Percy Jackson & the Olympians

[♦ flyakite]

Percy Jackson & the Olympians is a fantasy and adventure series about 12-year-old Percy Jackson. Percy discovers he's a demi-god. A demi-god is someone who has a mortal (human) parent as well as a parent who is a Greek God. The series is about Percy's adventures with his friends, who include Annabeth(demigod), Grover(satyr), and others, who must stop the Greek monsters that still exist today. Percy and his friends must also stop demigods who have joined forces with the Titans who wish to overthrow Olympus forever. Also, the series is written by Rick Riordan.
Why I find these books to be so interesting is because there is so much Greek mythology in them. Bascially everything in Greek mythology is in this series: the Olympians (Gods), Titans, cyclopes, minotaurs, satyrs, centaurs, etc.
The books go in this order:
1.) The Lightning Thief
2.) The Sea of Monsters
3.) The Titan's Curse
4.) The Battle of the Labyrinth
5.) The Last Olympian

They're extremely good (actually, they're excellent and extremely addicting!) and if you haven't read them you are deffiantely missing out!
So as anyone else read this great series?

[♦ x0Tina]

I am on The Sea of Monsters right now and I am addicted! I love it. All the greek mythology makes it very interesting to read. This series definatly tops as one of my favorites.

[♦ flyakite]

This series is also one of my favorites!!! (along with the Twilight and Harry Potter series)

The Sea of Monsters is a really good book. Though I don't know if I can say it's my favorite. It's really hard to pick my favorite from this series. (Because I do have a favorite book in the Twilight and Harry Potter series.) I think this series is just too good for me to possibly pick a favorite.

[some spoliers. There're in white.]

So what did you think of the Lightning Thief? Personally, I wasn't a fan a Zeus. I thought he was a huge jerk the way he accused Percy of stealing his master lightning bolt. And how he wanted to destroy Percy because he thought he stole it! I mean, Zeus is Percy's uncle for crying out loud! How could you want to disintegrate your own nephew, even after he proved his innocence?! Zeus is quite the hot-head...and stubborn!Ahhh. That really made me mad.
Also, what did you think of Luke? I thought he was going to be such a good friend to Percy. I couldn't believe he betrayed him like that. I was like, "How could you Luke?! Why are you going to kill Percy?! YOU CAN'T KILL PERCY!!!" But Percy was OK in the end so it was all good.
I also hated Percy's stepdad, Gabe. I'm glad he's now out of the picture.
And everytime Percy came across a monster, it made national television and made Percy out to be this dangerous criminal. I felt bad for him because you know it wasn't his fault, that he isn't a criminal, and yeah he destroyed quite a few things but they were in life or death sitautions.

How far along are you on the Sea of Monsters? I want to discuss it but I don't want to spoil anything for you.

[♦ flyakite]

At the beginning of the year, I was very pleased to find out that The Lightning Thief would be turned into a movie!!! AHHHH! I'm so excited!
I just hope that all the books are turned into movies. I'd be crushed if they just ended up making one. The film is being directed by Chris Columbus, who also directed the first two Harry Potter movies.

This film will star Logan Lerman as Percy. Personally, I couldn't be happier for who was cast as Percy. Logan is beyond perfect. This is EXACTLY how I imagined Percy.
Annabeth Chase will be played by Alexandra Daddario. She also looks EXACTLY like how I pictured Annabeth. The only problem I have is that she's 23 playing a 12 year old. I know a lot of fans are upset by this and would have preferred AnnaSophia Robb. She would have been great as well. But I have to reserve my judgement until I see the movie and see if Alexandra pulls it off.

I am so unbelievably pleased with this cast. Everyone is how I pictured them. I also know some fans are upset because there's quite a few big named actors in this film. They believe they were put into a certain role because of who they are, not because they would make a good character, which I can totally understand. I want people to go and see this movie because they're interested in it, not because of who's in it. Other people starring in the film are : Pierce Brosnan as Chiron, Rosario Dawson as Persephone, Uma Thurman as Medusa, Kevin McKidd as Poseidon, and Steve Coogan as Hades - just to name a few.

A teaser trailer has already been released for The Lightning Thief and can be seen here.
Before the video, there's also an article about the movie.

[♦ flyakite]

I've seen some pictures from the movie of Annabeth....and I'm not too pleased. First off, I don't think Alexandra passes as a 12 year old. You can tell she's older than Logan (Percy).
Second, Annabeth is supposed to be blonde. I know it's not a major detail, but Riordan is constantly saying in the books "Annabeth's blonde hair and grey eyes...so like her mother's." He says it several times in each book, so for me Annabeth has blonde hair and grey eyes. You just can't change that.

Also I'm hearing that the writers changed the plot from the book quite a bit for the movie. I have yet to find solid evidence of this, but I'm still keeping it in mind. I hope they didn't disturb it too much because I love these books exactly the way they are. Of course I know they have to change some things, but I hope they don't change as much as I've been hearing.

[♦ x0Tina]

I actually just looked up the cast and i agree. I was so upset when i saw the girl playing Annabeth. It's really ticking me off. And they better not stray away from the plot. I don't mind little things but if they change a lot of things i'll be livid.

[♦ flyakite]

What I heard about the plot change is instead of having the series start with the demigods being 11/12 years old, the movie starts with them being 17 years old. I don't know I how feel about that. I can understand where Chris Columbus is coming from about the fight scenes being too much for younger actors, because some of them are incredibly demanding. But isn't that what special effects are for? It may take longer, but I really don't see what the problem is with having younger actors for the roles.

The series starts with the demigods being 11 years old for many good reasons:
1.) The demigods start training and preparing how to fight monsters. It would be easier to teach them when they're younger so they already know the basics, then they just have to work on their skill and keep improving from there. It would be too difficult to have them just learning how to fight off monsters when they're almost adults.
2.) Monsters are able to find demigods by their scent. Demigods' scents are already strong when they're 12. How are monsters supposed to wait 5 years until they attack a demigod? They wouldn't be able to resist. They would go and fight them, which leads us back to square 1 - the demigods wouldn't be prepared and would certainly be destroyed.
3.) Some gods don't want some of their children because that child may be responsible for upsetting the gods reign over western civilization and end up destroying Olympus. This is twice as likely to happen if there's a child of the Big Three (Zeus, Poseidon, Hades) living.spoiler- (Even though Percy is a son of Poseidon, but we all know he saves Olympus, he doesn't destroy it). Why would the gods wait until their child was 17 until killing them? That gives the kid 5/6 more years to overturn Olympus! It would be easier for them to destroy the kid when they're younger, that way they wouldn't be able to do any harm.
4.) HALF THE DEMIGODS DON'T EVEN LIVE TO ADULTHOOD! They're either killed by monsters (2) or killed by their parents (3).


By Columbus and the writers pushing back the age to 17, this seems to raise a lot of questions. Look at all these plot holes!!!

Don't get me wrong, I'm still super pumped about the movie because I love these books so much and I really believe this can be a great film. I guess I just have to reserve my judgment until I see the film. It comes out February 12 of next year. Hopefully Chris won't disappoint and makes the new age work accordingly.