Though the Greek and Roman crewmembers of the Argo II have made progress in their many quests, they still seem no closer to defeating the earth mother, Gaea. Her giants have risen—all of them, and they're stronger than ever. They must be stopped before the Feast of Spes, when Gaea plans to have two demigods sacrificed in Athens. She needs their blood—the blood of Olympus—in order to wake. The demigods are having more frequent visions of a terrible battle at Camp Half-Blood. The Roman legion from Camp Jupiter, led by Octavian, is almost within striking distance. Though it is tempting to take the Athena Parthenos to Athens to use as a secret weapon, the friends know that the huge statue belongs back on Long Island, where it might be able to stop a war between the two camps. The Athena Parthenos will go west; the Argo II will go east. The gods, still suffering from multiple personality disorder, are useless. How can a handful of young demigods hope to persevere against Gaea's army of powerful giants? As dangerous as it is to head to Athens, they have no other option. They have sacrificed too much already. And if Gaea wakes, it is game over.
Author -
Rick Riordan (www.rickriordan.com) is the author of the # 1 New York Times best-selling The Heroes of Olympus, Book One: The Lost Hero; The Heroes of Olympus, Book Two: The Son of Neptune; The Heroes of Olympus, Book Three: The Mark of Athena; The Heroes of Olympus, Book Four: The House of Hades; the #1 New York Times best-selling Kane Chronicles; and the five books in the #1 New York Times best-selling Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. His previous novels for adults include the hugely popular Tres Navarre series, winner of the top three awards in the mystery genre. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts with his wife and two sons.
John Rocco (www.roccoart.com) studied illustration at Rhode Island School of Design and The School of Visual Arts. In addition to writing and illustrating his own picture books, including the New York Times best-selling and Caldecott Honor-winning Blackout and its companion, Blizzard, he has created all of the cover art for Rick Riordan's best-selling Percy Jackson, Kane Chronicles, and Heroes of Olympus series. He also illustrated Percy Jackson's Greek Gods. Before becoming a full-time children's book creator, he worked as an art director on "Shrek" for Dreamworks, and for Disney Imagineering. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and daughter.
SAMPLE CUSTOMER REVIEWS -
1) Good book but I missed Percy! - This was a good book but did not rise to the level of Riordan's other work. As others have pointed out, the climactic battle scene was not nearly as well developed as the final battle in "Last Olympian" with which it inevitably must be compared. Also, after the endlessly repeated references to Percy's "fatal flaw," where was it? For that matter, why were Percy and Annabeth relegated to virtually minor character status in this book? They're the two characters who sucked us all into this series in the first place; they deserved a greater role in the ending of it. While Nico and Reyna are interesting characters and had their own parts to play, I think Riordan found them much more interesting than they warrant; they dominated much of the book in ways that were not always essential to the plot. Percy and Annabeth had very small parts and pretty much a brush-off in the conclusion. Not a nice way to treat your heroes!
I feel bad criticizing since I am a devoted fan of the series, but this was not the big finish I had hoped it would be. I got the distinct impression that in some ways, Riordan had already emotionally moved on to the Norse series -- not unexpectedly, since the first book in that series in due out in one year. His fans know that Norse mythology was always his first love, and like all his other fans I am looking forward to that series also. And yes, he neatly dropped the setup for the lead character in BoO -- looks like it will be a cousin of Annabeth. So maybe we can hope for the occasional future reference to Percy and Annabeth there.
Even given my disappointment with this final volume, it's still far better than 99.9% of the books out there. **Spoiler alert: I am grateful that Riordan didn't succumb to the cheap trick of killing off any of his heroes. Too many authors use that as a bogus way of generating sentiment. Thank goodness he respects his characters and his audience!** What Riordan has done in shoring up Greek and Roman mythology as some of the seminal pillars of Western thought and literature -- which they are -- is reason enough to be grateful for the series. The fact that the books are so entertaining, well-written, and have such engaging characters earns them a place in the highest rankings of modern literature, YA or otherwise.
Thanks for the memories, Uncle Rick, and Godspeed to Asgard!
By St. Jack's Fan
2) Good, but could have been better. - I've really enjoyed this series, and I enjoyed reading this final book. And yet, I still was a little disappointed by the Blood of Olympus.
In some ways it's classic Riordan. Heroes, gods, limited time quest, the world in danger. Check. Heroes of Olympus follows both the 7 demigods quest to stop the giants and Reyna's quest to return the Athena statue to Camp Half-Blood. There's plenty of adventure, humor, and a few dashes of romance along the way. It's a fun read in many ways.
So, why was I disappointed? I missed Percy, for one thing. Point of view characters in this book are Jason, Piper, Reyna, Nico, and Leo. I understand to some degree why Riordan made the narrative choices that he did, but in this final book it would have been nice to hear from Percy and Annabeth one more time.
I also felt that the book shied away from showing the real cost of war. In the Last Olympian there were some losses and deaths that we felt greatly because we had come to care about the characters. We don't see that as much in Blood of Olympus. Yeah, some characters die--mostly people we don't like. And the loss of one of the seven at the end is so heavily telegraphed that we know several chapters ahead who is going to die, why they are going to die, and what the likely escape clause will be. Sacrifice loses its power when you know there's a way out. Those moments in the Last Olympian where we linger and feel the pain, the moments when characters have to make real, hard choices--that's missing.
Another thing I felt Riordan let drop in this book was the issue of Percy's fatal flaw. It's been mentioned consistently throughout the series, but it never came down to that pivotal moment in this book where Percy had to choose the greater good over a friend. I think that's something we may have lost out on by not having a chapter in Percy's viewpoint.
So it's a fun book. We get an entertaining adventure and the expected (very couple-y) happy ending. There's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it mention of Riordan's next series. (Look at the title of his next book if you did miss it). If you've read this far with Percy, absolutely finish it up. It's a good book. But it's not the book it could have been.
By Leigh
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