The Lost Hero is the first book in The Heroes of Olympus, written by Rick Riordan, who is also known as the writer of the internationally famous Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Unlike the other books, it is written in the third person from the main characters perspectives…Jason, Piper, and Leo. Here is a brief summary of the book…without any spoilers.

Summary
A young demigod, Jason Grace, finds himself in unknown territory without the knowledge of who he is and where he belongs. He befriends Leo Valdez (a demigod), and pretty Piper McLean (also a demigod). Together they embark on an important quest. Interwoven around their story is the persistent search Annabeth is on…although she is not central to the story – it all just FITS.

If you want to read more about the Lost Heroes without actually reading the book. Then check out this site, great job covering a lot of deatils. NOTE, I would consider there to be spoilers on this site.  OR if you want to just go ahead and get the book…just it out on Amazon.

Part Two: Character Omissions
So we saw the film and thought, “Oh my gosh, here comes Clarisse to jack up Percy!” And what do we get? Annabeth in a Clarisse/Annabeth mixture. Then at the diner where they’re talking about the Gods being angry we thought: “Saweet, here comes Ares!!” And nothing at all. And also, when Luke gave Percy the flying shoes we thought: “NOOO! Don’t take those! Those are cursed!” And they weren’t. They didn’t have a peep from Kronos.

Well, what can all this mean? How will they swing those Character Omissions? Obviously they were on a tight budget. At least for this kind of film. I mean, the latest Harry Potter film had a budget of around $200 million. So they had to cut characters. Anyways, how can they make the cut characters back into the story in The Sea of Monsters etc? Your pals at percyjackson.org have a thought or two.

Character #1: Clarisse
In The Lightning Thief book, Clarisse bullies Percy and is the one to maim him in Capture The Flag. Instead we have Annabeth. In The Sea of Monsters, Clarisse is the one who goes on a quest to save the Golden Fleece from Polyphemus. And Percy, Grover and Annabeth help her at the end. So how can they have her do that when they didn’t have her in the first film?

Easy, they just introduce her as a daughter of Ares and all is happy. They could do the bathroom swirly scene. That was a good intro for her character in The Lightning Thief book.

Character #2: Ares
Ares was really a character made for The Lightning Thief. That was really his moment to shine. Instead they have it where Luke was working alone to steal the Lightning bolt. So they could introduce him later in the series. He doesn’t really have a story now, so they’ll probably show him in passing in one of the films.

Character #3: Luke
While he’s not omitted from the film, but he still gets killed by Percy, or at least presumed dead from the water trident. (Not in the book!) So I think what they’ll do, and it ties in with change #4 below, is that he wanted to bring down the Gods so the Demi-Gods could rule.

I think that they’ll have Kronos bring Luke back alive, and have him as his puppet to bring down Olympus.

Character #4: Kronos
This is probably the crook of the issue. While we don’t see him in the book, he’s pointed out as the puppeteer pulling the strings. He’s the guy who twisted Luke into stealing the Lightning Bolt, he was the one who wanted it to bring down the Gods. The shoes from Luke were designed to pull Percy down to Tartarus to Kronos, with the Lightning Bolt.

Now the question is: How will they introduce him as the series baddie? Well, I’ve given it some thought, and talking about Luke, I’ve already given an idea, but here’s some more:

Like I said before, he’ll probably bring Luke back alive and recruit him to help him out of Tartarus, and to bring down the Gods. He’ll start taunting Percy in his dreams, like he does in The Lightning Thief book. He’ll appear on the cruise ship in the coffin, with Luke alive and well from Kronos’ hand, recruiting people and slowly having Kronos come back alive.

Character #5: Thalia
Again, she’s not in the book, but she’s now the tree that guards the Camp from Monsters. She was with Annabeth, Luke and Grover, and sacrificed herself before the events of The Lightning Thief. What’ll probably happen is they’ll introduce her tree in The Sea of Monsters, when they explain that her tree is dying or something like that.

OR, they could introduce her as a brand new camper, fresh from fighting some monsters. That would be a little weird though, I hope they do something for her like she is in the books.

Character #6: The Oracle
Same thing in Change #1 about the prophecy, I don’t know why she didn’t show up. Maybe they’ll have her as a new addition to the camp, or have it where since Percy ditched camp right away he didn’t get a prophecy for the Lightning Thief story. Probably some explanation on Chiron’s part would do some good as well. I liked having the Oracle in the books, and I hope they’ll find a way to write her in the story.

