I might be partial to Percy Jackson as a character because I found this second book the The Heroes of Olympus series to be much more exciting than the first book. The characters have better secrets to share, the threat is more immediate, and the quest for our lead characters feels more intense.
We pick up in time after the first book with the same evil threatening the world, Gaea, and the same prophecy of seven coming together. This time though, we're at the camp of the Roman demigods, Camp Jupiter, which we've never seen before, and Percy is our hero with a missing memory (you might want to check out the review of the first book so this makes a little more sense.) He wanders into camp, is questioningly accepted, and befriends two other campers, Hazel and Frank. Again, there are characters who know Percy's true identity, just like in book one, but they're keeping the truth to themselves to not disrupt the master plan (whatever that turns out to be.)
A quest gets issues to find and free Thanatos, who's basically the Grim Reaper, from a giant who also happens to be Gaea's son. They also need to help prevent an army of monsters from destroying Camp Jupiter. It's a tall order for three kids especially when they're all grappling with a very personal issue. In addition to Percy's memory loss, Frank is trying to figure out his family's big secret and how it applies to himself, and Hazel is wrestling with the guilt of a very bad deed nobody knows she's committed.
So all three set out to Alaska to fulfill their quest with nothing but the deeds they do to prove their character to each other and earn trust. They run into a lot of monsters, a few gods, and some other characters with mythological makings. Fewer immortals appear than in the Percy series and they mythology is very Roman-focused (which I know a lot less about,) so this book felt more like a pure adventure story to me than the first book of the series. I really enjoyed and it and am definitely Team Percy over Team Jason if such a thing exists.
Riordan continues to introduce compelling and intricate characters in extraordinary scenarios in his world of demigods that keep the pages turning. I think these are great YA books outside of the overly popular dystopian-framed books and are more worthy of your time to read if delving into this genre as a whole.
Needing a break from all my 2013 rereads, I decided to revisit the world of Percy Jackson and start Riordan's second series about the demigods that live among us. This series, set in the same world, introduces us to a whole other set of demigods - those sired from the gods while in their Roman incarnation. Therefore we meet Jason who is the son of Jupiter rather than Zeus. Riordan does a good job of explaining how the gods are all the same but were given different names to suit different aspects of themselves and how the gods can exist in multiple forms at once.
Jason has no memory of his childhood and becomes conscious on a bus heading toward the Grand Canyon. He's a teenager. His two close friends, Piper and Leo, know who he is and have memories of him, but Jason is clueless. He's given about an hour to ponder all he's forgotten before the whole busload of children are attacked by monsters. It's a rough introduction for Jason, Leo, and Piper, who all turn out to be demigods, into the world of mythology. They end up at Camp Halfblood and meet Annabeth. She's pretty absent from this book since she's on her own mission to find Percy who's strangely gone missing.
A new prophecy is revealed foretelling the end of world and how seven demigods will be chosen to work together to prevent it. With three assembled already, Jason, Leo, and Piper set off on a quest to rescue Hera, who has been kidnapped by giants. The whole plot of the series unfolds as they quest to find Hera who of course is in California, the seat of all evil for Riordan (not really sure why,) things are looking pretty interesting for the rest of the books. What's different about this series already is the human connection. In Percy's series, you felt that everyone was connected through a common cause automatically, but for Jason's story line, it's not that easy. Not only are the demigods and gods going to have to work together (and the gods hate that,) but two groups of kids who didn't even know each other existed will have to figure out how to team up successfully, overcoming centuries of inherent animosity. It sounds like it's going to be interesting.
Conflicting with the interesting plot though are the new characters. I'm not sure I like them all. There's almost too much insecurity between them which I assume will improve, but for now. Jason is insecure because of his lack of memory, Piper just a teenage girl who second-guesses a little too much, and Leo has issues in his past keeping him doubt of his abilities. I know they'll grow because that's what Riordan characters do, but it's almost like they started at more of a deficit than I expected.
I'm not dying to get into the second book in this series the way I was with Percy's books, but I will eventually read it These books are a fun break from heavier reads and I really do like the world Riordan has created for them. It's fun YA fiction that features an ensemble cast rather than a single strong female battling her way through dystopia, and that's a nice change too.
2013 Reread #2
At first read (quite a while ago,) this book blew me away. I hadn't read very much Vonnegut at the time and had only grazed the surface of Sci-Fi Humor (which this book definitely is.)
It's amazing how perspective adds so much to how a book makes you feel. This time around, knowing the big reveal, I kept expecting the entire book to be just as exciting as the last few chapters, but truthfully, it was a little slow. I can't remember what I thought about Malachi Constant, our "hero," initially, but this time around I really didn't feel anything for him at all. Having read so much Vonnegut now, ti was easier to see how rough his style was here in his first book. And, while I still absolutely love the story, it didn't blow me away like it did before.
I feel like I took something totally different away from Sirens at this read than I did initially. At first read, this book was about the meaning of life and how disappointing and humorous humanity's "actual" purpose was. I loved the f-you to the scientific community about life on earth and evolution. This time around, the book was about emotion - how living without it makes you do stupid things, like invade Earth, and living with too much can make you a crazy zealot. Emotion is even powerful enough to force a robot to dismantle himself. In this way, the big reveal for me wasn't about the meaning of life, but rather the revelation of where to reside on the scale of emotional involvement. Malachi sums it up perfectly in the book, "a purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved."
Vonnegut's humor was still delightful with this reread. I love how he plays with reality. I'm still definitely a Vonnegut fan and I still believe that Sirens of Titan is a wonderfully entertaining book, but I'm not sure it's my favorite anymore. I might have to reread Galapagos to see if that's worthy of the #1 spot.
