The Lost Hero

Medusa, hydras, cyclops, Hercules, winged shoes, magical trickery--what's not to love about Greek myths? Being a mythology geek, I was naturally drawn to the 'Percy Jackson and the Olympians' series that focused on the modern demi-god children of the Olympian gods. While interesting conceptually and done well, it wasn't particularly remarkable storytelling. Riordan's new series, however, looks to surpass the old, seizing the golden apple. It's classic coming-of-age disguised as adventure novel, this time reaching out to include the Roman pantheon as well.

Briefest of summaries: Three teens are at a Wilderness Camp for miscreant youth when they are attacked by wind spirits. Their abrasive coach is carried away, and they make a near show more escape on a chariot pulled by Pegasii (plural for Pegasus?). Leo, a fiery Latino; Piper, a beautiful charmer of Native American and Hollywood heritage; and Jason, a guy with a magical sword and virtually no conscious memory of his life before that fatal day at camp; are taken to Camp Half-Blood, into a series of self-discoveries and a quest. Spoilery part (how else do you expect me to remember these kind of details?): They ride a mechanical dragon to the North wind (in Quebec, of course), end up sidetracked at Monocole Motors in Detroit, quickly head to the Windy City and go bargain basement hunting at Medea's, make a quick golden deal with Midas, confront Lycaon and his wolves, and visit a tv weather station in Colorado.

I enjoyed Riordan's triumvirate narrative (I know, anyone who reads my reviews regularly is shocked to hear it) that gives back-story, character growth and plot development in large enough chunks to stay coherent. Narrative seamlessly flows from one teen to the next, even during action sequences. Integrated nicely are sparkling little flashes of humor, even as the teens land in challenging situations. Make no mistake, these are not wise-cracking detectives always ready with a quip; they are scared and desperate and grappling with serious issues of identity and family. Rather the humor comes from pop culture references (Coach's megaphone alternates between Darth Vader and "the duck says 'quack'"), laughable imagery (the statue of Hippie Zeus, hallucinating dragon drivers), or the old standby, goat-humor ("Waitress! Six double espressos, and whatever these guys want. Put it on the girl's tab."). The satyr, a master of trash-talk, provides needed relief as tension is built toward the end of the story.

Two small complaints: one, while there is some sophistication of issues the teens are grappling with, I prefer my prose a little more purplish, capable of grappling with larger ideas and scenery. Word choice doesn't feel entirely up to the challenge. Second, there's the whiff of the stereotypical surrounding our heroes. Must the leader of Aphrodite's cabin be a Mean Girl? There's more along the Aphrodite line, mostly centering on looks and beauty, an emphasis on clothes and the ability to manipulate using charm. Likewise, Leo is given more of a ghetto-speak attitude that feels forced within the story, but he shines most when Riordan drops the pretense and he's allowed to act without the dialogue.

Still, those are small points, and Riordan does well compensating, fleshing out the characters beyond the limited boundaries. Though characters tend towards stereotypical, they are given enough nuance to be palatable. If the female lead isn't the physical hero in this book, the women characters can certainly said to be strong, particularly Leo's mom. Villains are male and female alike. A note on character creation: by nature of one parent being a god, there are absent mothers and fathers everywhere in this book, and blame and angst is shared out equally, with both parents and gods representing the full range of humanity. No one is infallible, not even gods, and almost everyone is redeemable (except perhaps northern cyclopes), an appreciably humanistic theme in the modern YA book.

Overall, enjoyable characters, nice integration of Greek and Roman myths and fast-paced action. While I thought the original Jason more than a bit of an ass (the original Greek one), Riordan did a nice job re-inventing. I bought a copy for my reading-resistant nephew, and will be checking out the next book for myself.

Cross posted at http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2013/03/07/embassytown-by-china-mieville-or-limbo... show less

The Lost Hero totally fulfilled all my wishes and desires for it. It's still Camp Half-Blood (even if Chiron is especially cranky and unhelpful in this go-round), but it's not just more of the same. We're not so far into the future that Percy and Annabeth are former legends, nor are we so close to the end of the last Percy book that we have to sit around and watch them make out all the time. They're not even main characters in this story, just cameo characters. The addition of the children of all the minor gods makes everything a bit more hectic and crowded and crazy, but the explanations of the various gods and their traits are still there. Not only do we get Piper, Leo and Jason as new characters, but there are a bunch of new show more potentially important folks back at camp as well.

I couldn't have asked for more, and I doubt other fans of the Percy Jackson books could either.

