READING LOG ENTRY #5: THE BLOOD OF OLYMPUS (LAST BOOK OF THE HEROES OF OLYMPUS SERIES.)

                This is the concluding part. The end of all. Is it the fall of the Olympus? Or will Gaea be joining Kronus in Tartarus? These will be answered. For again, this is the end of all. (Also the end of my Reading log. LOL)

                From the end of the Son of Neptune, Percy was able to reunite with his friends from the Greek world. And they formed the seven demigods that the Great Prophecy is talking about. Percy Jackson (Son of Poseidon), Annabeth Chase (Daughter of Athena), Leo Valdez (Son of Hephaestus), and Piper McLean (Daughter of Aphrodite), all from the Greek Camp, is part of the seven, while the three others came from Rome namely, Jason Grace (Son of Jupiter), Hazel Levesque (Daughter of Pluto), and Frank Zhang (Son of Mars).

                They all have different skills complementing with each other. And they all have weaknesses that are well covered by the other member of the group. They are a solid team. More like an impossible to beat kind of team. But the sad part, one has to sacrifice.

                This book, the same with the Last Olympian (my 3^rd Reading Log entry), centers on the value of sacrifice to push your teammates towards victory. It sounds odd, that this book may somehow end in contrary with all other common books that end in happy ever after, because the seven will not be complete by that time. And they knew about that the whole time. They knew someone is going to suffer the consequence, but they kept pushing and they never backed off.

                 Again, the value is sacrifice. One has to stop for the others to proceed. Yes, harsh as it is, but that is how Mr. Riordan designed his books to make his readers believe in all values even the value of sacrifice.

 And the sad thing is, Leo Valdez, the controller of their ship, the funniest member of the seven, is the one that needs to be sacrificed. He plans the whole thing right from that start. Because he knew exactly what the prophecy meant. And he knew pretty well, that the prophecy is referring to him. And yeah, he was the sacrificial lamb of the group. And the group won the battle.

                He sacrificed himself with no, as in ZERO, hesitation at all. The whole group is looking for other plans, but Leo is determined that sacrificing himself is the only possible way to stop Gaea. And he definitely managed to stop her.

It may sound sad, but Leo desired such thing. For he has planned everything very well. He knew where he is going to be sent after he was sacrificed. And that place is the place that Leo wanted to go. The place of his love. Afterall, it was nevera complete sacrifice. Like, someone dying. It was just a sort of someone never to be seen again, but never dead. Because guys like Leo Valdez never die.

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Report Headline: Six Demigods named Heroes after Fight against Gaea      

         

Reporter: Good Day! To our solid supporters who are as well supporters of these great heroes that saved the whole world when Gaea attempted to overrule us, today is a lucky day for all of us for we have with us today, Percy Jackson, Son of Poseidon, Annabeth Chase, Daughter of Athena, Piper McLean, Daughter of Aphrodite, Jason Grace, Son of Jupiter, Frank Zhang, Son of Mars, and Hazel Levesque, Daughter of Pluto. Let’s welcome them with a round of applause.

*Claps, Claps, and Claps. And more Claps*

Reporter: So, first of all, Ms. Piper Mclean, we are aware of your charm speak abilities, so, for journalistic purposes, we, from this show, is sincerely asking that maybe you will promise not to use that ability here? I mean, I like your abilities, I even wish of having that same ability, but don’t use it here, okay?

Piper: (Laughs) Oh sure, I won’t do it. I Promise.

Reporter: Thank you so much!

Jason: Will you also ask me not to use lightning here?

Reporter: Actually, we are asking all of you, basically, uh~ not to hurt us.

Annabeth: Noted Mr. Reporter. Everything’s under control. For now.

Reporter: So, thank you. So, first of all, how does it feel being part of the now famous six heroes who saved the world?

Percy: I hate it.

Reporter: Uh-huh? You hate being a part of it?

Percy: No. I hate being referred to as part of the six. When in fact, we are actually seven. Or should I say, we are all in this together. Not just me, not just Jason, or not just the seven of us, including Leo, but all of us. Whether demigod, satyrs or fauns, centaurs, gods, and even mortals. We couldn’t have done this all without you. Yes, we are the ones who led these guys, but without the others, we are just ants in the face of Gaea and her giants.

