The Son of Neptune

November 1, 2011
After spinning his wheels in series opener The Lost Hero (2010), Riordan regains his traction with book two of The Heroes of Olympus. Gaea is raising an army of giants to defeat the gods, and Juno has switched heroes Percy Jackson (son of Poseidon) and Jason Grace (son of Jupiter) in order to unite Greek and Roman gods and demigods in battle against her. His memory wiped, Percy knows only that he has another life and a girlfriend, Annabeth; he needs to focus now on winning the trust of the Roman demigods. As per usual, he has two appealing companions with intriguing back stories, Hazel Levesque (daughter of Pluto) and Frank Zhang (son of…?). The three undertake a quest to Alaska to defeat the giant Alcyoneus and free Thanatos, "the border patrol" of the Underworld, assisted and opposed along the way by a pleasing variety of magical beings. Riordan achieves freshness within his formula by giving characters and readers a new environment—Camp Jupiter, similar only in broad concept to Camp Half-Blood—to discover, and his pell-mell pacing has returned. As with all of Riordan's mythological tales, the details that bring the legends into the 21st century delight: The camp's augur reads the entrails of Beanie Babies; tiny, malignant grain spirits dissolve into Chex Mix; the Amazons' headquarters are in Seattle at, well, you guessed it. Should pacing and wit continue unabated into the third volume, whose foretold European setting promises further freshness, fans will eagerly await numbers four and five. (Fantasy. 10-14)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

December 1, 2011

Gr 5-9-No one does cliff-hangers quite like Riordan. In this installment in this series, he jumps off the one he left at the end of The Lost Hero (Hyperion, 2010) and hits the ground running. Percy Jackson makes a long-awaited reappearance on page one, with almost no memory of his identity, except for hazy recollections of a girl named Annabeth. He's in San Francisco, home of Camp Jupiter. It's the other camp for demigods, only here, the gods appear in their Roman forms. Most of the campers are suspicious and scared of Percy, but misfits Hazel and Frank welcome him. The demigod world is in an uproar. Monsters keep reappearing after they're killed, and the campers discover that it's because Thanatos, better known as Death, has been chained by Gaea, goddess of the earth. They must go on a quest to free him, and the heart-pounding adventure amps up even more. Riordan's ability to create characters that readers care about is extraordinary. Hazel, daughter of Pluto who leaves precious gems jumping from the ground in her path, and Frank, son of Mars who just might be the key to everything, are two of the most endearing demigods introduced so far. The vernacular of today's teens is captured masterfully, making the writing fresh and funny. The ending will make readers smile, even though they'll need to wait for the rest of the story. It can't come soon enough.-Mandy Lawrence, Fowler Middle School, Frisco, TX

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2012
This second book in the series (The Lost Hero, rev. 1/11) has Percy Jackson arriving at Camp Jupiter, the camp for half-blood children of the Roman gods, unable to remember his past and pursued by two gorgons who won't stay dead when he kills them. Almost immediately Juno sets Percy a quest: with the help of Hazel, a daughter of Pluto brought back to life after dying in 1942, and Frank, a son of Mars whose life is tied to a half-burned stick of firewood, Percy must free the death god Thanatos from the giant Alcyoneus's imprisonment, or it won't just be gorgons who won't stay dead. The problem? There's the possibility that once freed, Thanatos will enforce Hazel and Frank's deaths as well. In this action-packed sequel, Percy Jackson plays a lower-key but still vital role, allowing Frank to develop as a leader and leaving space for a sweet Frank/Hazel attraction to grow. Gods and monsters throw up obstacles for the adventurers, but it is the young people's own struggles against shameful things in their pasts that make these Roman demigods so sympathetic. As always, Riordan gives his heroes the last word, supplying them with sardonic quips in the face of unassailable odds -- the sort of grin-in-the-face-of-death bravado that makes his devoted fans stand up and cheer. anita l. burkam

(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2012
In this action-packed Lost Hero sequel, Percy Jackson arrives at Camp Jupiter, the camp for half-blood children of the Roman gods, unable to remember his past and pursued by two gorgons who won't stay dead when he kills them. As always, Riordan gives his heroes the last word, supplying them with sardonic quips in the face of unassailable odds.

(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)