Book Review: "Percy Jackson, Book Five - The Last Olympian" by Rick Riordan.

So I finished the Percy Jackson series. The last book does well to wrap everything up, though the last book is about equally balanced in good and not-so-good. The Last Olympian sees Kronos making his final assault toward Olympus/New York. Typhon has escaped Mt. St. Helens and is making his way across the US, so the gods of Olympus must try to defeat him before he gets there. And with Poseidon fighting his own war underwater, this leaves Olympus open for assault, as the only guard is the "last Olympian," the most minor of the Olympians, Hestia--goddess of the hearth. Of course, Percy knows Kronos is separating the Olympians away from their home purposefully, but none of them will listen and protect their thrones. So Percy, along with his friends, must make the final stand alone.

This final installment is an interesting one. The first half of the book is filled with mystery and Riordan's signature ambiguity-for-the-sake-of-ambiguity. For instance, at the end of the last book, Nico comes to Percy with an idea to help him defeat Kronos, but for almost the full first half of the book, they talk around what the plan actually is, and you don't know what it's supposed to be until Percy is literally in the action of doing it. It's really kind of annoying.

Now, if Riordan does mystery well somewhere, it's with the "spy" of Camp Half-Blood. This is actually something that nobody knows, so he isn't just having them talk around it. And it's been around since the first book (if I remember correctly). And I have to say, I really didn't see it coming. I might have had a fleeting thought at one point, but I never seriously considered this particular character as the spy. However, at the same time, that's also because there really weren't enough clues... so it really borders on an "out of nowhere" twist, which bugs me.

But there were also a few things introduced in this book that really had no major significance other than Riordan going "oh, it would be cool to include this." For instance, Pandora's "jar" or any of the "fatal flaw" stuff. None of that really ever came to fruition, and neither of those were really built up enough for me to care. In fact, because of something Percy does, his fatal flaw is supposed to be enhanced, but all that's basically ignored for the rest of the book after he's told that. As a side-note, I also found it strange that the book was called "The Last Olympian," because while Hestia was important, she wasn't title-of-the-book important. Unless I'm just completely missing some kind of obvious symbolism here.

Anyway, the whole second half of the book is non-stop action. The battle for Olympus starts halfway in and doesn't let down. I mean, there are a couple breaks here and there, but even those are filled with dreams that lead up to the next battles that are about to be fought. The action is cool, albeit predictable, though the writing did tend to get a bit confusing toward the end. And although I did (easily) predict what was going to happen during the climax with Luke/Kronos, there was still something in the way it was written that just made it feel forced and awkward. Not to mention (SPOILERS) that there's one of those endings that is so perfect and happy, it nearly feels fake; every important character with ties to the bad side gains redemption, all heroes get super rewards from the gods, and everybody lives happily ever after... though the Calypso thing made me happy. (END SPOILERS)

There was also a return of previous characters, such as Apollo, Hermes, Tyson, and Thalia. Of course, Hermes' attitude has completely changed, and he's no longer really likable, though I supposed understandably; Thalia has gone from the super-important "she'll be the best friend I've ever had" of book 3 to just some common, secondary character; Tyson, as well, becomes not much more than a character that's just kinda there; and Apollo... okay, he's still pretty cool. Gotta love Apollo. I also grew to really like Mr. D/Dionysus throughout the series, as well.

Overall, the book was enjoyable. There was an abundance of purposeful ambiguity, which, as I said before, is irritating. The action is fun, and the book moves very fast once the battle stuff starts up halfway in. I like that things were finally wrapped up or explained (I'd hope so, considering it was the last book). And there were even some things explained that I never thought about before, mostly things involving Annabeth, Luke, and Thalia when they were on their own. So I guess it was an adequate ending for the series. Will I ever revisit the series? Possibly. It has some good characters. And I'd like to read it from the start knowing everything I do at the end, to see if I catch some stuff early on. But until then, I'm satisfied enough.

