One day my old school buddy who is a pre-Christian asked Elizabeth if she had seen any Harry Porter movies or read any of the series. My daughter's answer was I advised her not to read it when she was young. Now that she is an adult, she has lost the desire to read or watch any of them.
To be fair to my children, I did not either. Not that if I read any of those books, they would shake my beliefs. My stand now is my adult children are welcome to read them or watch the movies if they really want to.
By borrowing from two friends, Elizabeth and I read the "Eragon" series. We enjoyed them tremendously as folk tales. Perhaps there were former worlds where dragons were present. Perhaps not! But the important thing is we are living in our present world where we only see dragon dance during Chinese New Year celebrations.
Lately I have access to Riordan's series. I can assure you I spent many hours reading happily. Here I will record their names: The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, and The Last Olympian.
It may seem strange that a woman of my age with much grey hair is reading what some may consider as children's books. Well, I am still trying to catch up with the years when I was speaking, thinking and dreaming in Mandarin. I read my first English book with the help of my trusty English-Chinese dictionary when I was fourteen. I only managed to source and finish reading the Famous Five series when I was eighteen years old. All I can remember about the Greek Mythologies was a simplified reader I plow through in the dim past. Since then I have found lots of contradictory references to it in numerous books and magazine articles. A few years ago, I learned a little more of it from Agatha Christie's The Labour of Hercules.
I thought the authors or the historians got all mixed up over Greek mythologies. It was not until Riordan pointed out in his series that there was a Titan's age and then an Olympian age that I began to see that many sets of players fought for power over thousands of years. It sounded like the dynasties in China. The only difference is that the Chinese killed everyone connected with the deposed Emperor. The Olympians cannot kill their predecessors for good because they were supposed to be immortal. I wonder how much was related in the mythologies and how much was made up by Riordan.
The fact that Percy chose to remain a mortal so he would not outlive Annabeth made the series an Adventure love story. In a way it is a happy ending. The irresponsible Olympians were bound by oath for a time to acknowledge their half-blood off-springs and bring them to the training camp. It was good to have the population of the camp increase. It sounded like in the ancient days where angels took human females and begot children who become the heroes of old.
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