Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Book Review: Percy Jackson The Ultimate Guide



Review: #12
Title: Percy Jackson The Ultimate Guide
Series: Percy Jackson (& the Olympians) - Companion Book
Author: Credits Rick Riordan on the cover but actually written by Mary-Jane Knight
Read Before: no
My Notes: took me around 75 mins or so to finish reading this book, it’s not that good, but I shouldn't really expect that much from a companion book. I thought that maybe this would be the one that would defy my expectations, but no, it’s worse than The Artemis Fowl files (at least that one had two redeeming short stories, even if most of the other stuff is pointless and stuff I hate like word searches and crosswords). I guess I was mainly purchasing this for the sake of owning most (if not all) of the Percy Jackson books, and also coz I like the pictures. They had pretty cool pictures that I think are specially drawn for this, but most of it I had already seen on the internet so it wasn't much surprising, I was wishing for more pictures. Not being written by Rick Riordan didn't help, I got cheated, tricked coz they put his name on the front, and not the actual author. I felt that they were lazy in putting like quotes from the book in, seemed like they were padding the book, and most of the info is just summarising stuff we already found out in the series. I was hoping for, you know, some in-depth knowledge of the series revealed that we never knew before, maybe some hidden things you can pick up in the series, there is nothing in this book that points it as being “The Ultimate Guide”. At least they had some new information that I was surprised at learning, but it’s not much. I think this is about as much a disappointment as The Demigod Files, at least that one has three short stories. Mentioning The Demigod Files, this book reuses stuff from it!!! The “Chiron’s Guide to Who’s Who in Greek Mythology” was in it, and also in my Sea of Monsters book, that is just extremely disappointing and lazy. Only thing this book is worth the money is coz it’s a hardback, has magnetic clip on cover (don't care much for this, I find it annoying), and it’s in colour. Not much in there that is redeeming and a waste of money, one to avoid unless you’re a die-hard fan.
Rating: 5/10 (mediocre – and most of these points is coz it’s Percy Jackson)
Rereadability Factor: 3/10

See also: Percy Jackson Book Reviews - The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, The Last Olympian
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