The Mark of Athena- The Mark of Series Gone Bad

House of Hades, the fourth installment of Rick Riordan’s second series set in the Percy Jackson universe, Heroes of Olympus, was released yesterday. Watch as the internet explodes in the next couple of days as Riordan fangirls gush over the new book following the dramatic cliffhanger of Mark of Athena. I know I haven’t reviewed The Lost Hero or Son of Neptune, but I read those before this year, so I won’t review them. Yet.

Before even touching this one, you should definitely read the two previous novels in this series (The Lost Hero and The Son of Neptune), and I would even recommend reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series before that. This is definitely not a standalone novel. Picking up right where The Son of Neptune left off, The Mark of Athena now features members from both Camp Halfblood and Camp Jupiter, and together they must embark on this dangerous quest and cooperate to defeat the giants and prevent oncoming doom onset by the Earth Mother Gaea. If that sounds weird to you, you haven’t even come close to the weirdness of Greek/Roman mythology.

To these Percy Jackson fans, Rick Riordan can do no wrong. While I found his Percy Jackson and the Olympians series interesting and fun (quick reads-you’ll breeze right through ‘em), they had so much in common with the Harry Potter series and- oh, you want me to list some of them? Allow me to draw some lines.

	Harry Potter	Percy Jackson
Main character	Harry Potter Black messy hair, green eyes Sometimes sarcastic humor Dreads summer (when he’s not at school) Strong-willed, down-to-Earth, brave, leader More of the brawn than the brains “The Chosen One” Missing both parents Solves “mystery” and fixes things before school ends Has supernatural abilities Hates bad family members- The Dursleys	Percy Jackson Black messy hair, green eyes Sometimes sarcastic humor Dreads school year (when he’s not at camp) Strong-willed, down-to-Earth, brave, leader More of the brawn than the brains Chosen One- at one time anyway Missing one parent Completes quest and fixes things before deadline, and before camp is over Has supernatural abilities Hates bad family members- Gabe Ugliano
Girl sidekick	Hermoine Granger Book smart Curly hair Eventually starts relationship with one of trio The straight-laced one, quick thinker	Annabeth Chase Book  smart Curly hair Eventually starts relationship with one of trio The straight-laced one, quick thinker
Boy sidekick	Ron Weasley Not so great with girls, but eventually gets a girlfriend Plucky comic relief Makes jokes to lighten mood	Grover Not so great with girls, but eventually gets a girlfriend Plucky comic relief Makes jokes to lighten mood
Twins	Fred and George Weasley Fun-loving pranksters who love mischief	Travis and Connor Stoll Fun-loving pranksters who love mischief
Movies kinda sucked?	Yes	Yes
Strong, evil bad guy	Voldemort, keeps coming back, sometimes works through other people	Kronos, keeps coming back, sometimes works through other people
School nemesis	Draco Malfow- bully	Clarisse La Rue- bully
Former good guy, current traitor	Peter Pettigrew Turned friends over to Voldemort	Luke Castellan Framed Percy and Co. and turned to dark side
Is one of trio scared of spider?	Yup- Ron Weasley	Yup- Annabeth Chase
Does someone own invisibility clothing item?	Indeed- Harry’s Invisibility Cloak from his father	Yes- Annabeth’s Yankee Cap of Invisibility from her mother

Okay, so maybe that got a little obsessive, but this was as much for my own curiosity as it was for your education. This is not to say that just because they have a few (okay, many) similarities, either of them is bad or that Rick Riordan’s series is inferior. This is merely to say that Riordan certainly borrowed some things from Rowling, maybe unconsciously or unwittingly, and they’re both fun adventure series for kids and young adults. Hell, my mom enjoyed both series.

 

This could be chalked up to the fact that every movie poster is the same these days...

This brings me to my main point—it’s good as long as it remains a fun adventure series. Mark of Athena has traded that fun, adventurous tone for romantic drama, strained friendships and over-the-top cliffhangers. Gone are the days of a trio on exciting adventures and danger as they fight to save their camp. No, now they have to save the world, and the cast has swelled to include more people to keep track of, more storylines, more drama and crushes.

I know for a fact that it’s not because I don’t enjoy romantic sub-plots; I can be a huge romantic sap if I want to be. However, when the adventure and action, which are the main points of this series, take a backseat for teenage angst, fighting over romantic partners and more time spent gazing longingly into each other’s eyes, I start to roll my eyes. What is this, Twilight? Look, someone even compiled all the staring scenes, and it's almost half an hour. Even a minute of staring is too much! 

I missed the times when romance came second to, I don’t know, saving the world??  Honestly, at one part, while they’re rushing to save the world on a deadline, Annabeth and Percy stop, take in a sunset, and spend a few paragraphs talking about how they wish they could just be together. REALLY? Wouldn’t it be a better time to yearn for that when people’s lives depend on you, as well as the fate of the world? Shouldn’t you be more focused on saving the planet than a sunset? Ugh. My eyes hurt from rolling into the back of my head so much. Just get over it, complete the quest, be heroes, then find appropriate time to make googly eyes at each other. How would you like it if Michelle and Barack Obama (that’s right, they rule together for some reason) put off making a decision on a nuclear war to share an ice cream sundae and wish they could just be a normal couple?  When did Indiana Jones say “This is a good time to make out with Marion, right when I should be stopping the Nazis from taking over the world and unleashing the horrible energy of the Arc!” Oh, right, NEVER. Because he prioritizes his time effectively. It comes with the job; save the world first, fall asleep as girl is kissing you second.

