Jayson’s Reviews > The Titan's Curse > Status Update
Jayson
is starting
Notes:
(1) Finally able to continue this series now that my computer issues have been settled. Unfortunately, what's been settled is that my PC died of a hard disk failure and I've lost the last 14 months of data.
- On the bright side, 14 months ago I did backup my files, so it could have been much worse.
(2) Back to the book, I remember this being my favorite in the series. Wonder if that will be the same this time?
— May 11, 2022 04:35AM
(1) Finally able to continue this series now that my computer issues have been settled. Unfortunately, what's been settled is that my PC died of a hard disk failure and I've lost the last 14 months of data.
- On the bright side, 14 months ago I did backup my files, so it could have been much worse.
(2) Back to the book, I remember this being my favorite in the series. Wonder if that will be the same this time?
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Jayson’s Previous Updates
Jayson
is 96% done
Notes:
(1) Ugh.. Blackjack is back! And here I thought I'd escape the book without suffering that high-pitched whinnying again.
(2) Athena: "I do not approve of your friendship with my daughter. I do not think it wise for either of you. And should you begin to waver in your loyalties..."
- Being as wise as she is, Athena must know it isn't just "friendship."
- Ah, the old "I disapprove, but if you hurt her..." trope.
— Jun 12, 2022 04:30AM
(1) Ugh.. Blackjack is back! And here I thought I'd escape the book without suffering that high-pitched whinnying again.
(2) Athena: "I do not approve of your friendship with my daughter. I do not think it wise for either of you. And should you begin to waver in your loyalties..."
- Being as wise as she is, Athena must know it isn't just "friendship."
- Ah, the old "I disapprove, but if you hurt her..." trope.
Jayson
is 83% done
Notes:
(1) Luke and his minions carrying around the dead body of Chronos is totally reminiscent of Quirrell and Wormtail carrying around Voldemort.
(2) "Atlas is my father" totally has "Empire Strikes Back" vibes.
(3) As much as I dislike Bernstein's narration, I respect the boldness he takes in tackling ethnic accents.
- The side-effect of cultural representation is the narrator having to sound many kinds of ethnic.
— Jun 07, 2022 04:45AM
(1) Luke and his minions carrying around the dead body of Chronos is totally reminiscent of Quirrell and Wormtail carrying around Voldemort.
(2) "Atlas is my father" totally has "Empire Strikes Back" vibes.
(3) As much as I dislike Bernstein's narration, I respect the boldness he takes in tackling ethnic accents.
- The side-effect of cultural representation is the narrator having to sound many kinds of ethnic.
Jayson
is 70% done
Notes:
(1) Zoe: "Let us find the dam snack bar."
Grover: "The dam snack bar? ... I could use some dam french fries."
Thalia: "And I need to use the dam restroom."
Zoe: "I do not understand."
Grover: "I want to use the dam water fountain."
Thalia: "I want to buy a dam T-shirt."
- My favorite part of the book. I love puns.
(2) Rachel Elizabeth Dare always goes by her full name.
- My pet peeve. Just call her Rachel!
— Jun 05, 2022 04:30AM
(1) Zoe: "Let us find the dam snack bar."
Grover: "The dam snack bar? ... I could use some dam french fries."
Thalia: "And I need to use the dam restroom."
Zoe: "I do not understand."
Grover: "I want to use the dam water fountain."
Thalia: "I want to buy a dam T-shirt."
- My favorite part of the book. I love puns.
(2) Rachel Elizabeth Dare always goes by her full name.
- My pet peeve. Just call her Rachel!
Jayson
is 63% done
Notes:
(1) "When [Aphrodite] smiled at me, just for a moment she looked a little like Annabeth. Then like this television actress I used to have a crush on in fifth grade."
- If you didn't get the hint so far (all the blushing and such) that Percy and Annabeth are going to be a couple, this section makes that abundantly clear.
- The juxtaposition between Annabeth and Percy's childhood crush connects the dots for you.
— May 31, 2022 03:45AM
(1) "When [Aphrodite] smiled at me, just for a moment she looked a little like Annabeth. Then like this television actress I used to have a crush on in fifth grade."
- If you didn't get the hint so far (all the blushing and such) that Percy and Annabeth are going to be a couple, this section makes that abundantly clear.
- The juxtaposition between Annabeth and Percy's childhood crush connects the dots for you.
Jayson
is 55% done
Notes:
(1) Ugh, cowboy Apollo is back.
- On one hand, at least the narrator's consistent. On the other hand, it gives away his identity when he's supposedly in disguise.
(2) Percy has one-on-one, heart-to-heart, conversations with Thalia, Bianca and Zoe, the latter via dream.
