Reviews and Comments

Another masterpiece by Rick!

Annabeth and Percy are reunited! After the long, heart-wrenching events of the previous book, Percy and Annabeth are finally back together, but the situation is dire. After a small predicament with Terminus, God of borders, the crew of the Argo II get into New Rome and are welcomed (if a little warily) until the Argo suddenly starts firing on the city.

In this book, 7 demigods and their trigger-happy Satyr chauffeur Coach Gleeson Hedge set off on a quest to Italy, the ancient land, in the flying boat the Argo II to try and save Rome and everyone's favourite demigod Nico di Angelo, son of Hades... or is that just me? Annabeth receives a cursed drachma from her mother and is told to follow the Mark of Athena and find the Athena parthenon, a forty-foot statue of the divine goddess Athena that was stolen centuries ago, but she has to go it alone.

Written by Rick Riordan as the third installment in the Heroes of Olympus series, this has, once again, vastly improved in quality as compared to it's predecessors, with new twists and turns at just the right time, the pacing was on point. As with the previous books, the perspective switching was well-timed and kept me turning the pages. And, of course, I wanted to know the Wine Dude Dionysus (or is it Bacchus??) "helped out".

This book is yet another phenomenal work from Riordan, but one criticism I stand by is that, until Annabeth set off on her solo quest, I found the whole Mark of Athena business hard to really care about. Sure, it might be the key to peace between the Greek and Roman camps, but it felt a bit neglected for a while, and even the quest itself started quite near the end of the book and felt a bit rushed.

Effectively, this is a must-read if you're into Greco-Roman mythology and culture, and even if you're not, it's a great fantasy read.

5 stars!