The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

This is the first book of the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan. It’s a sequel to the Percy Jackson series, and is depicted after it following the second great prophecy. It was first published 2010 by Disney-Hyperion Books and is a fantasy adventure series which is definitively directed to young boys, which means that I’m not the intended demographic. I mention this because much as with the Percy Jackson series, I did not melt for this book which means that this will contain a lot of critique. Critique of this book is mostly met with hostility so I’m not that eager to give one but here goes. I will also be mentioned that I had a problem with the narrator who kept pronouncing Gaia, or Gaea as Gia. I have no idea why, but it seriously confused me.

We are set with a bunch of new heroes, Jason, the soon of Zeus, Piper, the daughter of Aphrodite, and Leo, the son of Hephaestus. The book shift perspective between these three people as they are attacked on a school for delinquents. They are saved and taken to camp-half blood where they are given a quest to find the imprisoned Hera. Along the way they will encounter mortals from ancient Greece who should be long since dead, but they are coming back with the help of their patron and man-eating giants from Tartarus.

Now Jason has amnesia, not knowing his past but knowing random things such as legion style fighting, that his father is Zeus and so on. He remembers being raise by wolves and most of his story arc is about him fretting what his life really looks like before.

Piper is half Cherokee and her father is a famous movie star. She is the daughter of Aphrodite but aren’t like her brother and sisters who just are taken straight from the dumb pretty boys and girls, with the mean girl in charge. She just wants someone to look past her beauty to see her and she has chosen Jason, the most handsome guy, despite their entire relationship being forged by some magical means and they don’t know each other but Jason is just so great. Her main arc is to save her dad and get the guy. She has the power to convince anyone to do what she wants, which feels a bit cliché for the beautiful girl.

Then we have the nerdy, tech wizard Leo who is Latina and has the power of controlling and creating fire from his father Hephaestus. The gift killed his mother when he was young and he has been jumping from foster home to foster home ever since. His main story arc… saving the world? Avenging his mother? I’m not sure, because the book doesn’t make it clear. He is the most useful character in the book but he has no strong motivation overall.

Now, if I were to summon up what I believe is good in this book. Which is a short list, the first one is that if you liked Percy Jackson then overall you should like this one because it is just the same. Jason is a carbon copy of Percy, the villain is the same, the half-assed used of mythology is the same. Even the use of them such as Jason and Leo being enchanted by a beautiful woman only to be saved by Piper who is immune because she is a girl, are the same. The man eating-giants are pretty much the cyclops of the Percy Jackson series and we have random monster of the day each chapter. It’s all the same so of you liked it in Percy Jackson, then there is more here.

I liked the interesting world building of the differences of the Greek and Roman gods despite then being the same person. It gives us a better picture of what made the Greek and Roman gods different and why along with explaining it fairly good in the book without it become a plot hole. It also gives us a better understanding of the gods in the series and their role.

And that’s it. Many seem to praise it for its uses of mythology but considering that the author has only used the name and overall structure without understanding the meaning of those stories. I cannot praise it. Riordan uses mythology as a way to overcome, but Greeks where all about tragedy. A gift is always followed by grief. Midas accidently killed his daughter by turning her to gold, Medea gives up all for Jason but he tries to marry a princess for status instead. The book mentions these morals only to dismiss them later on which doesn’t justify using the stories in these ways, at least not all the time.

I would also like to know why Americans seem to think Chione is a goddess of winter. I had to look it up after the Flash series mention it as well, and all the ancient sources says she was the daughter of Boreas and a mortal. Making her a demigod and she carries the son of Poseidon which she throws in the ocean out of fear of her father’s reaction. It is never mentioned that she is a goddess of winter and snow so where does that come from?

Well, either way. My biggest problem with this book is the tropes. Riordan has made the most cliché book possible by using every know trope to man and people seem to adore his books despite of it. It makes no sense to me, but considering that I read this book as an adult I would guess its under the armor of nostalgia. Children don’t care about tropes and adults protect what they loved as a child fiercely despite being able to see its flaws now when they are older.

If you intend to read this book, then have that in mind. This is a book series I would buy for a young boy, maybe a girl but she might not be as interested, but adults coming in fresh might not take to the books as well and if they do… Good for you! I could not ignore the casual use of mythology without understanding the purpose of them or just ignoring it to be use in a very cliché way. I cannot ignore the use of tropes (I will put a list of some of the tropes in the book and ask yourself if you would forgive the use of this many tropes in any other series or media). If it had just been 1-3 of them I wouldn’t mind and if they are done well, but here it just seem like Riordan looked up most popular tropes and thought they would make his book popular… And he was right.

I would give this book a 3 out of 10, only giving it a three because I quite liked Leo and I can see some of the places the author has tried. I also do think that mythology should be used in children’s books, it’s a good way to teach them about it, but I felt like the use of mythology in this book was shallow at best. It has potential, I would love to see how the other gods would react to the foreign gods that was adopted into the Roman and Greek pantheon such as Isis, Cybele and Mithras but the risk of that happening is low. I also feel like the separation of gods and demi-gods (that existed even in the Percy Jackson books) lessen the story. The gods interaction with mortals where always the highlights of the ancient mythology and by removing them here to, at best, some random signals or dreams, makes much of what should be interesting with these stories dumb down to a simple fighting monsters adventure.  Great for young boys who just want fighting, but uninteresting for those who wanted to truly see the pagan gods personality and mischief, which was a big part of the ancient myths.

With Kind Regards

Senefer.

Tropes in the book (Which I could find but there are most likely more)

• The blond, handsome, and perfect Mary Sue boy as main lead.
• The girl who is beautiful but just want people to see who she really is.
• The girl is an outsider (not like other girls)
• The girl whose only goal is to help a male or focus in on a boy (in Piper case, she wants to save her father, and hook up with Jason)
• The parents are dead or missing (which include all the characters one way or another)
• Prophecies (I don’t think I need to say more, Percy Jackson was built around this trope and so is this book)
• The active males with the girl being a good talker, charming and/or smart but don’t do much fighting.
• Adult are useless or/and evil.
• Token diversity (This one is a bit shaky, I will give it an overall pass because Riordan tries to make the diversity characters people but there where some slip up, such as Jason is blond and seem perfect. Leo, the Latina, is funny, talkative and did I mention can make tacos, because of course he can. Piper is half Native American, rich and steals things. You can most likely spot the stereotypes here. There are more to make them more of characters but the stereotypes stick through underneath.)
• Forced romance, (Rick Riordan is the master of this trope. Forcing the main character together with the only female in the group. Now, I am told that Jason and Piper ,Spoiler, doesn’t end up together but that doesn’t forgive that this book really tries to bring them together.)
• Amnesia
• The nerdy kid who falls in love with unreachable girls and don’t seem to understand no.
• The road trips scenario, or in this book they are called quests but they have been done so much that it has become a very tedious trope by now.
• Everyone is related to someone important or has something just special about them (considering that everyone is related with gods this cannot be helped but consider this.) In the first series, Percy Jackson is son of Poseidon. One of the big three which were rare. In this book, the son of Zeus comes along. Apparently, it wasn’t as rare as they wanted us to believe. That is just outside the three main character all having parents that are well known names. Why isn’t at least one of them a son/and daughter of Pax, Hestia, Victoria or any other minor god?)
• The unnecessary long book, (this might be forgiven when it is a book for adults but what eleven-year-old want to read a 500 pages long book. If it is that long, it often means that it has a lot of unnecessary scenes and this book qualify.)
• Comedy is being centered around one character (the comedy relief).