TITLE: The Blood of Olympus
AUTHOR: Rick Riordan
SERIES: Heroes of Olympus #5
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RATING:
Though the Greek and Roman crewmembers of the Argo II have made progress in their many quests, they still seem no closer to defeating the earth mother, Gaea. Her giants have risen—all of them, and they're stronger than ever. They must be stopped before the Feast of Spes, when Gaea plans to have two demigods sacrificed in Athens. She needs their blood—the blood of Olympus—in order to wake.
The demigods are having more frequent visions of a terrible battle at Camp Half-Blood. The Roman legion from Camp Jupiter, led by Octavian, is almost within striking distance. Though it is tempting to take the Athena Parthenos to Athens to use as a secret weapon, the friends know that the huge statue belongs back on Long Island, where it might be able to stop a war between the two camps.
The Athena Parthenos will go west; the Argo II will go east. The gods, still suffering from multiple personality disorder, are useless. How can a handful of young demigods hope to persevere against Gaea's army of powerful giants? As dangerous as it is to head to Athens, they have no other option. They have sacrificed too much already. And if Gaea wakes, it is game over.
Review:
The Blood of Olympus was better than I could have hoped… but (and yes, there is a but) I just wish that some things were different.
The Blood of Olympus did a really good job on filling in all the plot holes from the other books. Most of the information I felt was missing was finally revealed. For example, in this book, we finally get to see Reyna’s past and why she wasn’t too happy to disclose it. Also, it was nice to see Nico be considered part of the main cast. His mysteriousness and his role in the story became a lot clearer. I also liked how this book really revealed some of Percy’s faults. It made him seem more real, like an everyday kid. He isn’t perfect and that made me like him even more.
As for the ending, it was quite satisfying. I can’t say much without spoiling it but it did a good job tying up loose ends. Of course, I hope we’ll still get some short stories but the ending was pretty much as conclusive as I had wished for.
The issue (and the “but” I mentioned before) was the out of all the characters who could have narrated the final book of the series, of Percy Jackson, Percy was not one of them. Neither was Annabeth. The whole story started with Percy’s point of view and I thought it would end that way because of Percy’s involvement in the other books but it didn’t. In fact, in The Blood of Olympus, I felt like Percy and Annabeth were reduced to just supporting characters. While it was nice to get to see other characters shine for once, I didn’t think it was fair to Percy and Annabeth. It was like oh hey, you guys survived Tartarus no biggie, now move over. If they had been minor characters from the start of the series, this demotion would have been reasonable, but they weren’t just supporting characters, they had important roles in this story.
In Conclusion…
Overall The Blood of Olympus was a fantastic end to a wonderful series. All the plot holes were filled and the loose ends tied up. Not the mention the ending was really satisfying and we got more Nico and the other characters shine. The only problem was Percy and Annabeth’s lack of involvement and how it felt like their importance and contributions were pushed aside.
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| Overall: | 4.7 |
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