or are taken out offscreen to make the POV characters shine and nowhere is that more apparent than when Percy and Annabeth are made side-characters.

Spoiler

I get that he tried to go the PTSD route with Percy and Annabeth, and that all the hints and prophecies of the gods constantly alluded to things like that, to make the new people shine as we did already see what Percy and Annabeth can do when they are serious but honestly, I really don't care all that much for the other 5 demi-gods on this quest, I really don't. So, seeing those two characters I really like being forced to play second fiddle constantly in this book, where all they do is panic, get captured and need to be rescued, displaying really very little of their strength, intelligence, wit and character really was a damper.

The snark that came out of Leo, Percy and Jason was basically indistinguishable, especially the lines between Percy and Jason became a bit blurred where Jason really felt like a Percy light especially since Percy himself behaved like a Percy light.

The solution to the Calypso dilemma was as disappointing as it was promised, nothing good came from that.

Jason usurping Percy's role in making the gods stick to their promises also felt weird. That's two major things that the new people rackjacked from Percy, two storylines that were his to finish but were given to those two new characters, who, as Ryuugi said, didn't really do nearly as much for those causes.

What, Jason promised a random goddess he would? He kinda hinted to Zeus that he wanted to do something? Wow, really impressive. Percy threw godhood and immortality to the combined Olympic Pantheons face for the same and elicited a promise out of them.

Similarly, Jason being a bit resentful towards Hera was pathetic while Annabeth outright insulted Hera to her face, telling her to fuck off, just shows that Jason isn't even close to their level.

So, yeah, didn't really care at all for Jason's chapters, or Leo's for that matter. He just seemed annoying for the most part. In earlier books, he was funny at times but this book, he was consistently annoying. Then the Calypso thing, which didn't endear him to me any more.

Piper, well, I warmed up a bit more towards her. On one hand, she wasn't annoying in this book, without the whole pseudo jealousy going on, on the other hand, this "suddenly realize what this thing is about" shtick got old by now and seeing her basically know everything, how to deal with people, just because of a few old stories by her useless father just seemed too convenient. Her charmspeak also seems to have no limit on its growth, making her a bit OP.

Well, now to the good parts, I really enjoyed Reyna's parts and I always liked her but this book was her time to shine, more than anyone else. I just felt bad for her since she is one of the two characters who kept losing for four books now, which was unfair but at least she got the most badass scenes, except for the one where Annabeth told Hera to stick it.

So, I enjoyed her fights, her struggles and her way of letting past ghosts rest. If anyone still has a story to tell after all this, it's her.

Nico was also handled well. I am impressed that Riordan stuck to his guns on this one. I admit, I was a bit worried that he would "ungay" Nico or something, make him fall for Reyna (although, i guess a bisexual Nico would have been just as good) but yeah, he kept that. Nico's parts were cool as well, although, after having read the book, I don't believe most of the stuff was particularly memorable. Yeah, he struggled with acceptance and it was hard to shadowtravel a lot but that's basically all there was to him.

So, overall, it wasn't a terrible book, but I also wouldn't call it a good one. It had good moments, mostly for Reyna but the rest was pretty much subpar. It just doesn't feel right that Annabeth and Percy basically didn't really do anything of real significance in this book except lose offscreen and get captured. I get that Tartarus sapped their strength, mental and physical, but still.

If this was the last book, it was not a satisfying end to the Heroes of Olympus story. Not sure what comes next, an Egyptian book, another Olympian book or if it is the Norse trilogy start but meh. Kinda hope for the Norse book, he seems to need a break from this. Maybe a fresh start with new characters and a new source material would be great.

Meh, disappointed, really.

 

Well, it seems Riordan is going Norse.

Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard : The Sword of Summeris

Sounds nice enough and I will check it out once it's released. A bit disappointed that we got a male main character again, one that sounds suspiciously a lot like Percy. Kinda hoped we would see something different. Then again, that pretty much describes every demi god, so, who knows, we'll see.

Of course, am interested whether or not there is a connection to the Percy Jackson books. I mean, Magnus has the same last name as Annabeth, so there has to be some sort of relation there. He couldn't possibly have picked the same name as one of his major characters from his last series and it's just a coincidence that they have the same name. Would be a pretty troll-ish thing to do.

So yeah, despite the pretty disappointing end to the Heroes of Olympus series, and a lot of really meh characters there, I did enjoy them for the most part and I think that a new set of characters, not bogged down by a previous main character who just outclassed all of the new cast might be just what is needed. That, or just return to Percy, with the occasional Reyna, Nico and Annabeth chapter = P

Thoughts?

 

Riordan's been planning to do a Norse series for something like 4 years now, iirc.
It's very likely that the characters from his other series could show up, though I dunno if that would happen in the main books- more likely to be shorter side stories like the Kane/Percy crossovers.