Rick Riordan is the author of three New York Times #1 bestselling series published in more than forty countries: Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Kane Chronicles, and The Heroes of Olympus, as well as three bestselling crossover stories featuring the Kane siblings, Percy Jackson, and Annabeth Chase. He is also the author of the bestselling myth collections, Percy Jackson's Greek Gods and Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes, both illustrated by John Rocco. Rick's novels for adults include the hugely popular Tres Navarre series, winner of the top three awards in the mystery genre. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts, with his wife and two sons. For more information, go to www.rickriordan.com. You can find more of my reviews of Rick's works here.
Jason has a problem. He doesn't remember anything before waking up in a bus full of kids on a field trip. Apparently, he has a girlfriend named Piper, and his best friend is a guy named Leo. They're all students at the Wilderness School, a boarding school for "bad kids," as Leo puts it. What did Jason do to end up here? And where is here, exactly? Jason doesn't know anything—except that everything seems very wrong. Piper has a secret. Her father, a famous actor, has been missing for three days, ever since she had that terrifying nightmare about his being in trouble. Piper doesn't understand her dream, or why her boyfriend suddenly doesn't recognize her. When a freak storm hits during the school trip, unleashing strange creatures and whisking her, Jason, and Leo away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood, she has a feeling she's going to find out, whether she wants to or not. Leo has a way with tools. When he sees his cabin at Camp Half-Blood, filled with power tools and machine parts, he feels right at home. But there's weird stuff, too—like the curse everyone keeps talking about, and some camper who's gone missing. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist that each of them—including Leo—is related to a god. Does this have anything to do with Jason's amnesia, or the fact that Leo keeps seeing ghosts? Join new and old friends from Camp Half-Blood in this thrilling first book in the Heroes of Olympus series.
A whole new series calls for a whole new set of characters. Thankfully, Riordan delivered, with three new main characters that have fans falling in love with Camp Half-Blood and demigods all over again. This is due to the immense readability of the book itself. The dialogue is funny, and the prose itself reads fast, reflecting the action-packed novel The Lost Hero is. The inner monologue of each character is compelling, and one can't help but get curious about Jason's amnesia, Piper's dream, and Leo's past—so much so that old fans finish the book to find out what happens to Jason, Piper, and Leo, and not just for uncovering the truth of Percy's disappearance. In fact, the reason The Lost Hero is so compelling in the first place can be due to the readability of the novel, but it is truly the characters that engage out attention, and their inner struggles that convince us to read that extra chapter before going to bed. Below, I talk about each of the three new main characters and the role they play in The Lost Hero outside of the normal conventions of action and plot-points.
Jason is our first new hero, and pretty early on he is categorized as the "leader"—despite not even knowing who he is. Jason's amnesia is such an interesting choice, and one that only makes more sense once The Lost Heroes closes. However, having Jason make Piper and Leo think they had relationships with him is beyond devastating, for all three. On the one hand, Piper and Leo have very vivid memories with Jason that absolutely could not have happened. On the other, Jason has to look at them and let them down, knowing that he doesn't even know who these people are. Yet, once tossed together on a quest, they are all forced to confront what friendship is and what it can look like—and Jason most of all has these questions swirling around in his head for the entirety of the novel. Jason's amnesia can make the "re-gaining" of Piper's and Leo's friendship more rewarding, or it can make his disapproval of them more heartbreaking in the end. It all depends on what he'll think once he has his memories back. Not only is Jason dealing with his amnesia as related to his friends, but is trying to uncover his own identity. Even scarier than not recognizing those around you is not recognizing himself, and I think we all often forget how terrified Jason must be throughout the entirety of The Lost Hero. Riordan also makes assertions about character and identity with this choice of amnesia—that one can always find their way back to themselves, that one's character is natural or hard-to-shake even without their memories to back it up, that our relationships define us just as much as our individual choices. Riordan explores all of this and even more with Jason's character, which is such a rich addition to this cast of seven.
