so, this percy jackson series, which i'm quite enjoying:

premise: the greek gods are still very much alive, and continue to have children with mortals. their demigod offsprings, or halfbloods, as they are called in the book, are raised by their mortal parents, and do not know their true parentage. few reach their twelfth birthday (monsters scent them out, mysterious accidents befall them, etc) unless they're found by the centaurs and satyrs (who take on jobs as teachers in boarding schools and are constantly looking out for likely children) and escorted to a special camp, where they are trained in the ways of the gods, and in archery, swordfighting, and other survival skills. (chiron, naturally, is the activities director.) the half-bloods are all adhd (the mortal world is obviously too tame) and dyslexic (because their brains are hardwired to read ancient greek.) and generally become powerful figures in the mortal world (world war two was started by half-bloods.) there are 12 cabins at camp half-blood, one for each olympian; campers join the cabin dedicated to their olympian parent. those who have not yet been claimed go to cabin 11, hermes's cabin, because hermes is the god of travellers and hospitality. (artemis has a cabin too, but it is only honorary.)

a war between the olympians and the titans is stirring, and twelve-year-old percy (perseus!) jackson, son of poseidon, the newest arrival at the camp, will be instrumental in the coming war (prophecies, chosen one, etc etc.) a series of trials, and a good bit of swordfighting (he is not very good at the swashbuckling, i'm afraid) and encounters with deadly enemies (including the old monsters in new guises -- medusa setting up as "aunty em", selling stone statues to art galleries, and manticores taking on human form as vice-principals of schools.) through all this he is aided by best friend (possibly to-be girlfriend) annabeth chase, a daughter of athena (the hermione granger figure in the series: "always have a plan." owns invisibility yankees cap. her father is a harvard-educated history professor - it is implied athena helped him with his dissertation.) and grover underwood (a satyr whose ambition is to find the great pan. hates environmentally-unfriendly acts, loves eating enchiladas. sort of a ron-hagrid loyal sidekick.)

i always enjoy it when the gods themselves show up in various modern guises (ares as a truculent biker, apollo appearing as a homeless guy in the subway, arranging a special westward train, athena as a grey-eyed informative docent in the smithsonian, hephaestus setting up traps for ares and aphrodite, (caught with a net again, but this time the internet: live videofeed to olympus!) hermes as a bit of spiv character, talking smoothly on his caduceus-as-cellphone, etc.)

oh! and the ancient playing fields of the gods may have been in the mediterranean, but the centre of power has been shifting west over the centuries, and so today the entrance to the underworld is in los angeles, and olympus is somewhere above new york: empire state building, 600th floor. thus all the action conveniently takes place in continental america. (joke: laistrygonians? what do you call them in english? answer: canadians.)

enough! no one would pretend this is sophisticated (no one would call hp that either) but at least hours of post-hp casual fun awaits! (and 3 of 5 already published!)