The Olympians Are Alive | The Lost Hero

Heard of three demigods that take off from Camp Half Blood on a bronze dragon? Rick Riordan's The Heroes of Olympus, a follow up series to Percy Jackson, takes off to a promising start with the introduction of new heroes -- Leo, the fire-wielding son of Hephaestus, forge extraordinaire, Piper, daughter of Aphrodite who is a charm speaker known to 'borrow' BMWs and lawnmowers simply by asking, and Jason, son of Zeus/Jupiter who has a penchant for the gods in their Roman aspects rather than Greek. The bit about the gods in their Greek vs Roman avatars is a big twist in the tale we've been told so far. As for our favourite hero, Percy Jackson, son of the sea god, who took on Kronos himself when we last met him, all we're told is that he's lost. He went missing around the same time Jason, who has amnesia, showed up. But Riordian doesn't dwell on that for very long, because there's a new enemy stirring -- one more powerful, more terrible than the Titans who almost destroyed Olympus the previous summer.

While Annabeth, Grover and Tyson are off in different directions looking for Jackson, Piper, Jason and Leo answer the summons of queen of the gods, Hera. They set off on Festus the bronze dragon to rescue her before the children of the earth awaken and destroy Olympus at his ancient roots. Their adventures take them on a pan-American journey for thrilling encounters with Boreas, god of the North wind, Medea, a devious old soul brought back from the Underworld, cyclopes who love demigods dipped in salsa and Aeolus, master of the winds. They also meet and battle two giants, Enceladus, the bane of Athena and Porphyrion, king of the giants spurned to destroy Zeus.

But adventures aside, the book is rich in myth, legend and back-stories, one of the advantages of narrating in third person rather than first person. All we saw in the first five books was the world as Percy saw it. This time around, the narrative switches perspectives and we get to delve deeper into our three characters. Halfway through, we also finally understand that Riordian is bringing in a new parallel to spruce things up. There are plenty of instances of gods sporting two aspects, like a split personality -- Greek and Roman. The build up to the climax doesn't have you at the edge of your seat, debating whether our young heroes will defeat their enemies and save Hera. It's a nail biting, speed-reading adrenalin rush to find out who Jason actually is, where he comes from, why is it that he can recite the Great Prophecy in Latin. It's also a quest, so to speak, to find out the identities of the two other heroes (we know by now that Jason, Leo, Piper, Percy and Annabeth are the first five) who will become a part of the prophecy.

When the Percy Jackson series ended with The Last Olympian, I was sort of disappointed. But not as sad as when I read the last page of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I have gone back to JK Rowling's world of muggles and magic time and time again. But with Jackson, I didn't really bother, enthralling as it was. But the minute I got my hands on The Lost Hero, I knew I was done for. I have since read the five-book set again, in addition to the sequel to this series -- The Son of Neptune (a post about this coming soon as I grab a breather to hit publish) and don't plan on stopping there.

This has, after all, been in preparation of the third book of the series, The Mark of Athena which releases on October 2. I've pre-ordered it already and simply can...NOT... WAIT!

Background reading:
Demigods for Dummies on The Caterpillar Cafe
Camp Half Blood Wiki (a fan site for the series)
Myth&Mystery: Riordan's Official Blog (His favourite HP book is Prisoner of Azkaban)

Buy The Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero from Flipkart (India) and Amazon (ROW)
Buy the Percy Jackson box set from Flipkart (India) and Amazon (ROW)

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Three's Company

Ever read two books at the same time? How about three? I've been afflicted with a bit of ADD lately. I can't seem to stick to a single title. That's probably why I'm taking so long to put reviews up. So I've decided to just sod it all and write about them all -- one on the train to work, another on the train home and the third just before bed.

Percy Jackson and The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan 
You may remember young Percy from a post I put up a few weeks ago -- Demigod for Dummies? Well, I'm back to reading the second in the series (skipped the first one because I've read it several times, not to mention, watched the awful movie -- thrice). It's fast paced though a tad childish. But who cares? Percy and his friend Annabeth are accompanied by a new character, Tyson, on a quest to find the mythical Golden Fleece. To do so they must tread into the dangerous waters of The Sea of Monsters. It's a dreadful place, or at least that's what people think, because whoever enters here, goes off all nautical radars and never returns. Sound familiar? (*Cough Bermuda Triangle Cough*). Limiting this book to one 45-minute commute has been tough. What with all the awesome encounters you're privy to -- a blind Cyclops who think's a Satyr is his bride, a Hippocampi named Rainbow who saves our heroes from peril and an exchange with the God of thieves himself, Hermes (he invented the internet, you know?)