Secondly, Piper, daughter of Aphrodite, has her own issues on hand. With her father kidnapped and her only choice being to betray her friends to get him back, she has a lot on her mind as far as where her loyalties lie. Yet, the most compelling question I think Piper explores is her beauty and strength. As a child of Aphrodite, she is dismissed as being shallow and conceited, despite Piper being anything but. She does not see herself as traditionally beautiful, and, when glammed-up, wants desperately to avoid all the attention surrounding her appearance. Piper's character explores that fundamental question all young female-identifying people ask: what is beauty, and how does it manifest? Is it through physical looks? What standards does beauty follow, if any? Piper's journey to save her dad is actually a way for her to uncover her own answers to these questions. It is only when she determines where her strengths lie, and what beauty means to her, does she become even more invaluable to the team than she already was. Piper's character gives a voice to so many people—no, it is not a perfect voice, but it is the beginnings of more representation in media about young women of color and young women who are not traditionally beautiful, to name two. Piper embodies a school of thought that rejects the romanticized and societal standards of beauty. Young girls are told they are beautiful, yet it is Piper that shows them the different ways one can be beautiful, and gives them a voice and understanding to their own strengths and beauties.
And last but certainly not least, Leo Valdez, the son of Hephaestus. Leo's character, in so many ways, circles back to some of the original reasons Riordan started penning Percy Jackson's story so many years before. Leo was diagnosed with ADHD, and has had such a complicated past that he has to put his coping mechanisms to use pretty much every second of the day. He uses humor as a way to deflect and cope, and is beyond worried about being a third-wheel to Jason and Piper because he believes that will make him worthless to their team. One of his biggest fears is not being valued for who he is, and he lives that fear every second of his quest with Jason and Piper and they don't seem to realize it. Leo is the character that most readers can identify with for that reason—most all of the book-reading types have felt, at one point in their life, invisible or worthless or undervalued. Leo's ability to persist despite that fear makes him a role model for resilience. Leo is so powerful, and not just in the physical sense (fire powers!). It is because Leo refuses to be forgotten about. While Piper and Jason might have more visibility because of the budding romance and increasing tension, Leo is just as indispensable as them, and he needs to be appreciated more by the fandom for that. The story would not be possible without Leo, and Leo's intensely complicated character makes him one of the most complex Riordan has ever written.
Some fans deliberated on Riordan's use of third person in the Heroes of Olympus series. After having written five books from Percy Jackson's first person point-of-view, this switch to third person seemed like a big change for Riordan. Personally, I believe this switch as well-done, both in practice and in theory, even if it wasn't as well-received by the entire fan base. My reasoning behind this is that, first of all, doing first person narratives for three characters simultaneously is an extremely huge undertaking. While Riordan most likely could have put himself up to the task and succeeded, it is clear that while trying to get readers to relate to the characters, he is also setting up a huge plot for the future novels in the series. In order to be able to focus fully on making the story original and fresh and not "Percy Jackson and the Olympians," Riordan needed to have the distance that third person provides. Secondly, going for first person narratives would have seemed like he was trying too hard—a story of seven demigods is not Percy's story, and thus should not be narrated the same way. Indeed, part of the reason he started with Jason, Leo, and Piper was to make a statement that this was not a continuation of just Percy's story, but a brand new story with so many more moving parts—and narrating in first person would have eliminated the credibility of that statement. Jason's, Piper's, and Leo's stories all work well in third person. We as readers can still get invested in each characters' story. It also provides the distance necessary for it to be considered separate from the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, while also staying close enough for fans to connect the two. Because this series is its own "brand new" thing, some experiment is required to see what works best to tell the stories of seven demigods. I am sure we are going to be seeing much more experiment in storytelling as the narrative unfolds.
Riordan leaves a huge clue at the end of The Lost Hero as to the nature of Percy's disappearance, which took the fanbase by storm when it first released. To find out more, stay tuned for my review of The Son of Neptune, the next book in the series!
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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