The Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan
As promised, my thoughts on the Heroes of Olympus series. Oh, and there may be spoilers. If you haven’t read the series or any of the Percy Jackson books, I’d advise waiting to read this review.
I started reading the Percy Jackson books about the time The Last Olympian came out. They enthralled me and made me want more, more, MORE! I talked about them with my friends, (sparking a long-standing inside joke with my best friend who I tormented about the series.), and generally all around enjoyed them. When I heard Mr. Riordan was coming out with a new series, a continuation of the old one, I nearly jumped out of my skin in excitement. As soon as The Lost Hero came out, I bought it and had it read in two hours. Then I had to wait a whole year for the next book. It was sheer torture at the time. This cycle repeated itself three more times. I’m not sure what changed, but recently I lost interest in many of the series I formerly loved. It may or may not have had something to do with the horrendous movies made…
Anyway, that’s the back story. I’ve loved Percy Jackson since the beginning. He is such a great character in the original series. Loyal, kooky, not really sure what’s going on sometimes and relying on Annabeth to steer him straight, a total smart-mouth, and not to mention downright hilarious, he was and still is my hands-down favorite character. I loved Annabeth and Grover and Tyson and all the other characters.
{SPOILERS APPROACHING!}
But guess what? Percy isn’t even in the first book aside from a few mentions. Yeah! I know! I was furious. Seething. And flat-out annoyed. Hey, Mr. Riordan! I payed to read about Percy Jackson, not Jason, Piper, and Leo! But I held out hope that the next book would have Percy. And I was right! But oh, look, Percy has lost his memory. Darn you, Mr. Riordan, you just can’t make it easy for our heroes, can you? But if he did, then there wouldn’t be any story… Hmmm….
Point taken, love. {Spoilers mostly done for now}
I suppose I became more and more disappointed as the series went on. The whole style of writing seemed to have changed. There was still the smart-mouthing, the quips and dead-pan comments, and Percy not knowing things, but splitting the narration between three and sometimes four different people was confusing. Mr. Riordan also introduced five new main characters. Okay, that’s four too many, even for me. I utterly loathed Jason and Piper, enjoyed Hazel and Frank, and flat-out howled with Leo.
I think that was the problem. The series became too complicated. Too, too, too much going on. I like a good convoluted plot every now and then, but dude, don’t mess with my Percy Jackson loving. By the time Blood of Olympus‘s release date rolled around, I barely noticed. Instead of, AH! NEW PERCY JACKSON BOOK! SQUEE LIKE A FANGIRL!, it was more along the lines of, Oh, okay, cool. I’ll read it when it comes into the library. Blood of Olympus was also the end of the series. I was expecting something awesome and dramatic that would leave me happy by the time I turned the last page. Something that gave our beloved heroes closure, because you know I’m big on that.
{More minor spoilers!}
I was deeply underwhelmed. The big battles, that had been building up for four books, were over in four chapters or thereabouts. It was disappointing, to say the least. I had been let down by one of my favorite authors! *dramatic gesture* And I was sad, too. I don’t know if there will ever be a continuation of Percy’s story. There was no closure, at least not for me. Rick Riordan, you have let me down.
Okay, I know what you must be thinking by now. ‘Wow, she seems really down on the series, maybe I shouldn’t read them.’ Please don’t think that, dears. They are good books overall. They just aren’t great. I enjoyed them for a time, and I’m sure I’ll go back and reread them, but I’m no longer obsessed. Maybe that’s a good thing…?
So yeah, there you have it. My long-winded thoughts on The Heroes of Olympus series… I hope I didn’t lose you halfway through. 🙂