If You Can't Stand the Heat (Poppy Markham: Culinary Cop) by Robin Allen
Light reading. That's what you need at rush hour after a really hard day at work and your feet are so tired you're ready to drop. Poppy Markham comes to my rescue every evening! Narrated in first person, the book starts on a fateful (and tense in the kitchen, fun in the dining room) night at Markhams, an upscale restaurant in Texas, that's hosting Michelin star chef, Évariste Bontecou. He has a bad attitude, you realise instantly, even worse than Ursula, head chef of Markham's and Poppy's step-sister. When he's found dead with a knife through his chest, Poppy is shocked, but not surprised. The next thing she knows her father's landed in hospital and her step sister's in jail. The language of the book is crisp, the dialogue is funny and the narrative is as smooth and tangy as lemon butter. I also love how it has potential to be a romantic comedy -- love triangles, heart breaks, cute gay men living next door -- but sticks to it's genre, culinary fiction. It also has all these cool facts in it about the kitchen -- chefs bring their own knives to work and hide them in large pots and pans, it's illegal to cook a rooster that's been in a cockfight, one evening inside a commercial kitchen can ruin your manicure. I'm almost halfway through and seriously can't wait to see how the mystery pans out.

The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl
I'd bought this book years ago when I didn't know that Dahl was more than just chocolates and Giant Peaches. I guess there's something about seeing one of your favourite children's author's names on a black cover with an exposed brain on it. It's a collection of the author's short stories from three titles -- Kiss Kiss, Switch Bitch and Someone Like You. Over the years, I've read through them in an assorted manner when I've been in the mood for a good chill down my spine. But only recently did I decide to read it in sequence from cover to cover. I'm still on Kiss Kiss so that's what I'll limit this to. Think you're a good person? A model citizen? A good husband, wife, friend? Then you're no different from Dahl's characters in stories like The Landlady, Georgy Porgy and William and Mary. But when you stop to consider what you would do if you found yourself in an uncomfortable situation -- a husband dies, leaving his brain functional and in the care of science, women from a parish try to molest a man with Mommy issues, a desperate father tries to save his baby with Royal Jelly, a landlady has a very eerie predisposition towards taxonomy -- you realise that Dahl is a writer who pens from his sub-conscious mind. Is it crazy that I've been sleeping like a baby since I started reading his works as bed-time stories?

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Demigods for Dummies | Percy Jackson

 I really don't know how to start this blog post because of the progression of Rick Riordian's epic featuring demigods, wood nymphs, spirits and Gods who wear Hawaiian shorts in modern day America. But with the twelve Olympians as my witness, I swear on the River Styx to keep any spoilers out of the equation.

You probably remember that awful movie that released a few years ago -- Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. It's named after and based on the first book of Riordian's Percy Jackson series. I think the first mistake Hollywood made with the movie was introducing Percy as a 16-year-old teenager when in the book he's no older than a confused 12-year-old with ADD and an uncanny knack for getting himself into trouble. The pen-and-paper Percy is a likable kid who discovers that his father, the one he's never met, is actually Poseidon, God of the seas, effectively making him a demigod with some really cool powers. He also learns that there are several others like him at a place called Camp Half Blood in New York state and that Olympus has now shifted to America because the Gods just love migrating to wherever the centre of power may be. Childish, really. But cool if you have an active imagination. So you see, the pleasure of reading about Percy Jackson and his fellow demigods is to brereze through their adventurous and misadventurous quests, and watch them go from confused kids to somewhat less confused young adults.

This series has five titles -- The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Battle of the Labyrinth, The Titan's Curse and The Last Olympian. Through them, you get to revisit forgotten relics like the Golden Fleece, meet Zeus and Hermes in person, run from mythical monsters disguised as cheerleaders, and even ride with a group of Centaurs calling themselves Party Ponies. What I found most interesting about these books is that they introduce you to Greek mythology without subjecting you to thick volumes of dusty texts. It's the perfect educational tool -- fun, witty and filled with fascinating information.

Riordian is a prolific writer and though I've steered clear of his books for adults (Yes, I refuse to grow up!) and I really didn't enjoy The Kane Chronicles -- same concept as Percy, only adapted to Egyptian mythology. But I find his language most exciting to read. It's very American the way it relies on comebacks, slangs and catchphrases to make a somewhat tedious and intimidating subject identifiable. He actually makes me want to read The Illiad by Homer without cheating with literature guides and wikipedia.

The Percy Jackson series is an amazing present to receive no matter how old you are. It's fun, hilarious, entertaining and (be warned) super addictive. It also gives you an idea as to why films like Clash of the Titans and Immortals are such poor by-products spawned in drunken Hollywood basements.

To compare Percy to Harry Potter would be a sin because Rowling's little boy is in a league of his own. But if this were a competition I'd say that Percy Jackson was America's answer to Britain's fantastical pride and glory. Buy the box set if you know what's good for you. I promise you won't regret it.
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