Percy Jackson and the Olympians (Series), by Rick Riordan (Book Review)

Title: Percy Jackson and the Olympians (Series)
Author: Rick Riordan
Genres: Fantasy, Mid-Grade
Format: Paperback
Pages: ---
Publication Date: 2010-2014
Publisher: Disney Hyperion

Goodreads | Amazon

★★★★★

All five books in the blockbuster Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, in paperback, have been collected in a boxed set fit for demigods. Now with glorious new cover art and packaged with a special poster, this value-priced set includes the best-selling The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, and The Last Olympian. Whether it is for readers who are experiencing Percy's thrilling adventures with Greek gods and monsters for the first time, or for fans who want to devour the saga again, this gift will be prized by young and old.

When I initially decided to review this series as a whole series, I'd thought I would do so as a general discussion of the merits of the story, its similarities to Harry Potter, and open up discussion of the characters. 

I still want to do that. However, the further I got into this series, the more that I realized that any similarities to any other series were meaningless, because Percy Jackson is the best mid-grade series I've read to date.

Yes, that means I liked it better than Harry Potter. 

(But do note that I also separate middle-grade fiction from young adult fiction.)

The main thing that I have to address about this series is that the series as a whole is better than the sum of its parts. I could not average my individual ratings of each book and achieve an accurate star-rating for the entire series that reflected my feelings about the series.

So I didn't. I assigned a five-star rating to the series as a whole because it deserves it. This is a series that I will read again. And again. And one that I will recommend.

There you have it. That's the simple part. But there's a lot more I have to say about this, so let's keep going, shall we?

There may be spoilers beyond this point!

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan (Book Review)

Title: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Last Olympian
Author: Rick Riordan
Genres: Fantasy, Mid-Grade
Format: Paperback
Pages: 381 Pages
Publication Date: 01/25/2011
Publisher: Disney Hyperion

Goodreads | Amazon

★★★☆☆

All year the half-bloods have been preparing for battle against the Titans, knowing the odds are against them. Kronos is stronger than ever, and with every god and half-blood he recruits, his power only grows. 

In this momentous final book in the New York Times best-selling series, the prophecy surrounding Percy's sixteenth birthday unfolds. And as the battle for Western civilization rages on the streets of Manhattan, Percy faces a terrifying suspicion that he may be fighting against his own fate.

This book was unnecessarily long.

Let me jump right in and tell you why I don't feel like this book deserved more than three stars. It's highly rated on both Goodreads and Amazon and it distresses me to mark this book so low when it ordinarily rates so high. 

But here it is: The book was too long, and during the entire middle portion of the book (roughly one half, but potentially as much as two thirds of the middle section of the novel), nothing happened.

Okay, okay. Before readers who've read this ahead argue with me that there's plenty of action in this book, allow me to clarify that there most certainly is action throughout The Last Olympian. It's one battle scene after another after another and I'd say that certainly qualifies as being "action" in a book of this nature.

If that's your thing, and you like action regardless of plot, you're going to do great with this book. For me, this sort of reading drops a book almost instantly to a two-star status for me. And if it wasn't part of a series, a one-star status.

Yep. I'm telling you I almost couldn't finish the final book in a series. 

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Battle of the Labyrinth, by Rick Riordan (Book Review)

Title: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Battle of the Labyrinth
Author: Rick Riordan
Genres: Fantasy, Mid-Grade
Format: Paperback
Pages: 361 Pages
Publication Date: 4/7/2009
Publisher: Disney Hyperion

Goodreads | Amazon

★★★☆☆

Percy Jackson isn't expecting freshman orientation to be any fun. But when a mysterious mortal acquaintance appears on campus, followed by demon cheerleaders, things quickly move from bad to diabolical. 

In this latest installment of the blockbuster series, time is running out as war between the Olympians and the evil Titan lord Kronos draws near. Even the safe haven of Camp Half-Blood grows more vulnerable by the minute as Kronos's army prepares to invade its once impenetrable borders. To stop them, Percy and his demigod friends must set out on a quest through the Labyrinth-a sprawling underground world with stunning surprises at every turn. Full of humor and heart-pounding action, this fourth book promises to be their most thrilling adventure yet.

Ugh. This book was incredibly difficult to rate. It was tough to pin down a specific star rating, and that brings to light the fact that Lightning Thief wasn't difficult to review because it was the first in the series; It was difficult to review because it was so disappointing.

If I had to characterize the fourth book in this series with a single word, that word would be disappointing.

I've read some reviews of this book, and many readers say that this was their favorite in the series so far. For me, I found that many characters that I had previously loved fell flat, that the relationships lacked texture, and that ultimately a book or series nearly always loses me when it introduces the (spoiler alert!) love triangle.

