Percy Jackson and the Olympians
I actually thought I’d never get a chance to read this series. I was looking for a benefactor during the start of summer, someone to lend me the book. Since Greek mythology has always been an interesting topic for me and all that stuff.
I gave up hope and when I got to our province it just so happened my cousin had the whole series. My aunt saw me reading Austen there, and happened to tell me.
“You like classics? Your cousing, *insert older cousin’s name here* likes mythology. She completed this series of Greek…”
And my ears perked up and I was all.. “Percy Jackson?”
And she nodded and went I’ll tell her to lend them to you - give them to you actually. But I happen to know how hard it is to giveaway ..books. So yeah.
And my aunt went back to Cebu the next day promising me that when she got back to our province the next day she’d bring the books over for me.
She did return the next week, a mere day before I left for Manila. I was worried about how heavy my baggage was already but I couldn’t care less I had to bring back the four books with me.
I’m missing the fifth cause someone else borrowed it ahead of me. OTL. But yeah.
And now I just finished the second installment, The Sea of Monsters.
First off, I find it follows a similar pattern to that of the Harry Potter series. *runs away from fangirls* And this doesn’t really mean it’s bad. DON’T GET ME WRONG I’M A FAN OF BOTH SERIES. It’s just something I noticed. OKAY. As a wanna be writer I just like to notice elements like that.
We find a young boy, a mere 12 year-old that’s having trouble trying to fit in into normal society. He leads a “miserable” life with a stepdad who hardly cares for him, he’s being bullied at school, and he always makes weird things happen.
Only to later find out that all the weird things that happen to him and the reason why he’s in trouble trying to cope with this world is because he simply really doesn’t belong there - they belong in some secret, magical world.
And woosh. Boy finds himself in a training ground - for HP, Hogwarts, for Percy we have Camp Half-Blood. And then, boy turns out to be someone special even in that world and they are connected to some prophecy of great awesomeness. LOL. *shottodeath*
And because boy is connected to some powerful, historical, or legendary person he is able to do feats, stuff he couldn’t imagine he could do or something he just suddenly knows out of the blue because he’s in trouble, helps him be a hero.
But authorities will always be in the way, threatening him to be expelled, threaten his life. BLAH. All the usual stuff.
And then there’s all the workings of the secret world existing along with us regular folks but we don’t notice it and all.
Oh. And they get friends that aren’t really popular with the crowd either - Grover, Tyson, Hagrid. You know, people who get misunderstood.
Lastly, the ultimate enemy has no form at the beginning of the novel, if you know what I mean. And they’re just trying to pick up the pieces they need for their grand entrance. LOL. I’m trying hard not to go into details.
Anyway, that doesn’t really matter. Pretty much all stories have the same elements anyway. Ideas are just recycled, here and there.
Secondly, GREEK MYTHOLOGY IS SO COOL. And the whole premise of the novel is so *hearts* Mainly because, it made heroes within reach.
I mean the only half-gods, half-mortal I really was familiar with was Hercules. And he was muscular and bulky, and you know, god-like. But Percy, Percy is a loser. And the whole novel shows that he’s a regular teenager - a kid actually, going through angst, freaked out by this whole thing.
It reminded me of a lot of things - heroes are mortal, heroes are children too. They want their parent’s attention. They question their parent’s love for them, and yes, they get mad at them as well.
And the gods? Oh. Holy smokes. I love them. Talk about personifications - I don’t even want to assume that they aren’t real. *shot*
I thought I was open-minded. LOL. But just imagine it, yes. The gods have always been known to flirt around with mortals, and yet we only have a few well-known heroes in the myths. What happened to the others? AND KABOOM. There’s the book.
So I am going to start on The Titan’s Curse now. I’m just so excited to be introduced to Hades’ son cause Skandar Keynes is playing him in the movie. *shotshotshot*