Review: The Blood of Olympus (Heroes of Olympus #5) by Rick Riordan
The Blood of Olympus
by Rick Riordan
Book Five in the Heroes of Olympus series. It is set in the same universe as the Percy Jackson series and The Kane Chronicles.
This review contains spoilers for previous books in the series.
MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE BLOOD OF OLYMPUS BELOW.
Gaea is waking, and unless the crew of the Argo II can stop her the world will end in just a few short days. Nico, Reyna, and Coach Hedge take the sacred Athena Parthenos back to Camp Half-Blood in the hope that restoring the statue will stop the civil war stirred up by Octavian while the other seven demigods hurry to Athens to prevent the giants from completing the ceremony to raise Gaea. Many obstacles rise to challenge the demigods, and without the help of the gods there will be no victory. But Olympus remains silent…
I’ve generally been a fan of Rick Riordan’s demigod stories, but something about this book just didn’t work for me. My first objection was to the unnecessarily high number of narrators. I’ve complained about Riordan’s jumping viewpoints before; although he scaled back from The House of Hades with only five narrators instead of Hade’s seven, it’s still a few demigods too many. I mean, it made sense. There’s so much going on in so many locations in such a compressed span of time that the narrative has to jump around to keep up. But some characters were horribly underdeveloped in this story, like Hazel Levesque, the magic-wielding daughter of Pluto who never gets a turn at narrating. Others are just fan favorites - was anyone else disappointed that Riordan never used the POVs of Percy and Annabeth?
Another thing that disappointed me was the inconsistency of the size of the giants. I mean, they’re described as being twenty, thirty, even forty feet tall - but when you read descriptions of their battles with the teenage demigods they sound like regular, human-sized enemies. The kids recover far too easily from physical blows and don’t seem to have much trouble injuring their oversized enemies. Every time Percy or Jason is described as leaping onto the back of a foe, I just wonder “How the heck did they manage to launch themselves thirty feet off the ground? I mean, I know demigods are stronger than regular humans but still…” So that was a constant distraction during many of the battle scenes.
Some of the little godling’s powers are strange. Piper suddenly fights like an Amazon warrior and sings as hypnotically as a siren…odd, I don’t remember her ability to do either of these things in the previous book. Nico’s personal anguish is apparently so potent that he can wield it like a weapon strong enough to kill…um, what? Really? The son of Hades has Emo powers based on the feels? I’m all for demigods progressing and increasing in strength, but some of these “level ups” just don’t make sense.
Another thing I’ve always wondered about: the crew of the Argo II are able to track the activities of the Romans, the giants, and other enemies through their dreams. I used to think that Percy was just special, but apparently every demigod has this gift - so why aren’t their enemies ever clued into their plans? That seems very unbalanced. Sure, the giants anticipate the demigods arrival in Athens, but that seems based on simple strategic planning, not on nocturnal visions.
Even the quality of the writing has dropped. Is Riordan trying to churn out too many of these books too quickly? I wonder. There’s an especially painful scene where Annabeth and Piper engage in a little ‘girl talk’ and the conversation sounds forced and faked. It wasn’t realistic for the characters and not for teenage girls in general.
Finally, happy endings are important at the end of a hero’s adventure, but considering this was a massive war with the entire world at stake, the fact that every major character got one was really unrealistic. I’m sorry, but someone should have died. Possibly several someones. We got that in The Last Olympian, but here Riordan went out of his way to find happiness and acceptance for every single character. I like many of these characters, but with two major battles raging there should have been more blood spilled than a couple of drops from Percy Jackson’s nosebleed.
I’m glad I read The Bloody of Olympus and finished everything up nicely, but I hope that next time Riordan feels the need to visit the world of the demigods, he focuses on a smaller group of protagonists. His scattered focus really weakened the storytelling. In the end, the book was a disappointing end to a series that had a lot of potential.
3.5 out of 5 stars
To read more about The Blood of Olympus, buy it or add it to your wishlist click here.
Peeking into the archives...today in:
2014: TV Shows: The White Queen
2013: Nobody's Secret by Michaela MacColl
2012: Fashionista Piranha on hiatus until May 24th…
2011: Dreadfully Ever After by Steve Hockensmith
2010: One Amazing Thing by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
2009: Local Bookstores Bank on Customer Loyalty
by Rick Riordan
Book Five in the Heroes of Olympus series. It is set in the same universe as the Percy Jackson series and The Kane Chronicles.
