Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Okay, the official title of the series is Percy Jackson and the Olympians, but that’s a bit long to fit into a blog post title. Either way, in light of the impending theatrical release of The Sea of Monsters, the movie based on book two of the series, I thought I’d give a rundown of the series written by Rick Riordan for those of you unwilling to read five books written for children.
If you don’t know, Percy Jackson is basically Harry Potter meets Greek mythology. Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson finds out that he is actually the son of Poseidon, greek god of the sea. He goes to Camp Half-Blood, a place for demigods like him to learn to be heroes (kind of like Hogwarts). He goes on quests and has adventures with his friends Grover and Annabeth (who bear a fair resemblance to Ron and Hermione. Okay, enough Harry Potter comparisons.)
Despite being slightly outside the intended age group, I quite enjoyed reading these books, or rather listening to them, as was actually the case (I love audiobooks). The writing isn’t very good, because it’s written for children, so I guess he wanted it to be easy to follow. But the story can be really fun at times. You see, Mr. Riordan has this formula that he follows. The demigods go on a quest, and every chapter they encounter a new mythical monster like a Harpy or a Minotaur, and they must use their godlike abilities to defeat it. If you’ve ever seen the first Percy Jackson movie, you know what I’m talking about. The first book follows that formula pretty much the whole way through, but he does deviate from it in later books.
The real strength of series is in the characters; Riordan wrote some really awesome characters, some of them gods, and some of them demigods. The idea of this universe is that the greek gods really exist, and have existed since ancient Greece. They’ve modernized since then, but they still act the same as they always have, falling in love with mortals and producing offspring that are half-mortal and half-god, hence the origin of our hero: Percy Jackson’s mother hooked up with Poseidon, and Percy was born. When the greek gods visit earth, they take on the appearance of modern mortals, but they still look like what they’re the god of, if that makes sense. Maybe I can make it clearer with some examples.
Poseidon is described as having “black hair, a neatly trimmed beard, sea-green eyes, and a nice tan...he wears Birkenstocks (leather sandals), khaki Bermuda shorts, and a shirt with coconuts and parrots on it (or any other Hawaiian shirt), and a battered cap decorated with fishing lures.”
Sounds like a guy who spends most of his time in the ocean, so it fits quite nicely. Reading about the modern versions of greek gods is pretty fun, and some of them are really intense. For instance:
“Ares typically wears black jeans, combat boots, a leather duster, and muscle shirt with a bulletproof vest and an iron padlock necklace. He wears red tinted wraparound sunglasses to cover his flame-filled eye sockets. He is described as handsome with scarred cheeks and tall with an oiled crew cut. He rides a large, black Harley Davidson chopper motorcycle with a flame pattern paint job, a leather seat made from human skin, with shotgun holsters riveted to the motorcycles sides.”
The god of war has never looked better. But the gods aren't the only cool characters. I’d like to introduce you to a few of my favorite demigods.
First, there’s Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena. Since her mother is the goddess of war and wisdom, Annabeth is an expert of greek mythology and battle strategy. She’s tall, fit, and athletic with blond hair tied back in a ponytail, and she carries a bronze knife as a weapon. She also has a Yankees baseball cap which turns the wearer invisible, a gift from her mother (the gods often give gifts to their demigod children). She’s also the love interest of Percy Jackson, although like most twelve-year-olds, they do little more than stare at eachother and blush until book five. So yeah, Annabeth is pretty cool.
Then there’s Nico Di Angelo. I’m not sure quite how to explain Nico. He’s the Severus Snape of the series. We’re not sure whose side he’s on, he goes off and does his own thing, he prefers to be alone. Oh, and did I mention he’s the son of Hades? Having the ability to resurrect the dead can be a bit grim, so it’s no wonder he prefers solitude. His appearance changes as he gets older, but he’s usually described as having long black hair, pale skin, dark sunken eyes, and a skeletal frame. He’s a great character because he’s complex, and he really struggles to discover his true self as the son of Hades and to be accepted by the other demigods.
But without a doubt, my favorite demigod of the whole series is Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus. She’s sort of a goth, with spiky black hair and electric blue eyes. She’s very brave, strong, and assertive, a true leader among demigods, like her father. She has a bracelet which transforms into a shield with Medusa’s head imprinted on it, and she has a can of mace which transforms into an electrified spear. She can control lightning, but is strangely afraid of heights. Thalia... is... bad...aaaaaaaass. There’s no other way to say it. The book which she features most heavily in, book three, The Titan’s Curse, is my favorite of the series, partly for that reason. Thalia should be making an appearance in The Sea of Monsters movie, so I have that to look forward to. The picture on the left shows the actress reportedly playing Thalia in the movie, but I have no idea if the character will actually look like that.
Let me just list the books real quick so you know which one’s I’m talking about.
Book One: The Lightning Thief
Book Two: The Sea of Monsters
Book Three: The Titan’s Curse (My favorite)
Book Four: The Battle of the Labyrinth
Book Five: The Last Olympian
I should also mention that we have not seen the last of Percy Jackson. Rick Riordan is currently in the middle of another series based in the same universe and with many of the same characters. It’s called the Heroes of Olympus series, and there have been three books released so far, with two more on the way. It’s similar in feel, but written for slightly older readers, and each book is much longer than the original series. Also, the first five books are limited to Percy Jackson’s perspective, whereas this new series is seen through the eyes of several main characters, and it switches between them regularly. I intend to write a separate blog post about this other series, and be sure to look out for my review of The Sea of Monsters shortly after its theatrical release.
Oh, and a special thanks to the Camp Half-Blood Wiki for some images and character descriptions.
Let me leave you with a picture of Sean Bean as Zeus, king of the gods.
