Percy Jackson : Heroes of Olympus. The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

Book: Percy Jackson Heroes of Olympus. The Lost Hero.

Author: Rick Riordan

Publisher: Puffin Books. (www.puffinbooks.com) Penguin group.

ISBN : 978 0141325491

This is the first book of the Heroes of Olympus series.

Jason got up in the back seat of a Wilderness School bus, not knowing who he is, why he is here or even where he is from.

And like a perfectly normal demigod day, he takes a dive down the Grand Canyon and fights some storm spirits. By coincidence he is rescued by Annabeth, who gets the message that Percy, who had gone missing will be there.

Getting to camp wasn’t any better. He realized that he had already been claimed and that the queen of Olympus had taken away his memories intending to use him as a ‘bridge’.

As if the day could get any more eventful, he gets a prophecy that Hera is being held hostage and that he is supposed to rescue her. Leo has another task, helping his cabin to destroy the dragon, Festus, to lift the curse from his cabin, but how can they do what nobody has done in all these years. And Leo can’t stand the thought of this beautifully crafted dragon to be destroyed, so he has to tame it, thinking that it could also help in the quest, but he has little time to do it.

The questions and possibilities are many, answers scanty…….

Will they succeed in rescuing Hera, will Jason get his memory back and  does the arrival of Jason have anything to do with the disappearance of Percy. 

Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

Book: Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian.

Author: Rick Riordan

Publisher: Puffin Books. (www.puffinbooks.com) Penguin group.

ISBN : 978 0141346885

Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian is the last book in the Percy Jackson series.

On his sixteenth birthday, Percy gets a prophecy that could save or destroy the world…

“A half blood of the eldest gods

 Shall reach sixteen against all odds

 And see the world in endless sleep

 The hero’s soul, cursed blade shall reap

 A single choice shall end his days.

 Olympus to preserve or raze.”

The Titan lord Kronos, is starting to attack New York City. The dreaded monster Typhon is by his side. As if things could not get any worse, the enemy reports that they have a spy at camp….

Percy and just forty of his demigod friends set out against untold evil. Nico has a plan, but Percy doesn’t think he’s ready yet, it could kill him.

Hades and Poseidon have their own issues down there and cannot join the war.

But, like always, things don’t go the way they’re supposed to… Annabeth gets stabbed, Chiron gets buried, Rachel gets recent visions and the Ares cabin at camp refuses to come to the battle till they get the chariot back….

Is this Kronos’ way of dividing them to conquer Olympus? And things get more complicated when Percy gets Pandora’s jar as a gift from a Titan, who said that if they open it, and release ‘HOPE’ they will know that they have surrendered.

Percy’s only hope is to convince Luke to turn over and destroy Kronos, but it seems unlikely.

As the demigod of the prophecy all of this is on Percy’s shoulders….. Will they beat the Titan Kronos or will they be taken over by monsters….

Percy Jackson & Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

Book: Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth.

Author: Rick Riordan

Publisher: Puffin Books. (www.puffinbooks.com) Penguin group.

ISBN : 978 0141146830

Percy Jackson and the battle of the Labyrinth is the fourth book of the Percy Jackson series.

The labyrinth was thought to be lost a millennia ago, but when they find a secret entrance right in the middle of camp, things start to go terribly wrong, and that’s just the beginning….

The Labyrinth was created by Daedalus, a maze, connected to his life force. It is a maze used to trap the Minotaur, a maze that is alive, where time and space are meaningless, keeps shifting and is full of horrors.

When a Labyrinth entrance is found in the heart of camp half blood, the enemy decides to use the Labyrinth to get inside camp. If they succeed, thousands of bloodthirsty monsters will invade camp.

But the enemy will only be able to navigate through the maze with Ariadne’s string. The string was kept with Daedalus, who was thought to be dead a million years ago, but as a demigod you can’t be sure…

Percy, Annabeth , Tyson and Grover are trying to find Daedalus before Luke can and convince him not to give Luke the string…

Percy, Annabeth, Tyson and Grover descend into darkness with the prophecy,

“You shall delve in the darkness of the endless maze.

  The dead, the traitor and lost one raise,

  You shall rise or fall by the ghost’s king hand,

  The child of Athena’s final stand.”

Will they accomplish their mission of will they end up with something else inside the Labyrinth………

Percy Jackson and the Titans Curse by Rick Riordan

Book: Percy Jackson and the Titans Curse.

Author: Rick Riordan

Publisher: Puffin Books. (www.puffinbooks.com) Penguin group.

