Thursday, November 27, 2014

The Blood of Olympus | Rick Riordan



Though the Greek and Roman crew members 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.

Words cannot explain how incredibly disappointed I am with this book. Everything about this book was not what I expected. Parts of it were written poorly, unnecessary parts were added and necessary perspectives were taken out. Certain parts felt rushed and the only thing I thought that kept this book together at all was the bits of humor scattered throughout. Other than that, the ending was nothing like the Last Olympian and for someone whose been with the series and the characters for the past six years, this was not how I wanted the series to end. 

Spoiler-Filled Review

BEWARE RANTS AHEAD, READ AHEAD AT YOUR OWN RISK

Besides the cover, which is absolutely atrocious, the first thing that caught my eye was the inside cover, in it there is absolutely no mention of Percy of Annabeth, a first hint at my disappointment. Then as I continued reading, there was barely any mention of them. They were side characters! The ones who had been the reason for this plot and the main characters had been brushed aside. After Percabeth started dating after the first series, I thought that there would be more between them, or between any of the characters, but I felt that because Rick was so focused on the action part of the plot, he brushed aside the emotion and personality of each character. For some reason, Percy and Annabeth were so flat in this book, they seemed to have no personality and everything they did was really out of character. One example is when Piper and Annabeth went out to defeat the god of Fear, Annabeth almost immediately started crying, and I get that she's been through so much and what not but for me it seemed really out of character. The second was when Percy and Annabeth kissed near the end. It didn't seem like anything that Percy would do and on top of that, it was so random! I understand the significance of the kiss, but it was literally so out of place, there was no emotion just *make out* "I love you Wise Girl". What. No. What. Ugh. 

I think one of the biggest mistakes was perspectives chosen to tell the story. It would have been ideal to hear from all of them but of course that's not feasible, but these are some of the crucial ones: Percy/Annabeth (one is ok, though I'd prefer two), Hazel, Nico/Reyna (only one, two were absolutely not necessary), Jason and Piper. 

Secondly, Leo. Notice how I didn't mention Leo above. If Leo's parts were written better then I think he should have been added to my list above, but he took up so much unnecessary space and it did nothing to the story. Ok I've loved Leo since the beginning. His seventh wheel status was heartbreaking but also relatable. I also shipped Caleo, because they were cute. Notice the key word there : were. I needed to see more of them, but got nothing. I should have cried when Leo "died" but I didn't. In fact the sheer lack of tears I felt was astonishing because I cry at everything. Then Leo didn't die, and here I am like: 


 Ok. Cool. He goes back to Ogygia, because heroes can totally go back there twice. 


And he takes Calypso and they ride off together in the sunset and the book ends. 


My third complaint is about the plot. We spend four, five-hundred page books building towards this epic fight with Gaia, which lasts all of fifty pages. But actually, the calm after the fight was longer than the actual fight. We got to see absolutely no resolution. Ok, sure they defeated Gaia and the camps merged, great. But what about the personal resolutions? We didn't get to see Percy and his mom reunite. We didn't get to see any of the demigods meet with their parents except for Jason who pretty much just got shot down by his father. 

Jason: "Dad, can we pleaseee hang out more?" 
Zeus: "Nah I can't sorry" 
 *Everyone gets transported back to Camp Half-Blood* 

There were like three main things about this book that I actually liked. 
  1. Nico's character development.
  2. The humorous and witty lines scattered throughout the book
  3. Piper
I appreciated Piper much more after this book, and even didn't hate Jason as much, but I just needed more of the other characters, and I didn't get that. 

Give me another book and I'll be happy. If I had to rate the books they would go: 

1. House of Hades
2. The Mark of Athena
3. The Son of Neptune
4. The Blood of Olympus
5. The Lost Hero

What did you guys think of this book? Let's discuss in the comments! Which was your favorite book in the series? 

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