Series Review – The Heroes of Olympus (spoiler free)

Series: The Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan
Genre: Mythology/Fantasy
Series Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Book 1: The Lost Hero – 4 stars
Book 2: The Son of Neptune – 4 stars
Book 3: The Mark of Athena – 4,5 stars
Book 4: The House of Hades – 4 stars
Book 5: The Blood of Olympus – 4,5 stars

Goodreads

Synopsis (of the first book)

Jason has a problem. He doesn’t remember anything before waking up in a bus full of kids on a field trip. Apparently he has a girlfriend named Piper, and a best friend named Leo. They’re all students at a boarding school for “bad kids.” What did Jason do to end up here? And where is here, exactly?

Piper has a secret. Her father has been missing for three days, ever since she had that terrifying nightmare about his being in trouble. Piper doesn’t understand her dream, or why her boyfriend suddenly doesn’t recognize her. When a freak storm hits during the school trip, unleashing strange creatures and whisking her, Jason, and Leo away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood, she has a feeling she’s going to find out.

Leo has a way with tools. When he sees his cabin at Camp Half-Blood, filled with power tools and machine parts, he feels right at home. But there’s weird stuff, too—like the curse everyone keeps talking about, and some camper who;s gone missing. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist that each of them—including Leo—is related to a god. Does this have anything to do with Jason’s amnesia, or the fact that Leo keeps seeing ghosts?

Review

The ending of of The Last Olympian, the last book of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, suggested the adventures for Percy and the others had not yet ended. And so Riordan brought us The Heroes of Olympus which I personally feel is better than Percy Jackson.

This series has a soft spot in my heart. Known well is the typical set-up of Riordan books. There is a demi-god, they get a quest that they complete and momentarily save the world only to repeat it in the next book. But Riordan does add enough little twists and details to keep this format interesting. This series doesn’t just deal with the Greek Gods and their demi-gods, but also with their Roman counterparts and their demi-gods. I found it interesting to see how these two worlds were joined together for this plot. The gods were playing their games once again using the demi-gods as their chess pieces.

One of the reasons as to why I prefer The Heroes of Olympus over Percy Jackson is that this series is written in a multiple third person point of view. Riordan juggles the multiple point of views very well by having at least 5 chapters in the point of view of the same character in one go. We get to know different characters, and for the most part that is a great asset. Only in The House of Hades did I feel that too many point of views were used to tell the story.

What I absolutely loved is that the multiple point of views gave us the point of view of Annabeth and Nico in later books. The deepening of these characters is the first thing I think about when this series is mentioned. Before we only saw them through Percy, and in the first few books through other’s eyes. To finally get to know them through their own thoughts was such a treat, and it elevated these two characters to personal favorites.

Another great character in this series is a new one, Leo. With coach Hedge, satyr, he adds the humor to the story. Throughout the books his character is deepened out though, and he becomes one of those characters you just want to protect.
The other characters, amongst them Percy, were also well delved into. The group of characters was also diverse. Not just that, but their team work evolved. With a group of 7 demi-gods there are bound to be some issues, and Riordan touches upon them well.

Overall I feel that The Heroes of Olympus is a great series to read if you loved Percy Jackson, but also want to learn more about other characters in this world. I would not recommend starting this series if you haven’t read the Percy Jackson series as in later books there are references to what has happened in that series.

For those that are interested, you can read my (sometimes short) reviews for each book on goodreads. Beware that there is a possibilty for spoilers in these.
The Lost Hero // The Son of Neptune // The Mark of Athena // The House of Hades // The Blood of Olympus