David Estes Fans and YA Book Lovers Unite! discussion

Daniel and me will be reading this next week.
Starting 18th may.Join if you want to.

Yay!! Hope you guys enjoy it. I really liked it. :D

Not expecting anything else,love all his books.

Awrsome. looking forward to it.

Bought the hardback today.
Love the apollo quotes on the back.

Oda wrote: "Bought the hardback today.
Love the apollo quotes on the back."

Haha, I love that too! I also love that all the chapter titles are haikus. :P

Oh fun! Watching all Brigid's updates on the book has made me want to read it (although there was little chance I wouldn't--it's Riordan after all). Put a request in at the library, but they don't have any copies yet, so I'll join the discussion later. :)

I'll be starting this today or tomorrow.

I`ll probably start it tomorrow.

page 19.
"As you wish," I said. "Let's go find Percy Jackson."
. . .
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
ASDFKDFKRUFUWOWKQLXGGNROWXYFJRNE
*cough*
I'm Ok.

Daniel wrote: "page 19.
"As you wish," I said. "Let's go find Percy Jackson."
. . .
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
ASDFKDFKRUFUWOWKQLXGGNROWXYFJRNE
*cough*
I'm Ok."

ahhh :DDDDDD

Daniel wrote: "page 19.
"As you wish," I said. "Let's go find Percy Jackson."
. . .
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
ASDFKDFKRUFUWOWKQLXGGNROWXYFJRNE
*cough*
I'm Ok."

Lol!!!! ... My same reaction. :D

I'm so excited that Percy and the rest of the gang are back!

I started it a few hours ago.
Looving it.

I stopped at page 109.
(view spoiler)[
NICO AND WILL ASDFYJGHUKRTDFGHKYJRTYESDVBNHJLUTIRUYSDFGHJIYOTIERASFDJH.
I'm gonna be doing that a lot over the course of this book, I think. (hide spoiler)]
I can tell that this series is probably going to be quite a bit lighter and less grave than the PJO and HoO series, considering both the content matter and Apollo's perspective. The situation doesn't seem as dire. I like meatier, heavier plotlines, but I guess I can live with this. It's great to revisit this world again. And I love me some Percy.

I dont mind that, and getting a light feeling as well. Both pjo and hoo have been so heavy its a nice change to have a different tone with this series.

Daniel - (view spoiler)[YESSSS SOLANGELO. <3 AREN'T THEY SO CUTE?! :D (hide spoiler)]

Hmmm yeah. I think towards the end things get a little darker, but over all it seems to have a bit of a lighter tone. But who knows ... The Lightning Thief is pretty light and then the later PJO books got more intense, so maybe the same thing will happen with this series.

I just got this book today and will start it tomorrow!! :)

I'm on page 38, just had to stop and freak out about (view spoiler)[ Sally being pregnant! AWWW! Percy's getting a baby sister! <\spoiler> I don't really like how Percy keeps bringing up the past so OBVIOUSLY. Like, yeah remember that nosebleed I had that almost ended the world or that time Hera took my memories? LIKE YES WE REMEMBER WE WERE ALL THERE. (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[Awww I know right?? Percy as a big brother .... MY HEART. <3 Lol that's true, I feel like Rick Riordan has a tendency to do that. Sometimes I find it helpful though because my memory is pretty bad. :P (hide spoiler)]

Daniel wrote: "page 19.
"As you wish," I said. "Let's go find Percy Jackson."
. . .
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
ASDFKDFKRUFUWOWKQLXGGNROWXYFJRNE
*cough*
I'm Ok."
I was the exact same way, Daniel lol!

I'm usually the one that falls behind in buddy reads but I finished the book already lol! I liked it a lot because DUH IT'S THE PERCY JACKSON WORLD AND PERCY JACKSON IS LIFE but I didn't love it like I hoped I would.

Harlee wrote: "I'm usually the one that falls behind in buddy reads but I finished the book already lol! I liked it a lot because DUH IT'S THE PERCY JACKSON WORLD AND PERCY JACKSON IS LIFE but I didn't love it li..."

Wow, you're fast.
Yeah, I didn't expect to like this book as much as I loved the other two series, just because that's such a high standard to match. I intended it more as a way to catch up with the old characters and revisit some of my favourites. It's succeeded in that regard.

I'm on page 210, or something.

@Daniel That was pretty much my favorite part of the story, revisiting the gang and the world. I'm hoping maybe I'll like the next one a bit more because I didn't love the first book in the HoO series but loved the others.

I'd also just initially intended to read this book as a means of catching up on the old characters' lives––but I really liked the new story/characters as well. I actually enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. I think I liked it more than both Magnus Chase and the last HoO book. It did feel a little incomplete to me, like it was sort of building up to a bigger plot ... so I'm curious to see where the story goes from here!

