Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief: good read, awful movie

Can Riptide slice through wizards?

I finally got a copy of Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. That's after I watched it its movie adaptation -- the most disappointing movie of 2010. Watching it over and over again while getting fat every time the movie runs would probably how the Furies would design my eternal damnation if I get there.

Why am I even bothering with these children's books?

Because I like them. I like fantasy novels. Maybe it's escapism, maybe it's literature appreciation. I don't know and nothing has stirred me to care.

I'm still in my pursuit for the "next Harry Potter series". It's no secret that I'm a Harry Potter and I evangelize how Twilight is absolute crap. Percy Jackson and the Olympians is a good break, it certainly got me interested and I'm itching to buy the next book in the series: The Sea of Monsters. But it's still no Harry Potter for me.

Why is Harry Potter better?

Let's compare the books, not the movies. Adaptations of the first novels in both series sucked-butt crack (if that's even possible).

Harry Potter is darker (a death in every book? Parents should be more careful what novels they hand their kids) and is therefore less likely to be completely categorized under children's novels. It also has a lot of new things in it since JK Rowling built her Hogwarts universe free of rules, whereas Percy Jackson is highly restricted to the characters of Greek Mythology.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians, on the other hand, is colorful and heroic -- even Hades, God of the Underworld, is worth Percy Jackson's sympathy. I know there are Titans looming into the pages and they're different compared to the human-like gods, but still. Take all of the Underworld and compare it against Voldemort. Take the Furies and compare them against the Death Eaters. The Olympians simply aren't scary enough to make you pull an all nighter just to finish the book.

All of those, plus Harry Potter is more condensed in terms of plot. There are side stories, there are twists, there are surprises. Percy Jackson and the Olympians treats its readers like even they are dyslexic; the plots are pretty linear, straightforward and if you know your Greek Mythology pretty well, you can (almost always) guess what comes next.