“Review Courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales
Quick and Dirty: The mythology-packed, humor-filled saga continues as known and new demigods fight to save the world from total destruction and chaos in the most recent installment that will leave the reader aching for more.
Opening Sentence: The snake-haired ladies were starting to annoy Percy.
The Review:
Rick Riordan’s signature style is as strong as ever with this fast paced, humor and mythology packed, modern day continuation of the life of Percy Jackson, an Olympian demigod. It would stand to reason that most people who will read this book will have already read some of Riordan’s previous works, and are familiar with the characters and plot already. Even so, The Son of Neptune is written so that anyone can pick up the novel, and not be thoroughly confused. Riordan’s attention to fantastic detail and his acute execution of character development is real enough to make this book a truly enjoyable read.
The novel opens with Percy running from monsters. As usual, he is barely keeping ahead by the skin of his teeth and pure talent, only this time he has no memory of who he is. The first book of the series, The Lost Hero, follows Jason who also loses his memory, ends up in Camp Half-Blood and finds out that Percy has been missing as well. Percy and Jason had been kidnapped and switched by Hera to help unite the children of the two aspects of the Olympian gods, the Greeks and the Romans to fight Gaia, aka Mother Earth. Back-story aside, Percy finds the Roman equivalent of Camp Half-Blood and gets the ball rolling with the whole quest-of-much-importance that happens pretty often for Percy. This time it is to free Death from the clutches of Gaia and her army who want to defeat the Olympian gods and take over the world, but be back in time for the Feast of Fortuna.
The Son of Neptune introduces two new main characters to the cast of demigods, Hazel and Frank. Both have intriguing pasts that we find out over the course of the book, which is faster than other characters Riordan has wrote, such as Annabeth. Their relationship with each other and their new friend Percy grows closer over the short period of time as they escape almost certain death fairly often on their journey.
I do agree that Rick Riordan often writes the same deathly peril, quick thinking and plan, fight, then escape scenarios, but I still enjoyed the book. If you like Rick’s books, you will love this one. There are a lot of scenes and little details about the characters and plot, especially Hazel, whose past is now her present and only recently, came back to life.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book and cannot wait for the next installment, The Mark of Athena. The ending leaves you waiting on the edge of your seat for the reunion of Percy with Camp Half-Blood and Jason with Camp Jupiter and the ensuing battle with Mother Earth.
Notable Scene:
Hazel led Percy to a black crypt built into the side of the hill. Standing in front was a teenage boy in black jeans and an aviator jacket.
“Hey” Hazel called. “I’ve brought a friend.”
The boy turned. Percy had another one of those weird flashes: like this was somebody he should know. The kid was almost as pale as Octavian, but with dark eyes and messy black hair. He didn’t look anything like Hazel. He wore a silver skull ring, a chain for a belt, and a black T-shirt with skull designs. At his side hung a pure-black sword.
For a microsecond when he saw Percy, the boy seemed shocked—panicked even, like he’d been caught in a searchlight.
“This is Percy Jackson,” Hazel said. “He’s a good guy. Percy, this is my brother, the son of Pluto.”
The boy regained his composure and held out his hand. “Pleased to meet you,” he said. “I’m Nico di Angelo.”
The Heroes of Olympus Series:
1. The Lost Hero
2. The Son of Neptune
3. The Mark of Athena
FTC Advisory: Hyperion Books provided me with a copy of The Son of Neptune. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.”
