Heroes of Olympus

OMG. NICO. LIKE OMFG. I finished House of Hades about a week ago now and I am still dumbfounded. I literally cried over this book; people were staring at me weird when I was finishing it in class and on the bus and crying. It was so well done. I also kept crying over Bob because I seriously loved him! Like zhhasdklhfgvh. Also, a small inconsistency: Small Bob is known to be male. There are no male calicos. But that's just me being raised as a crazy cat lady.

Spoiler tagged because I wasn't sure what all was safe.

To be fair, Small Bob is also a dead sabretooth kitten created through magic. I think at that point, he could be any color he wants and it'd make sense.

Very true. But still, yeah, just me being nitpicky. Other than that I loved the book and it made me cry.

edited 29th Jan '14 4:31:11 PM by threedaysgracelove

Omg Nico. NICO. And Rick Riordan's defense of that development on his website is beautiful.

"Nico’s sexual orientation became clear to me the longer I wrote about his character. It was not something I planned. I had no agenda. But when I realized this was a major part of his life experience and the reason for so many of his difficulties with the other characters, it would have been a disservice to his character, the plot of the books, and all my readers simply to sweep the issue under the rug and pretend it didn’t exist. Turning a blind eye to children’s needs is never an acceptable answer."

"I’ve been lucky enough to teach all sorts of students – fifth grade to twelfth grade, rich and poor, from numerous ethnic backgrounds, with diverse religious traditions and a variety of learning differences. I’ve also taught gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students. Some self-identified as early as elementary school. Some came to terms with their sexual orientation later in high school. Most had a hard time during the middle grades, which are tough years for any child. All my middle school students enriched my classroom. They made me a better teacher and a better writer for children, and they all deserve my support."

"I am committed to writing appropriate books for the middle grades. This means no bad language, no gratuitous or explicit violence, and no sexual content beyond what you might find in a PG-rated movie – expressions of who likes whom, holding hands, and perhaps the occasional kiss. The idea that we should treat sexual orientation itself as an adults-only topic, however, is absurd. Non-heterosexual children exist. To pretend they do not, to fail to recognize that they have needs for support and validation like any child, would be bad teaching, bad writing, and bad citizenship."

• wipes away tear*

So, I'm on book two and finding it interesting so far, but...I cannot stop imagine what Valiar Marcus would say in reaction to the Twelfth Legion...

Well, I finally finished House of Hades.

I freaking loved Leo and Calypso's odd relationship. They sound like a middle aged married couple yelling at each other. I really expected her to get on his makeshift raft with him, and I was disappointed when the real one came instead.

The poster above me mentioned Calypso, and that reminded me of her tsundere attitude to Leo, that made me think of Annabeth the tsundere, then I realised Piper had some tsundere-ish tendencies as well, and if I remember correctly, Sadie is also a tsundere.

Why are most of the female love interests tsunderes? Does Rick have a fetish or something?

edited 9th Apr '14 10:51:30 PM by Bobthetroper

Hmm, never noticed it that much.

But then, I've been reading The Wheel Of Time since then, so they may just be swallowed by the suddenly raised tsundere-standard.

Just finished Mark of Athena. That ending.

Just wanted to remind everyone that Blood of Olympus comes out in just over a week and to be careful because people are posting spoilers/rumors.

That and we finally got a title for the Norse series: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard. Rick says that the main character sharing Annabeth's last name is intentional but he's leaving us in the dark like the trolling creator he is.

I've seen bigger trolls tbh

Oh wow I'm so excited! Please remember to hide your spoilers, everyone! And I'm really looking forwards to the norse series, do you think the Heroes Of Olympus characters will make an appearance?

Oh wow, I forgot the new book always comes in October. The next two weeks are just filled with releases: Star Wars Rebels, Legend of K Orra Book 4, Super Smash Bros. 4, and now the Blood of Olympus. My week's gonna be totally destroyed, on top of studying for my midterms.

So I've loved this series (and the original one) for years so I don't why I haven't joined this thread already.

I just finished reading House of Hades a few days ago and oh my gods. The EVERYTHING.

My biggest concerns are just how Percy managed to cross that river whose name I can't remember and what the ramifications of whatever that was inside of Percy that broke are. It won't be pleasant, that's for sure.

So how do you guys feel about House of Hades possibly being Percy's Start of Darkness? I think it would be fittingly tragic if he fell into Love Makes You Evil. Especially if Annabeth dying made him completely snap.