Reporter: So, you mentioned Leo Valdez. After what happened in the war, did you have any signs of him?

Frank: To tell you honestly, I scanned almost the entire country in eagle form but I haven’t found any clue. I have searched the deepest parts of the ocean in dolphin form, but still, no signs of him. I even sniffed every place in dog form and still got none. But I will never say Leo is dead. I knew him well. WE KNEW HIM WELL. We may not have any connections with him, but I’m pretty sure he’s just out there showing his fiery stuffs to a bunch of girls.

Reporter: Sounds like a relief for all of us.

Hazel: Yeah. A guy like him is so elusive that even Mr. Death himself would have a hard time catching up. I knew his plans. I knew he have done it because of a purposes. And whatever purpose it may be, it may sound so sad for us, I knew Leo would be so happy for what he has done. So, even if it is hard, let us just all be happy for him. I knew he’ll be in good situation.

Reporter: It sounds so delightful knowing that you have already treated yourself as a family.

Piper: WE ARE INDEED FAMILY.

Reporter: Uh, don’t stare at me like that Ms. McLean, remember your promise earlier?

Piper: (Laughs)

Reporter: *sigh* So, moving on, we have here questions sent to us by or fans from across the globe via the social networking site, Twitter. I’ll read them for you, and maybe, one of you will answer the questions. So ready?

Percy and Jason: We’re definitely ready.

Reporter: This is from @HelloEzekiel, “How does it feel walking in the lands of Tartarus?

Percy: I better let Annabeth for that. You know, adjectives, A LOT OF THEM, Annabeth is good at that.

Annabeth: I knew you were going to say that. So, I guess walking in there is as bad as falling from a 50ft cliff. It may sound too exaggerated, but walking in Tartarus is really really bad. No adjective has been invented so far to fit in the description of Tartarus. Bad. Real bad.

Reporter: *gulp* So, from @AmazingLeo, uh-huh? Just who is this guy? Here’s his question. “Hi Frank! How’s your firewood? Mind if I burst into flames?”

Hazel: Wait, is that Leo?

Frank: Wait for me Leo, I’m gonna tear you into pieces! *Turns into an eagle and flies out of the studio*

Jason: Uhm, excuse me for a while, I’m gonna catch up with him. *Flies out too.*

Annabeth: I don’t think that is Leo. But whoever that guy is, I love his charisma.

Percy: What do you mean, you love his charisma? Don’t you love mine?

Reporter: Uhm, excuse me Percy, my bottled water is shaking. Are you trying to make it burst? Can you calm down a little bit? We’re still on air.

Piper: *whispers to Hazel* Control the mist, I’ll talk with them.

Hazel: *whisper-mode* Gotcha.

                Hazel then controlled the mist. From a mortal’s point of view, everything seems normal. Well that is if normal means Annabeth singing “Thinking out Loud” and Percy dancing in the harmony that Annabeth makes. But on the real-time, demigod’s point of view, Annabeth was really trying to explain her opinion while Percy was calling out for every droplet of water inside the studio and splashing them on the screen where the picture of the man named @AmazingLeo.

Piper: (Charmspeak mode: On) So, Mr. Reporter, and to all our viewers, thank you for listening, and, Good Day! See yah!

And in no time, the cameramen turned their cameras off. And the show ended.

Piper then whispered to Hazel: C’mon! Let’s get out of here!

                They ran out of the studio and they all lived happily ever after.

Frank, Leo, Hazel, Percy, Annabeth, Piper, Jason

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              So, as I said earlier, this is the end. The end of the series and the end of my Reading log. So, for those guys that have read my posts here (if ever there really are guys that are reading this, well except of course for my Professor, because indeed, she’ll be reading this stuffs, *Hi Maam! :D*), this will be the last. And if you wanted my ideas here, stay in touch. Im an active internet user. Look for me on twitter! :D

READING LOG ENTRY #4: THE SON OF NEPTUNE

               

                     If you were fascinated by how Mr. Riordan narrated stories based on Greek POV’s, then this time, in the second book of the Heroes of Olympus series, it’s time to shift into a different world. Let’s try to explore more stories as we travel into a different dimension as we get to know the Roman Demigods.

