by Rick Riordan
☆☆☆☆
goodreads/b&n/amazon
How do you punish an immortal?
By making him human.
After angering his father Zeus, the god Apollo is cast down from Olympus. Weak and disorientated, he lands in New York City as a regular teenage boy. Now, without his godly powers, the four-thousand-year-old deity must learn to survive in the modern world until he can somehow find a way to regain Zeus's favour.
But Apollo has many enemies - gods, monsters and mortals who would love to see the former Olympian permanently destroyed. Apollo needs help, and he can think of only one place to go . . . an enclave of modern demigods known as Camp Half-Blood.
full review under the cut!
Hello everyone and welcome to all of our favorite time of the year: new Rick Riordan release time! And this time, it is even more exciting than usual because it is a new book concerned our favorite Greek and Roman demigods. And also gods. This is the first in a new five (I believe) book series that is centered around the god Apollo, after Zeus curses him with mortality. Apollo falls to earth in the form of a sixteen year old boy named Lester, and then has to seek help from the demigods at Camp Half Blood. This book, as is to be expected, is hilarious and fun, just like Riordan's other novels, and there is something just even more hysterical about Apollo being the narrator. I absolutely love the idea, and though no, I didn't love it as much as PJO or HOO, it is still incredibly fun and creative, and the cameos by all my favorite characters made it even better.
First of all, Apollo is a great narrator. I love how much Rick Riordan committed to him being as egotistical and out of touch as possible, and though he's supposed to be a four thousand year old deity, he's still clueless. (which makes me feel better about my own life, weirdly enough? haha) I love the voice, the haughtiness and taking everything for granted just feels right for this character. That being said, I did love that we got to see some growth, that even a god can change his tune a little bit, and change it without losing the little spark that makes him who he is. The scenes where Apollo had to let himself face reality, instead of living in his own little world where everyone loves him unconditionally, were super effective. I also liked that we got to see some regret over his relationships with Daphne and Hyacinthus, and that he grew fond of Meg, Nico, his kids, and the other campers at Half-Blood.
(this paragraph is a lil spoilery, if you want to avoid that, maybe skip) The thing that had me wondering as I started this book was who the new Big Bad was going to be. We've already defeated Kronos and Gaea, so I was skeptical as to what was left for us to kill. However, I am now really interested to see where Riordan takes the plot of these books. I was totally not expecting him to bring in thought-to-be-dead Roman Emperors, but I really loved that he did. I also liked how this storyline also weaves into the other two series, and it makes sense, chronologically. That being said, its a lot scarier, especially since our five star demigods– Percy, Annabeth, Jason, etc– are sitting this one out, it seems. I'm sure there will be a battle scene somewhere down the line where everyone comes together, but until then, I wait. Though I missed reading about these familiar people, I do like that we got new demigods, from many different godly parents. Meg being a powerful daughter of Demeter is an awesome thing, and I will always love reading more about Will Solace and Nico. I like that these books will give other demigods a chance to shine. THOUGH CAN WE TALK ABOUT LEO COMING BACK AT THE END? I was not expecting that at all, though I was hoping against hope that he wouldn't be left in the limbo that was the end of Blood of Olympus. I am so so happy about him and Calypso helping Apollo now though :) Leo is just the best.
I didn't expect to love the new characters as much as I did, but I definitely had a blast getting to know Meg especially, as well as the younger Camp Half Blood demigods. It was nice to see some familiar faces: The Stolls, Miranda Gardiner, Sherman Yang, but I also love seeing new people, like Paolo, Kayla, Chiara, and the Victor sisters. I just think that Rick Riordan does a great job at introducing a lot of characters and making them all lovable, even if all of them are not equally important to the plot of the story. Basically, I just love any opportunity to go back to Camp Half-Blood, it feels like home at this point. This book is a great opener to a new series, and I just thank my lucky stars that Rick Riordan isn't quite out of ideas for the Greeks yet.
xx
Caroline
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