So let's talk about the things that made this book such a let down for me.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titan's Curse, by Rick Riordan (Book Review)

Title: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titan's Curse
Author: Rick Riordan
Genres: Fantasy, Mid-Grade
Format: Paperback
Pages: 312 Pages
Publication Date: 5/9/2009
Publisher: Disney Hyperion

Goodreads | Amazon

★★★★★

Percy Jackson isn't expecting freshman orientation to be any fun. But when a mysterious mortal acquaintance appears on campus, followed by demon cheerleaders, things quickly move from bad to diabolical. 

In this latest installment of the blockbuster series, time is running out as war between the Olympians and the evil Titan lord Kronos draws near. Even the safe haven of Camp Half-Blood grows more vulnerable by the minute as Kronos's army prepares to invade its once impenetrable borders. To stop them, Percy and his demigod friends must set out on a quest through the Labyrinth-a sprawling underground world with stunning surprises at every turn. Full of humor and heart-pounding action, this fourth book promises to be their most thrilling adventure yet.

Six stars. Is that a thing?

I'm starting to feel like I did a wrong thing by rating Lightning Thief four stars. At the rate that these books are getting better and better, I'm going to run out of stars. Or maybe I already did, because six stars is not, in fact, a thing.

But it should be. Because Titan's Curse.

So here's the thing about this book. I'm jumping to the middle, but I want to tell you about this thing. Maybe it's more like "the end" but so what? I promise I won't spoil this for you.

This book made me cry. For real, it made me cry. 

Not pretty crying, either. I'm talking about big, ugly tears, rolling down my cheeks, sobbing so hard that my family members remarked on it later.

Yes, Percy Jackson made me cry.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Sea of Monsters, by Rick Riordan (Book Review)

Title: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Sea of Monsters
Author: Rick Riordan
Genres: Fantasy, Mid-Grade
Format: Paperback
Pages: 279 Pages
Publication Date: 3/20/2007
Publisher: Disney Hyperion

Goodreads | Amazon

★★★★★

After a summer spent trying to prevent a catastrophic war among the Greek gods, Percy Jackson finds his seventh-grade school year unnervingly quiet. His biggest problem is dealing with his new friend, Tyson-a six-foot-three, mentally challenged homeless kid who follows Percy everywhere, making it hard for Percy to have any "normal" friends.

But things don't stay quiet for long. Percy soon discovers there is trouble at Camp Half-Blood: the magical borders which protect Half-Blood Hill have been poisoned by a mysterious enemy, and the only safe haven for demigods is on the verge of being overrun by mythological monsters. To save the camp, Percy needs the help of his best friend, Grover, who has been taken prisoner by the Cyclops Polyphemus on an island somewhere in the Sea of Monsters, the dangerous waters Greek heroes have sailed for millennia-only today, the Sea of Monsters goes by a new name the Bermuda Triangle.

Now Percy and his friends-Grover, Annabeth, and Tyson-must retrieve the Golden Fleece from the Island of the Cyclopes by the end of the summer or Camp Half-Blood will be destroyed. But first, Percy will learn a stunning new secret about his family-one that makes him question whether being claimed as Poseidon's son is an honor or simply a cruel joke.

First of all, I want to apologize for taking so long to finish reading this one. It's been an incredibly difficult two weeks and I haven't had a lot of time to read.

Which is disappointing considering how much I loved this book.

I'm going to be honest with you, my dear readers: I wasn't expecting too much after finishing Lightning Thief. The first book was okay but it wasn't amazing. Sea of Monsters made up for that in a way that I didn't anticipate.

It's hard to explain how I could love Lightning Thief without being transfixed by it. In the end, it just didn't quite cut muster for me. Sea of Monsters made up for that, so if you're reading (or have read) Lightning Thief and aren't sure whether you should continue with the series, my advice is do.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan (Book Review)

Title: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Lightning Thief
Author: Rick Riordan
Genres: Fantasy, Mid-Grade
Format: Paperback
Pages: 375 Pages
Publication Date: 02/02/2010
Publisher: Disney Hyperion

Goodreads | Amazon

★★★★☆

Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school...again. And that's the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. Book #1 in the NYT best-selling series, with cover art from the feature film, The Lightning Thief.

I'm having difficulty reviewing this book, and here's why: It's the first book in a series that I have never read before. I plan to read every book in this series in succession, and to review each book that i read. Because this is a series, I do not anticipate the characters or the writing to change a lot. 

The only thing that changes, then, is the story.

This is a challenge for me as a reviewer, because I like to review books as a whole. I'd love to review the characters, the story, the writing, and the ties to Harry Potter, but I feel that this ought to be saved for a final review of the series as a whole.

And I do intend to write that. I'm making notes for that review. Seriously, I am.

But right now I'm sitting here staring blankly at a screen that I've erased three times in an effort to find the right approach to this book. How do I tell you, as the reader, whether or not this is a book worth reading without reviewing the series as a whole?

Well, maybe for you the jury will be out on that until I've reached the conclusion. We'll see.

Here's what I can tell you.

This book is nothing like the movie. Apart from the general sense of the characters (and I do mean general, as neither Annabeth nor Percy are like their actor portrayals in the movies) and the basic outline of the plot, the events in the book are altogether different than those in the movie.