Quick Intro to Percy Jackson

It’s a good spot to start, what do you need to know getting into Percy Jackson. It’s a story of a boy who is in between two worlds. His mother is a human and his father, whoever that might be, is a god. As his powers start to manifest his human life is turned on it’s head. Monsters come after him and strange visions occur that make him feel separate. Until he finds out the truth of who he is.

Initial Impressions

I’m impressed by this show and the storytelling thus far. I won’t say “thus far” all the time, as it is only two episodes in. But the show is off to a great start. The acting is good, the storytelling, like I said, is very good. I think that this will surprise a lot of people.

I know that the original movie around the books was not considered good. That isn’t something something that should worry people if they are thinking about jumping into this show. What is on Disney+ thus far is a lot more fun than that sounded. And while I need to read the books still, my wife who has, says this is much closer to that.

What Hasn’t Worked?

But that isn’t to say that this is a perfect show. I think that it’s very good and I’ll go into a lot of those details down below. A few times I think that the CGI hasn’t been quite where I want it to be. Now, that is very limited. Percy Jackson is a show with a lot of money put into it, and you can tell very quickly that the CGI is going to be solid. Once or twice I feel like I wanted it to shine more. That is a small amount when you think about some Disney+ shows recently which are rougher.

What Works?

But that is it for negative for me, I think that a lot more works than doesn’t work. And a lot of that starts with the actor they got to play Percy. It is very hard to get kid actors who do an amazing job. Walter Scobell is fun to watch in the role and provides the emotion that you want to see. And supporting characters also work really well. Like most pilots, it isn’t perfect at the start, but the actors feel like they grow into their roles even across two episodes.

I also like how this doesn’t try to be something that it’s not. This is not a YA show, this is not a show that is mainly focused on having an adult audience. This is an adventure show for middle grade readers or people who grew up loving the series. Now, that is not to say that Percy Jackson is too dumb of childish. It just means that the show is going to paced in a particular way where it moves quickly. And that a lot of the dialog that you might expect from fantasy show targeted at adults isn’t there. It is more about showing, which is good and works very well.

Speaking of that, the final thing is that I think Percy Jackson really does evoke that sense of adventure. It jumps into the story and doesn’t really stop. There are some moments of humor to it, and some where there is depth. But so much of it just feels like an adventure. If you want more than that, there are plenty of big heavy fantasy shows with dialog or fantasy comedies. But Percy Jackson is not trying to be the next Game of Thrones, nor is it extending itself out like The Hobbit did.

Who Is Percy Jackson For?

First off, I think it’s simple to say, this is for middle grade readers and those who have read Percy Jackson. But I don’t think that is where it stops. This is a show for people who want to have a light fun adventure in the middle of the winter. Percy Jackson is going to deliver that in spades as I keep on driving home.

On the flip side, I don’t know how this has happened, but a lot of reviews seem to be disappointed in that it’s a show that is like that books. If you want the next big epic fantasy series to go along with Game of Thrones and House of Dragons, I don’t know what to tell you. Percy Jackson is not going to be for you. Or if you want something with more character development and depth, probably, again, not the ideal one for you. It is what it is and that’s a good thing. If it tries to be everything for everyone, it would fail.

Final Thoughts

I’m excited to watch more. Percy Jackson definitely caught my attention watching the first two episodes. I think there is room for continued growth and improvement of the show. But for the most part, it is a show that hit the mark for me. And something like a little bit less than idea CGI is not going to bother me.

I also want to know where the story is going. Yes, I expect it to be a simple story and I expect to enjoy that story. Percy Jackson is comfort food, the story is familiar, but it still tastes good. And around winter and around the holidays when things aren’t always the most relaxing, it is nice to sit back and enjoy something like Percy Jackson.

What do you think of the first two episodes of Percy Jackson? What might you want to see more of from the show?

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Keeper of the Lost Cities Plot

Sophie is not a normal 13 year old, she has the power of telepathy and can always hear everyone’s thoughts. To go along with that, she’s extremely smart, and has a photographic memory. She’s an outsider because of all of those things. Then, she sees a boy, on a class field trip, who just looks too pretty. And he is looking at her, something feels off and she talked to him.

Turns out that something is off about her life. Fitz, the boy, tells her that she isn’t a normal human, in fact, she isn’t a human at all. There is a secret world of elves and other magical and mythical creatures out there. In our own world, but just out of sight due to magic. But her life as a human will need to go away if she is going to be an elf and live the life that she’s supposed to.

More Details and Harry Potter Comparison

So I don’t want to go into much more. What I wrote is basically the back blurb on the cover, but it’s something that should wet your appetite. And don’t worry, Keeper of the Lost Cities is not another Harry Potter. There are elements that might feel similar. The main character integrates into a new world that they didn’t know existed.

