I first saw these books one night at a big-box store, and everything about them screamed “HARRY POTTER KNOCKOFF!” Then I started seeing the trailer for the new film coming out and I got even stronger Potter vibes: “Percy, yer a demigod!” (not actual dialogue…)
Are these books as much of a knockoff as they seem to be from my admittedly ignorant perspective (I haven’t read any of them, but then I never read the last three Potter books, either)? Or are they actually pretty original and fresh and the packaging is just trying to grasp the market that Harry Potter primed for them?
No, they are not. They are a series aimed at the upper elementary crowd, true, but they involve the Greeks myths come to life (and loosely interpreted). Percy is nothing like Harry Potter. Really.
Source? My 11 year old son, who is ok with HP, but loves, loves, loves Perseus Jackson. The movie looks pretty good and we’re looking forward to it.
The books are original and fresh most certainly.
Not sure about the movie- I’m sure PotterMania sold some executives into funding the project, but the books are not the same as HP.
There are some similarities but they’re well written and each one manages to tie in some classical Greek myths to the main theme. It’s very neat to hear about the telchines, kempe and the hundred handed ones. The movie however looks terrible, but I’m still taking my 8 year old to it.
Yeah, I read them as an adult (PJ) and was fairly impressed.
It works in a lot of Greek Mythology.
I also thought that the idea thatThe Greek Gods follow the seat of Western Civilization, and therefore now reside in NYC and have modern Western personas (Ares is a tough biker guy, Hades is a bit goth, etc.) was a neat little touch.
The movie is directed by Chris Columbus who did the first two Potter movies I think. So yeah, the movies will be a bit alike stylistically. The books OTOH were nothing alike, other that in the same basic theme of many kids’ books: child thinks there is something wrong with him and discovers that he actually doesn’t fit in because he is exceptional in some way and becomes a hero. Like Potter and like a huge number of other books before Potter. The Percy Jackson books though are clever, fun, and never try to become serious soap operas, excuse me, “literature”.
From the trailer it seems the movie totally misses the feel and tone of the books. Ah well.
The two series are virtually identical. Every character of significance in Harry Potter has an obvious equivalent in the Percy Jackson series. Places and events are not only similar but occur at similar points in each series. A person could be taught the names of the Percy Jackson characters and with a few exceptions plot out the entire saga armed only with knowledge of what happens in Harry Potter.
I had a really good time with the Percy Jackson series, but the degree to which it’s a blatant Harry Potter knockoff was downright funny at times. The writing is more American and in most ways not as good as J.K. Rowling’s, but the series is a fun, brisk read, provided you don’t mind re-reading Harry Potter.
I could have written this sentence, including the age and gender. My 14 year old daughter and most of her friends have also read these. She is a bit older than upper elementary, but I’ve not read any of the books myself, so no idea how accurate that bit is. My son started reading these in elementary school, but of course he also read all of the Harry Potter books (several times) whilst in elementary school.
In my opinion, even if the movie/books are completely different in every way, the blatant marketing ripoff of Harry Potter is bad enough. It’s so transparent and probably misleading, it just upsets me.
And for another example of what I mean, this is how they originally marketed the 1987 Vampire film Near Dark and this is how they are doing it now, post Twilight. It’s just sad and pathetic, and irritatingly misleading. I can’t see how they really think they’re fooling anyone.
Harry Potter has only the vaguest connection to Greek mythology - they’re really nothing alike, in that respect. (Never read the Percy books, can’t say how alike they are otherwise.)
(HP has been accused of ripping off Neil Gaiman’s Books of Magic - Harry and Tim even look a lot alike (which is real funny since Tim is based on Neil’s son, Mike). The Worst Witch books also tread much of the same ground. Calling Percy Jackson a HP ripoff looks to have as much validity as calling HP a ripoff of BoM (which Neil himself thinks is hilarious), or WW (which was probably avoided only by the relative obscurity of the WW books).)
My eldest son, age 13, has read both, and thinks they’re pretty different. The marketing of the new PJ movie certainly is trying to catch the eyes of HP fans, though.
Could I ask which PJ characters are specifically HP clones? Sure, both use the YA fantasy stock characters of “kid hero”, “kid hero’s sidekicks”, “mentor”, “big bad villain” and so forth, but those aren’t unique to Harry Potter. Just about every young adult fantasy uses this template. For that matter, a lot of adult fantasy uses the setup (aside from the relative ages).
I can see how Luke is sort of a Snape character, but that’s just about it as far as non-standard roles go.
My 10 and 12 year old boys are so obsessed with those books! It’s hard to find books for that age group that are exciting, entertaining, and even a little bit educational. It’s gotten them really interested in Greek myths, to compare the books to how the real myths go (they are pretty spot on). Then they got into Norse and Egyptian myths, and then the history of those areas. The knowledge they got from those fun books has lead them into a whole range of fascinations and knowledge.
I don’t think the Percy Jackson books would have been written had Harry Potter not been a smash. I have not read HP, but I am into the second PJ (reading it to my son).
Though I have not read HP, and have only seen the first film, I have not lived under a rock for the last decade and I am familiar enough with the HP universe to see some strong similarities. (Note, the following info is mildly spoilerific based on the volumes I cite above)
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A kid comes from a challenging home environment
Goes to a school/camp for specials
Enjoys a reputation as something of a chosen one
Has a heated in-school rival
The students are divided into groups
There are uniquely powered contests
Unseen uber-villain who plagues the protagonist across the series
Some of these are generic themes or plotlines across much of fiction. But I think what stands out is the uber-villain and the camp/school for specials.
Either way, I have no problem as it is well written and has enough uniqueness (twist on the Greek Gods) to make it worthwhile.
I think it will be funny if, when I read HP next to my son, he thinks it rips off PJ!
I think the main similarity is that you have a kid who thinks of himself as normal up until about age 12. They both come from difficult backgrounds. They both had some strange things happen (magic, monsters) that they couldn’t explain, but assumed they were just normal kids. Then they suddenly discover that they are special and spend most of the rest of their lives in an amazing world full of magic.
For any kid who has ever fell like they don’t belong, these stories are the ultimate fantasies.
The similarities are so abstracted they could be said of a lot of commercial childrens’ series. They are quite different in tone and style. For one thing, Riordian is almost all breathless action.
This, essentially, is part and parcel of the hero’s journey. Harry Potter isn’t unique in this respect. Exposure to Rowling without exposure to Campbell is a incomplete education.