The Son of Neptune

PercyJacksonFan - This was an amazing book! Rick Riordan did not disappoint. This book had a lot of cool moments even if they didn't include the old characters that much. I would recommend that you read the other Hero of Olympus book before reading this one. *SPOILER ALERT* This book was cool because it introduced two more characters- Hazel and Frank. Hazel is the daughter of Pluto and Frank is the son of Mars. It was funny because Percy disliked Ares who is the Greek form of Mars and he got along with Frank. It was strange that Hazel was dead and then cam back to life. My favorite quote from the book is “Um...is that thing tame?" Frank said. The horse whinnied angrily. "I don't think so," Percy guessed. "He just said, 'I will trample you to death, silly Chinese Canadian baby man'.” ― Rick Riordan, The Son of Neptune It is definaly a five star book. Can't wait till the next book comes out!!!! :-)

November 1, 2011
After spinning his wheels in series opener The Lost Hero (2010), Riordan regains his traction with book two of The Heroes of Olympus. Gaea is raising an army of giants to defeat the gods, and Juno has switched heroes Percy Jackson (son of Poseidon) and Jason Grace (son of Jupiter) in order to unite Greek and Roman gods and demigods in battle against her. His memory wiped, Percy knows only that he has another life and a girlfriend, Annabeth; he needs to focus now on winning the trust of the Roman demigods. As per usual, he has two appealing companions with intriguing back stories, Hazel Levesque (daughter of Pluto) and Frank Zhang (son of…?). The three undertake a quest to Alaska to defeat the giant Alcyoneus and free Thanatos, "the border patrol" of the Underworld, assisted and opposed along the way by a pleasing variety of magical beings. Riordan achieves freshness within his formula by giving characters and readers a new environment—Camp Jupiter, similar only in broad concept to Camp Half-Blood—to discover, and his pell-mell pacing has returned. As with all of Riordan's mythological tales, the details that bring the legends into the 21st century delight: The camp's augur reads the entrails of Beanie Babies; tiny, malignant grain spirits dissolve into Chex Mix; the Amazons' headquarters are in Seattle at, well, you guessed it. Should pacing and wit continue unabated into the third volume, whose foretold European setting promises further freshness, fans will eagerly await numbers four and five. (Fantasy. 10-14)

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December 1, 2011

Gr 5-9-No one does cliff-hangers quite like Riordan. In this installment in this series, he jumps off the one he left at the end of The Lost Hero (Hyperion, 2010) and hits the ground running. Percy Jackson makes a long-awaited reappearance on page one, with almost no memory of his identity, except for hazy recollections of a girl named Annabeth. He's in San Francisco, home of Camp Jupiter. It's the other camp for demigods, only here, the gods appear in their Roman forms. Most of the campers are suspicious and scared of Percy, but misfits Hazel and Frank welcome him. The demigod world is in an uproar. Monsters keep reappearing after they're killed, and the campers discover that it's because Thanatos, better known as Death, has been chained by Gaea, goddess of the earth. They must go on a quest to free him, and the heart-pounding adventure amps up even more. Riordan's ability to create characters that readers care about is extraordinary. Hazel, daughter of Pluto who leaves precious gems jumping from the ground in her path, and Frank, son of Mars who just might be the key to everything, are two of the most endearing demigods introduced so far. The vernacular of today's teens is captured masterfully, making the writing fresh and funny. The ending will make readers smile, even though they'll need to wait for the rest of the story. It can't come soon enough.-Mandy Lawrence, Fowler Middle School, Frisco, TX

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