I'd like it better if The Blood of Olympus weren't the last book in the series and if Percy going evil weren't one of the most common—and thus most poorly done—fanfic ideas in this fandom. It would be interesting to see how far Riordan will push Percy in this last book though.

Also, in my opinion killing off Annabeth just to give Percy angst would be some truly terrible writing: it would be pure drama instead of character-building, and it would rob Annabeth of her agency and just make her another example of being Stuffed in the Fridge. Maybe at the start of another series, and even then it would need to be handle extremely well. But not so close to the climax when none of the requisite story-building has been done for it.

I have enough trust in Riorden as an author to believe that he would be able to write it well. After all, nine books in and I don't think he has made any massive blunders.

Part of me thinks either Annabeth and/or Percy will die simply because they've been waving their death flags like crazy in House of Hades. They're the most developed characters, Annabeth keeps mentioning a promise to never be separated again, Percy keeps mentioning how he believes they belong together, and then there's the bit where they're talking in the last chapter.

I honestly pegged Percy as the one dying but then I thought it might be Annabeth since that would allow Percy to go dark but now I'm thinking that might be the case but with Percy then also dying sometime afterwards. This is based off of Classical Mythology which was largely tragic, after all, and they'd be Together in Death if they both died so no promise would be broken and Percy's feeling would be right.

x2

Can't agree with that. Piper was largely unlikable until 4/5ths of the way through the series and Jason started out great but has become a joke after The Lost Hero. Those seem like pretty big blunders to me.

edited 5th Oct '14 12:09:37 AM by Chariot

I disagree rather strongly with both of those statements. But unfortunately they kind of come down to "no accounting for taste" and thus I can't really argue them even if I was any good at arguing things.

Piper spent the whole first book worrying about her dad and keeping secrets and while that was understandable it was still annoying. She had barely any page time in book two and spent more time in book three worrying about her relationship than the fate of the world to the point that she flat out admits she didn't even try to smooth things over with Camp Jupiter. I fail to see how she wasn't unlikable prior to last book.

Jason is the exact opposite. He started out as cool albeit somewhat dull due to the loss of his memories. He like Piper got barely any page time in book two and ever since Mark of Athena he has spent more page time knocked out after battles than anything else.

See, the thing is I'm rather fond of characters having flaws.

Also, any qualms I had with Jason vanished during his chapter with Nico in the last book. Just, poof, gone, all is forgiven. Not that there was much to forgive outside of "not as cool as Percy," which is a pretty impossible standard for me to hold a character to anyway.

Yeah, it's really saying something when Jason's huge Badass Boast in the first book is only considered as awesome as Percy just saying "You. Me. To the finish."

That and Percy pretty much soloed his giant.

That and he's the only character to have been described as fighting like a demon (Twice, even!).

Percy is godly amounts of badass.

Not to mention that whole thing where he beat the god of war in single combat. When he was eleven.

The way the PJO fandom throws around the word "Mary Sue" to describe Piper and Jason bugs me. Firstly because I hate the term "Mary Sue." But also because, like, have you seen the protagonist of this series? There is no fair, unbiased definition of "Mary Sue" that doesn't include Perseus Jackson — I mean, criminy, look at his name!

.....I have read The Blood of Olympus. That was far less depressing than I thought it would be.

It's also the shortest book out of all five. Leo was friggin awesome. Good decision on RR's part to not make Percy be the MVP. He's already had his own series.

Also, I went "Holy Shit!" when I read "Chapter V- Reyna".

You know, thinking about Nico's reveal in House of Hades and rereading The Titan's Curse, I have to say the reveal really came out of left field. Not only was one thing just flat out wrong (Thalia was the first demigod Nico saw in action since all Percy did before she showed up was take two swipes at the manticore and get hurt) but Nico interacted with Percy a grand total of three times (once after the manticore fight, once before they left on the quest, and once when they got back) before he ran away.

I'd also like to point out that Nico hated Percy for breaking a promise that he never made (Percy just said that he would do his best since he knew two people were destined to die on the quest) but he was like, what, 10 when that happened so yeah.

I can accept Percy not being the MVP but does he at least get one last CMOA? This is the Grand Finale of everything related to him (for now at least). He's got to have at least one more CMOA.

He gets a a joint one in the final battle as all the heroes throw down, and a handful of solo moments, but nothing like his battle with Polybotes in Son of Neptune.

It' mostly because he's not a viewpoint character here, and the in-story justification is that both he and Annabeth are still suffering from their time in Tartarus. Ultimately, their overall C Mo A for the series is emerging from Tartarus whole and together.