This is the fourth book in the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan. It is a Young adult fantasy book first published 2013 by Disney- Hyperion Books and the audiobook was narrated by Nick Chamian.
The story is slowly closing in as Percy Jackson and Annabeth goes to the house of Hades for a final test before facing Gaea while the others must face danger of their own. The fate hangs in the balance as the romans and Greek camps readies themselves to wage war against each other and the army of monsters preparing themselves to rise from the underworld. All that stands in their way is a couple of demigods and a prophecy.
The book is filled with old character we have seen before such as old defeated enemies and abandoned girls such as Calypso. Frankly, I found it underwhelming. Seeing old enemies that was already defeated, such as Krios and Hyperion, show themselves again just made the story feel uninteresting and the new ones doesn’t get enough time to be anything but a final boss that randomly shows up without any story behind them, such as Tartarus.
Otherwise, the book is far too long. The author tries to keep the story interesting by jumping between the characters but it seriously doesn’t work. Annabeth and Percy’s story of eternal walking was tedious and had not much happening outside them being thirsty and hungry. The other’s just face random encounters that mostly are longer than necessary because Riordan loves to make complications that prolong the side story. Such as Hazel being poisoned and they go to a god who turns Nico to stone and Frank has to kill a lot of cows. They could easily just have received what they wanted when they gave him the gift. The blessing Frank gets by killing the cows could have been received later on when he fights the monsters in the final battle, which would have been better but as I said, Riordan likes to make side stories unnecessary long.
I also feel like Riordan wanted to give everyone a backstory, even insignificant characters such as the coach get’s a story. What does it change? Nothing, but it does make the story longer.
I was also not intrigued by Leo’s story which ones again was about a girl, this time Riordan searched his previous books and took the mighty goddess Calypso which he has turned into a damsel who is locked away on an island and waiting for her great love. Now it strongly hinted that she will get Leo. That was just what I wanted. After all, everyone need a girlfriend.
This was a very dull book, it was slowly paced. Far too many pages, 597 pages to be exact, and majority f it is just fillers. I have to wonder if Riordan doesn’t have a decent editor who would mention that his books are filled with unnecessary details and quest that doesn’t lead anywhere.
The last chapters where the story comes to its conclusion though is good. The pace picks up and some of the previous storylines come into conclusion such as the sceptre that summons the legion which is nice. Frank’s role also get more sensible despite his strategy mastery is weirdly put in. It sticks out like a sore thumb and acts more like a deus ex machina.
Now, as you can imagine. I did not like this book. A good ending does not make a good book and I cannot for the life of me understand why no one seem to notice the unnecessary fillers and excessive long scenes and side stories. It’s like when people praise a game for being the greatest thing alive when all it had was a big world and a lot of fetch quest and kill quest. That is this book. A lot of content but not much of it has any filling. It’s just empty air, and There weren’t much I felt I could anchor myself to. There was only one thing I liked, which was Nico’s confession of his feelings but that scene felt rushed and is hastily pushed aside to give place to the other side stories.
Overall, I would give this one a 3 out of 10. I just couldn’t get my head around what I should like about this one. There was just a lot of nothing, with random backstories, old characters and a weasel who runs around and farts on the demigods. It seriously wasn’t my cup and tea and I don’t know if it is because of my age, considering that this is for younger people or if I just can’t see what is so great about it. Maybe other’s will like it, considering that it is popular, so I won’t discourage people from reading it but I cannot with a good conscious give it a higher rating than a three.
With Kind Regards
Senefer.
Read with Senefer 