Rick Riordan, dubbed "storyteller of the gods" by Publishers Weekly, is the author of five New York Times #1 bestselling series and the #1 bestselling stand-alone novel Daughter of the Deep. He is best known for his Percy Jackson and the Olympians books, which bring Greek mythology to life for contemporary readers. The first book in the series, The Lightning Thief, is read in classrooms across the country, has won numerous state awards, and has been adapted into a feature film, a graphic novel, a Broadway musical, and a live-action series on Disney+ that Rick cowrote and executive-produced. Another recent addition to the world of Percy Jackson is The Sun and the Star: A Nico di Angelo Adventure, which Rick cowrote with New York Times #1 bestselling author Mark Oshiro. Rick is also the publisher of an imprint at Disney Hyperion called 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 coproducer, Becky, and their two sons. For more information, visit him online at RickRiordan.com. You can find more of my reviews of his work here.
Percy Jackson, modern-day son of Poseidon, is just trying to get through high school. After saving the world multiple times by battling monsters, Titans, and giants, Percy is now settling in at Alternative High School in New York, where he hopes to finally have a normal senior year. Unfortunately, the gods aren't quite done with him yet. Poseidon breaks the bad news that if Percy expects to get into New Rome University, he will have to fulfill three quests in order to earn the necessary three letters of recommendation from Mount Olympus. The first task is to help Ganymede, Zeus's cupbearer, retrieve his golden goblet before it falls into the wrong hands. You see, one sip from it can turn a mortal into a god, and Zeus would not be pleased with that result. Can Percy and his friends Grover and Annabeth find the precious cup in time? And if they do, will they be able to resist its special power? Readers new to the Percy Jackson universe and fans who have been awaiting this reunion for more than a decade will delight equally in this latest hilarious take on Greek mythology by the "storyteller of the gods."
The nostalgia was real reading The Chalice of the Gods. For long time fans, you'll find that Percy's voice is exactly the same, with some fun new slang-updates (every time he said something was on-brand, I screamed). For new comers to the series, you'll find Percy's voice and story accessible, straddling middle grade/young adult audiences perfectly with long-time fans like myself who are probably now older than they care to admit! There's some call-backs to jokes from the original series, some cameos/references to characters we meet in other series, but it's never to the point where you would have had to read the original series before this book. It's the perfect new addition to Percy's story, and I can't wait to see what more is in store.
For the fans of the original series who are worried that Percy and the gang are going to be HurtTM—I cannot emphasize enough how low-stakes and light-hearted this adventure was! I never once worried about Percy, Annabeth, and Grover not retaining their happy ending, and it's very clear from the get-go that Percy's quest is more about cutting through demigod red tape (sigh) than actually putting his life on the line. It made for a delightfully low-stakes read where you could sink back into this world, its politics, the other characters, without having to worry about a thing!
Finally, I'll point out how I loved how Riordan didn't make any descriptive comments about our main trio. There was no specific, physical descriptions on how they looked—a huzzah to new beginnings, indeed! I found myself interchanging how I imagined the characters looked when I read the original series with how Walker, Leah, and Aryan (the actors for the TV series) embody the characters (at least that we've seen so far in all the promo!). To me, that made this book even more special, that it exists in all landscapes of the PJO world that we envision, and it speaks to the true heart of the story—that it doesn't matter what you look like or what you can't do, but what you can do and the courage to do it.
This was the perfect read to reacquaint myself with Percy's, Annabeth's, and Grover's characters before the big TV show release later this year. I seriously can't wait, and who knows, maybe I'll reread the original series now? Guess we'll see! Until then.
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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