Guest post: Another Teenaged Boy Steals My Heart
Today's guest post was written by Jeans - you've seen her before, as she often accompanies me to author events. Although our reading tastes don't always line up, we do agree that mythology and fairy tales are awesome, and modern takes on the stories are worth investigation. Jeans recently revisited the Percy Jackson series and wrote a little about her experience. Be sure to check out her movie review blog, Movie Harpy - where everything is rated on the Caspian scale.
Another Teenaged Boy Steals My Heart
by Jeannie Tran
I didn't discover the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series until about three years after the first book was published in 2005. Harry Potter had just ended but I was still too wrapped up in the world of magic and wizards to notice this new adventure, even though it featured Greek mythology. I don't think it was until there were talks of the Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief movie that I finally caught wind of this series. So I ran out and got the first book... and the rest shortly thereafter. It hadn't been since Hogwarts that I gotten completely pulled into fantasy world, this time with gods and ancient monsters.
At first glance, it may seem that Riordan ripped off J.K. Rowling's ideas and just put a mythological spin on them. Percy has messy black hair and green eyes. He's brave to the point of reckless, and will do anything to save his friends. His best friend Grover is a cowardly and bumbling sidekick, with red hair and freckles. His other companion is a brainy and clever girl whose wits get them out of trouble whenever fisticuffs don't work. And if that doesn't seem familiar enough, Percy's whole existence is based on fulfilling a great prophesy by age 16 that may not actually be about him. So yes, there are some very obvious similarities. Maybe Riordan did use Rowling as inspiration, but Percy's journey is far different from Harry's.
One major difference is Percy lives in New York and his adventures take him all over the United States, places that are real and familiar. Cultural differences between America and the UK aside, Riordan doesn't create a new world with fictitious places like Diagon Alley and Godric's Hollow, places that exist parallel to our world but never intersect. Riordan weaves Percy's world and ours together. He modernizes ancient Greek concepts, places and characters, reinventing old myths to fit them into today. He used mostly the popular gods and monsters, but every now and then he'd throw in a name so obscure that I'd have to stop mid-sentence to do a quick Wikipedia search. That was the best part, being reintroduced to the mythology I love so much and learning new stories along the way.
If asked which series is better I'd hesitate but ultimately say Harry Potter, though I like Percy's character better than Harry. Percy just has more personality, more humor. He just seems like a typical teenage boy, there's nothing special about him outside of his powers. And I love that he always has a smart aleck response even when he's inches away from death. He makes Harry seem so bland.
So why talk about these books now, four years later? In 2010 Riordan released The Lost Hero, the first book in The Heroes of Olympus series which picks up right after where Percy leaves us in The Last Olympian. I was so mad at Rowling for the epilogue at the end of Deathly Hallows, I feel like she cheated me out of 19 years of Harry's life. I don't know what's worse, thinking that he had more adventures in those years that I'll never know about or that his life was completely uneventful during those years - got a job, got married, had kids. But I didn't have time to miss Percy, here he was in a brand new adventure. The last couple of years kind of got away from me and I didn't pick up this series until a couple of weeks ago. It was already into its third book.
This series has a Roman twist to it that gives Riordan a whole new perspective to work with. New prophesy, new gods, new monsters, new ideals, and new characters, but still retaining old friends. In Percy Jackson & the Olympians all the books are written through Percy's eyes. You see everything from his point of view, and really get inside his head and figure out who he is and what drives him. The Heroes of Olympus jumps between different narrators, as three main characters in each book get to tell their story. You start to learn how other people see Percy. He's not even in the first book, but he's still very much present. Riordan does a really excellent job connecting the two series, making references to the first series and bringing back minor characters that were only a passing blip in the story. It had been such a long time since I read the first series that some of the references went right over my head, so as soon as I finished Mark of Athena I went right back to The Lightening Thief and started over. It was like reuniting with an old friend. The tone of the first series is completely different. Percy starts off as a 12 year old, and he narrates like he's 12 years old. It maintains a youthful tone throughout the series and by the second series it matures with the characters.
