A REVIEW
Ah, the Percy Jackson series. One of the most iconic book collections of this decade has inspired many readers to take interest in and study Greek and Roman Mythology. Back in the summer of 2005 Rick Riordan published the Lightning Thief and continued to release the Sea of Monsters, Titan’s curse, Battle of the Labyrinth, and Battle of Olympus all having massive success. Then, we thought that was it, the end of a cherished book series that we all have grown to care for. Then, in 2010 Riordan released the Heroes of Olympus books and a whole new series began with new characters such as Jason grace, Piper McClean, Leo Valdez, Frank Zhang and Hazel Levesque and a whole new story that entertained thousands of readers across the world. So, when the final book Blood of Olympus came out on October seventh, 2014 we were all expecting a fantastic ending to a book franchise that will be remembered forever in our hearts and minds. HOWEVER, instead of an entertaining, well-written, attention grabbing, just one more page mentality, we got a book that will leave a stain on this amazing series. First of all, the book up until the final battles in Greece and on Half-Blood hill the book is incredibly slow. I found myself struggling to turn the pages knowing that the next page would be just as underwhelming as the last. Another issue with the book is the lack of development for Jason Grace. Jason is just a typical blond-haired, unintelligent, basher guy and he never changes throughout the four books he takes part in. Also is it really necessary to give Jason glasses? He has never complained about his eye-sight before and then all of a sudden he is apparently near-sighted. It would be okay if Jason had issues with his eyes before this book but, he hasn’t. Thirdly, there is no point of view chapter for Percy or Annabeth. Yes, the Heroes of Olympus series is supposed to be about all of the demigods, not just Percy and Annabeth. But, this is the last book, ever, for this story line so don’t you think it would be a good idea to AT LEAST include either Percy or Annabeth?
Personally I would put Percy in for Jason because reading about Jason’s character is boring and Percy has that quirky sense of humor that makes most people laugh and smile. The villains in this book are terrible. The Giants are the children of the Earth goddess Gaea and, despite being related to Gaea, they cannot seem to fight effectively. The Giants are towering over these demigods who are teenagers, aging between sixteen and eighteen years old. So how does it seem possible that the Giants cannot ever hit the demigods, especially when the Gods come to help out the demigods in Greece. Also, the mighty Earth Goddess Gaea is killed in literally two minutes by an explosion caused by Leo Valdez and his dragon Festus. It took the Giants nearly five books to raise their mother and she is taken down in five sentences. My final major grudge with this book and with the series in general is the overpowered ability of Piper’s charmspeak. Every single time they get surrounded by the enemy or need help convincing someone to help their cause Piper just starts talking and BAM game over. Demigods win yet again.
Now, there are some things that the book does well. Rick Riordan’s clever humor is present throughout the book and I do like how Riordan developed both Nico and Renya as they traveled across Europe and the Atlantic to try and prevent the war between the Greeks and Romans. However, it seems kind of sad that Renya’s character got more development in half of a book than Jason’s character got in four books.
Overall the book is a major disappointment and it saddens me greatly that this is how the amazing series has to close. Hopefully Riordan does not butcher his new Norse mythology franchise the same way he did to his Greek and Roman mythology series.