               This will give us more friends, more challenges, and more lessons. As we will see the events in the series from another point of view, we will try to discover MORE.

                The first book (my previous entry), The Lost Hero¸ started introducing one character from the Roman Camp, named Jason. And it was later unveiled that Percy Jackson was swapped in place of Jason to somehow unite the two camps. And this is where Percy’s adventure, in the Roman World, begins.

                The second book contains similar events with the first book. With Percy, at first, trying to escape furious attacks by two weird creatures, and with him, the same with Jason, dealing with some sort of amnesia. But one word remains in the mind of Percy. Annabeth. He was pretty sure that he has to find a way back to where Annabeth is, because deep inside him, he knew very well that Annabeth is not just a simple name. It became Percy’s motivation to continue to dwell with things even if the whole Roman World is new to him.

                But as I was reading this book, and with some realization from the first book, why does both characters, Percy and Jason, has to suffer memory loss? Can they not work well with their memories and someone has to get their memories away from them? I mean, have you imagined yourself knowing nothing, remembering nothing, and still, you have to go through a lot of things, even fighting with weird creatures? (Okay, even if you remove that ‘fighting’ part, it is still the same.) Memories can help them withstand pressures, but why does someone has to remove it from them? Is it for them to be motivated to do their task properly? Uh-oh? It may sound cruel, (VERY CRUEL) but that is the real score. They needed something to keep them from standing up against all odds. And luckily, both of them succeeded.

                Percy decided to follow his instincts. At the early part of the book, he had a chance to escape the 2 creatures tailing him when he saw the sea. A thought came to him, saying that if he chose to dive to the sea, those creatures will stop from hunting him. But in exchange, he would never see Annabeth again. So, he didn’t chose that, instead, he chose to enter a more intriguing decision, as he enters the Roman camp for roman demigods claimed by the Roman gods. *sigh* “A more Roman life.” That means a more violent, war-freak, danger-seeking, life for Percy. But he managed to pull it over and yes, he, together with Jason at the Greek camp, managed to pull out the chosen demigods to answer the Great Prophecy that states that there are 7 demigods, a mixture of both camp, will lead the rest of the Demigods to war against Gaea.

                Honestly, I can’t wait to share what the totality of this series is all about guys. And on my last edition of my reading log, all will end. Is it the fall of the Olympians? Or will Percy be able to mount a huge wave of heroes to fend off Gaeas giants marching towards both Greek and Roman worlds?

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THE BATTLE CRY

(A poem based on the Heroes of Olympus series)

It all started when leaders were swapped,

When someone has to take charge and close the open gap,

Between two camps that yell at each other,

And form the seven heroes that will defy the borders.

From the start, we knew it was happening

That at that moment, Gaeas giants are ravening

But we didn’t hide and we didn’t simply crumble and fall,

For we all know that at the end we will surely stand tall.

But along the risky pathway to victory,

We knew it was going to be bloody and weary.

But we should not tremble, we should all fight

                                         For this is for both camps, the source of our might.                                           

Death in war may instantly come,

But for us Heroes, he is always welcome,

For if we die in that battlefield, we die in victory,

For a blood shed in war, is a blood shed for dignity.

 

In the photo (L-R): Leo Valdez, Piper McLean, Jason Grace, Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Frank Zhang, Hazel Levesque.

Photo grabbed from: camphalfblood.wikia.com

(READING LOG ENTRY No. 3, Month of January)

             The Heroes of Olympus Book 1: The Lost Hero. Another thrill was presented with the eruption of this book. Right after Percy Jackson and the Olympians ended, a new series was presented. A new series that goes with new faces, more challenges, and of course, more moral lessons. 

            The first book starts with an intriguing mystery. A new hero, named Jason Grace, was presented. And the famous leader of the Greek Demigods during the war with the Titan King Kronos, Percy Jackson, is nowhere to be seen.

