Recently I read the Rick Riordan series; Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I have to say it was immensely enjoyable and I would honestly recommend the series to anyone who wants an easy read... As long as you have a brief understanding of Greek Mythology and whatnot. If not you will probably either find yourself searching the web for answers or just not caring and reading the book anyway. I have a degree of fascination when it comes to mythology and ancient stories so I am not quite sure why it took me so long to read this series.
|Spoiler Warning|
Long story short, Percy Jackson is the son of Poseidon which causes mass drama in Olympus by itself, not to mention Zeus's most powerful lightning bolt is stolen. So of course, everyone blames Percy who only finds out he is the son of a God (a demigod) after one of the Furies comes after him. It's highly convoluted but with the help of a saytr he manages to get to the relative safety of camp Half-Blood. Like I stated, unless you have a basic grasp on Greek mythology, most of the beings and creatures in the series will have you reaching for Google in no time flat. He befriends a daughter of Athena by the name of Annabeth Chase and they bicker all the time.
Side note: Annabeth's birth is touched on during the series. Given that Athena is a Maiden Goddess all her children are brought to life through thought, not the usual means if you know what I mean...
Percy seems to always be attracting the attention of the gods who tend to visit him on his quests, whether it be to aid or hinder him (Ares is a piece of work by the way). Percy himself however has one fatal flaw: he will do anything to protect the ones he loves. He would gladly sacrifice himself if it meant that others would live, that being said I personally think he made some rather idiotic decisions in the books; bathing in the river Styx, trusting Luke in book one, straight up calling the Gods and Goddesses out on their bad behaviour and almost getting blasted to smithereens because of it to name a few. Seriously, I'm not sure he ever actually held his tongue when it came to the gods and while that made me laugh it also made me frustrated because he was toeing a very fine line. The Greek Gods were not known for their tolerance of insolence after all.
Overall the books were very enjoyable, it was interesting to see how certain monsters blended into the human populace as well as lured in their prey in a modern setting. Given that the books themselves were not incredibly long (between 200 and 300 pages each) they were easy to devour, I found myself loosing hours from being so absorbed in the story. The narrative style itself was in a way, funny. You get an insight into Percy's own thoughts interspersed with the story which leads to an almost dry sense of humour with an abundance of sarcasm which had me giggling in my seat.
~ 9/10 would recommend ~
Stay safe! xox
Taz