- I appreciate how these showcase each girl's personality, though I wish they weren't all one after another. Comes off a lot like speed-dating.
— May 29, 2022 04:45AM
(1) Ugh, cowboy Apollo is back.
- On one hand, at least the narrator's consistent. On the other hand, it gives away his identity when he's supposedly in disguise.
(2) Percy has one-on-one, heart-to-heart, conversations with Thalia, Bianca and Zoe, the latter via dream.
- I appreciate how these showcase each girl's personality, though I wish they weren't all one after another. Comes off a lot like speed-dating.
Jayson
is 47% done
Notes:
(1) Mr. D: "I have no love for heroes. They are a selfish, ungrateful lot."
- I wonder if this is an inversion and play on the oft-repeated Batman line, "Criminals are a superstitious and cowardly lot"?
(2) Percy to Mr. D: "You’re married? But I thought you got in trouble for chasing a wood nymph?"
- You'd think spending so long at a camp full of half-blood kids would have broke any illusion of godly monogamy.
— May 25, 2022 04:45AM
(1) Mr. D: "I have no love for heroes. They are a selfish, ungrateful lot."
- I wonder if this is an inversion and play on the oft-repeated Batman line, "Criminals are a superstitious and cowardly lot"?
(2) Percy to Mr. D: "You’re married? But I thought you got in trouble for chasing a wood nymph?"
- You'd think spending so long at a camp full of half-blood kids would have broke any illusion of godly monogamy.
Jayson
is 35% done
Notes:
(1) "There was a broken sword hilt labeled: This broke and Leroy got killed. 1999."
- Gee, who would've thought there'd be a Leroy Jenkins reference in these books. Though, the timing does line up perfectly with the meme.
(2) People have been warning me since the start of this book about the narrator's Blackjack voice. It's indeed worse than I'd imagined!
- Here's hoping I'm not driven completely nuts by this.
— May 23, 2022 04:45AM
(1) "There was a broken sword hilt labeled: This broke and Leroy got killed. 1999."
- Gee, who would've thought there'd be a Leroy Jenkins reference in these books. Though, the timing does line up perfectly with the meme.
(2) People have been warning me since the start of this book about the narrator's Blackjack voice. It's indeed worse than I'd imagined!
- Here's hoping I'm not driven completely nuts by this.
Jayson
is 23% done
Notes:
(1) Having Apollo sound like a cowboy is one of the worst creative choices so far.
- Worse yet, he didn't start off sounding cowboy, but like a surfer. The narrator, Bernstein, probably realized it would sound too much like his Luke voice.
(2) "'Loosen up,' [Percy] told her.
'I'm loose!' Thalia said. She was so stiff she looked like she was made out of plywood."
- Yes, probably still too used to being a tree.
— May 22, 2022 04:35AM
(1) Having Apollo sound like a cowboy is one of the worst creative choices so far.
- Worse yet, he didn't start off sounding cowboy, but like a surfer. The narrator, Bernstein, probably realized it would sound too much like his Luke voice.
(2) "'Loosen up,' [Percy] told her.
'I'm loose!' Thalia said. She was so stiff she looked like she was made out of plywood."
- Yes, probably still too used to being a tree.
Jayson
is 14% done
Notes:
(1) Artemis: "This is the average age of my Hunters ... before they go astray."
Percy: "Go astray?"
Artemis: "Grow up. Become smitten with boys. Become silly, preoccupied, insecure. Forget themselves."
- In other words, she's Peter Pan and Hunters are the Lost Boys... but gender-swapped.
(2) Zoe Nightshade is described as seeming like royalty, a princess... but sounds like Oliver Twist.
- I hate this narrator.
— May 17, 2022 04:30AM
(1) Artemis: "This is the average age of my Hunters ... before they go astray."
Percy: "Go astray?"
Artemis: "Grow up. Become smitten with boys. Become silly, preoccupied, insecure. Forget themselves."
- In other words, she's Peter Pan and Hunters are the Lost Boys... but gender-swapped.
(2) Zoe Nightshade is described as seeming like royalty, a princess... but sounds like Oliver Twist.
- I hate this narrator.
Jayson
is 9% done
Notes:
(1) One of my biggest gripes about Jesse Bernstein's narration is his accent game. His English accent, if that's what he's attempting, is barely recognizable. His French accent has decent enough inflection, but sounds like both distinctly American and fairly pirate-like.
(2) If one thing is clear from the school dance scene, it's that girls like to dance but boys don't.
- Percy and Grover seem scared to death.