Character #7: Mr. D (Dionysus)
Here’s a character omission I can’t figure. Probably just to save time but, he’s supposed to be over the Camp for a 100 years. He was seen, not even had any lines though, but seen nonetheless in the Olympus chamber in The Lightning Thief.

Again, like the other character omissions, they might have him as a new starter in The Sea of Monsters, just barely banished for a 100 years by Zeus to run Camp Half-Blood. That would be nice to have him in it, especially because his character begins to grow in The Battle of the Labyrinth and he helps Percy in The Last Olympian.

Anyways, I hope that all these characters are featured in The Sea of Monsters, and hopefully the studio will have a better budget this time to feature these characters. I’ll take how the movie was done because it was done well, and I’m sure they’ll do terrific with The Sea of Monsters and onward, but Mr. Titley, if you are at all by chance reading this, please feature these characters in the next film. Thank you. If not, I understand, but if you can that would be awesome!

I hope you all liked this addition of CFTBWICMFFM.

Well, we here at percyjackson.org have decided to go through the fundamental changes in the film (not the small stuff like Annabeth’s hair color, because I would get Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in my hands before I could finish) and what it could mean for the next four movies. We will work on this until we feel it is complete, so this is the first of several installments of our version of “Changes From The Book”.

Also, I would like to say to all fans: If you’ve seen the movie and hated it because of all the changes from the book, (and a lot of my friends do) and are telling people who have never read the book and never will that it’s a bad movie (and you aren’t saying to them that you think that because of the changes from the book that they’ll never read) PLEASE: say it’s a good movie OTHER than the changes they made.

Why, do you ask? Because it’s a terrific film in it’s own right, minus the changes they made. And for those that will just say that they will rent it on DVD, NO! Because the studios don’t look at DVD rentals, they look at box office results and if there aren’t good box office numbers then they won’t make a second movie, and I know that all of us want to see more films of Percy Jackson. So next time someone asks you if you thought the movie was good, put aside your indignation at the book to film changes, and think of it as a film in it’s own right, and if you can do that and it seems like it would be an entertaining film to anyone asking, tell them to go see it at the local theater as soon as possible! Thank you.

Ok, now let’s get into it.

Change #1: The Big Three Prophecy
In the series the main reason for Percy being born and being attacked at the beginning is because he’s the son of one of the Big Three. (Zeus, Poseidon and Hades) In this case Poseidon. To reset for everyone, in the book, World War II started as a war between Zeus’ and Poseidon’s children against Hades’. Finally, after WWII they made a pact that they would have no more mortal children, which Zeus and Poseidon had broken.

It’s because there was a prophecy made that a child of one of the Big Three, when age 16 would make a decision to save or destroy Olympus. We also learn about Thalia, daughter of Zeus who sacrificed herself to save Grover, Annabeth and Luke. Her tree now guards the Camp.

In the film the reason for Percy not knowing his father, and why not, is because Poseidon was becoming too mortal while being with Sally and Percy. There’s no hint of a prophecy or Thalia, daughter of Zeus, or how Grover, Luke and Annabeth came to the Camp. In the film, Percy is already 17 meaning he’s too old for the prophecy of age 16. They could just make it a prophecy of the kid who is 21 will save or destroy Olympus. Guess we’ll find out.

That is all for now… comment below for your say, be sure to join our mailing list (over there on the right column) to receive updates on our next installment, which is coming soon.

Where to begin with an awesome movie? Alright, first of all….. I will be talking about the film and how it differs from the book, so when I get to the spoilers I will notify you. So really first of all, the acting. I’ll start with the big name stars.

Pierce Brosnan as Chiron was terrific. It was cool to see him in a role as a mentor, not a ladies man secret agent. He did really well portraying, as he himself calls it, a “horse’s ass”.

Uma Thurman as Medusa….what to say other than brilliant? She did well portraying Medusa as someone other than a hideous monster. Her scenes “Sneak a Peek” were terrifically terrifying. She did an amazing job making me feel like I was in a balance between life and death, and had to keep my eyes closed. (I didn’t, but the suspense was awesome).

Sean Bean and Kevin Mckidd as Zeus and Poseidon respectively. They didn’t get a whole lot of screen time, but they were great nonetheless. And Kevin Mckidd, when he’s talking to Percy at the end, he was great trying to get Percy to see his side of things, that he had his duties as a god, and couldn’t be there for Percy.

