Heroes of the Olympus (1) - The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
And now to the second adventure of Percy Jackson - or better, his second series - The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan (in German: Der verschwundene Halbgott, in French: Les héros perdu). I listened to it as a German audio book. Originally published 2010.
The prophecy Rachel made just after Manhatten? The one who was supposed to be fulfilled in, let's say a century? Without Percy Jackson and his friends… yeah, that didn't work out so well.
While Annabeth goes crazy searching for her lost boyfriend, Jason wakes up in a bus. Next to a girl he has never seen before. And without any kinds of memories at all. Everything he does know is that he should be dead, that he speaks Latin instead of Greek and that somehow Hera is responsible for everything. Because the queen of the gods has been abducted to start a new war… this time between the gods and the giants. Giants, who can only be killed when a demigod and a god work together… But how is this possible, if the Olympus is cut off? And, to top that off, a traitor's in the midst of the new adventuring party to rescue Hera and prevent the awakening of their worst enemy...
The new cast is gorgeous. First to my absolute favourite: Leo. Leo's a son of Hephaestus with an ego and charisma of a son of Apollo – and the ability to meddle with fire. He covers everything with humour and is really gorgeous with mechanics and improvisations. There are worse qualities!
Piper is his exact opposite. She's not exactly shy, but she doesn't want attention. She's more gentle and less… well, happy about her godly parent. No wonder. The goddess of love and beauty? I'd probably get the creeps as well, especially when you have her background (which sucks in a million ways, by the way) and after seeing her new home. And half-sisters. She just doesn't seem to fit, but hey, the only daughters of Aphrodite we got to know were Selena and Drew.
What I like best about Piper is her loyalty and how well she gets people. Not her powers, but the way she… well, the way she begins to see them, how she feels guilty and then later on realises what they mean and how they are a part of her and everything. That's definitely cool.
And her relationship with her mother? Gorgeous with a capital G! Mother! Indeed. I like Leo's and Hephaestus' relationship as well, especially when looking at how humble all other demigods are when they're face to face with their godly parents. Leo's just cool.
Now, as we all found out in Percy Jackson, every adventure team has to have three members. Now to Jason: He himself is duty-ridden, a little socially awkward every now and then, but all in all a good guy with a gentle heart. And no memories, but hey, that's not his fault. I like how he manages everything even though I find it dubious that Chiron manages to keep all of this secret for the entire book, the secrets he knows, I mean.
This brings me to the things that don't make sense here. First of all, to a question. If the Greek big 3 made a promise about not having children after WW2, why didn't the Roman gods as well? They are far more civilised. Which would mean that they a) would have gotten a similar idea (or the idea first) and b) would have kept the vow, meaning at least that Jason wouldn't exist. And about Thalia… uhm. I don't know, I don't exactly get the personality split.
To the next point: Camp Half Blood sends Jason on a mission after he's been in camp for only a few hours – after we learned in the original series that Annabeth had to wait five years or something like that. But hey, they just send three demi-gods they don't know, two of whom never have achieved any kind of training at all. And one who should be dead. Hey, that makes sense!
Neither does Thalia's reaction to Jason, by the way. She accepted him way to fast. But otherwise, the relationship between the Hunters and the adventure group was cool!
I like the references to the actual series, period. Annabeth and her rather short meet & greet with Piper and all of that.
Aaaand I love the fighting scenes and problem solutions of the party. It's funny, it really is! But not as funny as the group's mascot satyr. Coach Hedge. Awesome guy. You'd probably kill him after being in the same room with him for five minutes, but in a book, he's gorgeous! His relationship to Mellie? That's how you gotta flirt guys.
But I miss the titles of the chapters.
In brief:
I give this book a star for characters, ideas, style and, last but not least the SoGH for humour. Minus one for content.
Prequel Series:
Percy Jackson
Sequel: