Reading wednesday

What did you finish reading

2,000 to 10,000: How to write faster, write better and write more of what you love, by Rachel Aaron: I love her writing posts (especially the one on how she went from 2k a day to 10k a day), so I got the book. It's good! I feel like it's got lots of useful things inside it. The bit I found the most inspiring was near the end:

There are no writing police. This is your story, no one else's. tell it like you want to.

The Battle of the Labyrinth, by Rick Riordan: I have a rant I need to get out of the way, before I talk about the book itself. At one point, Annabeth describes how she came into being. She's a literal brainchild, ie her mother is still a maiden goddess. So far so good, right? No, because

When Athena falls in love with a mortal man, it's purely intellectual

COME THE FUCK ON mortal man? What is this bullshit? There's literally no genetic input from the mortal parent in this case (lol god genetics), so why does their sex matter, expecially if it's "purely intellectual"? Because in light of this, I can only interpret the above sentence in one of two ways: the existence of bisexual women never crossed Riordan's mind or men are somehow 'smarter' than women.

Anyway! I greatly enjoyed the book. Quintus! and his pet hellhound! RACHEL! (Really could have done without the Rachel/Annabeth rivalry seriously why couldn't it be romantic tension between them instead. I hate the girl-fighting-girl-over-boy trope so much, urgh.) That said, Rachel was a welcome addition to the Percy+Annabeth(+Grover+Tyson) group. Also, she nailed Kronos in the eye with a hairbrush. SHE'S AMAZING. And she doesn't afraid of anything, because she fights monsters and guides people through murderous labyrinths even though she has no reason to be there except that it's the right thing to do and her friends need her.

I loved loved loved Annabeth in the Gameshow of death scene. She was so excited to be able to get a mental workout, but then lol nope. And then she inherited Deaddalus's notebooks! Annabeth/Architecture OTP!

Also Luke, omg Luke. I love his relationship with Annabeth so so much. He cares so much but they're on opposite sides, it is my very favourite thing.

He pointed at Annabeth. 'Spare the girl.' His voice quavered a little. 'I would speak to her before - before our great triumph.'

He's so ruthless the rest of the time, it's like she's his one weakness. I just really like the Annabeth/Luke dynamic and Luke in general. He's so angry and bitter, but I completely undersatnd where he's coming from and still want him to have a happy ending.

Nico is like the biggest dork, I love it.

Nico hesitated. 'I don't play that game anymore. It's for kids.'
'[The game figurine]'s got four thousand attack power,' I coaxed.
'Five thousand,' Nico corrected me. 'But only if your opponent attacks first.'

I also loved this Nico bit:

'I'm talking about justice,' the ghost said. 'Vengeance.'
'Those are not the same thing.'

YES THANK YOU NICO Too many people forget that, I feel.

We got a resolution for the "Grover looks for Pan" subplot, so that happened. I thought it was a bit heavy-handed, though.


The Last Olympian, by Rick Riordan: Problems: how the fuck do god genetics work if "gods don't have DNA" yet Luke looks like Hermes? Also, I am really hating the idea that "a few of [Hades'] children were leading the losing side [of WW2]", because it conflates two things I hate HAdes-as-pure-evil and WW2-happened-because-of-~*Reasons*~, because look, what makes WW2 so terrifying and so fucking horrible is that it happened for not reason beside human monstruosity and making it happen because supernatural forces were at play cheapens that, for me. (David Brin's Thor meets Captain America is excellent otherwise, but the fact that it gives "summon Norse Gods" as the reason for the Holocaust bugs me in a way that the supernatural elements of La Brigade Chimérique don't, even if there too there are supernatural forces running around Europe during WW2, but where concentration camps are pretty clearly a goal in and of themselves, which just drives home that among all the superpowered heroes and villains around, the real monster is the human mind). Lol feelings on unrelated things, hahaha.

So! This book! It was epic.

Hermes, Athena and Dyonisus are my favourite of the gods in these books, which matches up pretty well with my mythology feelings. Also, notice how they're the ones who care the most about their children. Hermes was so broken over the Luke thing, which was just terrible for everyone involved, but at least Luke didn't hate him at the end? Cold comfort, I suppose.

A bit I really liked

"I don't... Hear anything," Annabeth said.
That was the problem.
Even from this height, I should have heard the noise of the city - millions of people bustling around, thousands of cars and machines - the hum of a huge metroplois. You don't think about it when you live in New York, but it's always there. Even in the dead of night, New York is never quiet.
But it was now.
I felt like my best friend had suddenly dropped dead.
"What did they do" My voice sounded tight and angry. " What did they do to my city?"

I like when people have strong attachement to where they live/places in general, okay?

So much good stuff about Luke and Luke/Annabeth! (I may be writing the fic where she takes him up on his offer to run away before The Battle of the Labyrinth, hahaha, I am so predictable.)

OMG SILENA! I was super sad when she died. She was awesome! She took responsibilty for her actions and saved the day! And then she died. but Clarisse avenged her, so that was okay. (I like Clarisse.) I kind of wish we could have had more of her and more of her+Clarisse. (I have a sneaky suspicion that I'm not supposed to see her as African-French, though, but, look, I knew a guy who also had Beauregard in his last name, and he was French and black, so that's the main association I had with her name. Well, that and wondering where the rest of her name is, because the guy was descended from nobles, so he had a pretty long name of the "X de Y de Z" type.)