The Lost Hero is told from the perspectives of Piper, Leo and Jason. While they all kind of sound alike, I never got them mixed up during the story. This may be more because of what is going on in each of their heads rather than distinction of voice. Even though they're all on the same quest and living through the same adventures/dangers, they're not remotely going through the same things. Each of their lives really has been leading up to this quest and they're just now starting to figure out how. Piper is going through all kinds of internal torment because she has been basically told that she'll double-cross the other two (not to mention that all her memories of Jason, who she thought was her boyfriend, are probably a product of some super-potent Mist). Leo is seeing his former babysitter Tia Callida (who encouraged playing with both fire and knives) and is figuring out connections between her, the weird circumstances surrounding his mother's death, and the prophecy he, Piper and Jason are meant to be fulfilling. And poor Jason. He's just trying to grasp hold of his memories: the ones that allow him to be a top-notch fighter, the ones that bring the gods' Roman rather than Greek names to his lips, and the ones that rumble in the back of his mind with every mention of the Titan War.

It's a bit more complicated, a bit more multi-layered, and a bit longer than the Percy books. But then, the characters (and the original Percy fans) are also a bit older. New readers will fare just fine without having read the Percy books (so far), but I have a feeling that won't be the case for much longer. And Percy fans will love the continuation of the Camp Half-Blood story.

Book source: Philly Free Library show less

By this point, Riordan’s plots are old news—classical mythology upcycled with a modern setting and a slightly different progression of events. It’s up to the characters to make or break the books—in this case, the new main trio of narrators, Jason, Piper, and Leo. Taken by himself, Jason isn’t bad. His memory loss is an interesting plot device, he’s generally a pleasant narrator, and he has a seriously cool godly ability. After Percy, having a leader who knew what he was doing from the get-go (even if he couldn’t remember how he knew) was a good choice. Being a history nerd, I enjoyed the Roman aspects he brought to the story. Piper, however… as far as I’m concerned, Piper has no redeeming qualities beyond her cool show more name. She’s irritating, insecure, always hurt, and has the most laughable godly ability of all time. Remember those old Pokemon GameBoy games when one pokemon would use attract and the opponent would fall in love with it and wouldn’t attack anymore? That’s Piper. While Jason calls down lightning and Leo shoots fire and slams around construction equipment, Piper stands around and channels her inner Jigglypuff.

What’s worse is that putting Piper and Jason anywhere near each other brings them both down. No matter which one of them is narrating, you can guess the chapter will go something like this: Danger from last chapter resolved. Jason/Piper angst. Plot. Jason/Piper is so good looking. More plot (maybe). Angst about how good looking Jason/Piper is.

For. Five. Hundred. Pages.

Luckily for the two of them, there is also Leo. Oh, Leo. Leo is the antidote for all things Piper. To start with, he’s laugh-out-loud hilarious 90% of the time, but he’s not limited to being comic relief (see: Grover Underwood). Leo is incredibly useful at all times, and his godly ability is every bit as cool as Jason’s. More importantly, his back story is beautifully written and genuinely heartbreaking. His present journey throughout the book rings just as true. He is a truly empathetic character that can make me laugh and cry in the space of a single page. I would go so far as to say Leo is the real Midas of the story, insofar as everything he touches is gold. Festus is the best non-human sidekick we’ve seen so far. Hephaestus is the most believable godly parent. I would even nominate Leo’s tool belt as the best prop in both series. Leo is seriously the best character Riordan has ever written.

Unfortunately, not even Leo can save Riordan from himself. The sheer size of this book is its downfall. Riordan includes so many different characters from the classical myths that he spends half the book just contextualizing all of them. As many of these characters are villains, this means that literally every battle has pages and pages of monologuing to tell the trio who the person is, what their original story was, how they’re here now, and why they’re going to kill them. This, in turn, removes any trace of tension from scenes that should be overflowing with it. There were literally times I had to put the book down because Piper (of course, Piper) had been dialoging with a villain for the past ten pages while Jason and Leo fought off a dragon ten feet away.

This egregious lack of editing, combined with the irritation Jason and Piper induced every time they were within half a continent of each other, made me seriously considering leaving a two-star review. The awesome power of Leo coupled with the intriguing lead-in to book two convinced me to go one higher. show less

In bringing in a previously-unsuspected branch of heroes born of the Olympian gods under their Roman aspects, Riordan has opened up lots of new and exciting possibilities for his half-Olympians. In the first volume of this new Heroes series, we find that the Olympian gods now admit that they need their mortal offspring to help keep the chthonic forces subdued. This influences them to bring together the two camps of semi-divine offspring to combine their forces, an alliance which is forged, at first anyway, without the demigods' direct knowledge -- Jason, the "lost" hero of the title, has had his memories suppressed by Hera/Juno, so that he will believe himself one of the Camp Halfblood demigods. Gradually, however, Jason comes to show more realize that the personal past he can't remember is more complicated than that.

