Imagine my joy when I got to read The Red Pyramid (in the Kane Chronicles series) and The Lost Hero (first book of the Heroes of Olympus series). I was pretty disappointed myself when I got to the end of The Last Olympian (I even put off reading it for a little while so it wouldn’t end). It helps that the main plots are non-stop excitement as well. I’m 30 years old and I love the Percy Jackson series! Admittedly, sometimes the ‘hipness’ of the language sticks out a bit, and I wonder how well the pop culture references will stand up in 5 or 10 or 50 years, but I love the way Rick Riordan weaves the modern and ancient stories together. The story is superfun, and I can see how and why Percy’s story has become so popular. In conclusion: I recommend the book, but not the audiobook version–unless you like your smart alecky twelve-year-old boys to sound like whiny sixteen-year-olds. It’s a very, very, VERY good thing the story is so compelling because there is nothing remotely appealing about Bernstein’s narration.Įxcept Ares. Also, I should point out that my daughter hates the narration as well. And Jesse Bernstein narrates THE WHOLE SERIES. Percy sounds like a whiny sixteen-year-old rather than a smart alecky twelve-year-old. – As for the audiobookiness of it all, the narrator is really annoying. I hope that changes in the rest of the books. However, Percy’s mom is absent for most of the narrative and the other female characters that are present (besides Annabeth) are villains and bullies. Percy’s mom (who is in an abusive relationship) is interesting and nuanced. Annabeth is smart, snarky, fearless, insecure, and has something to prove. Ares as a motorcycle head, Poseidon as a retired beach dude, and Zeus as a CEO? Nicely done. The depiction of the gods and goddesses is also cool. That the record company is the entrance to the underworld? Awesome. – I also love the way Riordan modernizes Olympus and ties the United States and its geography to the gods and goddesses. There’s lots of fun background info given to the readers, and it’s all easily woven into the narrative instead of an obvious attempt to school us about Greek mythology. As I stated above, it definitely fueled my daughter’s interest in Greek mythology (as well as other mythologies). – The reliance on Greek mythology is awesome. Unlike in the Harry Potter books where Ron and Hermione are mostly helping out because Harry is their friend (and for the good of wizard-kind), every member of this trio has his or her own separate, personal, and mostly selfish reasons for joining the quest. The best thing about the trio is that they all have their own reasons for going on the quest, and they all have something to prove. Percy and his imperfections make the perfect kind of protagonist for reluctant readers, and the fact that he is a reluctant reader himself would probably endear him even more to that particular demographic. The characters are great, especially the main trio (Percy, Annabeth, and Grover). As always, we started with book one: The Lightning Thiefas read by Jesse Bernstein. I mean, I could go on.) So after we listened to all of the Harry Potter books, I promised her we would listen to the Percy Jackson books. (How big of a fangirl? She was practically inconsolable when the series ended, she won a trivia contest at our local Borders during their movie kick-off event, she began studying Greek mythology, she was thrilled to get a copy of The Odyssey for Easter, and she was PISSED about the movie version BEFORE IT EVEN CAME OUT. In the end, you will fail to save that which matters most.
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