The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
4/5 Stars.
After finishing Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series this year, I was very sad with it coming to an end. But never fear, Rick did not disappoint me! At the end of the last Percy Jackson book, The Last Olympian, the oracle told another prophecy:
"Seven half-bloods shall answer the call.
To storm or fire, the world must fall.
An oath to keep within final breath.
And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death."
So Camp Half-Blood story will continue, though Percy Jackson, Annabeth, Grover won't be the main characters; along with others from the previous books, they will at least appear in this series at some point.
The Lost Hero begins in a desert, on a bus, with Jason waking up and not knowing who he is or why he is holding this girl's hand. After much complaining to his "girlfriend", Piper, and best friend, Leo, they finally believe he isn't faking it. Piper and Leo begin to tell him about his life at the Wilderness School, for troubled kids. Yet after telling him everything, Jason still feels like none of its real and why he has this really bad feeling. The bus comes to a stop at the Grand Canyon and they exit the bus to do the work for their field trip.
While working on their reports, the sky above them begins to change while everywhere else is still bright. Jason approaches the teacher on the trip with them, Coach Hedge. Coach Hedge literally jumps into questioning Jason, asking him if he is cause for the storm clouds above them and why he is messing up his job. Jason retorts with his own questions, asking if Hedge knows him or not. Hedge begins asking him if he is the third package he is supposed to look after or not and begins sprouting weird things like "half-blood", "camp", "monsters". Then the bridge is suddenly attacked by storm spirits and all chaos breaks loose. Leo is thrown off the Grand Canyon, Hedge jumps after Leo, Piper is knocked against a wall, and Jason is left fighting monsters he didn't know he could fight.
Help eventually arrives in the form of a chariot with Annabeth at the reins. She lands and begins questioning the trio, asking them where their protector is. They tell em what happened and the other camper with Annabeth points out that Jason is only wearing one shoe and is the guy they are looking for. They take off in the chariot and begin their race back to camp with the storm spirits fighting them the whole way back.
After "arriving" at camp they are immediately surrounded by other campers; getting looked at and poked at while one camper says "These are the ones? Way older than thirteen. Why haven't they been claimed already?" The three begin asking what "claiming" is and shortly afterward get their answer when Leo begins to shine bright red with a symbol above his head. Leo is taken away with his rightful cabin, while Piper goes on a tour with Annabeth and Jason is lead away with the counselor of Aphrodite, Drew, to see Chiron.
Shortly after a few events at camp, does Jason, Leo and Piper begin their quest.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Lost Hero was everything I expected from Rick Riordan. I found myself immediately drawn into the world of demi-gods again and begging for the next book in the series already. Rick's book have to be the one series I don't demand romance out of; usually every book I read is centered around the romance of characters and then the conflict being the second part of the book.
The book is told by a different hero every 2 chapters, starting with Jason, then Piper and lastly Leo. Unlike in the Percy Jackson series where Percy was my favorite character, I equally enjoy all three of the new demi-gods. I loved the humor of Leo, the witty Piper, and strong Jason. Though I think these character this time around are far different from Grover, Percy and Annabeth. Jason, Piper, and Leo are very much sad characters, from the way they retell their past history with their families. I think Rick tried to give these characters much more complicated backgrounds, def. nothing compared to Percy's step-dad being a complete drunken fool.
There was just one thing, or rather one person I hated throughout the book. "She" is what I'll call her to not reveal to much about their quest and everything. I didn't really enjoy the way she pulled the heroes together or how differently she got them into this mess. With Jason it was blackmail, with Leo it was messing up his childhood, and with Piper is more along the lines of threatening her. I don't really like the Gods in the books, when they choose or choose not to help their children...yes yes don't mess with their fates and all that hooey stuff but still! I guess I want the Gods to be better parents, which I guess is asking for a lot!
I think Rick's book are enjoyable for people of all ages and genders.I don't find it leaning toward one specific gender or age group, well that is just my own opinion even if its considered YA. His books also make me wish they did the first Percy Jackson movie completely like the book instead of end it to where they can't make the next one in the series. Well I guess they could but then they definitely left out the big bad evil in the first movie and completely changed everything that happened in the book. Don't get me wrong I really enjoyed the movie but the books are always 99% better than the movies, unless in some times you see the movie first and read the book second and can't stop picturing the movie characters as the people in the book when they don't match up.
The Lost Hero is definitely a must read and a must have for me, can't wait to add it to my collection and get my hands on the next book in the series. While speaking of Rick Riordan's books, has anyone read "The Red Pyramid"?