            If we skip directly to the last part, (**SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!**) it was then realized that Jason is from a Roman camp, where they think Percy is in, and that they were swapped to somehow unite the two camps to face a bigger challenge, literally bigger, because they are to fight with the giants led by Mother Earth herself, Gaea.

            So, too much for that mini-summary. And since this whole reading log requires us to scrutinize books, I will try to put more emphasis on values, and for this case, the value of trust.

            Just like what I’ve said, Jason just appears out of nowhere. He doesn’t know where he is, nor where he’s from. The only thing he knew is that his name is Jason. And what’s worse, he appeared on a place, where someone is her girlfriend. And again, he doesn’t even know that he has a girlfriend.

            But he managed to pull it over. He managed to know things, with of course the help of some Greek ‘friends,’ and know what really happened to him and all of those were basically because he put his trust on people which he thinks are capable of helping him.

            Imagine yourself trying to rely your whole identity to someone you just met. And worse, he has to rely on a total strange demigod and satyr– or to someone even if that someone is a centaur. I don’t know how to describe this but, we are lucky we are living in a world free from centaurs, free from instant teleportation/ losing memory in the process. But I guess that is exactly what the book is trying to say.

If Jason was able to survive those superb unimaginable, almost-impossible kinds of problems, how much more to us if we are living in this world, that has lesser problems compared to Jason’s.  Jason managed because he believed in his instinct. He believed that someone godly, is supporting him. He believed that his father Jupiter will help him. He believed that if he put his trust on somebody that has the great potential to help him, he may be able to withstand any things placed on his path.

            Integrating those things for real-life situations, we may also be able to withstand pressures in life if we have trust. Now, this may sound easy to do. But I tell you, trusting someone with your whole life isn’t easy. But if we trust in God, with the capital G, and not the ‘gods’ with the lower-cased ‘g’ in Jason’s world, we may as well manage everything with ease. Trust those persons whom you think deserved to be trusted, and you might as well be like Jason who survived even the hardest part of his quest.

            Now, going back to the story, why is there a need to swap leaders of two camps? What in the world is happening to the world ~ err, to Gaea. What is wrong with her? Why is she rallying the giants? And will Percy be able to survive the standards of a Roman Camp? Will he be able to go back to Camp Half-Blood alive?

With this questions stirring up the readers of this series, allow me to end this post right here, right now. (See more of these similar stuffs in my next posts. Better watch out for it!)

This may sound so ‘nakakabitin’ but that is exactly how I felt when the book ends. So I wanted to share the feeling with you guys, so, have fun reading my 2^nd part! J

PART TWO

Camp  Expose: The Lost Hero

Life at camp became so quiet after the mysterious disappearance of the only child of Poseidon, Percy Jackson. Everyone started to ask anyone they met about any news regarding Percy, but no one has any answer. It’s as if the whole camp is mourning. It’s hard to see anyone laughing inside the camp the usual way campers do. The whole camp was engulfed by this whole ‘Percy-Jackson-Missing’ news.

But of course, we campers still have to go on with our lives. But this time, the harder way. I’ve been in this camp since I got kicked out of the last high school I’ve been to, when I was in Grade 8, so that is roughly 4 years ago since I got here. I’ve experienced a lot of hardships here, a lot of challenges, but I can definitely say that this was indeed the camp’s saddest moment. And it even became more intriguing when a guy named Jason Grace entered the scene.

On a regular supposed-to-be-busy-day, everyone is doing their regular chores while waiting for Annabeth who was said to be in an expedition and is attempting to find Percy, when suddenly, someone knocked on our door.

“Hey guys!” our head councilor, Will Solace, came in and shouted. “I got news from Chiron. Annabeth will be here soon!”

Murmurs filled the air. Annabeth had been so busy looking for her boyfriend now. And hearing news like this is essential for the camp.

“Hey, listen up.” Will held his hand high, and everyone stopped talking. “Line up and let’s meet the rest of the campers at the circle.”