Book Review: "Percy Jackson, Book Four - The Battle Of The Labyrinth" by Rick Riordan.

Warning: Again, beware spoilers if you haven't read the previous three books.

In the spectrum of the series, this fourth installment (in my opinion) isn't as fun as the third, but it's still pretty good. As the previous book took place during the winter, this one picks up the following summer, going back to the formula that the first two books used (and the third mostly skipped over). Percy is about to start high school, and his mom's new boyfriend pulls some strings to get him enrolled in his school. Though during orientation, Percy stumbles into another new student, somebody he met the previous winter--Rachel Elizabeth Dare--a mortal girl with the ability to see through the Mist. Needless to say, havoc ensues, and Percy is forced to flee with a visiting Annabeth, and they make their way to camp. 

Once at camp, they see Dionysus is busy doing godly things, and a swordsman named Quintus is there to help out Chiron for the summer. Grover is in trouble with his elders, as he can't back up having sensed Pan last winter. Nico di Angelo is still missing, and Percy keeps receiving disturbing Iris-messages that show what Nico is up to. But then Percy stumbles upon a secret entrance within the camp boundaries... an entrance to the massive, underground Labyrinth. And this brings up many new issues--they realize that Luke can bring forth his armies into camp this way, getting around its defenses. But they know it can also help find Pan somehow. So now a new quest begins, led this time by Annabeth, into the Labyrinth to find its creator--Daedalus--before Luke does, to persuade him not to help Luke find his way through the Labyrinth.

If you've noticed, there are really two plots to this one, the "stop Luke" plot and the "Pan" plot, though the Pan plot is more secondary here. Important, but secondary. To cut right to the negative, what I didn't like the most about the book was how it was a bit all over the place. Like the Labyrinth itself, the book was, at times, chaotic. But I don't fault it for that. My issue lies in how that chaos comes off as too organized. Half the book feels forced, and the other half feels rushed. It's like there were a bunch of ideas the author wanted to put into the book, but (with most of them) he wouldn't give them the amount of time they deserved. And then, as I said, some of the things just felt forced in there, just there to go "hey, I'm important to the plot later, but I just needed to be introduced now so it makes sense when the time comes. kthxbai." I don't know. I just think there was a good chunk of the book that was handled too sloppily.

That being said, the book has a strong first few chapters and a strong last half (or thereabouts). There are a couple really good twists toward the end. And I knew way ahead of time that these characters would be involved in twists, I just didn't know how. And no, I'm not talking about Rachel Elizabeth Dare, though I did love her involvement. Right about the time I started going "okay, what the heck was her point?," the book brings her back into the equation. Though the lead-up to the reveal brought back bad flashbacks to the first book, where Riordan took an unbelievably long time to reveal the completely obvious.

On a related note, I did really enjoy how the book started to focus more on the romantic relationships between some of the characters. Though Percy is completely daft about it all. But still, I can't wait to see it all resolved in the last book.

One thing I loved about the second and third books were the involvement of some really fun gods and goddesses. Unfortunately, the two central ones this time around aren't nearly as interesting as the others have been. Hephaestus is interesting, but his personality is dull. And Hera is barely in the book for me to really care. I wanted to see Hermes or Apollo again. Though there is a great, though much too short, section with Calypso (not a goddess, but immortal) that is utterly heartbreaking. I hope she comes back into the story in the last book, because I really liked her character, and you can't help but feel horribly for her.

Also taking a larger role is Nico di Angelo. The character is annoyingly stubborn and dangerously naive, but I still can't help but like him for how cool his powers and whatnot are. I think the ending of the book bodes well for the last book. Hopefully Nico is a little less annoying and a lot cooler, because he is a character with a lot of potential.

I know I said some negative things here, but I did enjoy the book. In my current list from favorite on down, it'd probably come in second (after Titan's Curse). I should start reading the fifth soon. But as for this one, maybe my expectations were too high after the third. Who knows? It's still a good read.

