Hello everyone!
Aside from the very random
Booktober post that I made about Percy Jackson's books, I haven't actually done a
Rick Riordan blog post in ... quite some time, judging by the look of my blog.
Now THAT is a bit of a shame.
As you may remember, I'm a huge Riordan fan and have been since I first laid my hands on
Percy Jackson and the Olympians, after which I proceeded to devour just about anything and everything that he had written at some point in his life.
Then that kind of stopped when his latest series started being published.
For some reason, maybe because unlike with the others I had to wait with the rest of the world for the books to get published, I sort of stopped after book three and never got to book four whatsoever.
Then this year marked the occasion for the final one's release, and I decided I had to have another go at it all.
Then I binge-read the lot of them. Now I spout Shakespearean verse.
At this point in time, I've read and recapped pretty much anything mythological that Riordan has ever released, so you'll be able to find a long list of books down at the bottom of this page, from his Greek ones to the Norse, and everything in between!
But tonight, it's all about one god.
The musical one.
The one with the chick magnet.
The series before this one is
Heroes of Olympus, and Trials actually continue right afterwards, with Apollo suddenly tossed to Earth in mortal form, without any of his powers, as
Zeus blames him and his descendants for starting the war with
Gaia and the giants, and for his penance that's basically what happens.
So after landing in a dumpster and somehow ending in servitude to a twelve year old, Apollo's quests begin!
In the first book,
Hidden Oracle, Apollo is basically shocked that his father has ONCE AGAIN stripped him of his powers and sent him to Earth, and he isn't a big fan of Meg, his new master, either, but they embark on a journey together and request the aid of one
Percy Jackson to bring them to
Camp Half-Blood. That's where Apollo learns the oracles have been out of whack, and figures out freeing them will get him back to divine status. Yipee! His first one is actually right within the camp borders, the ancient
Grove of Dodona, where he meets crazed emperor
Nero who turns out to be none other than Meg's stepfather, and she ends up going back to New York with the guy, leaving Apollo with nothing but his quest and a magical, talking arrow from the grove that speaks in Shakespearean English.
In book two,
The Dark Prophecy, with one oracle now freed it's time to work on the others, and so Apollo hitches a ride with Leo and
Calypso on top of Festus until the dragon declares war on Indiana and they end up at the Waystation, an ancient, magical location that serves as a hub for demigods in the area who need a safe spot to land. Here, Apollo has to deal with the realization that Meg has betrayed him, and that the Triumvirate of Roman Emperors (the three craziest from history) are after the Oracles to ensure their own supremacy. They only survive because they've practically become gods at this point, but instead of blasting them to pieces Zeus is letting Apollo deal with them. With a returning Meg, Apollo goes and faces some of the sins of his past in the
Cave of Trophonius, a demigod son of his, and has some of his powers restored when he blasts
Commodus out the nearest window.
In the third book,
The Burning Maze, Apollo and Meg need to enter the
Labyrinth, an old friend of ours from previous books, as something's been causing trouble and wildfires in California. Meg also has to return to her own home, where she and her father lived before he was killed, and it's revealed that their line goes back years. In the maze, Apollo must contend with the wrath of
Helios, the ancient sun titan, and free the
Oracle of Erythaea chained within. On top of that, before he can do anything else he has to steal some shoes from
Caligula, the worst of the Triumvirate, and unfortunately for him this ends in disaster when
Jason Grace, accompanying him, dies at the hand of the Roman emperor. The quests then become even more personal - as if they aren't already with the broken promise on the
River Styx.
In the penultimate chapter of this saga,
The Tyrant's Tomb, Apollo and Meg escort Jason Grace back to
Camp Jupiter for burial, but also learn that the Triumvirate is marching on the camp as well, so they hasten to warn
Reyna and the others of their impending danger. As for them personally, they have to find the tomb of a Roman King who dealt with the
Sybil, a priestess Apollo treated badly once upon a time and whose books of prophecy were found by the harpy Ella a while ago.
Tarquin, the Roman King, wants Apollo to join his ranks, but Apollo manages to free the Sybil and allow her to pass on, along with the
silent god, and then helps defend the camp from Commodus and Caligula. They do manage to destroy their
fasces, but it takes an almost-sacrifice from Frank to burn the lot of them to the ground. And there's still Nero to deal with.
So in the last book,
The Tower of Nero, Apollo and Meg head to New York where it all began and forge alliances to infiltrate the tower and defeat Nero, which in fact does happen through some trial and error, but even after all that is over, Apollo still has to go to
Delphi to deal with
Python, and finally understands what it means to actually want something more than you want yourself to live and thrive. By the end of his quests, he also understands the promises on the river Styx better, and is restored to godly stature by Zeus. However, this trip into humanity has forever changed Apollo, and he takes a final look at our heroes whom we've followed for 15 years of books and finally get the conclusion for most of them, as well as have Apollo promise to be more present and help them when needed. Nico and Will receive a prophecy from Rachel even as Apollo is visiting, but that's a story for another time ...
And that's that, folks!
After 15 years, Rick Riordan draws a neat bow over all the books covering his Greek and Roman mythology series, and boy, was this particular one a doozy. Not only did the stakes feel pretty high, but there were also challenges along the way and throwbacks to the other stories that you needed to pay attention to for it to all make sense.
And of course, the cameos from our favourite demigods like Percy, Piper, Jason, Reyna and the rest are more than appreciated. I've missed them!
Some of their stories have a satisfying conclusion, some maybe a little less so (I'm not 100% on all the endings for all of them, but, hey, you can't have it all, right?), but in the end the lesson of these books is that humanity is something to hold on to. The gods envy us what they cannot have, regardless of how immortal and powerful they are.
So polish those weapons, demigods.
For a new prophecy has been revealed.
Adventure, friendship and danger await.
Peace out!
xx
*images not mine
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