Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson, Heroes of Olympus, Kane Chronicles, etc.)

[Demented Daisy]

Nico's gay!

 That blew my mind, but it kind of explains a whole lot, too.

 

Okay, with that out of my system, I am looking forward to, yet dreading, Blood of Olympus.  

 

Loving the PJ/KC crossover short stories.  With Staff of Serapis, it really sounds like he has a full story in mind at some point....

 

Also looking forward to his upcoming Norse mythology series.  (That guy up in the corner is my dog Loki -- named after the Norse god, not the Marvel or Supernatural character.)

 

Thoughts?  Speculation on the deaths in Blood of Olympus (because you know he's gonna kill off at least a couple of characters)? Favorite/least favorite characters?  

[anstar]

Percy Jackson's Guide to the Greek Gods (I think that's the title) comes out this Tuesday.  I'm excited about that.  It'll hold me over until BoO, which comes out in October.  I need to read the series again next month. Refresh my memory.

[joanne3482]

I'm working on a reread of the whole mess right now. I finished all the Percy Jackson ones and am now on Mark of Athena. I'm really enjoying my reread of them. 

 

Thoughts?  Speculation on the deaths in Blood of Olympus (because you know he's gonna kill off at least a couple of characters)? Favorite/least favorite characters?

 

Deaths of only minor characters I don't care about! None of the 7. I'd be okay if Octavius were to die. :) 

 

 

I never really got into the Kane books. I have read them but not with the same ferocity that I read Percy. Maybe because Egyptian myths and legends aren't something I'm as familiar with. 

[anstar]

I love Egyptian mythology much more than Greek or Roman, but prefer both of those series over the Kane books.  I enjoyed the Kane Chronicles, just not as much as I'd expected.  The cross-overs are fun though.  Carter and Percy fighting the giant alligator in...was it Son of Sobek?  And then Sadie and Annabeth teamed up in The Staff of Serapis.   He's writing Norse mythology now.  I love his writing style, but I never got into the Norse legends.  I'm vaguely familiar with a few names... Thor, Odin, Loki. 

I'm still trying to finish his "Greek Gods" book (which is pretty good) and then I need to go back and read Mark of Athena again.  Actually, I want to start at The Lightning Thief again, but don't know if I have time to get all the way through them all before October.

Edited August 26, 2014 by anstar

[Demented Daisy]

I'm so torn because the new tv season will be starting around the same time as Blood of Olympus will be published.  So, reread the books or refresh on my shows?  I wish I had time for both, but I can't see it happening.

 

None of the stores in my area have gotten the new Percy Jackson's Greek Gods (or whatever it's called).  A friend picked me up a copy and is mailing it to me.  :-)

 

I'm a little sad, though, because my daughter and I have been reading these books together for years, but we can't this year -- because she left for college!

[joanne3482]

Demented Daisy, I've just started on my reread of House of Hades. I haven't gotten to your spoiler yet, but now I'm thinking how did I miss that the first time because I really did not remember that at all.

 I'm a little sad, though, because my daughter and I have been reading these books together for years, but we can't this year -- because she left for college!

 

Isn't that what Skype is for? 

[Demented Daisy]

Oh, yeah.  And cell phones and the like, but she's not going to have time to read it until the summer.  Or so she says.  

 

Not only is Nico gay, but he had a crush on Percy.

 I've gone back to the earlier books, looking for clues.  Nothing blatant, just little things that, in retrospect, make sense.

[joanne3482]

Now that I've reread that scene I still don't remember reading it the first time, but it was well done. I hope Nico isn't one that will end up killed off in BoO. Really I don't want any of the 7 killed off. Or Grover or Tyson or Ella or or or... :)

[Demented Daisy]

Got it last night (yay for time zone difference!) and finished it all in one night.  So disappointed.  The entire series had been so good, but the ending was so... flat.  

 

One year until:

 

 

 

Sound familiar?  It should.

[Spiraling]

I love these books. Read them to my sons and it was such a bonding experience. Now one of them is obsessed with Greek mythology, so that worked out pretty well. I'm even hoping to take him to Greece soon.  

[Gozaru]

So in this book Percy gets hit on twice. Once by Reyna and the other time by Reyna's sister. Is that correct?

[Demented Daisy]

So in this book Percy gets hit on twice. Once by Reyna and the other time by Reyna's sister. Is that correct?

 

 

Which book are you talking about?  

[Athena]

Which book are you talking about?  

 

This is my mistake. I merged two threads and it left out the title of Gozaru's old one. One of the books mentioned in their  title was The Mark of the Athena, the other might have been The Son of Neptune. Apologies.

[Demented Daisy]

No problem.  :-)  

[stlbf]

Picked up the new Greek Heroes book. Pretty good read on the old Greek myths. Like the fact the Percy points out Hercules's temper issues. And same goes with Jason. Never really cared for the guy. He dumps his magically empowered wife, who actually had to murder and dismember her brother to save Jason and his crews' hides. And he thought she would totally ok with him leaving her for a younger princess? Moron.

[Demented Daisy]

One week away from the first book in the new Magnus Chase series.  I'm looking forward to it, though I am a bit concerned that Loki will be the main antagonist at some point.  I'll have to stay away from the internet for a little while because I don't want to read the endless cries of "Ripoff!" by people who have no clue about Norse mythology.

 

But I'm biased because my dog is named Loki -- not after the Marvel character.

