Welcome back to The Real World According To Sam! Today is Magic Monday! We are still continuing with our Countdown to Nero!
We are 9 weeks and 1 day away from the release of The Tower of Nero (October 6, 2020)!
The Lost Hero
Author: Rick Riordan
Genre: YA Fantasy
Year: 2010
Synopsis:
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 his best friend is a guy named Leo. They're all students at the Wilderness School, a boarding school for "bad kids," as Leo puts it. What did Jason do to end up here? And where is here, exactly? Jason doesn't know anything -- except that everything seems very wrong.
Piper has a secret. Her father, a famous actor, 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, whether she wants to or not.
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:
Okay. So this is the first book in the spin-off series of Percy Jackson and the Olympians. This series is called the Heroes of Olympus and it picks up where the last series left off, with familiar faces, new faces, and new baddies to fight. You thought Kronos was bad? Well, he was, but he's not the only one. We had challenges the first go-round, but now we have even more!
Let's get a quick recap of where we left off. Percy, Annabeth and Grover lived, while Luke died like a hero after being a long-term villain. Charles Beckendorf and Silena Beauregard died, and that was super sad. Kronos was defeated, Olympus was saved, Rachel Dare became the next Oracle, and all was well for a couple months and now...weird things are happening again.
For starters, let's talk about what differentiates this book from the previous series. The narration is different now. Instead of the book being told from the perspective of one character, the chapters are narrated by new characters in third-person. So for example, the last series was completely told by Percy. Now, the chapters are told from the perspective of one of the three new main characters: Piper, Leo, or Jason. This gives us three different viewpoints for the story and allows us to catch more aspects of the adventure. At times, throughout the series, this is used to build tension and to cliffhang parts of the story, which drives me a little crazy on occasion, but it keeps me reading, so I guess it is effective.
Now to focus on the story itself. Three new demigods are tossed together suddenly, with a few memory issues, and they're about to go on the ride of their lives. These demigods are Piper, Jason, and Leo. They each have different abilities from other demigods we have met before, which makes for some pretty fun character development and plot points. The trio ends up at Camp Half-Blood and then they are sent out for a quest, as demigods often are. Certain doom and no clue how everything fits together? Just another day as a demigod! The synopsis provides very little detail on the actual plot of the story. It provides more questions than answers, and even the book takes a little bit of time to get to the meat of what the series is about. I will tell you though, that it is a fun ride. This book is full of humorous situations. There is only one gripe I have, which is the gripe of many other fans...there isn't really enough Percy in this book. There are reasons for that, which I will not disclose here. I miss the sass master, but there's plenty of other things to enjoy. One such thing is "a Class-A metallic flying bad boy," known as Festus. That would be the awesome looking mechanical dragon on the cover of the book.
So as I mentioned, we have three new main characters. Jason, Piper, and Leo are sort of the new Percy, Annabeth, and Grover for this book. None of them is a satyr and all of their abilities and roles are different, but they're our main trio. They grow to be close friends and a solid unit of demigods. Of the three, Piper is currently my absolute favorite, then Leo, with Jason bringing up the rear. That isn't to say that Jason is a bad character by any means, but I feel like he is the most out of place overall, which ends up making sense. Leo (Commander Tool Belt), is hilarious, particularly in one moment where he very thoughtfully informs us what happens to snow in Texas when facing down a baddie. Piper (for me), is very relatable, and Jason is powerful and loyal. The three face danger head-on and are a great addition to the Half-Blood cast.
This book is the first in a series of five, so it does a lot of setup for future events and larger plots. As such, there isn't a lot to talk about in great detail when there's so much mystery around it. What I can tell you, is that we go road tripping again! We start off at the Grand Canyon and make our way to Quebec and California, with lots of danger and mini-baddies along the way. This provides some great sights and some great bonding, like any good road trip should! For the record, this book is about 550 pages long, which is way longer than any of the books in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, so there is a lot of adventure to be had. This one gives us a lot of time to spend in the world and to face everything in a relaxed, yet fast-paced way.
Overall, this is the start of a new series with a lot of mystery and fresh faces. It sets the stage for the next big baddie and provides a lot of confusion for fans of the world of the Olympians. For a lot of fans it may be difficult or may feel like a slog getting through a demigod adventure without our old trio being at the forefront, but give this a chance, at least to get to the second book...
I give The Lost Hero a Lone Star rating of ✯✯✯✯. I really enjoyed it, the new characters are developed enough for the point they are at in their journey, and the plot has plenty of twists and turns to spare. This book is humorous, well-written, and kicks things off in a really solid way. Plus, it gives us more demigod stories, so you really can't go wrong with it.
This concludes another review here at The Real World According To Sam, where I bring the books straight to your screen and even provide my own two cents about them.
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