Book Review: "Percy Jackson, Book Three - The Titan's Curse" by Rick Riordan.

I really zipped through this book. I read a few chapters yesterday, then read the rest--over half the book--today. I couldn't put it down. In my opinion, this third installment is better than the first two combined. Before I get into the review, let me just warn now: if you haven't read the first two, there might be some spoilers in this review. It is about the third of a series, after all. So if you haven't... I'd stop reading this review now. There also might be one or two hints of spoilers (as in, if you think about it, I'm sure you could figure it out, but I won't say it directly) for this third book.

The book starts off differently than the other two. Whereas the previous books begin at the start of summer and are heavy in exposition, this one starts in the heart of winter and gives exposition the finger. At first it's a bit disorienting, seeing the end of the previous book ends introducing the human form of Thalia. This one picks up with Percy, Thalia, and Annabeth going to meet Grover at a military school, as he had found a couple more half-bloods. There's no immediate explanation of why Grover is searching for half-bloods again, or how they all got so buddy-buddy with Thalia. It does explain, but briefly, and not right away. Don't get me wrong, this isn't really a complaint. It was actually somewhat refreshing, not having to have things I should already know beaten over my head.

Anyway, there's a scuffle, and Annabeth ends up kidnapped, while Percy, Thalia, Grover, and the two half-bloods he found--Bianca and Nico di Angelo--are saved by The Hunters (or Huntresses, rather), the elite group of warriors led by the goddess Artemis. Artemis goes off to hunt a powerful monster that the bad guys are after, leaving her followers, including the tough Zoe Nightshade, to go back to Camp Half-Blood. They hitch a ride with Artemis' twin brother Apollo and make it back to camp. One thing leads to another, and there's another prophecy and another quest. A team of five must search for the now-kidnapped Artemis, though with the knowledge that two will die and one will hold the burden of the Titan's curse. And then there's the whole issue of rescuing Annabeth, which Percy takes to heart, especially when it's declared that he's not one of the five going on the quest.

Almost right away, the book seems darker than its predecessors. There's still a lot of fun action. I particularly liked the brief fight between Percy and Thalia early on. And speaking of Thalia, if there's one thing that I would have liked to see done just slightly differently, it would be her relationship with Percy. Or rather, how Percy perceives her. The first half of the book sets it up as if Percy is going to have this on-going rivalry with her, where everybody follows Thalia and she gets all the glory, leaving Percy behind as just some other, average hero. But the latter half of the book drops this. I thought it would have really played better if he would have gotten more angsty with her and her sudden spotlight... kind of like how Ron got with Harry in Goblet of Fire, I suppose.

And speaking of Harry Potter, there were still a few parallels, but they're getting further and further away, much harder to just point out and go "that's totally Harry Potter." There really wasn't anything major or blatant, at least not that I can remember. So that's a good sign.

My favorite thing about the previous book was Hermes, so it's not that much of a surprise that some of my favorite bits for this book involved other gods and goddesses, namely Artemis and Apollo. We also see Aphrodite and Athena up close and personal for the first time, too. Though what I really liked was the reveal of the General. Strangely, I picked up on a certain myth going on earlier, but I didn't make the connection until right before it was revealed. Similarly, I had a hunch of who Nico and Bianca's immortal parent was for most of the book, but I think only because I've been hoping to see a child of this particular deity since the first book. I also think Rick Riordan handled the clues much more subtly for them than he did Percy, which he bashed repeatedly over our heads for over 100 pages of the first book.

One interesting note that I'd like to bring up that I haven't yet in any of these reviews is something I noticed that is rather prevalent in these books. Mr. Riordan quite often likes to make sure that the characters, usually Percy, grabs anything important from wherever, because he/they have a feeling that he/they "won't be returning to/won't be seeing this place again and/or for a long time." It just seems too coincidental that Percy or the group just know, for no reason, that they're about to be forced from wherever they're at and so they better take their things, because they'll need them for the rest of the plot. I've seen this happen in each book so far, sometimes more than once (I think it happened at least 2-3 times or so in the second book).

