Board Thread:Antaeus' Arena: Audience Chamber/@comment-3146930-20140803225750/@comment-24750690-20140806183905

Well. I see we're all in agreement. Except for 8th Hero of course, but we forgive you. xD

Honestly there is no contest in how much I love tLT. Percy was and still is a fantastic character, I always feel attached to him more then any of the other heroes.

-HOWEVER-

tLH was interesting. It's ambitious, taking on three perspectives and kick starting a whole new series. But I have only one massive qualm with the book. Jason is forever my least favorite hero in the group.

There. I said it. I really have trouble standing him.

There's a difference between Percy being confused and Jason being confused. I actually find Percy quite funny when he has no clue what's going on. I remember wishing I could live in Camp Halfblood after Percy's description of how weird it was. How alien the mythical world interspersed with the mortal world was. How homely and inviting the atmosphere was, despite having no clue why the heck the Apollo kid's are playing volleyball with the Satyrs, or why the Ares kids are scowling at him.

Jason just seems lost the entire time. He seems so bland, especially when compared to Percy.

Now don't get me wrong, I love that the book gives us a bigger picture of the world. Without Percy as the lynch pin for everything and everyone. I love that we are hearing about previous epic quests rather than witnessing them. I love seeing the footprints the prior books all over Camp Half-Blood. But even still, it's and uninteresting character in a place we've seen before, who's having trouble with things the audience already understands.

Without Leo and Piper I don't think I would've liked it at all. Leo was probably what kept me reading the book. He actually had a mystery in his back story, and interesting quirks to boot. Piper was insecure and dealing with forces she couldn't understand. That sounds like every character ever, but Riordan actually pulled it off in an interesting way with her. Jason had about the same amount of life as Gordon Freeman if he were an NPC in Half-Life.

So there we go. tLH was good, I'll give it that, but I just like Percy's charm more than Jason's confusion. SoN was fantastic for exactly that reason, Percy doesn't understand anything and he's in an unfamiliar situation. It's probably my favorite in the Heroes of Olympus series.

This is going to get nit-picky but I also liked the cover art for tLT more. The original green book with Percy, horn in one hand, glowing bronze sword in the other, wading through water, his back to us, (for whatever reason seeing their faces took something away from it all) with all of Manhattan in the background. Fantastic.