What if the Greek gods (and the rest of that mythology) were not only real… but still around?
“Is it? What’s the most common thing gods did in the old stories? They ran around falling in love with humans and having kids with them. Do you think they’ve changed their habits in the last few millennia?”
Oh. And what if they all1 had a bunch of half-human children. Demigods as it were. Because that’s just what the Greek gods did/do.
It’s a fun idea for a story right off the bat and I do love the introduction. We start with Percy Jackson. Mostly normal, sometimes a bit of a problem child3. But then…
He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age.
One time, after she’d made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn’t think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, “You’re absolutely right.”
Things take a turn for the weird.
One thing leads to another, Percy goes to a summer camp for demigods and makes a bunch of close friends (Annabeth, child of Athena and Grover the stayr in particular). But trouble is brewing on Mount Olympus (now conviently moved to ’the center of Western power’, aka above New York City), the gods are about to go to war, and … it’s up to Percy Jackson to save the day!
I love the setting. It gets quite a lot of Greek mythology right (as right as you can, given its mythology) but in a way that’s just a bit more kid friendly and in a lot of ways funny. Fitting Greek mythology into the cracks in our own world works well enough and, when it doesn’t, there’s the Mist to hide what they really are.
And I love the characters. Percy has full on ‘chosen one’ vibes going on and he’s way out of his depth, but he’s just seems like such a good kid.
Overall, it’s a great series. It’s another re-read and it’s actually kind of funny. The very first book I reviewed when I finally started writing reviews on this blog was The Last Olympian, the 10th book in the series / end of the second series in this universe. So it’s a bit like coming full circle. (Not that I’m planning to stop writing reviews anytime soon.)
Side note: This line cracked me up:
“I know you journey to Hades’s realm,” she said. “Few mortals have ever done this and survived: Orpheus, who had great music skill; Hercules, who had great strength; Houdini, who could escape even the depths of Tartarus. Do you have these talents?”
Way down, Hadestown. And also Houdini.
Except the ‘big three’. Because apparently that causes World War II.2
↩︎About sixty years ago, after World War II, the Big Three agreed they wouldn’t sire any more heroes. Their children were just too powerful.
Except of course… Greek gods. ↩︎
Apparently dyslexia and ADHD are common in demigods. It comes from a brain wired for Ancient Greek and battle reflexes. I’m not sure what I think about this. ↩︎