I have not seen this newfangled movie thing, but on a whim I downloaded the first Percy Jackson book because I was feelin' like re-reading Harry Potter without actually re-reading Harry Potter. And jeez louise
okay so yeah kid who is magic check
smart friend-who-is-a-girl check
goofy friend-who-is-a-boy check
mean rival at magical place of learning check
place of learning has house for smart people, for mean people, for everyday people check
cannot say names of powerful beings check
invisibility device check
obvious villain who is not the villain check
previous evil thought to be vanquished trying to come back check
required to stay with terrible not-real-parent every summer to stay safe check
i think that's all i can remember
It's easy to call shameless shenanigans on this shit, even with some of it just being general archetypes, except .. supposedly the manuscript was actually done in 1994, and was ready to be published in 1997. It just didn't actually get out until 2005, making it look like the most horrible rip-off that ever ripped-off ever.
Anyway I just thought it was kind of funny, and it was an effortlessly breezy read and I am pretty amiable towards almost anything involving Greek mythology so I picked up the second one as well. Barring some random flying off the rails I see myself just plowing through this entire series over the next several work shifts.