A few final notes... the book was not only better written and more intricate than its predecessors, but it was also funnier. I loved the Hoover Dam chapter; it actually made me laugh out loud. Also, for the first time, the book didn't feel self-contained. There were some things left hanging, such as Clarisse's quest, the di Angelo "lawyer," or anything about the mortal girl from the Hoover Dam (I know she has to be important later... too big of a deal was made of her). And speaking of things important for later, the Lotus Hotel came back into play, though it still really wasn't explained. Its magical properties were used (rather cleverly, might I add) for plot purposes, but I'd still like some kind of explanation of its existence. I need to go out and buy the last two books (I only got the first three), because I really want to start up the fourth. There's so much I left out of this review that I liked (from Bessie to Blackjack, and even Dionysus... who, though I had a small quibble about regarding his interesting though almost completely out of nowhere explanation of why he hates heroes, has a good moment toward the end of the book). So again, I loved this third installment. To me, it was clearly the best thus far, and I can only hope the next two are even better.

Book Review: "Percy Jackson, Book One - The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan.

I've recently discovered the Percy Jackson series. I mean, I've known about it for ages, but I recently decided to read it. I just finished the first book, and I've decided that I will do a review for each one as I go along. As a Harry Potter fan, I heard this was the series to go to for some good reading along the same path.

And I can totally see why. This book has so many similarities to Harry Potter, it's bordering between freakish and idea-stealing. Granted, I'm no dummy. I know of Joseph Campbell's monomyth and how basically all fantasy stories follow the same rules--from Beowulf to Lord of the Rings to Star Wars, Eragon, and Harry Potter. I can't hold monomythic structure against it (a regular boy discovers he's more than average and becomes a hero... there's possibly a prophecy... and there are specific characters, such as the helpers or the mentor, not to mention the specific paths he must follow).

And these aren't the things I'm talking about with this comparison. Although, some of these I also cannot fault, due to them being steeped in mythology (and since Percy Jackson follows Greek Mythology, well...). But let me give a list of some of the similarities I found between just this first book and the Harry Potter series (there may be some mild spoilers for The Lightning Thief, so be warned):

- The importance of the lightning bolt in general (Harry's scar/Zeus' master bolt).

- An object that, when worn, causes invisibility (cloak/hat).

- A mother 'sacrifices' herself (or at least attempts to) to protect her son.

- The hero is saved by a centaur.

- Hero pulls a jewel-encrusted sword that belonged to an ancient figure from a seemingly everyday object (hat/pen).

- One friend is a brainiac girl with all the answers and who is rarely without a book.

- The other friend is half the time nervous and enjoys eating often.

- The term "Half-blood" in general (I'd say this could go to "mythology," but I'm more aware of the term demigod).

- Being in a school-like place where "students" are sorted into houses (which are named after important ancient figures).

- One of these aforementioned houses is entirely against the hero.

- One person from said "mean" house is specifically antagonistic with the hero, as is (eventually) the character's father.

- There is a "teacher" who hates the hero for his status and his father, but is willing to protect him anyway.

- The line given by said teacher regarding his celebrity status.

  *Note: This one really got to me. Mr. D and Snape are so similar in personality, it's insane... and the line Mr. D says to Percy after Percy discovers who his father is is almost syllable for syllable a line Snape gives when he first meets Harry. Snape's line: "Mr. Potter... our new celebrity."  And Mr. D's line: "Well, well... our little celebrity."

- The hero is forced to live with a despicable person because said person helps to keep the hero protected.

- Characters are afraid to say the names of their enemies and give them other names to call them by instead.

- The hero, at one point, talks to a caged animal right before freeing it.

- The "trio" (which is actually called a "trio" in Lightning Thief, which could be considered another connection in and of itself) must pass by a giant three-headed dog in order to get to their ultimate destination (this one I'll let pass as having the mythology ties to begin with).

