Cannonball 33: The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson & the Olympians #5) by Rick Riordan

{ August 16, 2010 @ 12:41 am } · { Cannonball! (Books) }
{ Tags: annabeth chase, books, camp half-blood, cannonball read, children's literature, chiron, fantasy, fiction, greek mythology, grover underwood, luke castellan, percy jackson, percy jackson and the olympians, poseidon, rachel elizabeth dare, series, the last olympian, tyson, zeus }

The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Last Olympian is the final volume of the first Percy Jackson series (I believe a sequel series is scheduled to commence in October 2010).

The final installment of this series was much like the series itself: entertaining, but largely forgettable. I remember being largely satisfied with the ending; (SPOILER WARNING — and I do my spoilers in Pig Latin, just in case) ethay oodgay uysgay inway, Ercypay andyay Annabethyay etgay ogethertay, andyay Iyay especiallyyay enjoyedyay atthay Achelray Elizabethyay Areday urnedtay outyay otay ebay ethay ewnay Oracleyay.

The action was also decent; the thought of waging an all-out, supernatural war in New York City is pretty epic.

And, yet, in the end, there was something wanting. The story was always rather two-dimensional. While I generallly enjoyed the way that Riordan worked Greek mythology into the series, this volume was largely about wrapping up existing loose ends, so that didn’t come into play all that much.

Ultimately, I guess the characters are what are really two-dimensional. The good guys are good, the bad guys are bad, and (SLIGHTLY SPOILERY) Darth Vader is still really Anakin Skywalker underneath all that black pleather.

But, for all that, it’s a darned entertaining read, and, as far as fantasy series for kids go these days, it’s decent. I’d recommend it to kids I knew. I know that my buddy JN, who always lends me these books, would second that recommendation.

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