Book Review: The Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

Title: The Lost Hero
Author: Rick Riordan
Series: The Heroes of Olympus
Published: October 2012
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Pages: 553
From: Walmart
Rating: 8/10

So, clearly, I couldn’t stay away. I finished American author Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series not long ago, and attempted to read something in a different genre to give my mind a break from young adult.

Obviously, that didn’t happen.

Riordan started a new series that was a bit of a spin-off of his hit series Percy Jackson and the Olympians. This one, called the Heroes of Olympus, focus on the same characters from the first series, but incorporates a ton of new ones.

The Lost Hero starts out with Jason sitting on a bus in southwest America, holding hands with a girl he doesn’t know, unsure of where he is, why he’s there and who he is. The novel immediately goes into the action that explains Jason is a demigod, as are his two friends on the school trip he’s with, even though he doesn’t know they’re friends straight away.

The rest of the novel is broken into sets of two chapters narrated by Jason, his “girlfriend” Piper and his “best friend” Leo as the three venture to save Piper’s father and Hera, the queen of the Greek gods.

At first I was a little unsure if I would like these ones as much as I did the previous Greek gods novels by Riordan. I mean, it can be really difficult to maintain the writing after devoting your life to one series and making it perfect. But, Riordan succeeded.

I thought Riordan did a great job creating this mystery surrounding Jason. Why is he thinking in Roman terms, rather than Greek? Who is he? Why does he not remember anything? All this mystery is thoroughly used throughout the novel, so it’s not just a one-off kind of thing. I appreciate the thought Riordan really put into this novel, the first in his new series.

However, at the same time, I almost prefer looking at it from one person’s point of view. I loved reading Percy Jackson’s thoughts and comments only, because it showed his development during his teenage years. I understand why Riordan did this, to show more characters’ minds, and he definitely gives each character enough time to develop, I just almost wish he hadn’t quite done that.

But, really, the novel is great. It’s not as funny as Percy Jackson and the Olympians, but bringing the Roman aspects into it the way he did is ingenious, and I really hope there’s more to come from the next four books.

To read more from Rick Riordan, check out his other series: Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the Kane Chronicles, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard and the rest of his Heroes of Olympus series. You can purchase his novels in stores, like Barnes and Noble, or online.