Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Camp (part 3)

There's also something that bothers me, perhaps more than it should, and perhaps Riordan is unknowingly committing a grievous crime.  See, Apollo is the god-damned god of poetry.  His poetry will not suck.  Riordan owes a huge apology to lovers of verse for the bilge he puts in Apollo's mouth.  Why should we turn kids on to prose that shows such little regard for poetry as to openly mock it?  If you can't write it yourself, then have Apollo quote it.  There are lines already written that can be made to fit any situation.  Percy doesn't have to understand or appreciate it, but those of us who can, should!

All right, back to where Riordan succeeds in coming up with a good overarching plot in each book, the core problem that underlies all of the individual issues above is that the journey is lacking.  We go from East Coast to West in a series of mini-episodes that don't really lead from one to the next or hang together as a coherent story.  When you look back, the events of the book should support one another so that while other events might have occurred, what actually happened seems like a series of natural consequences.

I really did enjoy the series; I mean, it's about the greek gods, so I'm there, and Riordan does get better as the series goes on (Rowling, by contrast, peaks in books 3 & 4, still has room for improvement, but just treads water for the last 3 books).  He begins to hide Grover away as much as possible.  There begins to be connective tissue that ties the episodes together so that I 'm reading a near-complete story rather than a collection of encounters from the wandering monster table.  Percy is less of an idiot.  I actually feel there is finally a moment (on the last page of the penultimate chapter in the last book - oops) which really captures a summer camp aura.


There's also a really nice parallel between Riordan's story of the family of gods that bickers and argues but ultimately has to pull together to face a common menace, and a United States that is currently in the throes of terrible partisan bickering and needs to pull together in order to get back on sound economic footing.  It is heartwarming, to say the least, to read a series by a born-and-bred Texan who is writing with great affection for New York.  You go, San Antonio.

This is a lot more than I ever planned to write about a YA series (and don't think that just because it's YA that it's okay for it to be less than perfect!), but there it is... and perhaps more with spoilers to come.