Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-29729973-20161224201352/@comment-24067344-20170423211554

Commander Tool Belt wrote: PJO slays. My favourite book till date is Last Olympian. But maybe like they say the first time is always the best time, so maybe it just seems like the best being the first series and all.

I have to commend HoO though. Tbh, when I first read Lost Hero I thought HoO was going to be crap, and going nowhere.And then in Son of Neptune Rick renewed my interest. It was that good. Then in Mark of Athena Rick left us all on the edge of our seats by throwing Annabeth and Percy in Tartarus. By House of Hades, I was addicted officially.

I disagree. I think Slay is to strong of a word. But I definitely think The House of Hades is the best book IMO, both subjectively and objectively. There's just so many good things about it, with the only major flaw being the villains. I also disagree that the original is usually the best and etc, I feel like the main problem is the fact that after the original (sequel), it takes away the element of surprise, freshness and uniqueness. But, if [sequel] done right, it can be better than the original, and IMO, HoO is much darker, complex (in a good way, as in characters have more depth and more layers of complexity [background and history] and thought-provokeness. See Percy's arc in The House of Hades for example), more diverse (this can be a con or pro depending on the person, but I definitely think he has done a fantastic job with the diversity of the characters, both in personality/background/character. Stereotypes weren't as common in this series like PJ, tho Jason and Piper is an issue), more engaging (cliffhangers are just an example of how engaged the reader is with and wanting right when they are finished reading the book)