The fourth book, The House of Hades, doesn't come out until October and the final book the following year. I wish I had waited a bit to dive into this series because I hate waiting. A Percy Jackson: The Sea of Monsters movie is being made but I'll leave that subject alone for now. I've already been ranting about it for weeks.
Another Teenaged Boy Steals My Heart
by Jeannie Tran
I didn't discover the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series until about three years after the first book was published in 2005. Harry Potter had just ended but I was still too wrapped up in the world of magic and wizards to notice this new adventure, even though it featured Greek mythology. I don't think it was until there were talks of the Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief movie that I finally caught wind of this series. So I ran out and got the first book... and the rest shortly thereafter. It hadn't been since Hogwarts that I gotten completely pulled into fantasy world, this time with gods and ancient monsters.
At first glance, it may seem that Riordan ripped off J.K. Rowling's ideas and just put a mythological spin on them. Percy has messy black hair and green eyes. He's brave to the point of reckless, and will do anything to save his friends. His best friend Grover is a cowardly and bumbling sidekick, with red hair and freckles. His other companion is a brainy and clever girl whose wits get them out of trouble whenever fisticuffs don't work. And if that doesn't seem familiar enough, Percy's whole existence is based on fulfilling a great prophesy by age 16 that may not actually be about him. So yes, there are some very obvious similarities. Maybe Riordan did use Rowling as inspiration, but Percy's journey is far different from Harry's.
One major difference is Percy lives in New York and his adventures take him all over the United States, places that are real and familiar. Cultural differences between America and the UK aside, Riordan doesn't create a new world with fictitious places like Diagon Alley and Godric's Hollow, places that exist parallel to our world but never intersect. Riordan weaves Percy's world and ours together. He modernizes ancient Greek concepts, places and characters, reinventing old myths to fit them into today. He used mostly the popular gods and monsters, but every now and then he'd throw in a name so obscure that I'd have to stop mid-sentence to do a quick Wikipedia search. That was the best part, being reintroduced to the mythology I love so much and learning new stories along the way.
If asked which series is better I'd hesitate but ultimately say Harry Potter, though I like Percy's character better than Harry. Percy just has more personality, more humor. He just seems like a typical teenage boy, there's nothing special about him outside of his powers. And I love that he always has a smart aleck response even when he's inches away from death. He makes Harry seem so bland.
So why talk about these books now, four years later? In 2010 Riordan released The Lost Hero, the first book in The Heroes of Olympus series which picks up right after where Percy leaves us in The Last Olympian. I was so mad at Rowling for the epilogue at the end of Deathly Hallows, I feel like she cheated me out of 19 years of Harry's life. I don't know what's worse, thinking that he had more adventures in those years that I'll never know about or that his life was completely uneventful during those years - got a job, got married, had kids. But I didn't have time to miss Percy, here he was in a brand new adventure. The last couple of years kind of got away from me and I didn't pick up this series until a couple of weeks ago. It was already into its third book.
This series has a Roman twist to it that gives Riordan a whole new perspective to work with. New prophesy, new gods, new monsters, new ideals, and new characters, but still retaining old friends. In Percy Jackson & the Olympians all the books are written through Percy's eyes. You see everything from his point of view, and really get inside his head and figure out who he is and what drives him. The Heroes of Olympus jumps between different narrators, as three main characters in each book get to tell their story. You start to learn how other people see Percy. He's not even in the first book, but he's still very much present. Riordan does a really excellent job connecting the two series, making references to the first series and bringing back minor characters that were only a passing blip in the story. It had been such a long time since I read the first series that some of the references went right over my head, so as soon as I finished Mark of Athena I went right back to The Lightening Thief and started over. It was like reuniting with an old friend. The tone of the first series is completely different. Percy starts off as a 12 year old, and he narrates like he's 12 years old. It maintains a youthful tone throughout the series and by the second series it matures with the characters.
The fourth book, The House of Hades, doesn't come out until October and the final book the following year. I wish I had waited a bit to dive into this series because I hate waiting. A Percy Jackson: The Sea of Monsters movie is being made but I'll leave that subject alone for now. I've already been ranting about it for weeks.