Elizabeth Culmer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
edenfalling) wrote2024-11-06 10:22 pm
edenfalling) wrote2024-11-06 10:22 pm
Entry tags:
some stuff I've been reading
Apropos of nothing in particular:
So about twenty years late to the party, I have been reading the Percy Jackson books. I was already an adult when The Lightning Thief was published, so I think my first awareness of the series was when the 2010 movie adaptation was declared to be iffy at best and kind of went nowhere. Also there's an exploding toilet incident in the first book that somehow became, like, THE THING I knew about the series? And I wasn't super interested in reading gross-out tween boy humor, so I passed.
The thing is, there is some gross tween boy humor, but mostly these are books about friendship and determination and how to keep going when there aren't any perfect choices and all that good stuff, wrapped in sort of a jazz riff on the Titanomachy (occasionally played on kazoos).
Am I thrilled about Rick Riordan's portrayals of the Greek gods? Not always, but eh, that's fiction for you.
Anyway I have now moved on to the first sequel series (The Heroes of Olympus) in which we discover that the Greek gods also have Roman facets and we are loosely riffing on the Gigantomachy. Also we are now in third person instead of first person and have multiple POV characters, which is an interesting changeup.
...Tangentially, I have also been reading some Percy Jackson fanfic and it baffles me that almost none of the stories I've encountered are in first person. Possibly this is a bias of the way I find fics (I tend to find a writer, read their stuff, search their bookmarks, rinse and repeat), but it's really noticeable after a while.
Anyway, my hold request for The Son of Neptune just came in today so I'm gonna start reading that.
So about twenty years late to the party, I have been reading the Percy Jackson books. I was already an adult when The Lightning Thief was published, so I think my first awareness of the series was when the 2010 movie adaptation was declared to be iffy at best and kind of went nowhere. Also there's an exploding toilet incident in the first book that somehow became, like, THE THING I knew about the series? And I wasn't super interested in reading gross-out tween boy humor, so I passed.
The thing is, there is some gross tween boy humor, but mostly these are books about friendship and determination and how to keep going when there aren't any perfect choices and all that good stuff, wrapped in sort of a jazz riff on the Titanomachy (occasionally played on kazoos).
Am I thrilled about Rick Riordan's portrayals of the Greek gods? Not always, but eh, that's fiction for you.
Anyway I have now moved on to the first sequel series (The Heroes of Olympus) in which we discover that the Greek gods also have Roman facets and we are loosely riffing on the Gigantomachy. Also we are now in third person instead of first person and have multiple POV characters, which is an interesting changeup.
...Tangentially, I have also been reading some Percy Jackson fanfic and it baffles me that almost none of the stories I've encountered are in first person. Possibly this is a bias of the way I find fics (I tend to find a writer, read their stuff, search their bookmarks, rinse and repeat), but it's really noticeable after a while.
Anyway, my hold request for The Son of Neptune just came in today so I'm gonna start reading that.
no subject
In fairness to myself, most of my fic for the Riordanverse is Heroes of Olympus based, so it makes sense that it'd be in third person. But I did (shameless self-rec) write one first-person fic from Precy's point of view. It does spoil the end of HoO though if you haven't gotten there yet.
no subject
no subject
I think it was a bunch of short stories that was supposed to give you an intro to the various gods. I found it terrible and had the same vibe as that annoying uncle at the family gathering who thinks he's the funniest bloke in the world and is just cringe. While I may have picked a bad place to start it did not make me want to see if the rest of the series got any better.
no subject
But hey, sometimes you just don't click with a writer and that's fine! The world would be very boring if we all liked to read exactly the same things.
no subject
Anita Blake I ran across via fanfic, which were amazing but the source material was painfully bad. Definitely an author that did not work for me.
Diana Bishop I read via the television show and that I didn't even last through the first chapter.
But I suppose I adore the Hyperion Cantos and I've known people hurl that across the room too.