Ugh

[redbrunja]

I am learning that if a book has been on my to-read shelf for over three months, it is not worth reading. Seriously, I have been trying to get through my to-read backlog (so I can read new books guilt free!) and NOT ONCE have I been satisfied with one of those books.

NOT ONCE.

Not that books fresh from the library never disappoint, I'm looking at you, The Last Olympian.

It turns out that Rick Riordan is another author who needed to read Mockingjay to see how to correctly end a series.

Honestly, I knew from the first chapter that The Last Olympian wasn't going to be as enjoyable as the other books, when Riordan was pounding that love triangle angle like a boy as hard as he possibly could. (And if he was going to do a love triangle, why did he pick the one I am least interested in? Luke/Annabeth/Percy > Percy/Annabeth/Rachel, regardless of how cool Rachel is.) And then instead of having Percy MAKE A FREAKING CHOICE between the two awesome ladies in his life, Rachel just ends up telling him what he's feeling. Twice! Like, he may be a boy, but he's not that emotionally obtuse. (It took away a lot of the awesomeness of Percy's vision while he was turning invincible.)

The other thing that fucking drove me up the wall was the prophecy. Now, I am all for having prophecies be subverted and misinterpreted.... but that has to happen in a way that isn't a cheat. And frankly, how it played out with Luke felt like a real cheat. Did the prophecy switch who it was referring to by 'hero' every other line? WHY was everyone convinced that a child of one of the three gods was important? I hated how it felt like the author warped the prophecy to fit what he wanted to do, instead of having known what was going to happen from the beginning.

There were things that I enjoyed: Rachel and her arc were awesome, I liked the scenes of Luke's early life and learning how he met Annabeth. That... is about it.

Comments

[rosegilmore.livejournal.com]

Aw, I'm so sad that you didn't like this book! The Last Olympian, was one of my favorites of the series.

Anyway, I agree with Rachel and Luke being awesome, and I sort of liked the way that the whole hero changed from Percy to Luke in the end. It was a surprise at least.

Are you going to read the Lost Hero?

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

So, WHY was it your favorite?

And I would have liked the 'hero' switching from Percy to Luke, except that it was a totally unforshadowed, rule-breaking cheat.

The Lost Hero is the new book with new protagonists, right? If so, then yes, I probably will.

[darkeyedwolf.livejournal.com]

I remember being dissatisfied because Riordan was obviously making shit up by the end. Didn't the prophecy outright say "he" or "him"? Either he forgot his own continuity or Thalia was a pretty masculine twelve year old girl...

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

I think you're talking about The Lost Hero, which I haven't actually read yet.

In The Last Olympian, the cheat was that were were told for four books that the prophecy referred to a child of either Zeus, Hades, or Poseidon... but decided in the end that it referred to Luke, who is a child of Hermes.

[darkeyedwolf.livejournal.com]

I was talking about the prophecy very obviously referring to a male hero and yet in the second/third book everyone was afraid it could mean Thalia. (IIRC that was why Zeus let her join Artemis' hunters, because as an immortal 12 year old she'd never reach the sixteen year old hero of the prophecy.)

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

*lightbulb*

Oh, man, you're totally right.

[qualapec.livejournal.com]

So, knowing that you don't like the ending, would you still reccomend the series? Because I've been on a major Greek Mythology kick lately and I was eyeing the books.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

With reservations, yes.

(And who is that in your icon? She looks very cool.)

[qualapec.livejournal.com]

The actress is Milla Jovovich, and the character is Alice. Pic taken from the first Resident Evil movie. (The icon I'm using in this reply taken from the upcoming movie).

Ahead of time, I'll say the movies aren't great, and although Alice is badass and I like her well enough, she's not from the original games (which had so many awesome female characters that I didn't think it was necessary- it's like they tried to take Jill, Claire, Rebbecca and Ada and wrap them all up in one package). That being said, I've found that the RE movies make GREAT icons.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

I've seen a bit of one of the RE movies and couldn't get into it - for a zombie movie, it was slow, and the part I saw mainly involved watching a pretty young woman wonder around.

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

I loved it--it was like, to me, what Deathly Hallows is at its best moments--just one big giant ongoing battle, but well-paced so that it doesn't drag, and I liked the twisties with the prophecy, and I did think the love triangle was lame but I love the fact that Rachel became the Oracle. And little Hestia! And the statues in New York! I was a fan of all these things.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

I admit, I was a fan of the final battle starting a third of the way through the book and lasting almost two days. That felt very realistic to me.

And Rachel being the Oracle was very cool and made a lot of sense.

[fallingtowers.livejournal.com]

I am learning that if a book has been on my to-read shelf for over three months, it is not worth reading.

That does not bode well for my own bookshelves where I have stacked unread tomes I bought in 2005...

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

It might not. Or you might have better luck with that than I did.

[laura-sommeils.livejournal.com]

I'm agree with you in some points, I'd rather the Luke/Annabeth/Percy instead of Percy/Annabeth/Rachel. Just because Luke&Annabeth are my otp, because i shipp Luke&Percy or Annabeth&Percy too. And also because of the bad ending Rick gave to Rachel. i mean, He just made her the oracle, and i was like WTF
I love the prophecy part, i mean, my heart broken when i read it, but I was like LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUKE ;___; He's my favourite character since the beginning, and his death was a huge shock to me. But at least he had a good dead, if we can say that. Also, i loved the flashbacks of when he was with Thalia and Annabeth, i just died with that <3

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

I wasn't surprised at Luke's death at all, he was so clearly set up as the antagonist. Did you think that he was going to make it out of the series alive?

[laura-sommeils.livejournal.com]

Yes, i don't really thought about it, maybe because i readed the five books like in two weeks. It never crossed my mind, I supose that deep down inside my i was still hoping to Luke to return to the good's side and be awesome. I never thought in his death until I readed it D:

[nimblnymph.livejournal.com]

See ... I saw the movie without reading the books. And, minus the very fine selection of eye candy, it was bad. Like, so bad it made me not want to read the books and see if they were better.

And hearing this now from you ... I'm three times the sadder now. I love Greek mythology, so this series (had any of it been done well) would have been right up my alley. But the movie sucked, and now hearing about yet another cop out prophecy and shoddy ending? Sorry, but no. I was disappointed enough with the way Harry Potter ended, thank you very much.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

I have heard the movie is terrible. However, I hope that you don't take from this post that the ENTIRE series is disappointing - it was actually really well-written and feminist, and if you like Greek mythology and can brace yourself for a disappointing finale, I would recommend that you read them.

(Plus, they're young-ish YA, so you can breeze through the books themselves; very little investment of time is needed.)

[lady-with-cats.livejournal.com]

I picked up the first few (and I loved Thalia), but then never got my hands on the last ones. My sister has them all though... I feel like I should at least attempt to finish, though. Hm.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

They're quick reads, so it's not a huge investment of time if you do decide to read them...