I read the books over the weekend. I enjoyed them, but the greek-gods-at-the-centre-of-civilization-and-things-relocating-magically annoyed me.

But still, the storytelling was good enough for me to get over it.

 

Finally finished the series. I enjoyed it a lot, personally. A bit sad that the next series won't have Percy as the MC, though.

 

Finished the books and I really enjoyed them, the ending was a bit disappointing, regarding Percy's decision(s) but as a whole it was an enjoyable read. The mythology was appreciated and tied nicely into the real world, the gods were entertaining, (my favorites, by far, being Dionysus and Hades) the characters were interesting and were involved in an engaging story with nice writing.

Spoiler

My one problem, regardless of the ending, was that Percy never really explored his powers the way I think a normal boy would have. "Oh I am the son of Poseidon, let me try sword-fighting" is not the thing I would have done. Rather "Holy shit, my father is Poseidon? I am half-god? Let my try something with water!"

I really felt that for the son of the God of the Ocean, he used his powers over water too passively, I would have appreciated it more if he would have explored the other range of powers at his disposal, like earthquakes and water.

And if wikipedia is correct, it says that the first book of the sequel series (The Heroes of Olympus) will be published in October 12, 2010, named "The Lost Hero" and it will indeed feature someone else other than Percy which is not necessary a bad thing.

Anyone know more about this or the other series of the author with the Egyptian gods?

 

I read the egyptian god's one. It was called the Red Pyramid. It was a good book but I liked the first book of the Percy Jackson better.

 

I'm kind of a sucker for Greek mythology, so I liked this. Percy Jackson is definitely not intended for an adult audience, but it's interesting and worth reading all the same. I, too, was disappointed with Percy's decision at the end, but I think it was in-character for him to act as he did.

 

Hm...

I have to admit that I never really paid attention to Percy Jackson. It struck me as yet another story to jump onto the "Kid finds out that he's Special in some way, and then goes to a school for other Special people, and turns out to be very important in some fashion" bandwagon.

Or am I assuming too much here?

I'm also a tad irritated by the tendency in fiction to make the Olympian gods wonderful chaps, except for Hades, who becomes a horribly evil bastard, when he was only one of his three brothers who was halfway decent and didn't engage in serial murder and rape in four hundred different shapes.

Does the Percy Jackson series avoid making him into Teh Evul and/or acknowledge that there's some seriously messed-up stuff going on about most of the Olympians?

 

Yeah. I've only read the first three so far, but he's actually fairly awesome. Zues, however, is just a dick. Some shit about a prophecy that said one of the children of Zues, Poseidon or Hades gonna fuck up the Olympians reign of power. Zues' solution is to just kill everyone and be done.

Is fairly awesome, actually. I still fucking hate Thalia and Zoe however. >_>

 

Brilliant! Now that sounds like the Zeus I know and love to abhor.

 

Yeah. Now I think on it, Hades actually is the most honorable of the "Big Three" - he adhered to the pact between himself, Poseidon, and Zeus, to not have children whereas they violated it.

It's better than it should be. Camp Halfblood isn't fleshed out or is as interesting a location as Hogwarts, but the series isn't tied to a central location as much. It's more of a globetrotter.

I remember instances of great humor, like Apollo improvising terrible haikus.

The sense of epic is... it's still there, but it's also much lower than one would expect. You have minotaurs and the most sinister creatures of Greek mythology all, but they reconstitute themselves a while after they're killed. So everytime the protagonists triumph over a hydra or kill the Medusa, you know they're repeating past heroics. Then there's a Great Prophecy that happens every so often, and it just lessens the importance of Percy's role.

Maybe it's part of some deconstructionist agenda of the author to strip the glamor from the legends, but that niggling thought was always with me.

Whenever Thalia annoyed me, I remembered she spent a couple years as a tree which was wonderful. Luke was the worst douche, and I'm glad that he got the fate that befell him.

Spoiler

Zoe dies

Actually chances are, characters that annoy you will be dead.

Very enjoyable series. It bears only superficial resemblance to Harry Potter if that's what you're asking.

 

Oh I hate that too, I really do.

In PJO I think he's pretty well done, all things considered. He's not evil, although the first book hints at it in the same way as Snape in PS.

He's not the happiest of fellows, which is understandable considering his situation. But he keeps his word and does help out in the end. He also cares very much for his children and tries to protect them, and loved their mother very much before Big Z killed her.

Well, it's mostly about some young kids, written for young kids by an author who started out writing it simply for his own ADHD/Dyslexic kid. So that's understandable.

Still I found it to be an enjoyable read, even if I'm outside of it's intended age group.


