opinari

II - percy jackson and the olympians.

warning — this contains spoilers for percy jackson and the olympians.

percy jackson and the olympians is a series of five books written by rick riordan.

it's quite good. riordan has a good writing style, and the characters are likeable and memorable. the plots are entertaining, and there are some unexpected twists. the integration into american and pop culture definitely was a big part as to why this series has so many fans. it seems like a good series, but there's more depth, you could say.

there are some aspects of the series that are distasteful however. a main issue is how much foreshadowing there is, to the point where the books spoil themselves.

an example of this is when riordan describes grover.

He [Grover] was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you.

immediately when i read this paragraph i knew that grover was a satyr. it's just gleamingly obvious. maybe not to others however, considering that i have had an interest in mythology for sometime before this anyway.

maybe this is worsened by the fact that the prophecies also unveil the plot quite a lot.

for example:

You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend.— the second last line of the prophecy delivered to percy in the lightning thief.

as soon as percy comes back from his quest, its basically forced into your face that that line hasn't been fulfilled, and that there's still a person remaining. riordan tries to act like it isn't obvious that there is only one person who could fill this spot, but he gives up this charade, and then goes to the other end of the spectrum; making all the signs point to the betrayer being luke castellan.

he went from:

'The choice was unanimous,' Luke announced. 'This bead commemorates the first son of the Sea God at this camp, and the quest he undertook into the darkest part of the Underworld to stop a war!'

to

I don't know why I hesitated. I should've felt relieved that Luke was being so friendly. Ever since I'd got back from the quest, he'd been acting a little distant. I was afraid he might resent me for all the attention I'd had.

its such a quick shift through a few pages, as if riordan just wants to finish the book.

even though i've only used the lightning thief as an example, these things do keep playing out through the whole series.

in my opinion, the best book was the lightning thief, whilst the worst was the battle of the labyrinth. why? because the characters staying in a labyrinth, and that being the only setting for the majority of the book gets boring quickly.

also, even though i have definitely pointed out many more cons than pros in this chapter, i do think pjo is a good series. i suppose i'm better at pointing out faults than strengths.

i will be talking about heroes of olympus soon.