This review contains spoilers for previous books in the series.
MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE BLOOD OF OLYMPUS BELOW.
Gaea is waking, and unless the crew of the Argo II can stop her the world will end in just a few short days. Nico, Reyna, and Coach Hedge take the sacred Athena Parthenos back to Camp Half-Blood in the hope that restoring the statue will stop the civil war stirred up by Octavian while the other seven demigods hurry to Athens to prevent the giants from completing the ceremony to raise Gaea. Many obstacles rise to challenge the demigods, and without the help of the gods there will be no victory. But Olympus remains silent…
I’ve generally been a fan of Rick Riordan’s demigod stories, but something about this book just didn’t work for me. My first objection was to the unnecessarily high number of narrators. I’ve complained about Riordan’s jumping viewpoints before; although he scaled back from The House of Hades with only five narrators instead of Hade’s seven, it’s still a few demigods too many. I mean, it made sense. There’s so much going on in so many locations in such a compressed span of time that the narrative has to jump around to keep up. But some characters were horribly underdeveloped in this story, like Hazel Levesque, the magic-wielding daughter of Pluto who never gets a turn at narrating. Others are just fan favorites - was anyone else disappointed that Riordan never used the POVs of Percy and Annabeth?
Another thing that disappointed me was the inconsistency of the size of the giants. I mean, they’re described as being twenty, thirty, even forty feet tall - but when you read descriptions of their battles with the teenage demigods they sound like regular, human-sized enemies. The kids recover far too easily from physical blows and don’t seem to have much trouble injuring their oversized enemies. Every time Percy or Jason is described as leaping onto the back of a foe, I just wonder “How the heck did they manage to launch themselves thirty feet off the ground? I mean, I know demigods are stronger than regular humans but still…” So that was a constant distraction during many of the battle scenes.
Some of the little godling’s powers are strange. Piper suddenly fights like an Amazon warrior and sings as hypnotically as a siren…odd, I don’t remember her ability to do either of these things in the previous book. Nico’s personal anguish is apparently so potent that he can wield it like a weapon strong enough to kill…um, what? Really? The son of Hades has Emo powers based on the feels? I’m all for demigods progressing and increasing in strength, but some of these “level ups” just don’t make sense.
Another thing I’ve always wondered about: the crew of the Argo II are able to track the activities of the Romans, the giants, and other enemies through their dreams. I used to think that Percy was just special, but apparently every demigod has this gift - so why aren’t their enemies ever clued into their plans? That seems very unbalanced. Sure, the giants anticipate the demigods arrival in Athens, but that seems based on simple strategic planning, not on nocturnal visions.
Even the quality of the writing has dropped. Is Riordan trying to churn out too many of these books too quickly? I wonder. There’s an especially painful scene where Annabeth and Piper engage in a little ‘girl talk’ and the conversation sounds forced and faked. It wasn’t realistic for the characters and not for teenage girls in general.
Finally, happy endings are important at the end of a hero’s adventure, but considering this was a massive war with the entire world at stake, the fact that every major character got one was really unrealistic. I’m sorry, but someone should have died. Possibly several someones. We got that in The Last Olympian, but here Riordan went out of his way to find happiness and acceptance for every single character. I like many of these characters, but with two major battles raging there should have been more blood spilled than a couple of drops from Percy Jackson’s nosebleed.
I’m glad I read The Bloody of Olympus and finished everything up nicely, but I hope that next time Riordan feels the need to visit the world of the demigods, he focuses on a smaller group of protagonists. His scattered focus really weakened the storytelling. In the end, the book was a disappointing end to a series that had a lot of potential.
3.5 out of 5 stars
To read more about The Blood of Olympus, buy it or add it to your wishlist click here.
Peeking into the archives...today in:
2014: TV Shows: The White Queen
2013: Nobody's Secret by Michaela MacColl
2012: Fashionista Piranha on hiatus until May 24th…
2011: Dreadfully Ever After by Steve Hockensmith
2010: One Amazing Thing by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
2009: Local Bookstores Bank on Customer Loyalty