greenconverses | Lost Hero Reaction Post: Part Two

I'm finished now, so you can hit me all with your squee or RAEG or tears of despair, whatever. As always, spoilers under the cut.

First, let me jut get this off my chest.

"Exactly," Jason said. "Percy Jackson is at the other camp and probably doesn't even remember who he is."

what

WHAT

WHAT

THAT'S YOUR LAST LINE, RICK, FUCKING FOR REAL.

YOU DO REALIZE THAT BECAUSE YOU'RE WRITING THE DAMN KANE CHRONICLES TOO THAT WE HAVE TO WAIT A FUCKING YEAR FOR THIS TO BE RESOLVED, IF IT EVEN IS AT ALL. JUST ARGHHHHHHHH

i mean not that this doesn't give me a million ideas for fic especially of the percy/annabeth angst variety BUT FUCKING STILL

All right, now that I've got that off my chest, I can honestly say that I did like The Lost Hero ... when I wasn't being reminded that Percy was missing and we weren't out there looking for him. I really did start to like Jason, Piper and Leo's quest once we hit Medea and Midas, and things started rolling. Not to mention I love the idea of all the Big Bads from Greek mythology coming back to life. (Fan theory #1: Does this mean we're going to be getting a reappearance from Luke at some point?) But the instant any of them mentioned Percy, like even as "that guy Annabeth's looking for," I just got thrown out of the story because - once again - I was reminded that my favorite character is missing and these assholes DON'T GIVE A FUCK.

Don't get me wrong, I think the set-up with the exchange of leaders between the Roman and Greek camps is going to be awesome, but really, really bad choice on Rick's part to make Percy go missing before the big Save Hera quest started because his fans have the attachment to Percy first and foremost. I was expecting the quest to be to, you know, get him back and the fact that it wasn't kind of made me want to punch things. Even if I ended up kind of liking the quest in the end.

So like I said, I probably would've liked the book more if there hadn't been the specter of MISSING PERCY hanging over the entire thing. I liked the first part, liked all the Epic Battles, I started to like Jason and Piper more as the book went on, although I could really do without the shipping. And yes, we get the two of them are OMG SUPER HAWT and will make pretty babies together.

I'm ... not sure how I feel about the explanation of the Roman camp. With the amount of handwaving the Mist allows in series, it makes it completely obvious that Rick hadn't planned for the Roman camp with the previous series. I would have liked to see a least a tiny bit of foreshadowing with them in PJO, but it completely came out of nowhere. I did, however, like his explanation for why the Roman gods still existed - it's a little less complicated that having two separate pantheons, I think.

And does anyone think that there's going to be a MORE BADASS THAN THOU showdown when Percy and Jason finally meet? With everything Jason's accomplished, there's certainly going to be a contest, methinks. (Although Percy pretty much wins because, hey, he was offered immortality and pissed Zeus off by thumbing his nose at him. Jason... killed a sea monster, whoo)

Also, this leads to my Fan Theory #2: Without his memories and with the influence of the More Badass and Serious Than Thou Roman camp, Percy is going to turn into a dick. But he'll get better. Obvs. ~~so i may or may not already be writing fic about it shut up and stop judging me~~

I wasn't exactly satisfied with the Thalia and Jason reunion, although it was explained pretty well. I didn't like the handwaving, "She's been at this longer than you, of course she wouldn't be surprised and accepted it as truth right away!" explanation. I liked getting the background with their mother and Zeus's relationship though. Really interesting.

And probably most surprising thing about this book?

I ENDED UP LIKING HERA, GUISE. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME.

It was those scenes with her and Leo, I swear.

All right, so throw everything at me. I know some of you have lists *eyes