The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
Series: The Heroes of Olympus #1
Genre: Fantasy
Release Date: 12th October 2010
Publisher: Puffin
Source: Bought
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When Jason, Piper and Leo crash land at Camp Half-Blood, they have no idea what to expect. Apparently this is the only safe place for children of the Greek Gods - despite the monsters roaming the woods and demigods practising archery with flaming arrows and explosives.

But rumours of a terrible curse - and a missing hero - are flying around camp.

It seems Jason, Piper and Leo are the chosen ones to embark on a terrifying new quest, which they must complete by the winter solstice. In just four days time.

Can the trio succeed on this deadly mission - and what must they sacrifice in order to survive?

I have been led astray. Betrayed. Deceived, even. After the fantastic Percy Jackson series ended on such a high note I couldn’t wait to dive back into Percy’s world with this new, slightly more grown-up (I assume Heroes of Olympus is aimed at an older age group because of ~reasons~) series. Alas, The Lost Hero was a bit like reading a Where’s Wally book, except I kept turning the page hoping that Percy would show up and then suffering the crushing disappointment of that not happening.

So The Lost Hero introduces us to three new characters and a plot with a lot of potential that is sadly bogged down by the aforementioned new characters. See, the thing about the Percy Jackson series that made it so great was that it gave us characters that felt unique and vivid – Percy’s POV was so much fun because he brought a level of humour and sarcasm to the story, and his relationships with the other characters, especially Annabeth, were always interesting. The Percy Jackson series basically never fell into the trap of mediocrity but I just don’t think that the same can be said for The Lost Hero. The new mains feel like a rehash of characters from the original series – Leo, who was more or less the character I liked the most, still felt like a slightly less ridiculous Grover while Piper and Jason felt more like walking stereotypes than actual characters.

In comparison to the charismatic Percy, Jason is your basic troubled teen hero guy. He’s ~mysterious due to a troubled background that no-one is quite sure of and is inexplicably good at being a Hero. The guy legit mopes around for five hundred pages, occasionally stopping to look wistfully at Piper – like, that is his entire character in this book. Wallpaper is more interesting than Jason the Boring. You’ve then got Piper, who is literally ~not like other girls. Despite her heritage Piper continually looks down on traditionally feminine girls – this is most explicitly shown in her interaction with the sons and daughters of Aphrodite. She is however a conventionally attractive girl who turns out to have ~super special~ powers that have never been hinted at before. I mean, really.

I’m not necessarily saying this is a bad book because it isn’t. I really like the Greek/Roman mash-up – it’s different and as the story unfolds, the potential for amazing things to happen is definitely there. As a premise for a new series it’s pretty exciting but all of that really is weighed down by the new trio. Going back to my first sad feelings about this book, this book really suffers from the lack of Percy. It’s missing that fun essence that made the original series so good and I definitely feel as though Riordan tried to make this new series more serious to attract an older audience but it just put me off. I will be reading the next book but I really hope this series improves. Riordan is a great writer who can do better than this.

 

 

 Page Count: 551