Percy Jackson and the Greek Heroes

Camp Half-Blood Chronicles

by Rick Riordan

IF YOU LIKE POISONINGS, BETRAYALS, MUTILATIONS, MURDERS AND FLESH-EATING FARMYARD ANIMALS, KEEP READING . . .

In this gripping follow-up to Percy Jackson and the Greek Gods, demigod Percy Jackson tells the stories of twelve of the original Greek heroes in all their gory, bloodthirsty glory.

Want to know who cut off Medusa's head? Which hero was raised by a she-bear? Who tamed Pegasus, the winged horse? Percy has all the answers . . .

Genres: Fantasy, Mythology, Percy Jackson, Young Adult, Middle Grade, Greek Mythology, Fiction

530 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 18, 2015

About the author

Rick Riordan is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of many books, including the Percy Jackson series.

Reviews

[Natalie Monroe · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars



Come closer, my dear muggles. Sorceress Medea Natalie will share with you her standard potion for a Greek mythology hero story. Very simple recipe, but disastrous to get wrong.

If you're up for brewing the diverse formula, you will require:

-Scorched bones born of incest
-A dash of tragedy juice. The more bitter, the better
-Live monsters. Two or more should suffice. Poisonous fangs and inhuman strength adds to the potency of your potion
-Royalty cream
-An impossible quest egg. Crack it, so the yolk is irreparably destroyed.
-Lots of stupid decisions/hubris plants. Chop them up, so they blend well.
-A pinch of meddling gods blood

And of course, the formula would not be complete without:

-Zeus sticking his dick where it doesn't belong



Optional: generous amounts of Percy Jackson snark. It will elevate your potion to godly status.



Upon mixing the above ingredients, let it rest under a full moon. If you've brewed it right, it should taste bitter and salty, yet wholly satisfying. Note: Medea is awesome. She doesn't deserve to be portrayed as an evil sorceress. She has ambition, which scared the shit out of ancient Greek men so they made her into a villain. The stuff she did is no less horrible than Hercules and Jason. You know, celebrated heroes.

It's Medusa all over again.



Enjoy!



Pre-review: I have to admit I was wary when I first heard that there was going to be another companion book. Old Bessie's looking a bit dry there.

Then I read an excerpt:

"I've had some bad experiences in my time, but the heroes I'm going to tell you about were the original old school hard luck cases. They boldly screwed up where no one had screwed up before...

So get your flaming spear. Put on your lion skin cape. Polish your shield and make sure you've got arrows in your quiver. We're going back about four thousand years to decapitate monsters, save some kingdoms, shoot a few gods in the butt, raid the Underworld, and steal loot from evil people. Then, for dessert, we'll die painful tragic deaths. Ready? Sweet. Let's do this."

Conclusion:

[Melanie]

OHHHH YEAH. ITS RELEASING ON PERCY'S BIRTHDAY TOO, MUCH EXCITEMENT.

[Isa Cantos (Crónicas de una Merodeadora) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Es muy duro superar cuando alguien a quien amas muere. Créeme, he perdido algunos buenos amigos. Y, aún así, la mayoría de nosotros aprendemos a seguir adelante. Muchos de nosotros no tenemos opción".

"When somebody you love dies, it's a hard thing to get over. Believe me, I've lost some good friends. Still... most of us learn to keep going. Most of us have no choice".

Creo que nunca encontraré algo más divertido que leer a Rick Riordan contando cómo Perseo derrotó a Medusa, o esa vez en la que Afrodita estaba tan celosa de Psyche que casi la mata, o cuando a Phaeton le dio por conducir el Carruaje del Sol y lo hizo tan mal que creó el Sahara, o las mentiras que nos dicen cuando cuentan que las Amazonas se cortaban una you know para ser mejores arqueras, o esos días en los que Dédalo se volvió loco y malo y terminó causando la muerte de su propio hijo y construyendo un laberinto letal con un gran minotauro en el medio al que sólo podría derrotar Teseo más adelante, o qué tal de ese día cuando Orfeo fue hasta el Inframundo a recuperar a su muerta esposa y la perdió segundos antes de que ella volviera a la vida, o esa vez que un rey celoso hizo que Hércules se embarcara en doce trabajos tan absurdos como impresionantes para probar su valía... ¡y qué decir de todas las aventuras de Jasón con los Argonautas!

Ay, cómo estaban de locos mis queridos griegos. Los amo.

[Nara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I seriously miss Percy's narration. It's just so genuinely funny (it's kind of hard to believe that the person behind this authentically teenage sounding voice is a 50 year old man haha)

Probably the only bad thing about the book is that it's so damn heavy! My shoulders hurt from holding the book up lol (although admittedly that also could just be because I have zero muscle bulk...)