Steve Coogan and Rosario Dawson were great as Hades and Persephone. Sure, Persephone wasn’t in the book, but I’m still glad they put her in anyways. When I heard that Steve Coogan was portraying Hades of all characters, I thought “Oh great, how’s that one going to turn out?” and the answer is amazing.

Now, onto the Trio and Jake Abel. I think they did a terrific job when they cast Logan, Brandon, Alexandra and Jake as the young stars. Logan Lerman did great playing a kid who didn’t know where he was, and his reactions to the new world of the Gods is simply terrific. “Did that really just happen?” and “This is a pen. It’s a PEN.”

He and Alexandra were terrific on screen. “I have really strong feelings for you, I’m just not sure if they’re good or bad.” Alexandra’s character of Annabeth was really Clarisse and Annabeth rolled into one. (Since Clarisse was not in this film). She’s introduced training with a bunch of other Demi-Gods and beating the living daylights out of them. She’s the one who jacks up Percy at the creek during the Capture the Flag game.

Brandon was the life and soul of the film. He was hilarious, and every comment of his was pure gold. They made Grover’s character less of a geeky unsure kid, and made him more of a ladies man. And his facial expression and smacking her hand when Persephone reached out and felt his jacket was funny. And his moves with his crutches, using them as weapons was hilarious. As well as when he started chewing on a soda can, I did not expect that one!

Jake Abel was awesome as Luke. While he didn’t have the huge scar across his face from the Hesperides dragon like in the book, (which I have heard people complain a lot about) everything else about him was awesome. His acting was brilliant, and the scene where he’s talking about how much he hates his Dad (Hermes) it seemed like he really meant it. And his fighting at the end of the film was cool. (I’ll say no more here.)

Now, onto the actual film. And here it is…..WARNING! IF YOU HAVE A SMALL SPOILER THRESHOLD, LOOK AWAY NOW AS WE WILL BE TALKING ABOUT THE CONTENTS OF THE FILM WHICH IN WAYS DIFFER FROM THE BOOK. Now that we have that out of the way, here we go.

Instead of giving you a blow by blow synopsis of the film, I’m going to tell you what’s different about this from the book. Firstly, the camp does not have as modern of a feel as I expected. It was much more ancient looking, like some tribal place in a way. We don’t meet Clarisse at all, and Percy is immediately put into Poseidon’s cabin. Mr. D is not in this film at all, and neither is Ares. Instead of a Hellhound coming into the camp, Hades appears in his demonic form, and demands that Percy brings the lightning bolt to him in exchange for his mother.

Percy decides to sneak out of camp, and there’s no Oracle or prophecy. He goes to Luke along with Annabeth and Grover and get a shield and the flying shoes. He tells them that the only way for them to get back from the Underworld, is to look for Persephone’s Pearls, which there are three in the U.S. These pearls will bring them back from the Underworld to the real world. (As you might remember, these pearls are given to Percy by a messenger of Poseidon’s halfway through the quest.)

The first is to Medusa’s lair, which is completely run down, not a nice curio shop and diner like the book. The second is at the Parthenon, where they fight the Hydra. (not in the book at all). The last one is at the Lotus Hotel and Casino, probably my favorite scene in the film. They finally get all three and go to Hollywood where they get to the HOLLYWOOD sign, and enter into the Underworld where they meet Charon, who ferries them to Hades’ palace.

Hades gets the Lightning Bolt, from a shield that Luke gave Percy, so we find out that Luke is a traitor. Persephone steals the bolt from Hades and attacks him, then gives the bolt to Percy because if there’s a war, she’d be stuck with Hades. They escape, and Luke attacks them. Instead of Percy and Ares fighting over teh Lightning Bold, Luke and Percy have a fight for the Lightning Bolt with Luke saying that the reason he stole the bolt was that if the Gods had war, the Demi-gods could then take over the Gods, and rule. (In the book he does it for Kronos so the Titans can become the rulers again. How they’re going to turn that around for Sea of Monsters is anyone’s guess.) Percy then makes a trident out of water and hurls it at Luke, impaling him in the neck and hurling him out of sight.

The movie ends about the same way as the book, more or less. Also, there was no talk of a pact with the Big Three about not having kids anymore. No mention of how a child of the big three once age 16 would make a decision that would save….or destroy Olympus. I’m sure though that they’ll mention it in The Sea of Monsters. Instead of the Big Three pact, Zeus made a rule that the Gods could not interact with their children at all, because Poseidon was becoming more human around Sally and Percy, he left when Percy was seven months old.

