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I zoomed through The Battle of the Labyrinth and The Last Olympian, and have now finished the Percy Jackson books! I'm pretty sure The Titan's Curse is still my favorite, but I can definitely say that Riordan stuck the landing, and dealt with at least some of the things I was hoping he would. Just in general, I've grown much fonder of the series than I ever expected to - there's just something very endearing about the books. And a bunch of you can come say 'I told you so' now, if you want.
(Also, for some reason seeing the Achilles myth replayed with a female Achilles and Patroclus filled me with enormous and inexplicable amounts of joy. I don't even like the Achilles story that much! Achilles was a jerk! So I don't know where this joy comes from, but if it makes me happy why question it?)
One thing I did find myself noticing, though, especially in the last book, is how often Riordan presents us with important relationships that have been apparently developing in the background without Percy noticing, and then uses those relationships for plot development and emotional impact. Grover and Juniper, Clarisse and Chris, Silena and Beckendorf, Clarisse and Silena - these relationships have enormous repurcussions for the story, some of them verging into the realm of epic tragedy, and they're pretty much all introduced with an offhanded comment along the lines of "oh, and Clarisse and Silena were BFF now because of something that happened offscreen between last book and now." I mean, on the one hand, since the books are all first-person POV and most of these things happen while Percy isn't paying attention, it makes sense - and I generally don't have complaints about riding out the series inside Percy's head; he's a likeable narrator, and I don't feel frustrated by being stuck there the way I did in, for example, Harry Potter's head. But I do wish that Riordan could have figured out a way to show the buildup of some of those other stories before they became directly plot-important, even just in hints around the edges.
Also, I would read the hell out of the Epic Adventures of Clarisse, Daughter of Ares. I'm just saying.
(Also, for some reason seeing the Achilles myth replayed with a female Achilles and Patroclus filled me with enormous and inexplicable amounts of joy. I don't even like the Achilles story that much! Achilles was a jerk! So I don't know where this joy comes from, but if it makes me happy why question it?)
One thing I did find myself noticing, though, especially in the last book, is how often Riordan presents us with important relationships that have been apparently developing in the background without Percy noticing, and then uses those relationships for plot development and emotional impact. Grover and Juniper, Clarisse and Chris, Silena and Beckendorf, Clarisse and Silena - these relationships have enormous repurcussions for the story, some of them verging into the realm of epic tragedy, and they're pretty much all introduced with an offhanded comment along the lines of "oh, and Clarisse and Silena were BFF now because of something that happened offscreen between last book and now." I mean, on the one hand, since the books are all first-person POV and most of these things happen while Percy isn't paying attention, it makes sense - and I generally don't have complaints about riding out the series inside Percy's head; he's a likeable narrator, and I don't feel frustrated by being stuck there the way I did in, for example, Harry Potter's head. But I do wish that Riordan could have figured out a way to show the buildup of some of those other stories before they became directly plot-important, even just in hints around the edges.
Also, I would read the hell out of the Epic Adventures of Clarisse, Daughter of Ares. I'm just saying.
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Oh and I'm liking Fire and Hemlock more as I keep reading, Polly is very real.
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While Fire and Hemlock is a controversial book, Polly's definitely one of DWJ's most fleshed-out and real heroines (and I say this as someone who loves all of DWJ's heroines.) I will also forever love her for the terrible melodramatic teenaged fanfiction alone.
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