At least twenty campers filled the place. Our cabin, Cabin 6, was almost complete in the circle. Well, basically because, Annabeth borrowed our precious chariot, and with that, we always see to it that stuffs related to our father, Apollo, are always returned to us.

We were patiently waiting for Annabeth to arrive when we heard something crash in the nearby lake. We all rushed in and were shocked to see the chariot, well, wreckage of the chariot, scattered around the place.

Will then ran to Annabeth and yelled, “Annabeth! I said, you could borrow the chariot, not destroy it!”

“I’m sorry. I’ll get it fixed. I promise.”

Piper , Jason, and Leo

We then realized that Annabeth is with three other demigods. One tall dude. This one, i don't know, but it appears to me that this guy resembles some Roman features. I'm not quite sure. Maybe I am just hallucinating that moment. One funky not-so-tall guy with a bit messy hair. the way he acts seems like he's a master of all boasting techniques. And the last one is the pretty little girl. If this girl will be claimed, I really think that she's a daughter of Aphrodite. 

“These are the ones?” Will asked.

Annabeth answered him with a shrug.

“Well, any sign of Percy?” Will asked again.

“No.” Annabeth admitted.

Campers around me muttered. Even me, could not help it but think deeply about what really happened.

“They haven’t been claimed yet.” Annabeth broke the increasing noise.

“Uh- can someone please tell what “claimed” means?” the girl who’s with Annabeth spoke up.

And at that moment, their funky companion was claimed. A fiery hammer, somewhat like a hologram, appeared on his head.

“That is claiming.” Annabeth pointed out.

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Hearing nothing related to Percy, everyone started to go back to their cabins.

“Hey Kim!” my friend/brother/cabin-mate Andre tried to catch up.

“Yeah?” I stopped and waited for him.

“Let’s uhhm, relax a little bit. Let’s play some hoops first. C’mon.” he said as he led me to the basketball court just near the cabins.

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We exchange turns on shooting the ball while talking about Percy. Then Will and the newly claimed guy passed by the court. Will gave us a smile and then went on.

“You know what,” I told Andre as I threw the ball high up in the air from mid-court and drained the shot (Perks of being an Apollo child. With him as the god of archery, we are accurate enough in playing basketballs too) “I don’t think Percy is totally missing.”

“Uh-huh?” Andre said.

“I mean, look at what is happening now. The camp’s a mess; even Chiron is a little bit unstable.” I said as I drilled another shot. “There must be some sort of a plan. A plan for a bigger war, maybe?”

“Yeah. You might be right. But where is he now? We need him here.” Andre said and started throwing the ball.

“Dunno.” I said. I threw one last shot from the opposite side of the court and drained the shot again. (perks of being an Apollo child again)  And we went back to our cabin.

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After couple of weeks, news started to spread that the new three guys was able to accomplish their quest. And what’s more interesting, Jason was able to somehow realize that Percy is in the camp where he’s from, a Roman camp, and was swapped on purpose by the Goddess Hera/Juno.

As a camper, I could not get more excited than this. I sense another great war coming up, and we need a leader like Percy here. He’s the centerpiece of this camp. The usual plans about the defense and the offense of this camp rely greatly on Percy. And without him, this camp is not the same as the usual Camp Half-Blood that I got used to. This camp will never be the same if someone as valuable as Percy is not here.

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Only then I realized that I was just dreaming. I woke up and found myself in front of my laptop. Nothing written on the spreadsheet but the black and bold: “Camp  Expose: The Lost Hero” I sighed and smiled. I then started typing what I saw in my ‘dream’.

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(Special Note: Everything written for the 2^nd part of this entry goes with special visualization and auditory, even sensory and olfactory, effects. Included in these so-called effects is the ‘dream’ portion. But did I really saw those things in my dream? It’s for you to believe and for me to discover.

 HAVE A GREAT DAY EVERYONE and enjoy your Valentine’s Day! Let us all help Greek God Eros and Roman God Cupid spread the love these weekends.)

Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian

Part 1- Okay, so first of all, this is my second entry (the first is The Lightning Thief) for this whole reading log activity for this semester. And if you’re a fan of the Percy Jackson series, then you must have known that there are three other books in between my first entry and this one. And if you’re asking why I decided to jump directly to the final and concluding story of this whole series, well, it is simply because this book is my favorite among the five. Then you might think, why didn’t I decided to just use those five books since this reading log activity also require 5 books. It is because I’m thinking about bringing you not just to the adventures of Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Grover Underwood and other Greek Demigods but also to other demigods specially the Roman demigods from a Roman Camp named Camp Jupiter (Somewhat a Roman counterpart of Camp-Half Blood). And that is why I jumped directly to the final book of this series and decided to reserve the remaining three books that I have for this activity for the next series written also by the same author, Mr. Rick Riordan.

                So, I mentioned above that this book is my favorite one. That is because I learned too many values on this one; the value of family, the value of friends, team work, trust, courage and resilience but what stood out to me is the value of sacrifice. All those things are present on this book. And that is basically because this book covers the final battle between the gods and demigods against titans and the giants (well at least, the last and final war for THIS series).

                 At first, I was shocked, I mean literally, and that was even the first time I reacted too much on a book.  On the very first chapter, my favorite character, Charles Beckendorf, senior counselor for the Hephaestus cabin, blew up the ship of Kronos. Cool? Yeah. Pretty cool. But he also blew himself up together with that ship. First chapter, first casualty. NOT COOL. On the very first chapter, a sacrifice has to be done. And I began asking, why? Why does it have to be Charles? I mean, Charles is among the best demigod at the Camp. And he is even the best when it comes to machineries. Then why does it have to be him? Then I realized one thing. I remembered the story of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Harry was able to finish the last maze, but Cedric, a fellow Hogwarts Student of Harry Potter died on the spot when they faced Voldemort. I’m not a big fan of the Harry Potter story but there is a thing in common among the two different stories. Percy and Charles are friends. Harry and Cedric were also friends. But among their friendship, someone has to sacrifice himself so that the other will succeed. It might sound unfair but they did what they did and it paid off. Just too bad for the Percy Jackson series because it has to be my favorite character. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is; all things have their own consequences. Others might think the ‘sacrifice’ means to give your own life for others. No. sacrifice doesn’t limit only to that. In all our different ways, we can perform sacrifices for others as long as we gave the best that we have. Remember Charles is a counselor at the camp, yet he died. As a fan, we might find it hard to believe. And at the same way, we might not realize the worth of that sacrifice at first, but when you succeed, you’ll remember everything that you have to go through and eventually, you will realize that the sacrifice that you made has played a big part for your success. And that happened to the story. When Percy succeeded, he never forgot his friend who played one of the biggest parts of their conquest.

               The story brings not only the thoughts I’ve presented above. It has more values that will help us realize things in this world and I do hope you’ll find it interesting and start reading the story, not just this one, but all Percy Jackson related books of Mr. Riordan. Trust me, you’ll never regret. :)

Part 2 – I decided to write a short simple letter to Mr. Riordan for the success of his books.

January 2, 2015

Mr. Rick Riordan;

Hey Mr. Rick!

Thanks for the whole 5-book series. That series was the very first series that I’ve ever loved.  And thank you for that. I just find your style unique and pretty impressive. The way you present scenes and events is so cool. How I’d wish to meet you in person and just have even the shortest conversation with the very first author who taught me how to love reading books. You taught me many values about lives. Values about friendship. And again thank you for that. My words are clearly not enough to express my thanks to you Mr. Rick for everything that you’ve written. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

May you continue to inspire other people through your talent and may you have a fruitful 2015 to you and your family. Thank you and Happy New Year Mr. Rick !!

Truly yours,

Achaemenid panuncillo

ps. tHANK YOU FOR KILLING MY FAVORITE CHARACTER. L AND ALSO, IF YOU KNOW WHERE GROVER IS RIGHT NOW, TELL HIM TO GO LOOK FOR ME. I MIGHT NEED TO TRAIN AT THE CAMP.

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Too much for this entry. Thank you for stopping by! Good Day and Happy New Year ! J