I finished it on friday.
I espesially love the second to last chapter where they que up to do the thing. (sory for the vaugness, I dont know how to do the spoiler thing).
Also love Apollos pov, its so fun seeing him as a mortal.
Loove that its a 5 book series, 4 more great books to go :)

of you want to hide spoilers put in (view spoiler)[ type the spoiler here and then (view spoiler)[ with a / (forward facing) before the word spoiler. (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

Just tried it dident work.

here. I'll try again. just copy what I write, paste it and fill in your spoilers. it doesn't work in status updates for some reason...
(view spoiler)[ hope this helps you (hide spoiler)]

Aliza I think it's not working because you used the html code and it just automatically converted it, haha. :)

Oda - the html for a spoiler is: < spoiler > write your spoiler here lalala < / spoiler >

Just take out the spaces and it should work!

Took a break for a few days to focus on our family's move, but picked it up again today and finished. I kind of feel meh about the ending, but overall I liked it. 3.5 stars for me.
I'll post a detailed review later. But to summarize:
1. I liked being able to check on the old characters.
2. I found Apollo's perspective amusing but sometimes a bit too much.
3. Similar to a lot of Riordan books, everything in the book that could have gone wrong went wrong, until the last 50 pages when everything coincidentally seemed to fall in place.
4. Did not see the twist with Meg coming- well played.
5. I may read the next book but I don't know if I'm invested enough now to still be interested in the series in a year's time.

Good points, Daniel! I agree that it was great to see the old characters again. I also didn't see the twist about Meg coming, although that's one of the things that kind of bothered me; I just feel like it's something that's been done before. But I'm interested to see how it plays out.

I really enjoyed Apollo's narration. And actually I felt like the book didn't follow the typical Riordan formula the way I thought it would. I was surprised that most of it took place at Camp Half-Blood and that it wasn't a journey/quest story like ... literally all the other books he's written. :D So I appreciated that. I see what you mean about everything kind of falling into place at the end, though.

I'm not sure how he's going to make this story last for five whole books, but I'm definitely going to read the second one when it comes out!

I think you can expect to see that quest storyline again now that they've got an Oracle working. lol
I still think Riordan always does this thing where he makes everything seem like crap for most of the book then magical things randomly happen at the end to make everything ok again. I do want to see variety from him- do something he hasn't done yet in a story. I agree that he has a sort of formula he sticks to, and I'd like to see him take his stories another, new direction.
My goodness you're right, how's he going to stretch this out over 5 books?

Daniel wrote: "I think you can expect to see that quest storyline again now that they've got an Oracle working. lol
I still think Riordan always does this thing where he makes everything seem like crap for most o..."

WEll there are five oracles, so thinking they will try to find the others and get them on their side.
Also greek mythology is rich with stories, dont think writing 4 more stories is going to be a problem.

@Daniel - Haha yeah it definitely seemed like the end of the book was setting up for a quest in the next one. But I liked that at least in the first book, he took a bit of a different route. I also would like to see him do something entirely different someday, though––maybe something not even mythology related. *gasp!* :P

@Oda - That's also what I figure will happen in the next four books. And yes there are a TON of Greek myths, but also Rick has written 11 Greek-myth-inspired books at this point, and sometimes I feel like he's kind of ... scraping the bottom of the barrel. He's used up most of the very well-known myths and getting into more obscure ones––which isn't necessarily bad, but sometimes I feel like he has to stop and explain a little too much.

Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* wrote: "@Daniel - Haha yeah it definitely seemed like the end of the book was setting up for a quest in the next one. But I liked that at least in the first book, he took a bit of a different route. I also..."

I dont mind the obscure ones, I love learning new stories.

I don't mind them either, I've definitely learned a lot of new ones!

I'm just saying that his inclusion of some stories can feel a little forced––that is, sometimes characters literally have to stop and explain who they are, what story they come from, etc. and it can feel somewhat unnatural to the flow of the story. Maybe that's just me, though. :D

I think he's worried that if he ever ventures out of mythology and writes something completely different, he'll get shot down by critics. He seems content to keep doing what he knows he's good at, because he knows it keeps selling.

Oh, and it also looks like we're going to see Jason and Piper in the second book, though I personally don't really care about those characters so I'm not dying of excitement or anything. Maybe I'll let you two read it first and tell me how it is before making my decision. :P

Well he did write adult crime before pjo.
Also there are many myths to retell,I love it. I`m far from tired.

Daniel wrote: "I think he's worried that if he ever ventures out of mythology and writes something completely different, he'll get shot down by critics. He seems content to keep doing what he knows he's good at, ..."

Yup, I think that's exactly it, haha. And I don't really blame him because, as you said, it seems to be working well in his favor! It would be cool to see him write something else, but also I'm fine with him continuing to write books in the same vein.

Ehh yeah, Jason and Piper were definitely my least favorite characters in HoO. But I'm still looking forward to the next book! And yeah I'll definitely let you know my thoughts when I read it. :D