What Popular Fiction Has Taught Me - Rick Riordan Edition

Or why I prefer The Red Pyramid to The Lost Hero as a series starter and why Percy Jackson is still such a big deal even if the film flopped. (In 5 handy and succinct reasons, if possible.)

1) Rick Riordan is a god, or at least a rock star, of the action/adventure for teens genre.
The Percy Jackson books set the stage for something great. An action/adventure series that had appeal for both boys and girls (mostly boys) that was also educational. In other words, parents could dig it and boys suddenly had an alternative to the more girl centric Twilight series which they could discuss without being ridiculed. Or at least ridiculed less.
Riordan has followed that series up with The Kane Chronicles and The Heroes of Olympus, both series starting books having come out earlier this year.

2) Try something new and the old is fresh . . . maybe.
Both The Red Pyramid and The Lost Hero feature multiple perspectives in the story lines so that the reader is not focused solely on one character (Percy Jackson focused mostly on Percy and was more a third person narrative). This is good and bad. Switching between three characters (Jason, Piper, and Leo) in The Lost Hero was at times immensely frustrating given Riordan's tendency to switch right at the good parts and kind of let the events hang out there for a chapter or two. Switching between siblings Carter and Sadie in The Red Pyramid was a lot easier and usually more interesting since they were related and, at times when the story split the two apart, helped fill in the gaps that otherwise may have been present. But, even with the switching perspectives, The Lost Hero reads like a Percy Jackson story (which in some ways it is, what with the search for Percy cropping up now and then and Jason being rather a Percy-ish character himself), and that was not really so . . . fresh. Neither was the whole discovering their magical powers thing, but then, that's turned into the norm in this type of book and is entirely necessary to the proceedings, so I'll forgive Riordan that.

3) I done got me some learnin'!
This is the best part of the books. The learning. Percy introduced us to the world of the Greek gods and goddesses. So, of course, Jason, Piper, Leo and Co. in The Lost Hero will add to an already dense mythology, right? Um, no. Fractured. As in, suddenly we find ourselves thrown into the camp of Roman gods and goddesses and how they are alike or unlike the Greek counterparts but in such a way that I was never quite sure what was going on until the very end. More learning, though, so yay! Education can still be fun if it's presented in the right way.
The Red Pyramid, while still paying homage to it's original counterpart, takes a completely different, and almost more interesting tact: Ancient Egypt. (If I wasn't a library type, I'd totally go for archaeology, Egyptology in particular.) Awesome! Riordan proves just as much as in Percy Jackson that he knows how to research and incorporate said research into compelling stories literally throwing Sadie and Carter into the story of Isis, Set, and Osiris while also setting us up for some sure to be well executed following books.

4) Film sucked; so what?
I can't count the number of times I'm still asked about the Percy Jackson books. The movie, while not a critical success (almost disappointingly so after having Christopher Columbus, the man behind launching Harry Potter to the big screen in charge), still has drawing power. I get asked about the movie, also, almost once every few weeks and see it go out frequently to eager patrons who can't get enough Percy. The movie may not have been quite the books, but is still a great addition to any Percy collection and should not be ignored despite what the critics may have said about it. Just because the movie is not the book does mean it does not have merit.

5) Something for Everybody (to steal from Devo and my favorite music album of the year).
Action
Adventure
Romance
Magic
Mystery/Intrigue
History
Great Writing
Interesting Characters
Compelling Story lines
Did I miss something? Because there is very little that Riordan does not incorporate well into his writing in terms of making mythology cool and getting teenagers to read.

Both books are definite Must Reads for anyone who loved Percy Jackson and Harry Potter or is just looking for a good series to get lost in from time to time.

Works Cited.
Riordan, Rick. The Lost Hero. New York: Disney Hyperion Books, 2010.
---. The Red Pyramid. New York: Disney Hyperion Books, 2010.