Heroes of Olympus

I got the feeling that the Egyptian gods were more the underpinnings of civilization in general. The Greeks are all holed up in America, the current centre of western power. The Egyptians, meanwhile, are all over the world. It's said that Olympus follows the heart of western civilization, and I got the impression that the Egyptian gods more represent the underlying foundations of that civilization; Greece is the heart, but Egypt is the bones.

Does make one wonder how the Norse fit into that.

Greek gods are in America because America is the "heart of civilization" somehow. Egyptian gods are in America because they're everywhere that has civilization. Norse gods are in America because of the aforementioned Germanic influence over America specifically.

I guess maybe probably possibly ish.

Norse mythology is very much about family. Makes sense for the Norse gods to go where their people are.

Also, if you go by the layman's knowledge of Norse culture they could be hanging out with the guys with the largest military budget

And with the book now out, the Norse are in America because Boston is where Yggdrasil is located. The Vikings went to America - then called Vinland - looking for it.

Also Rick recently announced a new series called The Trials of Apollo as a five part series with the first book coming out in May. It focuses on Apollo being turned human and going to Camp Halfblood and is rumored to involve every character from PJO and HoO. It'll be in first person point of view and apparently the chapter titles will be Haikus.

Personally I'm more excited for this and I intend to pass up Magnus Chase in favor of it.

You shouldn't. Magnus Chase is hilarious and just a little dark and probably the best translation of Scandinavian humor and Norse, for lack of a better word, 'philosophy' I've seen in a kids' book.

Magnus Chase brought back the goofy chapter titles and that is worth the price of admission alone.

Nah. I was only getting Magnus Chase to see Annabeth but she almost certainly doesn't show up much past the initial chapters. So yeah I'm skipping over that series and going with The Trials of Apollo instead.

They are taking forever to put out a paperback collection of this series.

So I've started "The Lost Hero" and one thing has been bugging me so far, has other members Aphrodite's Cabin ever been this catty?

edited 17th Oct '15 4:36:09 PM by Cross

Only one of them ever really appeared in the original series so....

Point acknowledged, but the original series at least pointed out the narcissism. It just has been annoying to read.

There's a reason for it, of sorts.

I always interpreted it a bit as fallout from the War. Most of these kids are probably still pretty scarred by that and being catty to others might just be keeping up their self-esteem.

But I agree, it's kind of irritating.

It's pretty much spelled out at the end of the book that Drew is the cause of most of the cattiness now that Selina's dead and Drew is in charge.

I saw what you meant, though I think it would have been better if the antagonism came from outside the cabin. It would have worked well with Seline's betrayal and the idea of Piper being a mediator.

Also, is it weird that I finished Son of Neptune faster than The Lost Hero?

Son of Neptune is the better book, so no.

Yeah. The Son of Neptune features Percy displaying godly (heh) levels of badass so it's unsurprising that the desire to read it to its conclusion would be stronger.

I mean, I finished all of The House of Hades in a day for that very same reason.

edited 21st Oct '15 8:19:24 AM by Zelenal

Finished them and, other than a few issues, I enjoyed them.

Any tie-ins I should look out for?

There's three e-novellas that crossover with the Kane Chronicles, but other than those there's been nothing new for the PJO universe as far as I'm aware. The Magnus Chase trilogy might set things up for a greater Crisis Crossover for all of Riordan's works, but that's unlikely for now.

It's ancillary stuff, but there's Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes where he takes a look at famous demigods from Greek myth.

Other than that, it's waiting for the Apollo series.

Was anyone bothered by Pasipahe being a villain in House of Hades given sh'e just an innocent victim in the myths? I felt the same way I did when the movie made Hades a villain. The narrative even acts like the Minotaur was the bigger victim.

Oh yeah, this.

So it turns out that Annabeth is going to be far more relevant to the Norse stuff than the Greek stuff for now. Magnus Chase might end up being more crossover-centric than the other series, which annoys me considering Trials only made passing references to other mythos. I know that the Greek stuff is the most popular, but it continues to be mostly stand alone while Kane made one big reference per book and Magnus seems to be bringing Annabeth in as a prominent supporting character if not part of the main cast outright. I'd have thought Trials at least would make more references to the sister series, maybe moving towards some sort of meta-plot spanning all three mythos (or more).

Are we discussing all the books here? Because I finished the second Apollo book and want to talk about it.

Go ahead.

x2

Go ahead. I finished last week but didn't want to necro the thread.