All in all, if you’re a perfectionist who needs to see the actual book page for page put on screen you might be disappointed. But, if you can live with the changes that they made, and just accept it for what it is, a screen adaption of the book. NOT THE ACTUAL BOOK, then you will enjoy this awesome flick. Like Mr. Titley the screenwriter said: “The book and movie are two completely different beasts, if you made the book completely into a movie you would get too long of a movie. You need to make cuts and changes to make it a movie” I completely agree with the statement. (By the way, I’m paraphrasing that quote. The quote is I believe in the last interview we put up from Mr. Titley.

This film is absolutely worth going to see, and I will be seeing it again with my family this weekend. I strongly recommend this film to all moviegoers, Percy Jackson reader or not, go see this film! It’s fun for the whole family!!

Our verdict? 5 out of 5 stars! Enjoy the film and let us know what you thought of The Lightning Thief!!!!!

Instead of using a dustcover, they put it into a nice slipcase with the artwork being Percy with his sword, the Minotaur horn and the Empire State Building in the distance. Everything else was cut off or shrunk to size.

The book and slipcase are a nice Navy blue color that looks pretty sweet. Additional upgrades are a ribbon bookmark, which is much handier for marking your spot than folding the corners or using a bookmark which is just annoying sometimes. It also has 8 full pages of new artwork from John Rocco, the illustrator for the PJO book covers which you can see below.

The paper is also different, instead of the sides being smooth, they made the side, (not the top and bottom) of the paper rough, so it makes it a little harder to turn the pages from the side. That is the only downfall of this book (and a very small one at that). The entire package is shrink-wrapped, so as to not let the book get scraped up. Well, unless you drop it before it’s opened. But hopefully that didn’t happen.

All in all, if you don’t own The Lightning Thief, or your old copy is trashed from reading it often (like mine) you should strongly consider buying it.

Amazon has it at a discount right now!

10) “Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Last Olympian” by Rick Riordan: The gods are under attack. The demigods must choose sides. And Percy turns 16. All the immortal problems come together in this dense but enjoyable conclusion to an all-ages series that has spawned an upcoming motion-picture adaptation. Read this to find out who the Last Olympian really is. The book is always better—everyone knows that.

[Source]

Rick Riordan PJO Author

Sitting proudly on my desk is a hot-off-the-presses copy of Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Ultimate Guide. It’s a cool companion book for the series, which will be published in only a few weeks: Jan. 18.

Since I’ve been getting a lot of questions about this book, I thought I’d give you a sneak peek, since I don’t want people confused about what they’re getting.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians The Ultimate Guide

What it isn’t: It is not a Percy Jackson novel, nor is it a collection of short stories like the Demigod Files. I don’t want people buying it with that impression and being disappointed!

What it is: A full-color compendium of Percy Jackson’s world. It comes in a flip-book format with a closing magnetic clasp, and a cover page with a cool band of holographic images that change as you move the book. Inside are 148 pages of Percy Jackson facts, trivia, and illustrations. There are also mini trading cards for important characters in the series. The book has sections on Percy Jackson’s background, life at Camp Half-Blood, gods & spirits, a Greek mythology bestiary, and a storehouse of the gods featuring all the magic items and weapons found in the series.

My favorite sections are probably Nico di Angelo’s guide to the Underworld and the section exploring Daedalus’s Labyrinth. You’ll find many new color illustrations, including a portrait of the camp, a map of its layout, and a look inside Daedalus’ workshop. Ever wanted to know what a dracaena looks like, or the Manticore, or a Laestrygonian giant playing dodgeball-of-death? The Ultimate Guide has pictures of all these and more.

To tell the truth, I’ve found the Ultimate Guide very helpful myself, as I’m in the midst of writing the first book in the new Camp Half-Blood series. The guide has helped me keep things straight about who had what magic item, which monster appeared in which book, and how the gods and spirits were interconnected.

So if that sounds worth checking out to you, give The Ultimate Guide a look! And coming soon, as promised, a little more information about The Kane Chronicles: The Red Pyramid which *is* a full-length adventure novel and will be released May 4.

Now I’m off to write more about our friends at Camp Half-Blood. When I last left them, they were in a pretty dangerous spot — ah, but more on that later.

You can guarantee yourself a copy by heading over to Amazon – become a PJO pro!

[Source: Rick Riordan]