How are you?
Today I am going to be reviewing the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan. I recently read this and I really enjoyed it. I will confess that I had owned the first book for around 2 years before I picked up the series. I will be doing a review for the whole series rather than reviewing each book as individuals, but if you would like me to review the books as individuals, let me know.
The layout out of this is going to be the same as my other reviews: Non-spoiler thoughts, cover review, plot overview, character chat and opinions.
Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordan- Contains Spoilers
Non-Spoiler Thoughts
I really enjoyed this series! I know I say this in every review I do, but I wouldn't post something on here I didn't like unless I wanted to discuss it with other people. Even though this series is defiantly aimed at younger people than myself, I really liked it. I actually learned quite a bit about Greek mythology from reading it and it has sparked an interest in discovering more about Greek mythology. I found myself relating to the characters in their every day lives (once they had grown up, this series takes place over 5 years). I had heard pretty much nothing but good stuff about this series and thought it was high time I picked it up. Although I had been spoiled about some characters, I still found myself being shocked by some things.
Cover Review
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| From left to right: Lightning Thief, Sea of Monsters, Titan's Curse, Battle of the Labyrinth, Last Olympian |
Plot Overview
The plot of the series is that there is a boy called Percy Jackson, who around his 12th birthday discovers he is the son of the Greek God Poseidon. He then spends his summers at Camp Half Blood, a safe place for Demigods. He goes on quests with his friends Annabeth and Grover and more often than not ends up in some sort of trouble on the way. As the series progresses, we see our beloved characters grow up and mature. We see their relationships change and the world they live in become more and more dangerous as they are threatened by monsters and fellow Demigods.
I'm going to do a quick breakdown of each book now:
Book 1- Percy discovers he's a demigod, he's accused of stealing Zeus' master bolt and has to go on a quest to return it. It turns out that fellow camper Luke, a son of Hermes, has the bolt and wants a war between the Gods. In this book, Percy is 12 years old.
Book 2- Percy goes on a quest to save Grover, who has been captured by a Cyclops but is pretending to be its bride. Percy and Annabeth travel to save Grover, discovering that Percy has a half cyclops brother called Tyson. On the way they discover that Luke is trying to resurrect Kronos. They find the Golden Fleece and save Grover. They take it back to camp and use it to heal the tree that guards them, the tree turns into Zeus' daughter, Thalia. In this book, Percy is 13 years old.
Book 3- Percy's friend Annabeth has been captured by a Titan, a long with the Goddess of the Hunt, Artemis. Percy, the Hunters of Artemis and Grover travel to save Annabeth. They find some new Demigods, Bianca becomes a Hunter and dies, Nico is too young to travel but becomes angry when he learns of his sisters' death. They save Annabeth and Artemis, but the Hunter Zoe dies, Luke also falls to his death. In this book, Percy is 14 years old.
Book 4- Percy is battling his old enemy Luke and his army of demigods, who have been entering Camp Half Blood through Daedalus' labyrinth. Percy and Annabeth must find him before Luke does. On the way, Annabeth angers Hera and Percy and Annabeth are separated from Tyson and Grover. They discover that Nico is trying to make an army of the dead to avenge his sisters death. They find Daedalus and he helps them fight Luke, who has merged with Kronos. Daedalus sacrifices himself, giving his laptop to Annabeth so she can build his inventions. A Titan who has been locked away in a mountain breaks free. Also in this book, Percy makes himself able to survive being hurt like Achilles. In this book, Percy is 15 years old.
Book 5- Percy battles Luke/Kronos. Many of the Demigods die in the battle. Meanwhile, the Gods fight the escaped Titan. Kronos casts a spell on New York to make everyone sleep. They fight the battle and Percy nearly dies. Annabeth is wounded, but survives. It is Annabeth who saves the day by imploring to the bit of Luke left in Kronos and Luke/Kronos dies. The demigods celebrate their win but mourn the loss of their friends. Percy and Annabeth realise they have feelings for each other and become a couple. In this book, Percy is 16 years old.
Character Chat
In this section I am going to talk about 2characters; Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase
Percy Jackson
Percy is our protagonist in the series. He starts of as a normal boy. Percy often demonstrates his lack of knowledge of the world he lives in as he knows very little about Greek mythology. He does often use references from pop culture, which is something I really liked about him. He was very loyal to his friends, which is his fatal flaw. We also see that Percy often does stuff without thinking and his decisions are very rash. He is lucky to have amazing friends.
Annabeth Chase
Annabeth is our main female character and probably my favourite character in the series. I would defiantly compare her to Hermione from Harry Potter. I love how Annabeth has to fight against the stereotype of being blond, it's something I feel a lot of people can relate to. I love her and Percy's relationship, they call each other cute nicknames. I just love her being an intelligent character and showing young people it's okay to be smart.
Opinions
Like I said at the start of my review, I really enjoyed this series. I loved learning about Greek mythology in a fun way. The first half of the series was quite slow and it took me a while to get into, but by the second half of the series I was in love. It was nice getting to meet so many diverse characters and getting to experience this fun world that Rick Riordan has created. I'm half way through the Heroes of Olympus series and plan on finishing it by the end of the year. I hope that soon I can read all of Rick Riordan's work as I'm really looking forward to reading his Norse mythology series.
So that was my review of the Percy Jackson series, I hope you guys liked it. Let me know what you thought of Percy Jackson and if you liked my review. Next week on here, starting on the 24th, it is spooky week and I will be posting a post everyday in the lead up to Halloween.
Love,
Carenza x