And to continue that comparison, she is a bit of a chosen child, but not in the way that Harry Potter is. I think that chosen child comparison is something people will latch onto, but Shannon Messenger does a better job of writing a chosen child. Sophie is really behind for an elf. She doesn’t know the world, she is expected to know and catch-up to what she doesn’t know. When she gets stuff wrong, elves are disappointed.

Harry Potter constantly should be in trouble, and he is not. Sophie often should be in trouble, and when she is, she gets punished. Her life has many more real elements to it. Characters worry about her. They pester her. They bug her, stuff that you don’t see happen in Harry Potter. People either hate Harry or love Harry, there is nothing between the two. For Sophie, people look to use her, to befriend her because of who she is, avoid her, and expect everything from her. And she is trying to balance all of that.

What Doesn’t Work?

There is very little, if anything that doesn’t work. I should talk about book 8.5 here. Mainly because that might be something that won’t work for some people. Even for me, I found it fairly boring. The point of book 8.5 is that it’s a bit of a recap for everything that has happened. Plus a novella that tells some story where book 8 left off and where book 9 begins. Or at least I am assuming that.

If you read the series in a compressed period of time, most book 8.5 is unneeded. I know what the characters did recently. I don’t need a full recap, no matter what way it is written. And some of the sections are better written than others. It is more the authors notes turned into something in the world that you are reading through.

I don’t even mind that they exist. I mind that there is a pretty important feeling novella in the book. It is different than she could write for the main book. The main books only show Sophie’s perspective. The novella bounces between perspectives. But to get the novella, you get the whole book. And I say now, get the book, just read the novella.

What Works?

Characters

So much works in this series. Sophie is a believable main character and the side characters are strong as well. Often in Middle Grade or Young Adult books, the main character is a paper cutout of a character. It is meant for the reader to put themselves into their shoes. Sophie is not that. She is a fully realized and deeply developed character. And each of the side characters at least the core, are as realized as she is.

I fail to think of many series where this is the case. Especially in that grade range. And I think there should be more. The story is easily digestible for an adult. And while there are intense moments for maybe middle grade reader, it is going to be pull them in.

Story Depth and Intensity

And let’s talk about the intensity. The story, unlike others in it’s age range, isn’t shy about bad things happening. And not like they happen around Sophie. Some of them do happen to other people. And it is character development for those characters. And reasons that friendships become stronger. But often the bad is directed to Sophie. She is not given an easy life. She is not a hero who always steps in and saves the day.

In fact, most of the time, she needs to rely on others to help her. Does she lead, for sure, she is the chosen one after all. But it isn’t a situation where she can do it alone. And that is a struggle for her. To compare her to another fictional character, it is a lot like how Harry Dresden, in the Dresden Files, is always looking to do stuff himself. He does so because he doesn’t want others to get hurt. Sophie is the same way.

World Building and Themes

Shannon Messenger is very good about building out her world. It helps that some of it is our world. But the rest of it, with the elves, dwarves, goblins, orcs, and more is different. But it is still similar. I think it is worked well like good fantasy or sci-fi. It is different enough that you feel like it isn’t our world, but close enough that it can touch on themes and issues that are true for us our world as well.

And I think that is another thing Messenger does well, also. She tells a good story with items that ring true. Now, it is still middle grade, so the depth of an issue isn’t always there. But that is okay, she is writing through the eyes of a 13-15 year old. Sophie is not going to understand everything, so as a reader, our view of these issues in the story should be simpler.

At the same time, I talk about the intensity of the story. And that means that as an older reader of the series, I understand some things that Sophie doesn’t. The story ages up well, that way. It makes the young reader start to think and the older reader understand the depth that is there.

Who is Keeper of the Lost Cities For?

I think that the young end would be twelve for the series. Though you maybe could go younger just reading it aloud and talking about what is going on. But that depends obviously on how you spend time. I don’t want to assume that people do a story that way. But twelve or thirteen is when I’d say a kid would be up for reading it.

As for getting older, it depends. I think a lot of people around my age and younger so mid-thirties and younger. The story is familiar. It feels a bit like Harry Potter, but in my opinion better. And my generation and younger, we read Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Twilight, Divergent, Maze Runner and more. Keeper of the Lost Cities contains all of that and more.

Final Thoughts

I love this series. I am reading a few other things right now, but I fully expect to come back to the series and read it all again. And I already pre-ordered the next book in the series. I want to know what is going to come next, and I want to spend more time with these characters in that world.

I really believe that a lot of people are going to enjoy this series as well. Like I said, the story is different, more meaningful than things it feels similar to. Yet it will hit the same beats that you expect from a Middle Grade or Young Adult series and novels. Plus there is a lot to the story, just in terms of how long the story is.

