The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan |
Jason, Piper, and Leo, three new demigods, are the protagonists of this book, and it switches between their points of view every two chapters. The story starts when Jason wakes up on a bus full of "bad kids," with no idea who he is or where he came from. Piper and Leo, his supposed girlfriend and best friend, are upset that he doesn't remember them, but he is absolutely positive he has never seen them before in his life. He has no idea what's going on, but everything just feels wrong. And then he has to fight some storm spirits and learns he can fly. All in a day's work, right? Here we get our first character reunion: Annabeth and a guy named Butch show up to take our three new friends to Camp Half-Blood, where they discover that they are demigods. Leo, with his always-moving hands and talent with tools, is an obvious fit for the Hephaestus cabin. He would feel right at home, too, if it weren't for the cabin's curse and the metal dragon terrorizing the camp. Piper, on the other hand, doesn't think she belongs anywhere, especially since her dad went missing and she's been getting horribly realistic dreams telling her that the only way to get him back is to betray her friends. And Jason is discovered to be a new son of Zeus - no, wait, Jupiter. As some of his memories come back, he begins to piece together a past in which he belonged to a whole different demigod society, one that has been kept forcibly separate from Camp Half-Blood so long that only Chiron knows of it. Meanwhile, some camper that seems to be famous at camp, a teen named Percy Jackson, (who is also Annabeth's boyfriend, yay!!!) is missing, and the other campers are distraught. And Hera, the queen of the gods, has been imprisoned by a mysterious and powerful force. Something very, very bad is brewing in the world of the gods, who have gone silent at the worst possible time. It is up to none other than Jason, Piper, and Leo to rescue Hera and uncover the truth of what's going on.
I am ashamed to say I didn't finish this book until almost six months after it came out. This is because part way into reading it, I began my five-month long bookfast. OH, THE SHAME! Yes, people, for five months the only reading I did (aside from school-assigned reading, which doesn't count) was on the computer. That's five months of staring at a bright screen, and five months without turning pages. I eventually forced my way back into real reading, which was difficult, but felt incredibly good. I'm never leaving books again!
So I finally finished it, and boy, was I pleased! Well, mostly, but I'll explain that later. First of all, reading about the demigods of Camp Half-Blood and all the characters from the original series was like coming home, and coming back to all my best friends. It was wonderful. Annabeth, Thalia, Rachel, Chiron, some Clarisse, the Stoll brothers; they're practically all there. And there are so many new characters, both good and bad; besides the main three, we meet Butch, Clovis, Drew, Coach Hedge, and many more. As always, Rick Riordan sneakily educates us, this time on Boreas and Aeolus, Medea, Midas, and many more. Also as always, he does it with the perfect combination of action, humor, and teenage angst. This is a wonderful start to the perfect follow-up series that so many of us desperately need.
I do have some problems, though. I mean, I love the story, and I love the writing; nothing's changed there. But this series isn't told in first person, which I think doesn't allow the reader to make as personal of a connection with the narrating character(s). And I also think it doesn't allow Rick Riordan to write in as humorous a voice as he used before, which makes me sad. And then there is that whole thing about how darn much I miss Percy's narrating.
{I guess you could say that I'm about to get into some very slight SPOILERS for this book - and by "very slight" I mean I'm just going to talk about which characters I missed because they weren't in this book. If you don't want to read this part, just skip this next paragraph.}
The other problem I had, and the main problem I had, is just the fact that I missed people. Clarisse isn't mentioned enough (though she is there, thank goodness). Tyson and Grover aren't there (at least not very much at all, because I sure can't remember them being there). Nico isn't in it at all, which really disappointed me because he's such an interesting and complex character, and one of my favorites. And then, of course, there's Percy, who is the "lost hero" in the title. He is MIA during the entire book, though Rick Riordan throws us lots of bones in the form of extremely pleasing references to him (and to his relationship with Annabeth, heehee). This made me so distraught that when I finally finished the book at one in the morning, I had a small but violent Percy-deprivation seizure in my bed and had to fetch my copy of The Last Olympian and read all my favorite parts (which kept me up till three, thus ruining my brain functionality for the following day). However, I am pleased to say that - SMALL SPOILER - the sneak peek of the second book (titled The Son of Neptune, hiphiphooray) on Rick Riordan's website is, while still in third person, entirely in Percy's point of view. So that is DEFINITELY something to look forward to!
Anyway, my final assessment is that The Lost Hero is totally wicked and the perfect fix for all fans of Percy Jackson and the Olympians who cried themselves to sleep the night they finished the fifth book and thought it was All. Over.
The next book, The Son of Neptune, is set to come out October 4th. Who's camping out at Barnes & Noble with me?
And, if they do end up making the entire Percy series into movies, well... I mean I guess the movies could get better, in which case I might want them to make this series into movies as well, but for now I'm going to judge them solely on their performance with the Lightning Thief and say PLEASE GOD don't let them continue. At this point, I don't think I could bear it.
Big huge thanks to Rick Riordan for continuing his Camp Half-Blood stories, ergo saving my life. 'Cause I probably would have died if Percy really had been gone for good. Also, thank you for continuing with the age group instead of starting with new twelve-year-old characters. This way, I continue to grow up with the characters, who tend to be almost exactly my age. It's really fun for me.
Recommendation: EVERYONE, at least everyone who likes to read and/or laugh, who is interested in mythology, who wants to get back into reading, etc. Mainly teens and preteens. Also, EVERYONE WHO READ AND LOVED PERCY. And preferably not people who haven't read Percy; i.e., if you haven't, do so now.
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