The Last Olympian: Rick Riordan

In the final volume of the Percy & The Olympians series, Rick Riordan unleashes every demon in the Underworld for the battle of the Titans and Olympians. Percy and his friends are faced with a prophecy that makes one of them a hero, but at a very high cost.

I have loved every minute of the Percy & The Olympians adventure. Many people (myself included) have drawn parallels between Percy and Harry Potter. While there are some similarities, Percy has something Harry does not; Percy is the boy next door. The first chapter of The Last Olympian is Percy and a mortal girl named Rachel, sitting in the car, watching the ocean. The awkwardness of that moment is captured perfectly, as Percy contemplates how he feels about Rachel and whether he has the gall to kiss her or not. The teenage boy-girl tension is interrupted, of course, by the ultimate battle.

Percy has the unfortunate mission of leading an army of half-bloods in a war against the Titan lord, Kronos, who has inhabited the body of a half-blood, Luke. The significance of this is huge for Percy. Luke was the first friendly face he met at Camp Half Blood, and Luke was also the person who helped get his friends Thalia and Annabeth to the safety of camp. Annabeth, Thalia, and Percy struggle to face the fact that in order to defeat Kronos, they will have to kill their friend Luke.

There is a lot of assumed knowledge in this book, so it definitely requires the reading of the first four books in the series. The Last Olympian is the final chapter in which some questions are finally answered, and everything ties up neatly. The adventure is an action-packed, non-stop ride, riddled with favorite old characters as well as new. If you’ve already read the first four books, you don’t want to miss the finale.

The Titan's Curse: Rick Riordan

I am loving this series! Rick Riordan has created a cast of characters who are real and relatable, adventures that are exciting and inventive, and language that is readable. As much as I love Harry Potter, Percy Jackson strikes me as far more average. He's dyslexic, slightly ADHD, and he has trouble relating to girls.

This third volume in the series presents problems specific to the latter of Percy's realistic traits. As his feelings for Annabeth grow, he is confronted with a new crisis involving the goddess Artemis and her pack of girl Hunters. Artemis and her hunters are perpetual adolescents who have sworn off boys, which poses a real problem when Percy is thrown in with them on a quest to save Annabeth.

In The Titan's Curse, Percy is forced to face more serious emotional and mental battles. Is he the one who will fulfill the prophecy that has the potential to bring down all of Olympus? As his relationship with his father improves at a snail's pace, Percy is given the chance to see how terrible an Olympian parent can be. How is he going to protect Camp Half-Blood against some of the most evil gods and monsters in the world? And as an unpleasant new twist, Percy must now also convince Athena that he will not be responsible for the downfall of Olympus. As Annabeth's mother, Athena is suspicious of Percy and his involvement with her daughter.

The series is going along at a fast pace, and I'm really enjoying it. I only hope that Riordan has the foresight to keep the characters in the forefront, opposed to Rowling's decision to progressively make the stories about the battles, leaving our beloved characters to fall flat.

The Sea of Monsters: Rick Riordan

Hello again, lovely readers! I again have to make apologies for my delayed absence. Summer is always such a busy time, don't you think? Not to mention the fact that I have picked up a total of four books and read anywhere from three to one hundred pages of each before putting them aside. I finally found one worth reading, though, so let's get to it!

The Sea of Monsters is book two in a the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series. I read book one (The Lightning Thief) when I was in Korea and have only now finally found the second book. To give you some background information, Percy Jackson is the son of the sea god, Posiedon. His mother, however, is a mortal, so Percy is what is known as a Half-blood. He's a little awkward, ADHD, and dyslexic. Percy is like Harry Potter's slightly annoying little brother. He's not nearly as goody-two-shoes as Harry Potter, but he's got the same hero angle. Percy also has two best friends--a half-goat-boy, and an overachieving girl. Sound familiar? To be quite frank, I think Percy and the Olympians is an excellent series to follow HP. A stranger in the bookstore last week asked me what might be a good series to follow Harry Potter. This person said that Twilight seemed a bit too...well, TOO. I agreed and suggested Percy and the Olympians.

In this second volume, Percy is once again faced with a challenge that will put him in grave danger. The monsters are just as vile and the references to mythology are ever-present. The exciting part about this particular chapter in Percy's life is that it's personal. He gains a brother and has to save his best friend from an amorous cyclopes. This chapter of the overall story is building up to what I am sure will end in some final battle of good versus evil. The god of the underworld, Kronos, is gaining in power and will likely become Voldemort-esque.

For adults, the similarities may be too much to handle, thus boring the reader. For young readers, however, I think that Percy will open a whole new world of monsters and heroes. If nothing else, Riordan is a great writer who creates a humorous narrator in Percy Jackson.