The characters of the new series (The Heroes of Olympus) are older, in their mid/later teens just like Riordan's son so I expect it'll be a little more grownup.


Also, have any of you read the first two chapters of The Lost Hero?

It can be found here and the password is newhero.

I'm interested in seeing who the enemy is this time.


I've actually written around three and a half chapters (of an intended 10) of a PJ/HP crossover along with a full outline. It would feature Harry being cursed by Voldemort after Bella, not Narcissa, checked and found him still alive after his chat with Dumbledore. Voldemort curses him to travel through parallel dimensions for eternity so that he can 'play the hero'.

Harry then ends up in the Percy Jackson universe in a younger body at Montauk beach while young Percy and Sally Jackson are there. Is eventually integrated into their family and Hecate finds him.

I view Hecate as a very powerful Goddess/Titaness as she is, amongst other things, Goddess/Titan of Magic. I would think that her position would give her a good deal of influence and power. She also rules over air, oceans and earth which gives her a bit more diversity than the average God. She is also the only one other than Zeus that can gift mankind any wish they desire.

In the story I also have it where Hecate usually doesn't give birth, but instead she very occasionally grants magical powers or knowledge upon people. People like Medea, Circe, Merlin and such, and also other magical arts like teaching alchemy to Flamel or necromancy (she has a bit of influence in the Underworld after all) to Saint-Germain.

So like those she sort of 'adopts' Harry, who already has magical powers of his own though I see them changing ever so slightly to fit into this world.

Anyway she sees that there is a curse upon his soul and looks into it, eventually bringing the matter before the Olympians.

They figure out a way to dissolve it (other than Zeus' suggest of smiting him) but he must first prove his worth.

In that he'd basically have 10 Labors like Heracles (who originally only had ten, two more were added for receiving help). But not the same exact ten, and several of them will be 'impossible', and I mean more 'impossible' than simply slaying a mighty beast.

So while Percy is off doing the quests in the books, Harry is off on his own adventure which sometimes overlaps with Percy. And Harry will help Percy when he can of course.

Ultimately...

Spoiler

...the Olympians tell Harry the nature of the curse and give him two options. Live out his life here and move on to another world and another war or become a God (I'm thinking God of Wizardry and/or Prophetic Heroes).

Unfortunately I've had so little time lately to work on it (or my other stories) that I haven't progressed much. However unlike my other stories this one is fully planned out I just need to write it up.

I've yet to read any decent HP/PJ crossovers and I'd like to get this started at least before The Lost Hero. I have a feeling (hope?) that Hecate will play a larger role or one of her children will in that. I'd rather have this posted before the next series can take a big old canon crap on my ideas for Hecate.

 

I would read that, and I know fuck-all about Percy Jackson. I've recently started reading my first-ever crossover (nuhuh's The Stalking Blood Sack) and sadly, I'm probably about to be swamped with another hundred quality stories to have to try to read, after only reading HP stories until now.

 

I'm not complaining about the books being for kids, that's the intended target, I'm complaining that a kiddies book was so highly recommended.

 

And Harry Potter isn't?

 

Harry Potter is a book with more than one layer, a book that adults and kids can both enjoy. Percy Jackson however, is an exceptionally well wrote children story meant only for kids. It doesn't make you think and is rather simple.

 

Perhaps some people simply enjoy an entertaining read and/or Greek mythology?

If I want to read something that will make me think then I don't turn to Harry Potter. I doubt many people do, in fact.

I'm not saying that Harry Potter doesn't have more depth to it than Percy Jackson and the Olympians, because it does. But don't go blowing HP out of proportion, it too is a kids book written for kids.

Besides, Greek mythology is cool no matter how old you are. Fact.

 

True, but I felt almost brain-dead by the end of Percy Jackson.

 

So long as you don't mess up Hades' portrayal.

 

Fixed. >_>

Hades is a bro and all, but I'd really rather not sacrifice all characterization just to show what a bro he is. >_>

 

I read PJO as well, and I'm really pissed off at the lack of quality Percy fanfiction. There's one kinda good fic that I've found. And it's slash(ironic, no?).

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5557872/1/The_Boy_on_the_Cloud

The state of the fandom(that I've read) is ugghhhh.

I think that I'll eventually write some, once I get a summer I can actually relax in, and my writing doesn't suck. The universe of it is so open that it's a shame not to do anything with it. /End rant

 

Yeah. I've had a few ideas ... Percy working with Hades... Darker Percy... random shit.

Need to get a list of shit together or get a few people to help work out a few plots. Finish reading the series too... D: