Piper XLI - XLIV
Oh girl, oh girl. Piper and her Sexy-sense can tell Nico and Jason have had some beautiful adventures together. I mean, holy Hades I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING.
Anyway, fangirling over (just kidding). Piper begins her bit with a quiet, chilled introduction that is a relief after the action and reflection of the last couple of chapters. She's on edge, and so is the weather. So our abolish their meeting and nothing really gets done in the way of planning. As usual.
On the other hand, Jason shows concern for Nico, who shows affection for Hazel (woah) and Piper/Hazel have become best friends. Things are looking up in terms of character bonding! But of course Piper has to bring in the future and make our original gang (Pipes, Leo, Jason) nervous. Leo is awesome and uses the word copacetic but other than that, things turn pretty dismal as Piper gleans from her evil knife that one of her friends is going to die trying to bring down Gaia.
And then shit goes down. I won't say who comes back, I'll only mention that she's ultimate bitch number five hundred and three and she should stop existing ugh I hate her so much. Bitch hurls Leo off the boat, makes Jason a sculpture, and forces Piper to make herself useful. Piper steps up to the challenge, combining an Annabeth-like delay tactic coupled with a bit of magic to pull of a sexy rescue of the boat.
Also, Festus is my favorite.
Percy XLV - XLVII
I'm with Amrutha on this, THESE CHAPTERS ARE NOT OKAY. I love them to Thanatos, trust me. They exemplify the most intense kinds of emotions and development and force our characters to reflect on their lives and know what pushes them forward. But oh gods it hurts to watch. We can't even have a few minutes of peace. Soon after leaving the swamp, Percabeth are swamped with despair and soreness and Percy tries to think of good things. At least we've got Bob, who is the best Titan ever.
Hold up, Percy is in hell, literal hell, and he thinks, "Man, Annabeth was awesome. For a moment, Percy actually remembered what it was like to feel happy. He had an amazing girlfriend. They could have a future together." They could have a future together. Percy deserves an Optimist of the Century Award, along with a mountain of BAFTAs.
Anyway, we're at Akhyls's gloomy field of gloom and despair and pointlessness. Let me take a moment to commend Riordan's mastery of the English language as he describes Akhyls. That bitch is sad. And the aphorisms and quoteables that arise in this chapter? They're not all comforting of course but hey, they're true.
Now Percabeth have got to go to the end of Tartarus, near the Void to acquire the Death Mist. Somewhat reminds me of Percy's journey in the Styx to gain invulnerability. Akhyls leads them there but Bob is left behind. Which sucks. Bad. Without Bob, these chapters degrade to utterly beautiful misery.
Percabeth turn into mist. They look at each other and tear up because they look dead. After all this time, they still care about that. UGH.
A lot of weird and vile things happen all at once and suddenly Percabeth are facing the penultimate manifestation of all creation. Night. The one and only baby.
Also, let us note that Rick Riordan has used the words, "LOL, NOOB!" in a serious text. Thanks.
AND FINALLY, LEO XLIX - L
Leo's a damn genius This is known fact but let's run through a few things just to reiterate:
This scrawny motherlover gains consciousness thousands of feet in the air and is making jokes about it on the way down.
He's got a tool bet and magic ball and two minutes til it's over. He gives a grand total of zero shits about this.
Motherlover builds a (semi) working helicopter in those two minutes and safely crash lands on a beach.
What?
What.
Unfortunately he has to deal with a very annoyed girl (whose name I cannot disclose) that I am SO glad makes a cameo in the book. I had hoped this character's story would be tied up and I predict it finally will be. Thank the gods for Leo, eh?
She's majorly pissed off and takes this out on Leo. Thus, Leo's stuck and must try to build himself a way out.
These chapters are so incredibly funny and thankfully detatched from the rest of the world. Finally, we have Leo alone with a bit of reflection here, a ton of humor there, a kind of deep, beautiful sadness interspersed between, and ugh so much more that I can't begin to convey in such few words. I love these chapters
Also, I ship it so hard even though she makes it very hard, I totally understand her point of view, the never-ending punishment and I ship it so hard. Did I mention that.
Well anyway, we're rounded off by Leo being told he can never leave this place.
But let's face it, it's Leo Valdez.
No comments:
Post a Comment