Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-4531192-20141008075409/@comment-4515675-20141024174031

Maysie66 wrote: Himeyuka wrote: I feel this also has to do with the fact that Disney bought the rights for the publishing before TLH came out. As a point of clarification, I have to mention that you're incorrect on this point. The PJO series was also published by Disney. In 2004, Miramax, started by the Weinstein Brothers, was the original publisher. Like Miramax Films, the book division was owned by Disney. In 2005, the Weinsteins broke away from Disney, but the book division was folded into Hyperion, which is the publishing arm of the Disney Co. So, PJO was also published by Disney Hyperion (since 2005).

For the record, I think that PJO was a much better series than TLH from all aspects - plot, characters, and especially, writing. It was not as repetitive. Ever since the Kane series - which I've never read, not interested - RR does that thing where each chapter title is the narrator's name, and it just got so repetitive. I think that is why people became so fond of the character of Percy - you really got to know him due to the first person narration of the whole PJO series. The third-person POV narration of the other series is so passive, you just don't get the same feel of the characters or bond with them in the same intimate way. And in TLH, just the constant prolonged descriptions of what they're feeling, and the dreams, etc. went on and on and on. There needed to be more conversation, more - something. The PJO series had more character interaction, more physical action, and was frankly, better written. And the focus on romance in TLH got a bit ridiculous, the subtitle should have been "How I Hooked Up With My Teenage Crush". I went to see who published the books and Miramax was the one that published the first three from PJO, whereas TBoTL and TLO were published by Hyperion. I remember though that Disney became involved more when TLH was released because RR made a whole announcement about it.

I think we can all agree that PJO was better written and I'm not sure what changed in the way RR saw things. I fear that it might have been some bad advice coming from his editors that probably told him, that even if the age range of his audience hasn't changed, the kids that have read PJO are growing up. He even said in one of his interviews after BoO got released that he writes the action scenes and adventures for his younger audience while the romance is for the older ones. Which is actually ridiculous because the younger audience seemed to be okay with all the couples whereas it's the older ones that are annoyed and want back themes such as family and friendship.