I was about to copy and paste a synopsis of this book for you, but the one I found on Goodreads was FULL of spoilers. I mean, sure not HUGE spoilers, but I had lots of fun just diving into this book without having a clue what it was about. If you read the synopsis, you'll go into it already having an idea of where the characters are coming from, so you won't be surprised.
So all I'm going to tell you is that this was a good book. I really liked it. It was, as I predicted, a bit more mature than the Percy Jackson series, though it still retained most of the elements that made that series fun--great humor, interesting retellings of classic Greek myths, and characters you'll quickly fall in love with.
I especially liked that he pulls us into the exact same world as the Percy Jackson series (and even the same time, really, which was a surprise to me), but he shows us a different side to it. Percy and Annabeth are still around, but in this book they were the older mentors, with these new, younger heroes trying to figure things out from the other side of the conflict--the side where most other half-bloods in the books are.
He shows us what different kinds of heroes are capable of. I think he specifically targeted two of the cabins that really didn't get much attention in the original series--Aphrodite and Haphaestus. They were mentioned before, but not really given any depth. In this book, though, they got plenty of screen time. The characterization in general was much improved, I think.
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| This is fan-art, not mine. I just like it. Aren't they all adorable? |
I must say, though, that I'm a little tired of Rick Riordan's plot device. If you've read the books, you know exactly which one I'm talking about--the one where the main character realizes that people aren't telling him something important. They exchange a knowing look. They avoid his questions. And then, right when someone's opening their mouth to fill him in, BOOM! A monster appears! The subject is changed! The main character has to wait another 100 pages for another chance to learn the truth. I mean, really. He's used it in every single story so far. That's how Percy Jackson started every book--he'd show up at camp, Chiron would say something cryptic, Annabeth would exchange a look with Chiron, then say she'd explain to Percy later...only for things to spiral out of control, leaving Percy in the dark for no reason other than to lend mystery to the plot.
But aside from that, I like these books. A lot. They're ridiculously clever. Every book presents a new cast of characters from different Greek myths, and it's brilliant how Riordan incorporates them into the real world. I'm curious to see which ones he brings up for the rest of this new series. How many Greek myths ARE there...?
So if you haven't started either Percy Jackson or this series yet, you should sometime. It's a fun read. Not the BEST (I set it down a lot and read it slowly over the course of a few weeks, so it didn't keep me glued to my seat or anything), but it's enjoyable. This is one of those series I definitely want my kids to grow up on.
* SPOILERS FOLLOW *
The ending of this book was seriously great. I thought it was going to end all happy, and of course there would be a plot twist because there's ALWAYS a plot twist. But with the Percy Jackson books, none of those plot twists ever made me gasp and really worry until I could read the next book.
THIS plot twist DID make me gasp out loud, though. I mean, Percy was missing the whole time, and then the last line not only says where he is, but also shows the reader just how dire his predicament is. Even though Percy himself wasn't seen the whole book, we got to see exactly how it affected his counterpart, Jason. When I learned that Percy had had his memories wiped and been sent to the Roman camp, I was like, "Oh no!! THAT'S where he's been? Poor Percy! He'll be a fish out of water (ha ha, Poseidon humor), just like we saw with Jason! And he won't remember Annabeth when her frantic search finally comes to an end! Oh my sadness!!"
I'm really excited to see the Roman camp side of things, though. Jason's actually pretty cool, so I'm interested to see a ton of other people like him, with Percy being the more mild-mannered outsider. Does anyone else get the sense, though, that Riordan really just wanted to do Camp Half-Blood differently, so he decided to throw in this random Roman camp that's the same set-up, just different characters and attitudes? It's like reading about an alternate universe conflicting with the one we already know and love.
Also, why does Jason need a pegasus? We already saw Percy get a cool pegasus. Yeah, I know, Percy can talk to his, so it'll be different, and Jason's pegasus is actually a storm spirit. But really, Riordan has created SO MANY other creatures. Why would he repeat the pegasus when he has so many other animals to choose from? Is he just trying to make Jason that much like Percy? I can see why some fans don't like Jason--it does kind of make him seem like he's infringing on Percy's coolness sometimes.
Festus was awesome, though. And Leo's whole character is amazing. SO clever. I totally saw Piper's heritage coming a mile away, but I'm glad that Riordan gave the Aphrodite kids some depth.
Okay, that is all for the spoilers.
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