The Heroes of Olympus Series by Rick Riordan

Yes, I admit it. I’m a Percy Jackson fan. I can’t help myself when I hear another Percy novel will be out soon. I get pretty pumped. It started with the five book series taking place in the greek camp, Camp Half-Blood. I’d say Percy, Annabeth and Grover definitely went on their fair share of heart-racing, intriguing adventures which included saving the world many times. Lets just say, I have a crush on Percy (and he’s a book character). He’s the son of Poseidon which is so much cooler than being a child of Zeus. But thanks to this series, I’m obsessed with greek mythology. If you haven’t yet read the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, I recommend that book series first. Click here to see the books in that series. To see the Percy Jackson: the Lightning Thief Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNhV8dk6W2M

But that’s not the focus of my blog today. I want to talk about the Percy Jackson spin-off series, the Heroes of Olympus. The books in order include the Lost Hero, the Son of Neptune, and the Mark of Athena. The next book to be released next fall will be named the House of Hades.

Within this series, not only are the greek characters brought back, but Rick Riordan introduces a whole new set of characters just as interesting as the old. This includes Jason Grace, Piper McLean and Leo Valdez, young demigods from the Roman Camp. Seeing that there’s a Greek Camp and a Roman Camp, the God’s separated the two because the camps initially hate each other’s guts. Similar to the camps, each God also has a Roman side and Greek side. The Roman side is more war based, while the Greek side is more artsy. As the books continue, Percy finds himself in the Roman Camp while Jason finds himself in the Greek camp. Both guys have similar cases of amnesia, so neither of them know where there from or who’s looking for them. Nonetheless, each camp’s quests lead the two groups to finally meeting, leading to elevated tensions. The only thing that stops an all-out war from breaking out is Percy and Jason, the two mediators who have been to both camps. The two groups eventually set aside their differences and go out on a quest together, using each others’ strengths to offset their weaknesses.

Rick Riordan has an amazing gift of creating characters his readers can connect with. He makes us fear for their lives in the greatest danger while also making us wish we were friends with each one of them. The dialogue between characters helps his audience fully understand each individual’s personality. Likewise, Riordan’s knowledge of greek mythology impresses me beyond words. He intermingles the major Gods like Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades with the minor ones which names escape me at the moment, hence minor gods. In addition, the action scenes within each novel are thrilling and always test his character’s lengths. He makes his audience root for his heroes no matter the challenge.

Anyone who liked the Percy Jackson Series in general would like Rick Riordan’s other book series, the Kane Chronicles. In the series, Riordan switches focus from greek/roman mythology to egyptian mythology. Check it out!