Rick Riordan, dubbed "storyteller of the gods" but Publishers Weekly, is the author of five #1 New York Times bestselling series, including Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, based on Norse myths. He is best known for his Percy Jackson and the Olympians books, which bring Greek mythology to life for contemporary readers. He expanded on that series with two more: the Heroes of Olympus and the Trials of Apollo, which cleverly combine Greek and Roman gods and heroes with his beloved modern characters. Rick tackled the ancient Egyptian gods in the magic-filled Kane Chronicles trilogy. Millions of fans across the globe have enjoyed his fast-paced and funny quest adventures as well as his two #1 bestselling myth collections, Percy Jackson's Greek Gods and Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes. Rick is also the publisher of an imprint at Disney Hyperion, Rick Riordan Presents, dedicated to finding other authors of highly entertaining fiction based on world cultures and mythologies. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts, with his wife and two sons. For more information, go to www.rickriordan.com, or follow him on Twitter @RickRiordan. You can find more of my reviews of Rick's works here.
The demigod crew of the Argo II is standing at a crossroads. they could return home with the Athena Parthenos statue and try to stop Camp Half-blood and Camp Jupiter from going to war. Or they could continue on their quest to find the House of Hades, where they might be able to open the Doors of Death, rescue their friends Percy and Annabeth from Tartarus (if they have survived), and prevent monsters from being reincarnated in the mortal world. Whichever road they decide to take, they have to hurry, because time is running out. Gaea, the bloodthirsty Earth mother, has set the date of August 1 for her rise to power. Join the demigods of the prophecy as they face their biggest challenges yet in The House of Hades, the hair-raising penultimate book in the bestselling Heroes of Olympus series.
Even before Percy's and Annabeth's descent into Tartarus, their relationship dynamics have always interested me. From the second Annabeth starts narrating, I noticed the different ways the two of them show love for the other. Annabeth is much more vocal and willing to tell Percy that she loves him—we see this explicitly in The Mark of Athena, and at the beginning of The House of Hades, where she says these exact words both times. On the other hand, Percy hasn't told Annabeth he loves her in those words, but every action and every thought he has since they reunited and all the way through their journey in Tartarus reflects that love he has for her. His last thoughts when he thinks he's dying are of protecting Annabeth, and the only way he can get through is by keeping his mind focused on her and her safety. His physical and mental state of being don't matter if he doesn't do everything in his power to protect and preserve hers. I am so interested in this, because I feel like this dynamic speaks a lot to the types of characters they've become, and the types of responses we expect from them as characters, and to the different ways we can show love to one another.
This book very much reads like it's part one of a grand finale. Split into all seven of the main characters' points of view, The House of Hades takes place in many different arenas at once: in Tartarus, on the Argo II, in Long Island, and even in dreams or visions. Despite the splitting of the narrative, Riordan does a good job maintaining narrative tension, keeping us focused on all different character motivations and intentions while also keeping each section action-packed. This is the kind of book where I don't want to fall asleep until I've finished the chapter, it's that engaging. He deliberately needs to split the narrative up this way—as in, focusing on each demigod more than he has before—yet Riordan never loses the narrative string, or makes one section of the story more compelling than the others. This is a combination of the fantastic character work he's already done in The Lost Hero and The Son of Neptune keeping us engaged with all the characters, as well as his strength in keeping the tension high and the action packed within the pages.
While Percy and Annabeth are always my favorite characters to track, I found that I was drawn towards two others during my reading of The House of Hades that I hadn't been drawn to quite as much since The Son of Neptune—Frank and Hazel. Their arcs in The House of Hades are incredibly compelling. Hazel has an impossible task set ahead of her that she has to complete or else the crew will die, and she has to do it with magic by manipulating the Mist. Riordan has a chance to be literary with this setup (which is built within the first few chapters of the novel), giving Hazel more room to really analyze her understanding of power and her destiny. The gorgeous lines that came out of Hazel becoming more confident and understanding in her abilities made her arc that much more interesting to follow. And since he sets the stakes up for Hazel on the first page, we are reading all the way to the end to see if he delivers (spoiler alert: he does). Frank physically comes into himself as much as he's mentally coming into himself in The House of Hades. Physicality is a big thing as a demigod—and even as just a mortal teenager, as we can all attest to—and it's something Frank focuses on more than the others. He has never been comfortable in his body, a feeling which is partly attributed to the family talent of always being able to be whatever he wants. But now after completing his own "impossible task," he has a better understanding of who he is and what he's capable of, and that manifests itself physically, as well as with his own new self-confidence in that physicality. While he's still coming to terms with it, I think that makes a powerful statement about how state of mind and level of understanding go hand-in-hand with self-confidence.
The last thing I want to touch on is the Prophecy of Seven, that I feel like we as readers are finally beginning to understand. Annabeth interprets lines while in Tartarus, and the rest of the Argo II crew takes actions that leads them to Greece to see out the rest of the prophecy. Yet, do we really know the prophecy? While the entire book focuses on telling all of the original seven's stories from their points of view, two new characters seem to take up a bit more room in our minds than they did previously—Nico and Reyna. Both of these characters get bigger roles, as we see mostly through Jason's point of view. Reyna is the leader of the Romans, but she's also the old flame that makes life complicated for Jason while also helping out the Argo II crew at the end. Nico is a character we're finally getting a chance to learn more about—we're learning not just about his motivations, but also about his history, despite being a character we've been acquainted with for a while. Riordan has essentially chosen to re-introduce Nico and Reyna as bigger players than maybe we would have considered before within The House of Hades. It makes us reevaluate our entire understanding of the prophecy—if Percy and Annabeth are in Tartarus, are they really the other two that make up the seven? Or is it Nico and Reyna we've been looking for after all?
There's only one way to find out the truth, and only way path to uncovering the ending. Stay tuned for my review of The Blood of Olympus, the final book in The Heroes of Olympus series!
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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