The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

Title: The Lost Hero

Author: Rick Riordan

Series: Heroes of Olympus #1

Publisher: Disney Hyperion

Date of Publication: Oct. 12, 2010

Pages: 557 (Hardcover)

To Buy: Amazon.com

A BRIEF SUMMARY, TO TICKLE YOUR INTEREST:

After saving Olympus from the titan lord, Kronos, Percy Jackson and his friends must rebuild Camp Half-Blood. But the danger is far from over. Rachel, the camp's new Oracle, delivers a bone-chilling prophecy for the next generation of demigods:

Seven Half-bloods shall answer the call
To storm or fire the world must fall.
An oath to keep with a final breath,
And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death.

Now, in the camp's darkest hour of need, Percy has gone missing, and three new demigods believed to be part of the chosen seven have emerged. Jason, Piper, and Leo, all students at the Wilderness school are attacked by a freak storm and brought to Camp Half-Blood. Now Jason, who doesn’t remember anything about his life, Piper, who’s nightmares reveal that her father’s been missing and is great danger, and Leo, who carries with him a dangerous secret, must try to find Hera, queen of the Gods in order to stop the new enemy that has emerged.

AND NOW, FOR THE REVIEW:

Fans of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series will adore the The Lost Hero. Riordan has managed to continue his beloved series while completely putting a new spin on things. Though the adventure follows the traditional "Percy-Quest" pattern where the kids have only a few days to find something for the Gods and stop the world from imploding on itself (figuratively speaking, of course), it is significantly more complicated. Not only are there Greek gods and monsters, but now the demigods of Camp Half-Blood have the Roman equivalents of their parents to deal with in addition to other not-so-well know figures of myth such as Medea and the Roman wolves. I was wondering if Riordan was going to include them at some point, so I was thrilled to see that I could put the knowledge I gained in my Greek and Roman mythology class to good use. Though anybody will be able to pick up this book and understand the myths and legends referenced in the text, it helps to know a little bit about the original stories in order to really appreciate the significance of the details in the writing. Once again, Riordan has done an excellent job of keeping his facts straight, at least to the extent of my knowledge.

It was sort of surprising to see that this time around, Riordan decided to tell his story between three characters, and in the third person perspective instead of first. The chapters rotate in sets of two for each character and continuously move the plot forward. I loved it. Normally I get frustrated because when authors skip between characters, they have to go back in time, or reexplain what's going on in that particular character's life. But not Riordan! He doesn't bog down his chapters with going back in time. He revisits details, but only enough so the reader can understand how a particular character feels about a particular event. Speaking of characters, I also loved how balanced the three of them were! Pardon my language, but Jason kicks ass, Piper kicks ass, AND Leo kicks ass. The three of them together were a great team and its easy to tell that without one, the other two would not have succeeded in surviving their fist test. Personally, I found Piper and Leo’s stories much more interesting than Jason’s, even though he was supposed to be the “main” character and the real "lost" hero of the story. I think I felt this way because Jason’s memories were missing for most of the book and he is focused on trying to figure out who he is, so we don’t really get a sense of his whole personality. By the end of the book this changes, so I’m sure he’ll be more interesting in book two, which, excuse me for fangirling it, but OMG I cannot wait for. That's the downside of reading epic books from epic series. They take FOREVER to come out. Le sigh, next October can't come fast enough!

THE WIGGLY RATING:

8/8 Tentacles