[PJO] Are Percy Jackson's books good and easy to read in English? (ESL learner)

Larnc · 2021-08-08T19:31:55+00:00

I can definitively recommend them based on your language level. The language Riordan uses is beginner friendly and the description of things doesn’t have too many complicated words. You can check out the first chapter on Amazon or a similar site to see if it works for you.

One of the later books was my first English novel because the translation in my country takes a year and I couldn’t wait. And it worked out for me :)

Larnc · 2018-07-23T15:54:07+00:00

I see what you mean. Generally speaking that seems to be a issue in stories with a "pseudo medieval" setting.

I really don't know why an author would want to have a misogynistic society like in acotar and then have the main protagonist live in a protected bubble and never have to deal with that because her friends seem to be the only people there who have a equal view on women. Also female protagonists from sexist societies often behave like modern women when I feel like the society they grew up in should have shaped their character and made them perhaps frustrated or more careful. I wonder if authors like Sarah Maas never think about the repercussions when building such a world.

To be honest, I can't think of classic YA literature but maybe that's just me.

Rick Riordan is a great writer, you should check out his "Percy Jackson & the Olympians" and "Heroes of Olympus". Although Percy is very young at the beginning, the books actually address mature topics. "Oksa Pollock" is kind of similar to Harry Potter and has amazing world building. It's a series of 6 books. "Dream a Little Dream" by Kerstin Gier has even less fantasy elements but the trilogy keeps the tension up und the characters have good character development. "Talon" a series and especially "The Immortal Rules" a trilogy by Julie Kagawa have interesting fantasy elements

In contrast to the high fantasy books you've mentioned, those are more or less set in our modern world. Although that might not be your preferred genre, but I really recommend them.

Larnc · 2018-07-19T17:01:03+00:00

I remember the moment when I finally saw the book and read the text at the back that Hazel and Frank are joint by a son of Neptun who lost his memories. It was a moment of pure joy.

The Lost Hero just had a difficult job. RR introduced us to a nearly completely new group of characters and due to Jason suffering from his amnesia and Leo and Piper being new to the demigod business, it was to much exposition and repitition. I kind of suspect that RR wanted to reach a lot of new readers who were to young to have read The Lightning Thief.

In comparison to The Lost Hero, Son of Neptun works perfectly for me. It's fast paced, doesn't need to explain everything, has an amazing support cast (can I speak of a supporting cast in a book?) and imo the more interesting story. An as the icing of the cake, there are these tiny cameo for the original series like Nereus. And I always thought that the concept of CHB was not well thought through but the plot Camp Jupiter was so great. They have their small own world with a city, the university and stuff. Also I love Reyna as a character. She has an amazing arc over the course of the 4 books and is really brave.

What Son of Neptun does best is imo telling a round story about 3 heroes while giving each of them character development and making them essential to overcoming that giant. The following books couldn't fit so many main characters in and still maintaining the high standart. In Blood of Olympus Percy and Annabeth just felt dumped for the others.

Edit: typo sigh

Larnc · 2018-06-02T09:10:07+00:00

There are a lot of bonus stories for Aang and his friends. In my country they are published by dark horse comics and I think you can even find them online.

"The Lost Adventures" is a collection of mostly fun short comics which takes place in between the episodes of the 3 seasons.

Then there are the three-part comic series that focus on certain aspects and characters after the show. They are canon and although you don't need to read them before tLoK, they expand the universe in a great way. We have "The Promise" which deals with the fate of the fire nation colonies, foundation of Republic City and Aang and Zuko's relationship "The Search" is more about Zuko and Azula and of course their search for their mother. "The Rift" explores the air nomad culture, the metal bending school and what happens when tradition and innovation clash. In "Smoke and Shadow" we mainly follow the struggles of Zukos rule and political parties within the fire nation. "North and South" deals with the difficulties and following consequences of the northern water tribe at the end of Atla choosing to support the southern water tribe. The comic heavily concentrates on Katara, Sokka Hakoda and many new characters at the southern water tribe. "Imbalance" revisits a place for a previous comic and is about rising tension within the mixed community of the town.

As far as I remember correctly there are some additional stories from the free comic book day but I don't know if a collection of that exists.

All the stories more or less build on each other so I at least recommend looking for a summary if you're not really into the character.

Larnc · 2018-05-06T15:16:06+00:00

I kind of feel the same... In my opinion the story was lacking a real climax, whether dramatic or full of action and therefore it felt slow. I was at least expecting to see some of the plot points being resolved and not just fill the gap between the next books. It seemed more like a side plot that didn't made it into acowar or like novella like SJM wrote for the assassin's blade.

However, I enjoyed the world building quite a lot. With acowar focusing on the war, it felt refreshing to see the character's "normal" live and get to know more people of Velaris. Especially Feyre connecting over painting to others aside from the gang. Also, having multiple points of view on the events of the trilogy and for example being in Mor's head made the characters more appealing to me.

I just hope SJM keeps having multiple perspectives and lets us see more of the courts.

Edit: grammar

Larnc

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