This is the fifth and last installment in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan. It was first published in 2009 and is a YA Fantasy. The audiobook I listened to was narrated by Jesse Bernstein. I will review the book first and then the entire series as this is the last one.
Firstly, the plot of this one is a bit hard to describe without mentioning spoilers so I will put a spoiler warning just in case. The final book follows Percy Jackson as he must defend Olympus from Kronos. The other gods are being kept busy by Typhon and other Titans which leaves the seat of the Gods open for the taken. On the way, they must uncover a way to defeat Kronos, find a spy in their midst and try to survive the final battle.
They still press in some new character, namely a goddess Hestia who hasn’t much of a role except being there. She is claimed to be a minor god, though in ancient Greece she is one of the most important and honored ones. Every home had a shrine to her and she is even older than Greek mythology. Well, anyway, other than that this book is more about death. A lot of old characters will die, some made me tear up.
Relationships, which I didn’t know existed, developed such as the romance between Percy and Annabeth. I assumed that she was in love with Luke, but nope. All that blushing and stammering was just because they were like brother and sister. If you have read through the other reviews of this series, then you will notice that I have not mentioned a romance. That is because I find it to be pretty much none existent. Writing romances are seriously not Rick Riordan’s strong suit but I appreciate the try at least.
There were some parts of the book I didn’t like. It starts weak, mostly giving us recaps of what happened in the previous books. I have just read them so I was not interested in these parts and frankly, I don’t think anyone else did either. If they loved the book enough to have read them to the fifth book then they will remember what happened previously.
I also think that some of the motivations of the characters are a bit weak. Such as Silena, daughter of Aphrodite, who betrayed them. Why? Because she thought that Luke was charming and was nice to her… Yeah, anyone would help commit mass murder because of that. Or Poseidon not coming to help the gods, even though if he doesn’t, he will die, because he doesn’t want his palace to be destroyed… What?
Well, I didn’t expect much since I saw the lack of sensible motivations in previous books and was expecting it in this one as well.
I did appreciate the break of the old structure, it felt far more realistic when Percy and company don’t go on a quest filled with traps, that they all fall into. The story didn’t feel as linear as before and the action was broken up into calmer moments such as grief and Percy visions showing other places and people linked to the story.
Overall, I think this one was my favorite. It ended on a strong note. I give it a 9 out of 10.
Now for the entire series, I was underwhelmed by it but liked it fairly good. I won’t read it again, but it made the time pass.
I thought there were too many characters, and apparently so did Rick Riordan because the character changed personality several times. The most prominent among them was Nico who was a geeky and overexcited kid, who then became whimpering brat and obsessed with… Revenge? I don’t know, he just wanted his sister back. All while being stupid, then in the last book and the Demigod Files he became a brooding warrior. Now, I guess you can call it character development but all the development must then have happened outside the book because it surely wasn’t in it.
I should also note that though I like the thought of introducing children to Greek mythology it should be noted that Greek mythology in the books is changed to suit the author. Hestia being a minor god is just one example. Another example is Apollo being a hippie though he was the embodiment of a perfect man in ancient times, controlled and moderate. He had two rules that he wanted his followers to obey, know yourself and be abstemious. In other words, the opposite of Dionysus. Not in this series.
Though I was baffled by some of the choices I still stand by that this book is perfect to wake the interest for Greek mythology even if it is somewhat inaccurate.
I also noticed that there was some, inaccuracy with the rules the author has set, such as Percy Jackson not being able to fly without being killed by Zeus, but he does, a lot. He flies around on a Pegasus, in one of the books it is mentioned that he only flies close to the ground but that doesn’t stay true in all of the books and seemed to be more of an afterthought. Another example is that in the last book he becomes invincible when bathing in the River Styx, except when he gets hit in the head when falling down and hitting his head against Athena’s throne. Did the author just forget that he can only be killed when attacked on the lower back? These might be nitpicking but I reacted to them anyway. Maybe I just missed something but it felt like the author forgot his lore.
The battles are good in the books, they have always been good. It’s just a pity that battle doesn’t interest me, there is a reason why I most of the time just skim through them. For those who don’t feel the same these books will most likely be far more entertaining.
The book also had some serious problems with old tropes such as the overpowered male protagonist, he was very lucky. Often had solutions thrown in his face and stumbled over them. He was also perfect, his flaw was that he was loyal to his friends. That is not a flaw, especially when compared to all the others’ flaws. It was obvious that the author chickened out on giving Percy a flaw. Which by the way, never comes into play even when Achilles says that it will.
We also have a lot of females falling for Percy, apparently a zit-covered twelve to fifteen-year-old boy is very attractive and he even gets the girl at the end. The one trope that was a bit of the twist was that Percy technically wasn’t the hero in the end, but he was still celebrated like he was the one so I guess that makes sense.
This is a very old series, and it feels even older than it actually is. When this one came out, all those rough edges were out of fashion and it has not aged well. I would be interested in reading the Heroes of Olympus and the Trials of Apollo if only to see if his writing becomes better but I will most likely not reread this series again.
I would still recommend it to someone younger than me, especially boys which seems to be this books targeted audience, though I personally think that the author is facing the problem all children book authors seem to face, and that is that they make the books for either too old audience or too young. This series should be for boys in the age of twelve to fifteen but it feels like it is meant for children from age eight to ten sometimes. Such as the book constantly calling the children heroes even when they haven’t done anything yet. The concept that someone is a hero just because they are supposed to be, is a very old concept. Today, especially when you are older, you become a hero through deeds.
All in all, I would give the entire series a rating of 6 out of 10. It is above average. It doesn’t feel too deep and isn’t meant to be. People die, but mostly only do so to make the story feel more serious. It is supposed to be entertaining and fun but the author seemed to struggle to hold it between fun and serious which makes the books weird. Similar to the last books of the Harry Potter I guess, when the story has previously been about eating candy and fighting off pixies and then becomes about death and mass murder.
I must also note that Harry didn’t kill someone, at least not consciously. Percy kills a lot of people, well he calls them monsters but many of them are sentient, the author tries to say that they will revive but he still has to cut off heads of them. It wouldn’t be bizarre if you don’t think about the age of the main character.
Well, either way. That is my judgment of this series. What did you think? Have you read this series?
With Kind Regards
Senefer.
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