PERCY JACKSON
A senior citizen's view of a young-adult hit series
Why would a 75-year-old guy review a series for young adults? You find out things, for one.
For example, on the first page of The Blood of Olympus, book five in Rick Riordan’s Heroes of Olympus series: “He even had that old man smell: mothballs and chicken soup…He’d gone from 16 to 75 in a matter of seconds, but the old man smell happened instantly, like boom. Congratulations! You stink.”
Welcome to Percy Jackson country, folks-- Disney’s answer to Harry Potter. Only instead of sorcery, mythological magic is employed, allowing for even more fantastic beasts to roam across the page. I know I’m a little late to the party (the first Percy Jackson was published 20 years ago) but I took up reading about Jackson and his fellow demigods when my 12-year-old daughter Dalilah suggested I explore the series first-hand after I asked her why she liked the books so much.
I have to say that I, too, like Percy Jackson. Riordan writes with a descriptive flair that captivates. His style keeps things short and sweet, light and sprite. In my introduction to the first Percy volume, The Lightning Thief, by audiobook, I was surprised when the adventures of a troubled middle-schooler (Percy) suddenly turned into a battle between good and evil, the first of many in the series. It was as if Beverly Cleary stopped writing halfway through, turning the story over to Stephen King.
Riordan provides plenty of teen dialogue that allows the reader to find their favorites. I enjoyed the camaraderie between Percy, Annabeth, and Grover the Satyr in the first five books of the series as well as the close ties between the seven demigods in the Heroes series.
Characters like Bob the friendly titan or Triptolemus, the god of agriculture, show Riordan’s deft hand in being able to draw you in. You get used to reading lines like “Annabeth couldn’t quite wrap her head around the fact that she was sharing soup with a twenty-foot-tall lizard-legged man whose parents were Earth and the Pit of Darkness.”
If you need clarification on the various mythological gods, be they Greek or Roman, a glossary provides help. What you soon find out is that, despite their lofty reputations, the gods are a motley group, often in need of help and correction from their demigod offspring.
The villains in Riordan land are generally a varied lot, as well. But monsters, all. Described as slobbering, stinky (even worse than old men), and sinister beings, they have one thing in common: they never fail to gloat about the terrible fate awaiting the young Olympians. To a hulking, six-armed Earthborn, they all promise a painful end to our heroes. But Percy and his friends sidestep these dire declarations with a hefty helping of hurt, as Riordan might say.
After reading 10 books in the series, I’ve endured an incredible amount of violence through all the various battles played out in the stories. Yes, it’s usually being doled out to loathsome wretches, but the carnage never seems to end.
Riordan stays upbeat throughout, even when he’s portraying trials and tribulations of the son of Hades, but the author has a Herculean task on his hands: to keep surprising us with feats of daring-do page after page.
Apparently, while the books have been a great success (over 180 million sold), the movies haven’t fared too well. A second season for a TV adaptation is set for this December, so Disney is still in there pitching.
I know they can do wonderful things with special effects these days but I can’t help but flash to the Stan Freberg spot about radio when it comes to relating grandiose goings-that abound in a Percy Jackson story.
STAN FREBERG: Look, you can do things on radio you couldn't possibly do on tv.
TV PRODUCER: That'll be the day.
FREBERG: All right, watch this...ahem, okay people, now when I give you the cue, I want the 700 foot mountain of whipped cream to roll into Lake Michigan, which has been drained and filled with hot chocolate. Then the Royal Canadian Air Force will fly overhead towing a 10-ton maraschino cherry, which will be dropped into the whipped cream to the cheering of 25,000 extras. All right - cut the mountain! Cue the Air Force! Cue the maraschino cherry! Okay, 25,000 Cheering Extras!
Now, you want to try that on television?
Since Disney’s not likely to authorize a radio series anytime soon, my advice would be to check out a few Riordan audiobooks.
Interesting. I've always thought of the whole Percy Jackson scene as a Harry Potter knock-off, but maybe it has more going for it than what I gave it credit for.