This installment provides a strong kick-off to the new series. Percy Jackson is mysteriously missing, allowing Jason to take center stage without fear of being overshadowed by his popular predecessor. Riordan sustains the balance among rip-roaring action, budding teenage romance, and the poignancy of strained family relations that marked his Half-Olympian series, and promises exciting things to come in future additions to the new series. Kudos! show less

Solid beginning to this fantasy series. To his credit, Riordan doesn't just repeat the same formula from the Percy Jackson & the Olympian series (as enjoyable as that was), but expands his mythological universe while tweaking his narrative style. While I missed Percy and his snarky comments (I do think Riordan does a little better with the first-person POV than with third-person), "The Lost Hero" does a good job of introducing three new demigods who will play key roles in the rest of this series. On to "The Son of Neptune"!

Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero is an engrossing start that improves upon what came before. Though I liked the Percy Jackson series, it feels like an early work in comparison to this.
Everything that made the first series fun remains. The mix of mythology and the everyday world is still entertaining and done in a creative way. The stakes feel dire and appropriately grand. The characters’ interactions are believable and make them feel vulnerable, even if they are demi-gods. But this series has already taken these staples further.

Don't spoil the book by reading about the new mythological exploration. The first series was hinting at the way the world grows and it leaves so much room for plots and ideas. The stakes are uppity from the show more get-go. We get to see how powerful the new enemies are and it makes way for the coming together of heroes. The characters are each given story arcs, whereas the first series focused more one character. Percy was a good lead, but he did not grow as much as he might have. Here the narrative is shared by three different protagonists, all of whom have issues to work through alongside the plot. Dynamic and layered is one way to describe it. It keeps things fresh since every viewpoint helps us relate to the characters.

The overall plot and writing is on par with the last in The Percy Jackson series. The plot is well-paced but follows the structure we’ve come to expect without risking deviation. The story is appropriately funny, witty or serious, but much of the narrative suffers from exposition dumps in the convenient packaging of dreams. If you can handle the unvarying structure of the author's work and wish for more mythological variety this is a great read. show less

This was my second time reading this book, but because I originally read it around the time of its release, 2010, when I was 11 year old, I didn't remember much about it. I only remember not really liking it at the time. I found the conflict to devalue Percy and company's journey and struggle. I found that the villain's motivations lacked profound themes, and had no character analogous to Luke. I missed the first person and the chapter headers. But most of all, I found that a book without Percy in it was not something I wanted. Essentially, this was just too YA for my MG mind.

And I was also completely wrong.

Rereading this was a really special treat. It was like opening a time capsule almost a decade later. I've changed, and therefore my show more priorities and preferences have also changed. What I found lacking in my reread of the original series was present here, and even better than I'd hoped.

The thing I loved about this the most was the atmosphere. The original series had an atmosphere, but not a strong one, and it wasn't very apparent until the 4th book in the 5-book franchise. This atmosphere was palpable; strong and intense and full of tension. It had an eerie quality to it, both mysterious and a little scary. I felt pulled in and held there. It gave me everything I didn't know I wanted.

Most of the atmosphere was thanks to Boreas and his icy fam (who were honestly the greatest thing ever — forget Apollo spin-off, I want a book series about Boreas). They delivered what only Hades had hinted at (and Calypso had implied): non-human, morally dubious gods. They were powerful, a little glamorous, and I never quite knew what direction their mood would take. They weren't caricatures like a lot of the gods in the original series. They had an ancient, primordial feel to them. I absolutely loved them.

A problem that did sort of carry over from my initial reading all those years ago was Jason's character. The amnesia element never really stopped annoying me, but I did manage to ignore how cliche it is for most of the story. But the biggest issue with his character was this: he was literally just Percy. I can't even imagine them in the same room. They'd literally be doing the exact same things, making the exact same comments. Now, don't get me wrong; I love Percy. But I only need one of him. Obviously Riordan is capable of making more than like three different personalities, so I just don't understand why Jason was the way he was. Whenever it wasn't Jason's perspective, I actually kind of liked him, but whenever it was, I got a little annoyed.

The other characters didn't have that problem at all! I liked Piper a lot; she was really great. Leo was my absolute favorite. (Though it's a little funny that a woman of Spanish-language heritage would name her son "Leo" when that means "I read" in Spanish. Maybe Riordan is trying to subliminally message us to read more, though why he'd need to convince people already reading his book to read, I don't know.) He was a perfect mix of emotional vulnerability and comic relief. He really carried most of the plot and I loved him.

The villain was actually pretty great! They were frightening and effective, with a paranoia-inducing creepiness that Kronos never had. While their motivations still seem pretty weak (and therefore their theme as well), especially when compared against Luke, I actually really like them. 11 year old Faith wanted answers now, especially since the villain revealed themselves a lot sooner than in the original series, but there are a lot more books to expand and build the themes. And I'm excited to discover what their endgame is.

The plot, pacing, tension, and expansion of the world were all done really well. The penultimate climax was a lot better done than the actual climax, but I'll let that slide. While this book was significantly longer than any of the original series' books, it didn't feel too long. It was always perfectly balanced (as all things should be).

Read this review and more on my blog here! show less