skygiants | (no subject)

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.

Threaded | Flat

I haven't read The Last Olympian yet (waiting for paperback; yes, I could go to the library, but shut up I'm crazy), but I really liked The Battle of the Labyrinth and am eagerly awaiting the resolution. The news that he stuck the landing is good, too. (Plus, he has both his Egyptian Gods series, and now apparently a sequel series to Jackson in the works--which, if you haven't heard how the latter starts, is intriguing.)

In the Kane Chronicles, the Egyptian series, he finds a clever way around the PoV issue by having two siblings and switching between them. Also he gives himself more space for build up of things, which I agree, he didn't have the best pacing issues for emotional stuff in PJO.

Oh and I'm liking Fire and Hemlock more as I keep reading, Polly is very real.

Achilles was a jerk, Clarisse is a jerk: everybody's jerking all around! /shot

How much did you totally love Hestia actually having a role? Talk about Ascended Extra. Also, and I think you'll know exactly what I'm talking about when I ask: DID YOU CRY?

Silena and Beckendorf did actually have a short story about them getting together. It's in The Demigod Files, along with two others.

So The Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero comes out next month. It's set a couple of years after The Last Olympian and has a new hero named Jason. Apparently Percy is a damsel in distress.

Being stuck in Harry's head changes moves those books from "Tolerable" to "wretched" for me.

I'd love a series about Clarisse (or Clarisse and Annabeth having an adventure back when they and Luke were basically the only kids at camp year round, when all the other kids had gone home) or the huntresses. Sadly, we're stuck with a hero based on Jason, who has, like, no redeeming qualities. I mean, with Achilles, at least he was prone to carrying eternal grudges and even dropping out of wars when you mistreated women.

Oh, the Percy Jackson books *eyes them* I both want to read them, and don't. So. Torn.