[Demented Daisy]

Finished the first Magnus Chase and it was okay.  As a main character, Percy Jackson is still my favorite (and still the funniest).  Speaking of which:

 

 

Apparently, Apollo is going to become a human kid and attend Camp Half-Blood.  It's supposed to be a 3-book series.  Looking forward to that one.

[stlbf]

The Magnus Chase book pretty good for a set up book. And it can be an easy set up to draw in Percy, Annabeth and the rest of the gang down the line. I just hope that any crossover doesn't happen for quite some time. I still think that Jason and his fellow Roman demigods kind of got the short end of the stick with their series. Which quickly seemed to morph into the further adventures of Percy and pals. These Norse books need to dive into Magnus' s floormates past and his friendship with them. They definitely need to be fleshed out.

But I do love that the Norse Valhalla is filled with non demigods and non vikings.

[Demented Daisy]

The Magnus Chase book pretty good for a set up book. And it can be an easy set up to draw in Percy, Annabeth and the rest of the gang down the line. I just hope that any crossover doesn't happen for quite some time. I still think that Jason and his fellow Roman demigods kind of got the short end of the stick with their series. Which quickly seemed to morph into the further adventures of Percy and pals. 

 

I find that interesting because, to me, the Greek demigods were practically nonexistent in Blood of Olympus.  They had next to no role in defeating Gaea, even though Jason, Piper, and Leo used the same method Percy used in Battle of the Labyrinth to defeat Gaea's son Antaeus.

 

I do agree, though, that books 2-4 were rather Greek demigod heavy.

[Demented Daisy]

Excerpt from The Trials of Apollo

 

Really looking forward to this one now.  How often do we get a book from the god's perspective?  Love the "voice" Riordan has given Apollo.

[Spartan Girl]

I do like Greek mythology and the premise of these books were interesting. Read the Guide to the Greek Heroes book and it was funny.

[Demented Daisy]

[MelinaBallerina]

I'm really loving these series.  I've read the first Percy Jackson series and I'm now working my way through Heroes (on Mark of Athena now).  I still see Kevin Smith in my mind whenever Ares comes into a scene.  

[Bo-Peep22]

I just finished book 2 in the Magnus Chase series: It was enjoyable but I don't like the series as much as I thought I would (I feel like everyone says this after they read the Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus books first lol). I tried reading the Kane Chronicles a few years ago (which I also liked but again not as much as I assumed I would) but could never bring myself to read the last book (though I know how the series ends.) By the time the cross-over novels popped up it had been so long since I had read the first two books of the Kane Chronicles that I didn't bother trying to read the crossover stuff:/

Now that I've finally given Magnus Chase a chance (I bought the first book like 2 years ago and only just read it two days ago) I have to say that while I love Riordan's efforts to include all kinds of new obstacles and diverse characters , I was a little underwhelmed by the characters he chose to represent this time around. I enjoyed Magnus' sarcastic nature (Percy had always been a fairly naïve "Gryffindor-ish" protagonist and Carter (from what I remember) had quite a guileless and innocent outlook about the changes in his life in family (like the boy next door). Magnus seemed very "grown-up" in comparison, though I'm assuming this is because he was older in the first book than both Percy and Carter were in their debut novels? I also enjoyed the inclusion of characters like Blitz and Hearth but...that's about it as far as the characters go.

  Riordan's decision to include characters with sub-plots that almost eclipse the whole demi-god discovery was, at times, a little annoying. I feel like Riordan almost included too many "real-world" issues (WAY more than his predecessor novels) that it is difficult to refer to it as a children's series in the same way that Percy Jackson and Kane Chronicles are. Again, I can appreciate that Riordan wanted to represent more diverse characters than his other novels however he's (so far) only two books into his Norse trilogy and has tackled so many "real-world" controversies and Norse trivia that it was difficult to think of the characters beyond-"Oh that's the one that's (insert defining characteristic here)" whereas more time was spent fleshing out the characters in the Kane and Jackson series (mostly because there were fewer characters and more books in both series (I'm counting the cross-over books as well.)  

  This may have been the point though? Magnus has a lot less at stake than Carter, Percy, and Jason did (right off the bat actually) so maybe Riordan didn't want Magnus to experience the same, "Oh my Gods, what do you mean my Father/Mother was a God/Goddess??" The Norse trilogy focuses more on Magnus' relationships with the other characters. The issue with this however...I feel like we aren't given the opportunity to really get to know and love the characters like the readers were with Percy Jackson. Because there are fewer books in all the new sub series that have been introduced, Riordan sort of has to struggle with making us like the characters but also educate us with all the mythology we either didn't know or were a little rusty on within like 3 books. (That may just be me being biased though because the whole reason I even picked up "The Lightning Thief" was because I loved Greek Mythology so much so I didn't really have to worry about remembering what each God/Goddess represented etc.) In comparison, I knew absolutely nothing about Egyptian myths and very little about North Gods/Goddess' that wasn't explained in the Marvel franchise.

  I do still plan to finish out the Norse trilogy when the last book comes out this October though:}

SIDENOTE:  I apologize about my post being so vague around a few of the topics I discussed- I didn't want to post any spoilers. Though I do want to say that-

Spoiler

one of you guys called it, Percy has been teased to appear in the last book (of the Norse Trilogy.)

[MelinaBallerina]

I'm currently working my way through the Kane Chronicles.  I really hate first person narratives, especially when it keeps switching viewpoints.  so it's kind of a slog for me.  There just isn't enough character development, so the story feels a bit shallow - more "we did this and we did that" vs. really telling and letting the reader live a story.   Maybe it's also because the Egyptian gods are kinda boring?  In any case, this series is just not holding up to the Greek series.