So what is the solution? Limit the relationship drama. I didn’t read this series for it to turn into fricking Grey’s Anatomy (do they actually do any hospital stuff?? I’ve never actually seen the show) with mythology.

 

Because discussing your relationship over brain surgery is always the best option...

Rating: 5 out 10 stars

You’d like this series if you liked Harry Potter, and you might also like… uh… the Hunger Games series I guess? Or if you’re into Greek Mythology, those stories by themselves are quite entertaining.

Game, Set, Matched

Okay, I lied. I'm too eager to just post one book review a week. Do you know how many books I've read recently that I can review? At least 6! That means this thing would last about a month and a half, and that's not even including the books that I will read! (I'm really hoping this isn't a phase and that I will continue to review books at least once a week, but given my track record, I can't promise ANYTHING. 

Oh my God! It's the main character of the book! It all makes sense now!
Note to readers: if you can't picture the main character, just look at the cover. Also, I do have to give props to the designer of the cover, but it's a bit of a stretch to say it's the representational of the theme of the book. 

            Boy, dystopian futures are all the rage right now, huh? You can almost certainly pin it on the Hunger Games trilogy in 2008, and ever since then, it’s been a jump-on-the-bandwagon-sci-fi-YA-fiction freak fest. Okay, the freak fest part I don’t mean, because I do happen to enjoy a healthy dose of sci-fi, but I really wanted to end that very hyphenated phrase with alliteration.

             Matched, by Ally Condie is no different than several other YA dystopian futuristic novels; it has a teenage girl who is a little more special than everyone else somehow in a society with a strict, orderly and oppressive government in the future, but so far in the future we've found life on other planets, just renamed countries and odd names and stuff. Oh, and there’s a boy she likes. And another that she did, but doesn't.

The point is, this book wasn't special enough to separate it from all the others in its field. I mean, she has a crisp writing style and paints a picture of the world Cassia is living in well enough, but not so much that you want to beat your head against the wall as you exclaim, “WE GET IT. YOU CAN DESCRIBE STUFF.” However, we never really get to know the main character. Even after 369 pages (heh heh), I’m still not entirely sure what her personality is. I know she loves her family, is really good at sorting, and really likes this guy named Ty.  Other than that, what else do you know about her? Not a whole lot, which doesn't bode well for this book. Aren't dystopian futures about the people in that universe and the events that occur? She doesn't do a great job of letting us get to know Cassia. That is, unless Cassia is a vapid airhead, in which case, she does a great job of fleshing out the main character. I mean, Condie puts in a few places that Cassia’s personality test predicted some rebellion and fierceness, but we never really get that! OK, so she secretly broke a few rules, but not in a way I would truly classify as rebellious.

           And then there’s the other characters: Xander, whom we get a good idea of him as a 2-D character: handsome, smart, rule-follower, affectionate, a real golden boy. Ty, the other love interest, is quiet, very smart but hides it by acting perfectly mediocre, tormented by his past, and mysterious. He’s probably the only truly likable character; that is, he’s the only one you really feel anything for at all.

            The plot moves along well, but all this “Oh my goodness, I love this one guy but am matched to another” junk was starting to fray my nerves. Unfortunately, it’s a pretty substantial part to the story.

The best thing about this book is the possible future she creates; the perfect society run by the government (literally called The Society) which regulates everyone’s lives to a tee to ensure a perfect and equal life for everyone. I thought she could have really expanded on this idea, the balance between a world without diseases and obesity, a world without unemployment, really old age or depression/strife, but also a world without the freedom of choice, creativity, or rebellion. Now there’s a topic I was really interested in: is it worth it to trade cancer for a government assigned job and mandatory relocation when necessary? Is it worth it to trade diabetes and obesity for tasteless food perfectly designed to your body’s needs? (Obviously, no one wants to be obese, but would you choose to be perfectly fit if that meant you had to eat bland porridge for three meals a day?) Well, you get the point. But that whole trade offs of personal freedoms for a perfect society intrigues me.

           All in all, if you’re a sixteen-year-old girl, which I am not, you might enjoy this more than me. Unless you like Twilight and obsessive teen girls, then this is less your style, but more than the Hunger Games. (My point is that she at least didn't go over the top with the lovey-dovey “let’s just be together forever even though we’re 17” sort of stuff.) However, I would recommend the Hunger Games if you have been living under a rock or in a hole, or God forbid, under a rock in a hole.  *Shudder* Or Divergent/Insurgent, which I thought were pretty decent, even other people didn't like those two. At least there was no love triangle, though!