ISBN : 978 0141146816

Percy Jackson and the Titan’s Curse is the third book of the Percy Jackson series.

Percy, Grover, Thalia and Annabeth are off to a new boarding school, Westover Hall and almost get themselves killed in two hours.

Grover had caught scent of two unclaimed demigods, powerful, he called them, and the four were off to rescue them. Percy didn’t have a good history with teachers, but this teacher at Westover Hall, Dr. Thorn, turned out to be a monster, captured Annabeth and warned them about a legendary doomsday monster… and all of it is connected to his old frenemy, Luke.

The hunters come to camp with the news that Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, has disappeared. A quest of five, hunters and campers set off to find the goddess, her disappearance being linked to the capture of Annabeth and the rise of the doomsday, with the prophecy….

“Five shall go west to the goddess in chains,

 One shall be lost in the land without rain,

 The bane of Olympus shows the trail,

 Campers and Hunters combined prevail,

 The Titan’s curse must one withstand,

 And one shall perish by a parent’s hand.”

The problem being, Percy is not part of the five demigods of the quest.

Will Percy sneak out of camp to go look for his friends or will he leave it up to Zoe and Thalia to get Annabeth back? And what do the two new demigods have to do with this quest?

Sita, Warrior of Mithila by Amish Tripathi

Book: SITA Warrior of Mithila.

Author: Amish Tripathi

Publisher: Westland Publications Ltd. (www.westlandbooks.in)

ISBN : 978 93 86224 58 3

My personal opinion, already expressed, in my previous reviews of author Amish Tripathis books has been, he is an awesome author, he has picked up the vastly neglected genre of Indian mythology and he has a very deft interweave of storyline and fiction and culture. I thought there were some areas which he could improve on. He has vastly improved over his first 2 books.

This is the second book of the Ramachandra series, of the epic  Indian Hindu mythological tale Ramayana. The basics of this tale are known to every child of India. It is played out by travelling theatre troupes every year in the villages and towns of India culminating in Dusherra.

Author Amish has tried a unique technique with this series, he takes the same story and explores it only from the view of one character. Also another unique thing that he has done is picked up all mythical mythological creatures and made them more humane and less magical, more relatable.

Here Amish focuses on the favourite female idol and ideal of entire India, Sita or Ma Sita as we fondly call her. The daughter of Raja Janak, of the Himalayas. Avatar of Divine female Shakti. Goddess for millions of Indians. And maybe India’s most loved female protagonist.

The story is nicely traced through the growing up of the princess Sita. Her character, her strength.

Then the story suddenly tries to weave the event of her Swayamvar into the narrative. Swayamvar is an ancient Indian tradition, respecting the choice and wishes of female, where the female picks the suitor who she wishes to marry..

I repeat, my favorite part of this book is the scene where Lord Rama encounters his future wife, Sita, Divine goddess in her own right. I have yet to read any romantic encounter that has moved me so much.

This book too explores the brief encounters between Rama and Ravana.

And ends at the abduction of Sita to the island kingdom of Ravana, due to  which the epic battle of Ramayana took place.

I am a definite Amish Tripathi fan. Any book of author Amish is a must buy for me.

Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief by author Rick Riordan

Book: Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.

Author: Rick Riordan

Publisher: Disney Hyperion Books (www.DisneyBooks.com)

ISBN : 978 0786838653

Percy Jackson and the Lightning thief is the first book of the Percy Jackson Series.

It starts when ‘the problem child’ Percy gets kicked from his boarding school…again. He is sent to a summer camp, a camp for kids like him, where he finds the Greek Gods walking straight out of his textbooks .

His Latin teacher turns out to be a centaur who has trained great heroes like Achilles and his best friend turns out to be a satyr, half man half goat, his protector.

 And that’s the least of his troubles. The king of the gods, Zeus has lost the lightning bolt, the source of his power. The gods suspect Percy and he has to bring it back to prove himself innocent.

 He is warned of a friend who will betray him, and to solve that riddle Percy must first find the lightning bolt. He suspects this quest has something to do with his father who abandoned him, and his mother who died saving him.

     “You shall go west, and face the god who has turned

       You shall find what was stolen, and see it safe returned

       You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend

       And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end.”

This is the prophecy he gets from the Oracle, and if he doesn’t catch the culprit, Mount Olympus, the center of the power of the gods will be destroyed.

To solve this quest, he must unravel mysteries more ancient than the gods themselves.

This post today on account of Aug 18 being Percy Jackson's birthday.

Happy Birthday in advance Percy. Fans, you have to wear blue and eat blue food.