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

[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.