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jeriendhalSummary: Young Harry Potter Perseus "Percy" Jackson is a troubled youth, with few friends, a lousy adoptive family stepdad and a tendency to have wierd stuff happen to him that no one else believes. Until one day he's told that he's a wizard a demi-god, the son of Poseidon. He travels to Hogwarts Camp Half-Blood to meet others of his kind and train to survive. But a crisis comes along that forces him to leave on a Quest, with only his good friends, the bookish girl Hermione Annabeth, and the bumbling fellow wizard Satyr Ron Grover for allies. Along the way, the discover that an ancient evil, Lord Voldemort (SPOILER) is rising again.
Okay, it's actually much better than the summary makes it out to be, but you can see in the beginning it was plainly advertised to the publishers as "The next Harry Potter, but with Olympian demi-gods instead of wizards!" Fortunately Riordan makes the concept his own well enough that the book can stand by itself.
I'm going to freely admit to a bit of anglo-centricism here. I enjoyed this novel a bit more than the first Harry Potter book, just because it was set in the United States around landmarks that resonated for me, rather like I'm sure Rowling's use of platform 12 1/2 in a real London station did for British readers. Unlike Rowling's books however, it's mostly set in the Real World, with Camp Half-Blood on the coast of Long Island and Percy travelling through NYC, St. Louis and Vegas on his way to confront Hades in the underworld (the entrance of which can be found in Los Angeles, natch).
Also, the series being called "The Young Olympians" it also sticks to a fairly consistent mythology. Riordan doesn't flinch at admitting that everyone at camp Half-Blood is a demi-god made the old fashioned way, by Mom (or Dad in Annabeth's case) being knocked up by a horny Olympian god who then splits to head back to Mount Olympus and who usually doesn't even bother to write. [1] Unfortuntely, aside from the gods, there are all the other parts of Greek mythology hanging around too. Most of the fun of the book comes from Percy running into characters from Greek myths who've adapted as Western Civilization has kept moving more and more west. [2] Between Medusa running a business selling garden sculptures (so life-like!), the Land of the Lotus Eaters being a kid friendly casino in Las Vegas and Procrustes turning into a waterbed salesman in LA, there's room for humor while dealing with the horror of essentially fleeing from monsters intent on killing little twelve year old kids just for bragging rights.
That said, there are some annoyances.
1. Dyslexia doesn't work that way. And the handwave (all demi-gods are hard wired to want to read ancient Greek) is BS.
2. Name dropping famous people only to state that they're all demi-gods gets really irritating, and it sends an unfortunate message (much like the HP books) that the Muggles aren't really important.
3. For a kid that only joined the Camp a couple of weeks before, Percy develops some truly Mad Fightin' Skilz (though it helps that his major battles all occur conveniently close to the water. Being the Son of Poseidon has its perks)
[1] Initially when Percy arrives at the camp, before his parentage is discovered, he's put in Cabin 11, reserved for the children of Hermes and anyone else whose immortal parent hasn't publicly aknowledged them (Hermes being the god of travellers and wanderers among other things). Suffice it to say it's a very crowded cabin.
[2] On a slightly grating note to European readers I'm sure, Chiron [3] explains that the "Center of Western Civilization" is a moving target basically, with the United States holding the title currently. Which also explains why Mt. Olympus is now accessable by taking the elevator to the "600th Floor" of the Empire State Building.
[3] Yes that one. Oh and that's Chiron not Charon. Please don't confuse the two, they get annoyed.
Okay, it's actually much better than the summary makes it out to be, but you can see in the beginning it was plainly advertised to the publishers as "The next Harry Potter, but with Olympian demi-gods instead of wizards!" Fortunately Riordan makes the concept his own well enough that the book can stand by itself.
I'm going to freely admit to a bit of anglo-centricism here. I enjoyed this novel a bit more than the first Harry Potter book, just because it was set in the United States around landmarks that resonated for me, rather like I'm sure Rowling's use of platform 12 1/2 in a real London station did for British readers. Unlike Rowling's books however, it's mostly set in the Real World, with Camp Half-Blood on the coast of Long Island and Percy travelling through NYC, St. Louis and Vegas on his way to confront Hades in the underworld (the entrance of which can be found in Los Angeles, natch).
Also, the series being called "The Young Olympians" it also sticks to a fairly consistent mythology. Riordan doesn't flinch at admitting that everyone at camp Half-Blood is a demi-god made the old fashioned way, by Mom (or Dad in Annabeth's case) being knocked up by a horny Olympian god who then splits to head back to Mount Olympus and who usually doesn't even bother to write. [1] Unfortuntely, aside from the gods, there are all the other parts of Greek mythology hanging around too. Most of the fun of the book comes from Percy running into characters from Greek myths who've adapted as Western Civilization has kept moving more and more west. [2] Between Medusa running a business selling garden sculptures (so life-like!), the Land of the Lotus Eaters being a kid friendly casino in Las Vegas and Procrustes turning into a waterbed salesman in LA, there's room for humor while dealing with the horror of essentially fleeing from monsters intent on killing little twelve year old kids just for bragging rights.