THALIA TO THE RESCUE! The more Thalia shows up, the more I wish she hadnt joined the hunter. Why couldn't we have had the adventures of Thalia, Luke and Annabeth, instead of Percy, Annabeth and Grover? Hell, I'd settle for pre-canon fic or fic about Thalia's adventures with the Hunters.

Can I just point out that Luke is smarter than Percy? Percy discrads the idea of having his weak spot in his armpit as undignified, while Luke realises that it's a much much better spot than small of the back. ALSO LUKE IS THE HERO OF THIS STORY (I am so happy that the text acknowledged Percy as not being the hero. In the end, it's Luke who saves everyone, with Annabeth's help.)

Luke gazed at Annabeth. "You knew. I almost killed you, but you knew..."
"Shh." Her voice trembled. "You were a hero at the end, Luke. You'll go to Elysium."

Also this bit:

The snakes George and Martha curled around his caduceus, murmuring, Luke, poor Luke.
[...]
Hermes unwrapped Luke's face and kissed his forehead. He murmured some words in Ancient Greek - a final blessing.
"Farewell," he whispered. Then he nodded and allowed the Fates to carry away his son's body.

How do we say these days? ALL THE LUKE FEELS? Yeah, that.

Other stuff I liked: Annabeth as official architect of Olympus, moving statues!, Rachel as Oracle, Nico saving the day, "Peanut Butter!" as a battle cry, BLACKJACK, Paul Blofis and Sally Jackson (both separately and together), Tyson being adorable, the Hermes/May Castellan relationshi ("My son," she hissed in a dry voice. "Danger. Terrible fate!" / "I know my love," Hermes said sadly. "Believe me, I know."), Ethan Nakamura, getting all the demigods to be claimed, and cabins for everyone! I even kind of liked how the Annabeth/Percy romance was handled.


Percy Jackson and the Olympians, by Rick Riordan: I like how the books gradually built up the stakes. I think my favourite book is 5, but other than that, I can't really tell. 5, 2, 3, 1, 4, maybe? Idk. My favourite character was Luke, my second favourite was Annabeth and my third favourite was Rachel.


The Lost Hero, by Rick Riordan: OH LOOK IT'S ANOTHER SUPERPOWERED DUDE AS THE HERO I don't mind Jason (although I like Percy better), but I really would have preferred if he'd been a girl instead, or at least of the trio of Jason+Piper+Leo had been 2 girls+1 boy instead of 1 girl+2 boys. I love these books, but they need more women, preferably as powerhouses, becuase the closest we've come so far to women with powers on a level with Percy/Jason/Nico are Thalia and Bianca and they're both very much not present in the narrative (Bianca especially). Thalia is present just enough to make me wish she'd been the hero of these books instead of Jason. And while the characters are all believable, they also all fit into archetype that fit their genders easily. OF COURSE the child of Aphrodite/charmspeaker is a girl. OF COURSE the child of Hephaestus/the builder of things one is a boy. OF FUCKING COURSE the hero/natural leader is a boy.

"He says I'm a daughter of Aphodite," Piper interrupted, "so naturally I can speak French, which is the language of love."

I laughed at this, but not in a good way. Please stereotype the French language more! That said, the French itself was okay, but very clearly translated directly from the English version, given how awkward the French was in places, but at least they got the tu/vous distinction right.

ALSO ANNABETH AND RACHEL ARE RIENDS YES PLEASE EXCELLENT MORE

Jason apparently reads Fantastic Four, given him asking if Leo could "jump off a building and yell 'Flame on!' " which I am kind of surprised about, tbh, because where would he find the comics? Also, I laughed (in a good way this time) every time he say Eat voltage!

I liked the friendship between the three, but I liked the Piper+Leo friendship best, as I'm kind of heh about Jason so far. I also loved the realtionship between Leo and Festus.

Piper's relationship with her father reminded me severely of Rachel's relationship with her father, but then there was this bit,

"They're going to remember me as Piper McLean's father, and that's the best legacy I can imagine.

which was adorable.

Between Piper being half-Cherokee and Leo being Hispanic (I think? I'm still unclear what Hispanic means in an US context), I feel like Riordan is trying to give the books more diversity, which is good. On the other hand, it makes it even more obvious that Jason is blond, because of course it would be a white guy that would be "the greatest of heroes".


What are you reading now

The Son of Neptune, by Rick Riordan: FUCKING ROMANS HOW DO THEY WORK I have actually missed fantasy!Ancient Rome, weirdly, so this feels a bit like revisiting an old friend. And of course Percy's in this one, and I like Percy. I'm really liking Hazel and Frank too! (Although, see above how the fact that the supporting casts highlight the fact that the two main hero dudes, Percy and Jason, are both (presumably traight) white dudes.)


Les Derniers Hommes, by Pierre Bordage: I'm two chapters in and liking it so far. Not a big fan of the random (non-explicit) sex scene in the second chapter though, because wow isn't it convienent that her disease hasn't affected any of her primary and secondary sexual characteristics yet and given that it has affected her shoulders and back, I would have thought that her being on top would work out better, especially given that she has experience, he does not and he has broken leg. We'll see how it goes. My dad got the book from for his birthday (a surprisingly well-thought out present, coming frm her) and I recognised the name as him being the dude who wrote Les Guerriers du Silence and I remembered liking that. (It was also one of the first books I ever bought with my own money.) I traded with my dad when he was done, so we'll see what I think of the rest of the book.


What are you reading next

The rest of the Heroes of Olympus series and very probably the Ad Astra manga, because there was an article in one of the free newspapers n the subway that said it was about Hannibal and Scipio, so of course I am there with bells on.