Have you read Keeper of the Lost Cities?

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Keeper of the Lost Cities – The Premise

Sophie Foster is not your normal 12 year old girl. She is extremely smart with a photographic memory. But more than that, she is a telepath. It is something that she’s had from a very young age and it’s definitely an annoyance. When her class is on a school trip to the science museum she spots a boy who is watching her. Not from her class, she goes and talks to him.

It turns out that the world she thought existed wasn’t quite what she thought it was. It is a whole lot bigger and she is part of that bigger picture. But what that means for her, as she moves from a world of humans to a world of magic and elves is the adventure she’s about to discover.

What Doesn’t Work?

I don’t find much fault with this series. Shannon Messenger does a really good job of writing this series. Yes, it most definitely is targeted towards the middle grade reader, but it doesn’t pull it’s punches. My only knock on the writing is that it can get a little bit preachy at times. Now, I say at times, in almost four full books, it’s maybe a handful of times. And these aren’t small books. It is more that you can feel the tone or style or writing shift when it happens.

Again, it isn’t much of the books. And it isn’t long sections of the book. Most of the time it is a paragraph of two. So compared to something like the Shannara Chronicles where it is the main focus through large chunks of the book, it doesn’t feel oppressive. It just isn’t blended into the series as well as it should be.

What Works?

Sophie Foster and Friends

There are a lot of things that work in the series. Again, no shock there, I really like the series. Let’s start out with the characters and in particular the main character, Sophie Foster. She is a well developed character. Her life gets turned on it’s head. And while she is most definitely excited about what is happening going forward, she also misses things. She has emotions and she has flaws and all of that gives her depth.

Is she a prototypical hero where things work out for her in the end, yes, generally. But the moments between, she struggles. I compare this series a bit to Harry Potter. Again, starting in middle grade and with magic, it is going to be an obvious comparison. In Harry Potter, he gets away with everything, Sophie gets away with almost nothing. When she does, there is always a cost.

Also, her friends work. A series that I don’t like, Divergent, had interesting side characters, for one book. They overshadowed the main character, so they became more boring. In Keeper of the Lost Cities, because Sophie has depth, the side characters have depth. I might still prefer some of the side characters to Sophie, but not by much. In Divergent it wasn’t even close, the side characters were that much better. This brings them all together in a way that makes them all different and interesting.

The Plot

The plot of all the books is good, that I’ve read thus far. But I mainly am talking about the first one right now. It is kind of a fish out of water story. Sophie Foster, obviously, doesn’t know the world she hasn’t lived in. So the first story is about her finding out about herself. Who she is, why she grew up in the human world. But there is more to the story than that. And Shannon Messenger does a good job of creating a middle grade reading level story that isn’t dumbed down.

It really comes out in further books in the series. But Sophie has a lot of tough stuff happen to her. Again, reading level appropriate, but not shying away from it. I feel like there are a lot of books that dumb it down for their target audience. The Keeper of the Lost Cities certainly does not do that. And the story is so much stronger for it. If it were dumbed down, I think my comment about characters wouldn’t exist.

That said, and this isn’t a negative, be aware of that. Sophie goes through a lot. For some readers, it might be too much at times. But this is also a series that adults will enjoy. So you, if thinking about it for a kid, and preread the first two books to get an idea of what I’m talking about.

Who Is It For?

I want to address this as well, because I think some people will pass it by because it is middle grade. Did you like Harry Potter, I think this is better. Do you still like Harry Potter, I think you will like this. Keeper of the Lost Cities is a well written series, and while it might be lighter reading than what some people normally do, it is still good reading. So while I do recommend that adults maybe check it out to see how intense it gets, I think a lot will want to continue through the whole series.

That said, I know I am a sucker for fantasy. If you aren’t, again, you probably don’t like Harry Potter, this series isn’t likely to change it for you. And I think that some adults or readers outside of the age range, might find it too breezy a read. This is a summer read where you want to read something that has depth but a lot of fast action. Or in Minnesota a winter read, so you don’t stew in the fact it’s cold outside and snowing.

Keeper of the Lost Cities Final Thoughts

This is a really fun and addicting series. I like it when I pick up a series and I want to read the next book and then the next. The Great Library Series that I wrote about not too long ago was like this, but to a lesser extent. The Keeper of the Lost Cities keeps me coming back again and again. And they read so fast. It is one that I can pick-up and read and get far enough into the story in a few minutes that I just want to keep going.

So, like I said four or five times already, I really like this series. I think it works as a whole. There is enough depth to keep me interested. But it isn’t so heavy that I can’t speed through it and just absorb it as I go. For me, that is what I really love about a good book series, I just get so sucked into it, that I don’t ever want to leave. And the world created in Keeper of the Lost Cities, for me, is like that.

My Grade: 9/10

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