Ratings
Overall: 10/10
Writing: 5/5
Narrative Voice/Entertainment: 5/5
Illustrations: 5/5
Cover: 5/5

[samantha Bookworm-on-rainydays · Rating 5 out of 5]

i wish percy jackon was my teacher

[Ishi Bhanot]

November 10, 2014

YES!
That's what we want!
PERCY'S POV!!!!!! :D

[Raoufa Ibrahim · Rating 5 out of 5]

what a book!! non-fiction book but with a few fictional details
------
In this book Rick or Percy(it's the same :P) will tell us about 12 heroes in their way

1)Perseus: Son of Zeus, best known as the one who killed Medusa


2)Psyche: being beautiful can be a curse, especially if people starts calling you Aphrodite!
the only way to destroy her in Aprodite's opinion is to make her fall in love with an ugly, filthy man, so Eros will do this job for his mom.
*Beauty and the beast came from this myth


3)Phaethon:Son of Helios(the Titan who drive the sun chariot)
here our stories will start to get darker


4)Otrera: the woman who created the Amazons(not the company :P)
because women at that time started to realize that they don't have rights, Otrera decided to create an army to kill all the men in the village and any man in their way!


5)Daedalus: the most miserable genius in this whole world, and my fav also <3
whatever he invents, it will not help him!


6)Theseus: the brave hero who will go to the Maze to end the Hunger Games



7)Atlanta: or can we say Merida
raised in the wilderness, by a bear.


8)Bellerophon: the hero who didn't mean to do anything


9)Cyrene: from watching the sheep to punching a lion


10)Orpheus:I know musicians can break our heart, but I doubt any one will do it like Orpheus did in this chapter!


11)Hercules:boring, boring, boring hero!

12)Jason: a hero who will go looking for the golden fleece

[Jess the Shelf-Declared Bibliophile · Rating 2 out of 5]

While it admittedly is funny to read anything from Percy's point of view, I can't help feeling that most of these stories could have been seriously condensed. I'm pretty glad to be done.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pre-reading

I need this to soothe my pain. My heart hurts from finishing BoO.

[Anne Goldschrift · Rating 4 out of 5]

Das ist wahrscheinlich absolute Geschmackssache, aber mir haben die Göttersagen noch ein bisschen besser gefallen als die Heldensagen :)
Ich hoffe sehr, dass er solche Bücher auch aus den anderen Mythenwelten der Welt schreibt :)

[Muse-ic ♬ · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

Rick's books, man!
They never cease to make me laugh!
Some of the sentences are pure funny, while others are simply ridiculous you just have to laugh!
The sarcasm is ever present! He really lays it on thick, but I was cracking up most of the time! So it worked :D

Take some of these chapter titles:
Theseus Slays the Mighty--Oh, Look! A Bunny Rabbit!
Cyrene Punches a Lion (No Actual Lions Were Harmed in the Making of This Myth)
Jason Finds a Rug That Really Ties the Kingdom Together

The chapter titles are the best!

My main criticism is that there were way too many modern references. A few of them would have been fine, but there were several per chapter.
For example: One time, Hermes shows up in a UPS uniform in front of Perseus who asks him the meaning of the symbols on his shirts.
Hermes looks down and asks what century it was, then switched back to normal Ancient Greek godly attire.
Gods can't time travel! I mean, sure, it was really funny, but these kinds of jokes were used a lot.
There were so many references to cellphones and the modern texting lingo such as "Hawt" and "LOL".
It was clearly targeting a younger audience.

But it was still great! A very chill read and a great pastime. Guys I gave this 5 stars! I think that means that I liked it!
The illustrations were beautiful as well!

One of my favorite aspects was the constant reference to the Oracle of Delphi and how she would give a vague prophecy, then saying Thank you and have a nice day.
I just found it funny! Like, thanks for nothing!

This is totally irrelevant to the book itself. But I ordered this off amazon, and there was like a bite or something taken out of page 345. Like there was literally a small triangle of paper just missing from the side. Like, what??

So go read this! Even if you haven't read the Greek Gods, though I do recommend reading that first since there were some references that would be a bit difficult to understand unless you already know the myth.

Thank you and have a nice day ;)

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back in the day when I thought I'd absolutely love this series, I invested not only in the illustrated edition of volume 1, but also in 3 companion books. This is one of them.

This book tells of the Greek heroes and the monsters they slew or tasks they had to accomplish (which often also included solving riddles). As with the other companion book, this mostly focuses on the heroes we know from the Percy Jackson series. Equally, some details were either left out or severely altered to make the stories more child-friendly. Like I said before, I'm OK with that.
We get some of the most well-known stories from Greek mythology, such as the defeat of the kraken as well as the minotaur, the accomplishments of the Amazons, Morpheus' attempt at getting his true love back, Hercules' labours and more.