- Not really book related, but just for a fun fact... Chris Columbus, who directed the first two Harry Potter films, is directing the film version of The Lightning Thief.

And there are numerous others I didn't even bother to list, but are incredibly easy to pick up on. But all that being said, I can continue with my actual review. The Lightning Thief introduces us to the world of Percy Jackson, a 12-year-old boy with dyslexia and ADHD, who has been kicked out of every private school he's attended. Long story short, he ends up discovering he's a half-blood--his mother is mortal and his father is one of the gods of Olympus from Greek mythology. And not just any god, either, but one of the big three: Poseidon (this is not a spoiler. Granted, he doesn't officially find out until after a 100 pages in, but if you can't figure it out on your own far before that, you probably have no prior interest in or miniscule knowledge of Greek mythology, and this book probably wouldn't be for you anyway). But this is a major issue, as after World War II, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades (the big three) made an agreement not to have any more kids, as they were too powerful. Zeus broke the treaty first, and then Poseidon, and Hades didn't like either of them for it. But now, Zeus' master lightning bolt has been stolen--which cannot be done by another god--and Zeus blames Percy, recently outed as Poseidon's son. So Percy must go on a quest with his newest friends to find the lightning bolt in 10 days or else World War III will begin.

The book has a fun story, especially for me, who loved all sorts of mythologies growing up--but Greek was, as with most people, my first. I loved a lot of the little allusions and whatnot. The writing isn't very difficult. It's not as deep or detailed as Harry Potter, but it isn't as simplistic as, say, Skulduggery Pleasant.

Though it isn't without its issues. My first issue with the book was how long it took to reveal certain information. Things were needlessly dragged out. Seriously, by the time they actually revealed Percy's father, I thought all the other characters had to be the biggest idiots on Earth. His mother met his father by the sea. They both always felt the most comfortable at the beach. Percy becomes incredibly rejuvenated with water. He actually controls water and attacks people with it. And a whole slew of other clues. But no... none of the characters, some of which are immortal or gods themselves, can't figure it out until Poseidon's symbol appears over the boy's head. And not just with this particular reveal, but with information about the world in general. It took the book way too long to start divulging information about the new, mystical world. For almost no reason, they refused to tell Percy anything about his new life. And it drove me crazy.

Another issue comes at the latter part of the book. I was having no problem with the quest they were on until they came to Vegas. You know when you watch a movie based on a book, and something happens that totally confuses you because it's not really detailed or explained? It's just kind of random, but is necessary to move the plot forward, but you just know that it had to have been given more details in the source material? That's what I felt of the Lotus Hotel/Arcade scene. The scene is an allusion to the Lotus-Eaters part of The Odyssey, but it's never explained or even mentioned again once they escape. It just seemed almost like, and forgive this pun, a deus ex machina or something for the author to pull him out of an issue he'd written himself into and needed to add more suspense or whatever.

The last issue I can't really fault the book. At least, I probably shouldn't. The book was way too predictable. I figured out everything way before I probably should have. Granted, the book is written for middle grade, I assume, so they might not find it as predictable as I did. But there was something about the writing, too. Instead of constantly barraging the reader with clues and "hey, look at this! Make sure to remember this!" moments, it could have been much more subtle so that the big reveals were actually surprising.

Overall, though, the book was very entertaining. It's easy to read and, despite its predictability, fun. The characters were good, the writing was decent, the use of mythology was great, and its moments of action were actually really cool. So I must join the ranks of the others and say, if you enjoy Harry Potter, you'll most likely enjoy Percy Jackson. Don't go in expecting the depth or layers of the aforementioned series (that I can see so far, having just read the first book), but if you're a mythology buff, it's all good. Just don't get hung up (I know, it's hard) on the Harry Potter parallels, because you'll see them on practically every page of the book. If you try to look past that, you'll enjoy it.