— May 15, 2022 04:20AM
(1) One of my biggest gripes about Jesse Bernstein's narration is his accent game. His English accent, if that's what he's attempting, is barely recognizable. His French accent has decent enough inflection, but sounds like both distinctly American and fairly pirate-like.
(2) If one thing is clear from the school dance scene, it's that girls like to dance but boys don't.
- Percy and Grover seem scared to death.
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May 11, 2022 05:49AM
Glad to know your PC is working. Hard disk failure is the worst, I lost my 3 years worth of data once but the fault was mine for not backing it up for so long.🙈 Looking forward to your thoughts on this one, it's definitely the best one in the series.
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14 months of data?!? How are you feeling about that? I feel awful and it’s not even my data! This makes me want to back up my stuff today as a precaution.This book was actually my least favourite in the series. (view spoiler) and Rick did a good job not making the series formulaic with having this one shake stuff up but I actually didn’t like how different it was from the other books. (The spoilers hide a few vague character related plot points from the book, I hid them in case you wanted to go into this one blind and with just your memories of it)
This was the book you could really feel the change in tone as the characters grew up too. And like we were discussing last month, I’d say this is the point where it starts to edge into upper middle grade because even though Percy is still quite young you can see the maturity in the ending which definitely hammered in the idea that it’s not all hunky dory and there’s not going to be anymore happily ever after endings like the previous books had.
SK wrote: "Glad to know your PC is working. Hard disk failure is the worst, I lost my 3 years worth of data once but the fault was mine for not backing it up for so long.🙈 Looking forward to your thoughts on ..."Thanks, SK! My PC is beyond repair, but I've got a new one. Really, the fault lies with me for cheaping out for so long, avoiding an upgrade and stretching it beyond its lifespan Lol.
It's comforting to know that I'm not the only one who's gone through this. It's definitely one of those times that puts things in perspective and makes you glad for what you have.
Jayson wrote: "Thanks, SK! My PC is beyond repair, but I've got a new one. Really, the fault lies with me for cheaping out for so long, avoiding an upgrade and stretching it ..."Ahh been there. But since I got a new one, have been making sure all data is backed up and it's up to date. I do sometimes miss some of the stuff that got lost in that damaged hard disk, but it is what it is 🤷♀️
Kadi wrote: "14 months of data?!? How are you feeling about that? I feel awful and it’s not even my data! This makes me want to back up my stuff today as a precaution.This book was actually my least favourite..."
I'm finally coming to grips with it. The past few days have been all about ticking off all the files I lost and considering whether it's worth the $500-$1000 data recovery required to bring it back to life. I've come to the conclusion that while it'll hurt to lose the data, it'll likely hurt more to pay that bill for files that are mostly sentimental in nature. I just need to keep reminding myself of that Lol. I will have to rebuild all my reading charts and things, so that's a bummer. 😒
As for the book, I read it a while ago and don't remember many things beyond the main plot points. I'll be able to discuss it more intelligently after my reread. I agree with you about the change in tone. I do remember enjoying it because I didn't really care for the shift to lower middle-grade with The Sea of Monster. I appreciate your thoughts, spoilers and all. Definitely food for thought going into this :)
SK wrote: "Ahh been there. But since I got a new one, have been making sure all data is backed up and it's up to date. I do sometimes miss some of the stuff that got lost in that damaged hard disk, but it is what it is 🤷♀️"Yup, it's like the saying goes: once burnt, twice shy. It's learning the hard way, but probably the most effective way. 🤷♂️
That sucks to hear! 14 months is still a lot! I've stopped saving stuff on my computer and just saved immediately in a cloud drive bc too many times in the past have a computer just crap out on me having zero back ups
Maja wrote: "That sucks to hear! 14 months is still a lot! I've stopped saving stuff on my computer and just saved immediately in a cloud drive bc too many times in the past have a computer just crap out on me ..."Smart decision. I'm probably going to do that as much as possible going forward. My problem was that I didn't change with the times, and put too much faith in hard media, with all the news lately of cloud storage being compromised. I held on to my flip-phone for far too long too, so I know it's a personal barrier I need to overcome.
I'm glad to hear you have answers now, though it's so sad that you lost all that work :/ Well, experience does breed wisdom so I guess there's that. My favorite of the series is Battle of the Labyrinth but this one is certainly really fun. And we get introduced to some amazing new characters that are definitely favorites of mine.
Alexandra Elend Wolf wrote: "My favorite of the series is Battle of the Labyrinth but this one is certainly really fun. And we get introduced to some amazing new characters that are definitely favorites of mine."Yes, the new characters in this, and what they bring to the table is a big part of why I liked this one so much.