Percy Jackson – The Last Olympian

I know I haven’t blogged in weeks…and so I write again…In any case, I completed the Percy Jackson series sometime around mid-april but never really got around posting about the 5th and final instalment – The Last Olympian.

As with the prequels, The Last Olympian is interesting with a medley of legends such as the Achilles Curse and the Pandora’s Box, two crucial aspects of the plot. As Percy prepares for the final battle, Nico becomes an important ally aiding Percy in becoming invincible. The Titans meanwhile, are getting stronger with Oceanus, Hyperion and Typhon battering the Olympian gods allowing Kronos a free reign over New York, the base of modern day Olympus.

Its now left to the demi-gods headed by Percy, Annabeth, Silena, Clarisse and the Apollo cabin (can’t remember the name of the guy who heads them) aided by Chiron and the Satyrs to defend Olympus from Kronos and his army. Rachel Elizabeth Dare discovers her true purpose in life and so do a lot many demi-gods. Needless to say…Olympus is saved in the end and the Titans are vanquished once more to the depths of Tartarus.

Though the story is predictable, Riordan comes out with yet an engaging book through his perfectly timed interpretation and playing out of the Greek myths. The humor interspersed with the war and the tragedy thats part n parcel of the war is what I felt was the best part of the book. Yet another interesting aspect is interpretation of a prophecy. While the prophecies in Harry Potter seem to be a bit predictable, this is one series where you keep guessing who the prophecy refers to. It takes Percy a whole war to realize the true meaning of the prophecy.

Percy Jackson – The Battle of the Labyrinth

Everyone who’s ever read Greek Mythology would be aware of Daedalus and King Minos Labyrinth. Infact, certain excavations in and around Crete and the other islands seem to kind of corroborate on the existence of a Labyrinth. Now Minotaur? That’s a different story!

So in the Battle of the Labyrinth, the plot gets a bit serious and a lil deadly too with introduction of Dracaenae attacking Percy at his new school. At the camp, mystery deepens with Clarisse being sombre than usual to Percy not to mention Annabeth’s impatience with him. During one of the camp games Percy and Annabeth discover the entrance to the Labyrinth and also discover that they aren’t the only ones to know of this secret entrance.

Quintus who is the new helper at camp Half-blood is a mystery by himself and the least of Percy’s troubles. The camp learns of Luke’s preparations for the final battle…and its time for Annabeth’s quest. The Quest is to find Daedalus and ask for his allegiance to join the Olympians against the Titans. Percy, Grover, Annabeth and Tyson guided by Rachel Elizabeth Dare enter the Labyrinth and end up being pursued in and out by the Dracaenae, Empousai and the fearsome Kampe. And finally the Titan Kronos rises inside Luke’s body.

Do the demi gods win the battle or all is lost? And who aids them this time is what you need to watch out for here. The story is fast paced and absolutely brilliant. I will remember to set my expectations low for the movies.

The good part here is Nico di Angelo overcomes Minos’s guidance and gives his allegiance to Percy putting his ghosts behind him. Percy has a kind of bittersweet reunion with his dad at the end of the book on his birthday. Annabeth’s ultimate choice has been stalled by Hera for the time being. And poor Calypso falls in love with Percy not to mention Elizabeth too.

Percy Jackson – The Titan’s Curse

The 3rd installment in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series is The Titan’s Curse. Now the story gets murkier with more ancient cast thrown in…namely the Titans and guest appearances by Artemis and her Hunters not to mention Apollo.

Percy, Thalia and Annabeth are summoned by Grover to help him in rescuing 2 demigods – siblings from a Manticore. The rescue comes at a cost – Annabeth’s disappearance followed by appearance of Artemis and her hunters lead by Zoe Nightshade. The siblings rescued are Bianca and Nico di Angelo whose godly parentage is unknown. Bianca readily joins the hunters while Nico becomes friends with Percy. Artemis then goes off on the quest to find the fabled lost monster that could help the Titans to overthrow Olympians.

Back at the camp, Clarisse is sent on a secret mission while Zoe seeing a distressing dream involving Artemis puts together team for a quest – Rescuing Artemis based on guidance from the Oracle.

The team headed by Zoe comprises Thalia, Bianca and Grover. But an adamant Percy follows them unseen. The team battles one nightmare after another especially the skeletal warriors sent by Atlas, the General of the Titans. Well this particular story ends in a mix of happiness and tragedy but the suspense keeps getting stronger.

The Titan’s Curse just goes on to prove how ruthless the Titans are and will be…with no sense of repentance ever! Percy’s character evolves a lot in this book…where he does start thinking more about his choices thereby proving himself as a worthy hero to Artemis and her hunters especially Zoe.

