Heroes of Olympus

Is anyone else excited about these?

I read the first one and it's incredible. Rick Riordan seems to have pulled off an amazing sequel. I did not think this would happen.

Wait, what? THAT'S AWESOME!

Yeah, seriously. It's a slightly Darker and Edgier Even Better Sequel.

Sequel? To the percy books? Yes!

I've just bought it, and I'm actually reading it right now It's pretty damn awesome - I'd actually say that it's even more awesome than Percy Jackson. I just miss Percy's snarkiness

Same. Jason's too serious. xD

I love Leo, though. He's easily my favorite character.

Yeah, Leo's hilarious xD We need some spoiler tags on the page for the book, though. I tried to look it up here on T Vtropes, and the page told me the ending... D:

So Rick Riordan seems to have found his niche eh?

edited 25th Nov '10 7:39:42 AM by zam

I've read it too. I also miss Percy's snarkiness, but I also love Leo. I could see him developing some more snark.

I liked it. There were some dull sections but some really exiting ones too. I liked the Red Pyramid better overall though.

I really like Leo. I might grow to like him even better than Percy, if only because I'm partial to a Gadgeteer Genius. And hopefully we'll see more of Percy in the next book.

A couple things, though, made this book not quite as good as the original series. First, Piper - I mean, Aphrodite? Really? It's just very hard to believe she won't end up being The Chick or the Damsel in Distress, which was avoided nicely with Annabeth and Rachel in the original books. I would have been cool with the major female character being a mortal or a Badass Normal, but Aphrodite is really limiting the potential. Second, and it's a nitpick, I know, but the aging-up makes the Gosh Darn It to Heck! a little more grating.

Piper gives me a lot of Mary Sue vibes, and I missed having first person POV. I think Riordan works a little better with it. This was... clunky.

edited 22nd Dec '10 2:22:20 PM by snowfoxofdeath

Yeah. I wish at least Leo was given first-person narration. I really hope that when Percy returns, it won't be in awkward third person.

One more thing about this book - it was really pretty obvious that the Big Bad was Gaea.

As a I once discussed with a friend of mine it was so obvious we almost expected a twist ending just so it could be like "What you thought Gaea was the Big Bad?! Ha!"

edited 22nd Dec '10 6:03:35 AM by zam

That would have been awesome. As it was, it was really pretty irritating when everyone was trying to be so mysterious about something so obvious.

Eh. I like Piper. Her gift is persuasion, really, more than anything else. It's interesting to see beauty being used as a weapon without it really degrading the character. And it's not like she's not doing it without trying. She has to work at it - become more confident in herself and her abilities in order for charmspeaking to work right.

Also, Riordan missed a vital chance for a Jason Bourne reference.

BTW, shipping Piper/Leo. Anyone else?

^Me too. Unless someone else comes along that's perfect for him.

I didn't buy into Piper's romance subplot especially when she says that Jason's "hers". Imagine if it was gender reversed.

Exactly - I was a little irritated at that, but I couldn't put it into words until now.

Nice to know someone shares my opinion.

She's being possessive. Over a romance that may have been only generated by Mist. And...that's a character flaw that would be interesting to explore, too.

And then there's Reyna...

It's not necessarily just the possessiveness. The whole concept of her character just bugs me. The romance seems so...artificial. It was so sudden and overbearing, unlike the romance between Percy and Annabeth. I mean, she's a child of Aphrodite! And a special one, too, with her charmspeak. She could make anyone fall in love with her, and clearly she intends to try with Jason. I just can't buy that anything between them is genuine and natural. I guess I'm being hypocritical, because I wasn't bothered by Beckendorf and Silena, but as far as we know, Silena wasn't this aggressive about love.

Exactly! Next book will probably have something like this:

Jason-Hey guys I think I might have a girlfriend back home

Piper (uses Jedi Mind Trick) No you don't you love Me.You no other girl.

Jason-Okay then I have no other girl.

I hope the next books give Piper a moral conflict over Jason and Reyna. That would be interesting and could add depth to her character.

^I was trying to put together a list of the heroes to go to Greece and I included Reyna just for that.

Except every time I try to do it, I end up with a lot more Half-Blood kids than other-camp kids.

Also, in the beginning, Piper and Leo talk about the gods using the Roman names, like Jason. If they're the kids of the Greek ones, why do this?