The Tale of Percy Jackson

So I've done it! I finished the entire 5 book series, however it could possibly be continued. I'll get to that later.

I really liked the series as you might have been able to tell over the course of the two previous reviews. The final book was I think the best. The pacing was spot on, I felt that Rick Riodan had gotten better at writing action by this point and this book contained a ton of action. I also enjoyed the way that he brought back previous characters to have small, but important parts of the final chapters.

Since, I'm not one to spoil things, I'll just say that the book didn't quite end the way I expected.

However, despite the good action and the development of the characters, which tied a lot of the lingering loose ends together, I felt that he did a cheap trick. He left the ending open again. Without ruining, I have to say you will know what I mean if you read it. But these sort of endings, just like the rest of the books aggravates me. I like a closed ending. Doesn't have to be happy or sad or any emotion in particular, just some semblance that the characters will go on with their life, but if I'm not going to read it, I don't want to know that there is a new thing awaiting them.

So in summary, these books were very well done, they are better as a whole, than the individual pieces, which is a glaring weak point in what I think keeps it from being a great series. Look at the Harry Potter books for reference. Those books each stand alone with their own plot that ties together at the ending, even with Voldemort still running around, the stories satisfactorily end at the end of the book. Anyways, that's really my only complaint of the entire series.

Do you guys have any things you would like me to review, or comment on. Any questions?

Percy Jackson Book Review

So I reviewed the first book a while back and have now read books 2-4. I am getting the feeling that the best thing about these books, is the mythology. The characters are pretty well developed, and the story is alright.

Still the thing that bothers me is the lack of any closure in the books. They all are so entwined that if you were to read book 3 first, you would be lost in the overall scheme of the world. The author does some tying together with the other book plots, which is nice for those that have read them, but if you didn't it would come across as a log line of those books.

I can't say I mind it too much, because the world that the author has created is very deep and lovingly handled. I think its because I have read all of them so far. I don't like to spoil things so I'm not going to, but some of the elements that carry over need to be carried over, otherwise the books wouldn't be quite as interesting.

I would recommend it to anyone, as long as they like Greek Mythology, and could handle the lower age group that the books are intended for. I'll post another review in a couple weeks about the entire series.

Thanks for reading.

Percy Jackson Movie Review

So, as you might have guessed, based on the book review last week, I saw the movie over the weekend.

The story: What can I say? The similarities are name, demigods and that's pretty much it. There isn't much thats the same as the book. The story on its own works decently for a movie. Their on a quest to save his mother and he needs three items to be able to do so. So the quest begins. I'm not going to harp on the differences, but as the story goes for the movie, it was pretty straight forward and simple to follow. Some of the action pieces were well done as well as I felt the special effects served their purposes. I would have liked more development of the bad guy as it sort of comes out of nowhere how he's revealed and such, so when it happens it seems a bit bland.

The characters: I felt that the three main characters were very stereotypical teenagers. The smart and feisty girl. The mack daddy kid and the brooding main character. There wasn't enough depth to really care about what happened to either of them. I think they did this to cater to the audience as Grover came across as comical at times, but more childish comedy than any substance behind the stuff he does. The relationship that the main character explores with Annabeth seems sort of odd in the movie because they are enemies then all of a sudden they are close. There isn't any sort of transition between the two points. The minor characters were that, minor. Nothing notable about them besides their Greek Mythology reference.

The overall feeling of the movie was a cheap cash-in on the success of the book. I liked the idea and if adapted more true to the book it would have been a better story. Overall it came across with very little of the charm and magic that the book held which was too bad. I honestly think they will make the sequels, but don't know how they will fit in with the other books as some of the main things that are carried over in the rest of the books are omitted from the movie. I would give this movie a 5 out 10. A good movie if you can look at separate from the book, not so much if you are comparing them.

Review: Percy Jackson and the Olympians Book 1. The Lightning Thief

So I just finished the first book of this middle grade novel. It took me a total of 4 days to read it. I was expecting a massive accomplishment since I've heard it compared to "Harry Potter" and has a movie coming out. (Movie's off of books usually mean they have an audience.)

This book wasn't quite up to the hype that I've been hearing about it. Although, I enjoyed it for the Greek mythology brought up to date, which I thought was very clever, I never got the sense of wonder that other books in this genre tend to inspire. I think the primary reason for this was the writing was a little bit too telling at times when I wanted to get a better sense of what was going on. It could attributed to the younger audience, but once again "Harry Potter" didn't have this same sort of feel to it.

The characters were nice, a little predictable, but that wasn't a bad thing as they did their roles well. The story moved along at a quick pace and kept me entertained, mainly through the god references, and mythology, but the plot was pretty simple and the big twists I saw a while ahead of time. I think it's my age that probably did that as I've grown accustom to more adult novels so these twists weren't so surprising.

If I think about it from a younger mindset, I think that it would have worked a lot better.

However, there were two things that really bothered me about the book, one was it seemed like they were going to get done with their quest like a week ahead of the deadline and they just happen to come across a casino that fast forward's time? It seemed a bit convenient, however it was cleverly done, but seemed like they just added it because things were getting done faster than the writer hoped.

Another thing that bothered me and this might not have been the writer's doing, but I've always read about how the first book should stand on its own and tie up all loose ends. This book leaves a major plot point wide open at the end. This could have been done by the publishing house after they decided to continue it in a series so they left it open. I think this bothered me because of the fact that if this book wasn't a series, I would have been left with a sort of what the heck was that ending?

Overall the book is good minus those couple points above and maybe I was just not its target audience. I would give the book a good 3.5 out of 5.

Have you read it, what did you guys think of it as fellow writers?