Remember my last post about not reading really anything over the holidays? Well, I may have over indulged. 

As you can see by the image above I read a whole series this past week. Though it is targeted for 9 year olds so they weren't a very challenging read but they were still a good read. 

In the books Rick Riordan combines Greek Mythology with Western civilization. The gods have continued to have children with mortals and these demi-gods are watched until they are taken to Camp Half-Blood where they can be safe, train, and make s'mores. Unfortunately, monsters are also aware of the children and try to hunt them down before they can reach the camp. 

Percy Jackson, the son of Poseidon, is the main character along with a few of his friends. He leans that his ADHD and dyslexia, that have always made him a trouble maker and outsider, are common traits in half-bloods and the strange events in his life can be attributed to monsters. The main over-arching story through all the books is that there is a Great Prophecy that a child of the Big Three (Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades) will make a choice when they are sixteen that will determine the future of the gods. 

I'm sure you've already guessed that this child is Percy Jackson. Riordan did set himself up for that by naming the whole series after him. The main over-arching story (see above paragraph) is good. Elements come up in every book that takes you a step further to see what Percy's choice will be. However, every book follows the same what I'll call the A-B-C approach: A) Go on an adventure B) Come back from adventure C) Add something at the end to lead into the next book. 

I like Riordan's approach to the myths. He was casual about what the gods look like: Apollo wearing Ray Ban sunglasses, Ares looking like a biker, etc. He also managed to bring in a lot of the old myths and weave them into the main story.

I have to admit the first few books were a little hard to get through (I'm not 9 years old). But by the time Percy had grown up a little bit more and I became fimiliar with the pace of the books, I started to like them more.  

Now I just need to watch the movie... Sean Bean as Zeus? I think I can handle that.

The Wakeful Dreamer
Nicole
1/13/2012 11:12:01 am

WARNING: Movie=nonsensical and bad. REALLY bad. And disloyal. And I'm no purist, but when you see what they did to Annabeth, you'll be disgusted too. I'll just put it out there. She doesn't even have her hat.

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1/13/2012 11:22:52 am

I've been thinking of reading these for awhile. I may just have to take the plunge and give them a shot!

love your blogs by the way =)

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