That said, there are some annoyances.
1. Dyslexia doesn't work that way. And the handwave (all demi-gods are hard wired to want to read ancient Greek) is BS.
2. Name dropping famous people only to state that they're all demi-gods gets really irritating, and it sends an unfortunate message (much like the HP books) that the Muggles aren't really important.
3. For a kid that only joined the Camp a couple of weeks before, Percy develops some truly Mad Fightin' Skilz (though it helps that his major battles all occur conveniently close to the water. Being the Son of Poseidon has its perks)
[1] Initially when Percy arrives at the camp, before his parentage is discovered, he's put in Cabin 11, reserved for the children of Hermes and anyone else whose immortal parent hasn't publicly aknowledged them (Hermes being the god of travellers and wanderers among other things). Suffice it to say it's a very crowded cabin.
[2] On a slightly grating note to European readers I'm sure, Chiron [3] explains that the "Center of Western Civilization" is a moving target basically, with the United States holding the title currently. Which also explains why Mt. Olympus is now accessable by taking the elevator to the "600th Floor" of the Empire State Building.
[3] Yes that one. Oh and that's Chiron not Charon. Please don't confuse the two, they get annoyed.
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no subject
Date: 2009-09-03 10:00 am (UTC)Have you read "American Gods" yet?
Between Medusa running a business selling garden sculptures (so life-like!),
Wasn't she killed by Perseus? Or are all of the characters from the old legends alive, like the Fables?
Name dropping famous people only to state that they're all demi-gods gets really irritating, and it sends an unfortunate message (much like the HP books) that the Muggles aren't really important.
It's also a well-established cliché (I can't recall what term they use on TVtropes.org); both The Doctor and the Men in Black discuss which celebrities are actually aliens, and there are also the aforementioned Fables.
For a kid that only joined the Camp a couple of weeks before, Percy develops some truly Mad Fightin' Skilz
He'll get a rock training montage in the movie version.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-03 10:16 am (UTC)I think the one you're looking for is "Everyone is Jesus in Purgatory". :) I know it's a cliche, I just don't care for it personally.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-03 11:28 am (UTC)The book was hard to get into at first, but it got better.
I think the one you're looking for is "Everyone is Jesus in Purgatory". :)
No, Beethoven Was An Alien Spy.
I know it's a cliche, I just don't care for it personally.
It's just another form of namedropping; in your original post, you said this book resonated for you because of the familiar places. Other people might enjoy the resonation of familiar faces. It's another way of grounding the story in the real world. Plus, any time you have people with extremely long (if not unlimited) lifespans combined with extraordinary powers, it seems logical that they would have to have som effect on history – becoming famous, for a while, before they have to fake their deaths and form new identities to hide their immortal status. Sometimes, this is even the main plotline, where the characters encounter a single immortal who has been one or more famous people in the past (Kirk and the Enterprise met Flint, who was Julius Beethoven DaVinci, in "Requiem For Methuselah").
I think what makes this work, or not work, depends entirely upon how it is used, or misused, or (as you seem to think from this book) overused. I guess there's a big difference between "This significant historical figure was really a demigod/alien/immortal" and "All significant historical figures were really demigods/aliens/immortals". But I haven't read the book in question, so I'm just speaking hypothetically.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-03 10:42 pm (UTC)One guess which of them broke the pact first.
It's not actually too bad in the first book (aside from the Holocaust by extrapolation being reduced to being part of a family squabble) but I gather from commentary in the TV Tropes entry that it gets worse as the series goes on.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-03 10:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-03 05:34 pm (UTC)As a native California who was born in LA, then moved up to NorCal and raised there before being forcibly moved back to LA. Yes. This is so very true. I approve. The only perks are the Getty, the various cultures, and the amazing array of international food you can get here. But for the last two, I'm sure you could expect that of any big city in the US.
I don't know....I've long felt that the whole one big bad evil villain trying to take over the world is so over-rated these days...mostly because they're just not scary. As much as I have a problem with C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy in its didactic nature, I have to admire the guy for making a truly frightening evil character in Weston. I've always found the villains who remind me of people to be more frightening than the faceless evil. That's why Voldemort failed in my opinion, when Bellatrix can be more frightening than the main villain, there's a problem. Obviously, I've not read the Young Olympians series so I can't comment on that specifically.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-03 10:46 pm (UTC)Well, the Big Bad has been a trope since at least Tolkien, so I can't blame you for being tired of it. Fortunately it doesn't make an onscreen appearance in this book, though the threat is realized more quickly than old Voldie was in the HP books. The primary antagonist is really Ares for this one, though he comes across as a rather personable to me (mostly because I see Ron Perlman playing him)