patchworkbunny reviewed The Trials of Apollo by Rick Riordan
Review of 'The Trials of Apollo' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I absolutely loved Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series but had never got round to reading the follow up, Heroes of Olympus series. So when I saw there was a new series set in the same world, I was excited to give it a go without feeling the need to catch up, so to speak. Unfortunately, I felt The Hidden Oracle was very much a follow on from the other books and it seemed like I was missing information in places. It also contains spoilers for those Heroes of Olympus books if you haven’t read them.
The idea of Apollo falling to earth in a mortal teenage boy’s body was a good one and the story is narrated by Apollo which gives a bit of a different point of view. But I didn’t feel all that attached or sympathetic towards him. He’s a bit of a self-entitled whiner, and his self-discovery …
I absolutely loved Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series but had never got round to reading the follow up, Heroes of Olympus series. So when I saw there was a new series set in the same world, I was excited to give it a go without feeling the need to catch up, so to speak. Unfortunately, I felt The Hidden Oracle was very much a follow on from the other books and it seemed like I was missing information in places. It also contains spoilers for those Heroes of Olympus books if you haven’t read them.
The idea of Apollo falling to earth in a mortal teenage boy’s body was a good one and the story is narrated by Apollo which gives a bit of a different point of view. But I didn’t feel all that attached or sympathetic towards him. He’s a bit of a self-entitled whiner, and his self-discovery that he’s not all that likeable was a bit clichéd.
Maybe the thing that really didn’t work for me was the fact that Apollo is thousands of years old and quite wise to the world but he’s narrating a book for children. So he’s not quite got the voice of the teenage boy he has become, but he’s not convincing as a god either. This is probably less of a problem for the book’s target audience.
I mean, there’s loads of fun, because this is a Rick Riordan book. Yet it was lacking all those wonderful mythology in jokes from the Percy Jackson days. I would have liked a bit more inkling to what Apollo had done and some development towards him becoming a god again. I guess Rick must be planning on keeping him mortal for the whole “Trials of Apollo” series though.
If you like haiku, each chapter starts with one. Although they are of varying quality and humour as Apollo has also lost his godly poetry skills too.
Review copy provided by publisher.