Accompanying the text are very nice looking smaller and full-page illustrations:









The artist / illustration style is the same as in the other companion book about the Greek gods, but maybe a little less comical and more serious (perhaps due to the nature of the stories?). I liked both it and the colour palette as it was very varied, just like the stories.

Oh, and this one had a fold-out "cheat-sheet" about the most well-known heroes, too! Bonus!

A very nice companion book that allows a deeper look into the world of Greek mythology that might just spark enough curiosity in the reader(s) to prompt them to check out further books on the subject.

[Tina➹ lives in Fandoms · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 Golden Stars

I enjoyed it. Knowing about Greek heroes from Percy's perspective with that funny narration were definitely something new in retelling the history or myths. (I wished teachers would teach us this way at school!) & as I just knew a few of their stories & some only by name (mostly because of the hints in Percy Jackson series about them & what they did, but not the whole story, so here & now I found out the whole story.

it was not as engaging as Percy's adventures itself though, it was only short stories reciting after all, so yeah, 4 it is.

for myths about Greek gods you can read Percy Jackson's Greek Gods

[jessie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hades is the chillest god ever.

I think some stories are too short (especially Otrera's) but damn I miss Percy so much.

Sometimes I forget how funny these books are, Hercules' story made me laugh my ass off at 3 in the morning but that's Percy Jackson for you.

[Meret Magdi · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars❤
I have always wanted to learn more about Greek heroes..
I loved this book, and the way Percy narrated this book is so.. Percy xD
I love him❤
I just wish there were more heroes in there :( ..
I particularly enjoyed the stories of Eros and Orpheus❤

[Malak Ibrahim · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE GREEK GODS ARE ALIVE AND KICKING

and now it's heroes turn

this book talks about 12 great heroes

Perseus son of Zeus

Psyche -mortal (sin of beauty), she is my favorite

Phaethon- son of Helios

Otrera-the founder of the Amazon nation

Deadalus- a skillful craftsman and artist

Theseus

Atlanta

Bellerophon

Cyrene

Orpheus- great poet and musician

Harcules- the boy with 12 labors

Jason- famous for his quest to bring the golden fleece

*Cupid -son of Aphrodite-he wasn't one of the 12 heroes but he has bewitched me body and soul and i love ... I love... I love him

the heroes suffer so much
" after reading all this, if you're still determined to be a hero, you are beyond hope. then again, i'm beyond hope and so are most of my friends , so , i guess , welcome to the club. "

You might also enjoy:

[Samantha ♡ ( Percy’s Version ) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5⭐️

Audiobook

[Darren Hagan-Loveridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so freaking good!! I was a bit dubious going into it considering I don't know a huge amount of Greek heroes, but the stories were told in such a funny and engaging way that it didn't really matter that I didn't know the heroes. It was literally "laugh out loud" funny.

It was also really educational, and the humour just made it fun to learn. Obviously it's a middle grade series, so Riordan uses a lot of modern references to keep the intended audience interested, such as saying that the Greek Gods probably spend a lot of time Googling themselves, and
this text conversation between Zeus and Helios where Zeus uses the word "Totes", but those were the parts that made me laugh the most.

Anyway yeah its a great book. It's probably more appealing to the hardcore Percy Jackson fans like myself though. It helped to pull me out of my slump a little bit though so thumbs up to that :D

[Neha]

OUR FAVORITE HERO RETURNS!!!!!!




What? I'm not talking about Hercules. It's DA PERCY JACKSON IN DA HOUSE!

[Dean Ryan Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Done reading PERCY JACKSON'S GREEK HEROES. This is a great light-read storybook for young adults like me. It contains 12 chapters hilariously narrated by Percy Jackson himself. Help me Poseidon, I can't stop laughing! Each chapter tells a different story with high-quality colored illustrations, let's say there are three in one chapter. The stories of Psyche (Chapter 2, page 37) and Hercules (Chapter 11, page 259) are my favorite. Aphrodite as her mother-in-law, Psyche does everything she can to win back Eros - even if it means traveling to the Underworld to get a box of beauty cream. Beautiful inside and out, her story makes me realize why Psyche became the goddess of the human soul. She genuinely understands human suffering like no one else. Hercules, on the other hand, is a popular name in mythology. He is this muscular, tan and adventurous man who never quit. Yet, to my surprise, his life is a tragedy. He suffers from anger management issues. He even massacred his family before completing the 12 impossible tasks ordered by King Eurystheus.

All in all, this storybook is worth for keeps. I'm planning to re-read it but I'm not sure when. Perhaps when I have a son in ten years time lol.