Like Harry whose loyalty to his friends and aides proves costly to him…Percy’s unending sense of loyalty also proves to be the bane for each of his quests.

As for Thalia, she portrays the same qualities that make her father seem very arrogant…she is impulsive and can be tempted by power…that makes a vulnerable but powerful demigod.But in the end, sensing her weakness and the doom that might prevail on mankind, Thalia makes one of the hardest decisions in her life thereby winning approval from her father, Zeus. She removes herself from the prophecy leaving only Percy and Nico as the contenders.

The 3rd most powerful demigod after Percy and Thalia is Nico di Angelo…who while possibly older than Percy or Thalia is still younger owing to the fact that he’s hidden by Hades, his father. Nico with his dark powers to manipulate the dead souls may seem even more powerful than the rest but is he or is he not remains to be seen in subsequent sequels.

On the whole, this book is more of a bridge between the first 2 and the last 2 books. In the sense, it completes the hunt for all the 3 powerful demigods, sets the pace for the war and establishes the characters strengths and weaknesses.

Sea of Monsters

I finally finished the 2nd book in the Percy Jackson series…Sea of Monsters. Its a sequel to The Lightening Thief and brings in newer characters into the plot.

Percy returns to camp Half-Blood with a new visitor in tow – a young Cyclops named Tyson amidst a monster invasion. The reason they discover soon enough, is that Thalia’s tree has been poisoned and this had caused the security breach. The only cure is the Golden Fleece which translates to a new quest. Percy had also been having strange dreams where Grover is pleading him to rescue from the island of Cyclops.

This time the quest is given to Clarisse, daughter of Ares but Percy and Annabeth along with Tyson embark on a dangerous adventure of their own to rescue Grover and retrieve the fleece with a staunch fight from Luke and his cronies. Guest appearances by monsters and nymphs in this book  – Scylla, Charybdis, Circe and well Polyphemus.

They manage to save the tree finally but that only results in introducing an old  demi-god born of the powerful 3 into the game for the ultimate power!

Although the story was fast paced, I felt that at times the author was trying to be too descriptive about a scene setting. The humor was not that great this time around but then you can’t get everything right always. The book is a great gripping read!

The Lightening Thief

I started on Percy Jackson series recently alongside reading the tedious book on different books…and well while the story seemed a tad too predictable it was engaging.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan features a modern age demi-god Perseus Jackson, born of Poseidon and a human lady. Like all demi-gods he’s AHDH and dyslexic but this is attributed to his superhuman reflexes. The books follow Percy and his friends Annabeth (daughter of Athena) and a Satyr Grover Underwood across the different Greecian worlds as they try to defeat the Titans yet again.

So book 1 – The Lightening Thief sets the stage for the subsequent books by introducing Percy and his friends Annabeth Chase & Grover Underwood.

Camp Half-Blood started by the Gods for the demi-godlings is headed by Dionysus called Mr. D and Chiron whose job is to train the demi-gods. There are 12 cabins one for each of the 12 Olympians and the description of some of the cabins is amusing.

While at the camp, Percy makes both friends and foes – Luke from the Hermes cabin, Clarisse from the Ares cabin, Beckendorf from Hephaestus cabin and some from Apollo and Aphrodite cabins.

Just as he settles in, Percy is accused of stealing Zeus’s Thunderbolt and is sent on a quest to retrieve it by Summer Solstice failing which the WW III starts. His adventures following this sets the pace for rest of the book. Along the way the trio discover the unsettling truth behind the feud between Poseidon and Zeus as well as what lies beyond the depths of Tartarus. The ending is just the precursor for the events to come!

So what did I like about this series?

Its a fast paced storyline set with a lot of adventure and monsters. Percy’s future is as gloomy as a demi-god’s future can get but he bravely pushes on. Its an action-adventure with comedy set in at brief intervals to lighten up the reader who would be furiously riffling through the pages. And the humor is really cool…no other way to describe it. Imagine a modern day Underworld with Charon dressed in an Italian suit demanding pay rise from Hades who has staffing problems as is with the growing number of dead.

What I hate about this?

Its so similar to Harry Potter with lots of common elements – the prophecy, Annabeth vs. Hermione, strange things happen to Percy although he stays away from trouble (remember HP??). While Percy is not definitely a soppy character yet…he does have a bit of arrogance and refuses to obey the Gods often earning their ire.

I’ve started on Book 2 – Sea of Monsters, and so far it doesn’t have similarities with HP. And I hope it goes that way!

So if you want a light read but with some story in it then these are the books for you. I’m waiting for the movie too..the trailers seem quite captivating with all the special effects.