Jayson’s Reviews > The Chalice of the Gods > Status Update

(2) "'Hey, Paul.' I gave him a fist bump.
'Beat any good monsters lately?' he asked.
'You know. Just the usual.'"
- By "Just the usual," I guess he means none. Because there have been zero monsters in this book. I mean, unless you count gods acting monstrous.
(3) "...all the gods would throw burnt toast at me like we were at a midnight screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show."
- Okay, how does Percy know this? It's not exactly common knowledge.
- Is he someone who goes to midnight screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show? Percy's either been at school or camp since he was twelve, I can't see him having midnights free.
- Seems like yet another example of Rick Riordan projecting.
(4) Percy: "That stuff freaks me out ... It looks like radioactive honey."
Annabeth: "No, it's not radioactive, honey."
Percy: "I see what you did there."
- I do enjoy a good pun!
- Is Annabeth going to start calling Percy "honey"? Because, honestly, "Seaweed Brain" is getting really old.
(5) "I imagined a bunch of ladies in billowy green-and-brown dresses dancing around a tree hung with healing crystals, like a Stevie Nicks cosplay convention."
- Gee, how far back are these references going to get? Are we just going to assume Percy's a '60s and '70's aficionado?
(6) So, they do Iris this favor and she just tells them the answer?
- That's pretty weak. At least make it a clue and have one of them figure it out.
(7) Percy makes reference to "The Picture of Dorian Grey," which he mistakenly calls Earl Grey.
- I had no idea Percy was so well-read. By all accounts, he shouldn't be. He's dyslexic, for one.
- Makes me wonder whether the "short story about a guy who liked to open cans" was meant to be equally obvious.
(8) The whole Geras fight is fairly static and unexciting.
- Percy essentially beats him by taking an expression literally. While clever, it's not exactly dramatic, nor what you'd expect from this series.
- Sadly, this book seems to have peaked early with the killer chickens.

Bob Dylan won a Nobel in Literature for poetry. I think Blofis was referring to Dylan's ability to shirk convention and to blow new life into American poetry and counterculture. He was, in essence, Beat-adjacent.

(3,5-7) I consistently have to remind myself that all these books-- Lightening Thief to now-- have been under the conceit of Percy writing down his adventures memoir-style. I think that's the reason for all the references and such that he otherwise wouldn't be privy to as a teen at Camp: we're supposed to understand that he's older now, with more time to be a "regular human", writing down his memories. At least, that's what Riordan exclaimed two decades ago.
(8) I found the Geras ordeal to be very sweet. Sure, it isn't super exciting and action-packed like normal, but I think that's the point? After fighting hardcore for years, Percy is accepting not only the fact that life does indeed end, but accepting also the imminent death of the years that made him who he is. Again, he talks ad nauseam about leaving for University and leaving home; there's a reason he was very surprised when he thought Annabeth had returned to school, a reason why he was initially out-of-mind when his mom announced her pregnancy, a reason why he was shocked that Poseidon called his school to parent Percy after all these years, a reason why the quests and thus the book were all about age and renewal.

DeVaughn wrote: "Bob Dylan won a Nobel in Literature for poetry. I think Blofis was referring to Dylan's ability to shirk convention and to blow new life into American poetry and counterculture. He was, in essence,..."

Cool, I've no doubt Blofis believes exactly that. I was more just commenting on how Percy believes poetry has to rhyme, and judges Dylan on that lone criteria.

DeVaughn wrote: "(3,5-7) I consistently have to remind myself that all these books-- Lightening Thief to now-- have been under the conceit of Percy writing down his adventures memoir-style. I think that's the reaso..."

Even under that generous interpretation, Percy's window of pop culture appreciation would have to be at least thirty years removed from Riordan's, and if this is indeed some reflection from a distant future, there would be a lot more contemporary references, which would by then be considered old. Instead, we get a lot of old references, which in the future would be very very very old. I mean, if I'm writing a memoir, I'm not going to be referencing things from the 1930s and 1940s.

DeVaughn wrote: "(8) I found the Geras ordeal to be very sweet. Sure, it isn't super exciting and action-packed like normal, but I think that's the point? After fighting hardcore for years, Percy is accepting not only the fact that life does indeed end..."

Cool, glad it worked for you. I don't mind it being sweet, but that was all it was. In evaluating and understanding this book, I have to ask myself what I want from a Percy Jackson book. Am I expecting a fun adventure full of twists and turns? or am I content with just a nostalgia-fest? I'm happy with sweet as a side dish or dessert, but it's not fully satisfying (for me) as a main course.