[Lynisha Smoot]

[Nhi Nguyễn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what can I say? Rick Riordan did it again! He took stories about heroes in Greek mythology and retold them in his own way, adding his own signature humor to it. I was enchanted by many familiar stories that I had known before, such as Eros and Psyche; Daedalus - the great inventor - and the Minotaur; Theseus who slayed the half-man, half-bull beast; Perseus who killed Medusa and rescued princess Andromeda; Jason and his Argo crew members who managed to capture the Golden Fleece; Hercules and his twelve labors;…

I was also mesmerized by the stories of female Greek heroes whose name I have never heard of, such as Atalanta and Cyrene. I feel like by writing this book, Rick Riordan somehow put women heroes on center stage, giving them the much deserved spots among their male peers. And it turns out that the famous Amazons - the tribe of all-female warriors - didn’t come from the Amazon forest in South Africa like what has been wrongly depicted in countless Hollywood movies (I’m looking at you, Hollywood). Instead, they came from Greece, and the tribe’s name could come from the Persian term ha-mazan, which means warriors. I guess we learn new things every day!

Overall, this book is another outstanding effort from my favorite author Rick Riordan to bring mythology closer to younger generations, and to rejuvenate ancient myths that have been told thousands of times. Most of the stories in this book remind me of the quotes in one of my all time favorite books, also a Greek mythology retelling, “The Song of Achilles” by Madeline Miller:

“‘Name one hero who was happy.’
[...]
‘You can't.’ He was sitting up now, leaning forward.
‘I can't.’
‘I know. They never let you be famous and happy.’”

Yes, because we all know that we can’t have everything in this world… Greek heroes can’t have both glory and a happy ending…

[lucie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some legends say that Hera’s breast milk sprayed across the sky und created the Milky Way. I don’t know. That seems like a whole lot of solar systems from just one squirt.

It’s breaking my heart to give only two stars to this book.

I love Percy Jackson, I Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods are one of my favorite books and I am a big fan Rick Riordan because he makes me laugh everytime I read his books BUT Greek Heroes were so boring.



I put the book down like three times and rather read another book than this. Heroes weren’t so interesting as Greek Gods and I had to push myself into reading. The jokes were all the same like in Greek Gods and they weren’t funny anymore. And that’s probably the reason why it didn’t work for me this time.

On the other hand I have read a lot of coplains about Hercules’s story but in my opinion his was the best one. Definitely better than chapter about Jason. But I have to admit that I didn’t pay attention to his story much so… yep, that’s it.

[Ioana · Rating 5 out of 5]

RTC

[Mira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this took me a while but now I've done it and it was awesome. I personally loved the Greek Gods more but it's because it had more weird and intriguing stuff going on because, well, it focused on the gods. Percy's narrative was great once again, I got a good laugh of all the mentions of modern stuff thrown into the myths. Orpheus playing "Shake It Off" and the gods getting confused of the time period etc. Hilarious! I really liked Percy's mentions of his friends. Annabeth seems to be around him a lot and I'm not complaining about that!

How do I wish that text books were this entertaining.

[Abby]

EEEEEEK ANOTHER PERCY BOOK THANK GODS IT'S NARRATED BY PERCY

[Hazel · Rating 5 out of 5]

As usual, I am winded by Rick Riordan's unique writing!

[Ryan Buckby · Rating 4 out of 5]

You get angry, you punch someone in the face. Simple. Direct. Bloody. Fun!

Another Rick Riordan book that is set in this entire world and with every book i read something from this world i find myself really enjoying it more and more.

I really enjoyed learning about the different Greek Heroes and i would now like to hear from some demigods that are in the percy jackson series because that would be cool.

Percy was a great narrator for the book it made it fun and lighthearted however even tho it wasn't a fall Percy story i still enjoyed having him be the storyteller.

[Sesana · Rating 5 out of 5]

If anything, I think I may have liked Heroes better than Percy Jackson's Greek Gods. That's more do to subject matter than the writing. The heroes in this book lead very exciting lives, and Riordan gives vivid and very detailed retellings of each. I also appreciated the variety he brought. Sure, no book of mythical Greek heroes would be complete without Theseus, Perseus, Jason and Heracles, and they're all in here. But he also includes Otrera and Cyrene, women I'm fairly certain I'd never heard of before. Maybe the most valuable thing about this book is how incredibly in depth Riordan goes on every single story. Yes, that may mean starting a few generations back to give the proper context, and I greatly appreciate that. Percy's snarky voice aside, that makes Heroes and Gods both pretty valuable collections of mythology.

[Erth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining versions of the greek myths, as told from Percy Jackson's point of view. As a consequence, some of the deeper meanings behind the myths are lost, but it got my 8 year old daughter interested in greek mythology. The biggest problem is that now she won't read the actual myths because she only wants to read Percy Jackson's version. We are working on that.

Just as a warning, if you haven't read the Percy Jackson series, there are some spoilers in the book as to the outcome of certain events that happen in the series. If you intend to read the series, you definitely don't want to start here.