Review: #40
Title: The Lost Hero
Series: Heroes of Olympus - 1st book
Author: Rick Riordan
Read Before: no
My Comments: I was really looking forward to reading this as this series is the sequel to the Percy Jackson and the Olympians (PJO) series, albeit with a different casts (the original characters still appeared at times). The beginning is really slow, if I did not have the background of reading PJO, and if I was just a bit younger, I would have probably given up on this by now. With PJO, you get to the action and major plot points of the story straight away (but then again, they are half the length) while with The Lost Hero, it feels really dragged, and lacks… heart. The character development at the beginning is not good and almost nonexistent, from the way it is written, not first person (it seems it should be but it’s more like third person), you miss out on all the sarcastic comments, remarks and thoughts of the character. As such, this feels really bland, with none of the comedy that made PJO so enjoyable. As you get further, the plot starts to reveal itself and it is very intriguing, but when you have to get to around page 100 to start having your interests perk up, you know something is wrong. I understand the need for a lot of the things to be explained again since technically this is a new series, but for previous readers, it’s very repetitive (it’s like you’ve read the same facts for five books already!). To be fair, it does bring with it the feeling you get from reading PJO, since you’re back in that world and in that area, it has succeeded, it does keep you thinking about the plot and what had happened and what could happen. It gets a whole lot better after the initial beginning part, I guess with this book being the first of the new series it is just like The Lightning Thief, having the dubious honour of setting the scene, but one difference, The Lost Hero took a whole lot more pages to do it, as it had the luxury of having more pages in the book compared to Lightning Thief. It starts to really pick up as they three protagonists go on their first quest, and you start to grow on the characters and like them more and more, even the annoying Leo. My favourites of the three in order of preference would be Piper, Jason and then Leo. The relationship between Piper and Jason is somewhat cute, but I don't like how there’s a hint that it’s going to get more complex, as it’ll probably distract the reader away from the more important bits, PJO had a good balance of the relationship between Annabeth and Percy and the story. You don't see many old characters recurring in here, which is a disappointment, so you lost the already established chemistry between characters and the author has to build some new ones (which takes time). Losing the first person style of writing the book lost a lot of humor but there is still enough to be a fun and entertaining read. The plot becomes more complex and engaging, creating a lot of questions for you to ponder about. There weren’t many mythological monsters that were encountered which is one of the reasons why this one lost some of its touch, and the minor antagonists (or obstacles) are quite boring and uninteresting, they don't have that mysteriousness that makes you want to learn more. The book ending felt hollow, unfinished, like there should be a more satisfying explanation. The complete ending gives you a lot of clues and hints to how the next book might be about, I’ve got a feeling that The Son of Neptune (the second book in the series) might be (finally!) about Percy Jackson (didn't even get to see him at all in this book). Although initially against the two ‘factions’ of the demigods, it’s actually pretty well done. I’m mixed upon the new ultimate antagonist (Kronos was the one in PJO), but its something new, although I did managed to guess who it was before the book confirmed it. As with all good books, after finishing reading it, I miss it already, but not to the degree of sadness as PJO. This book doesn't have the Percy Jackson feel (like it’s not part of the same series/story/universe, but that’s the whole point I guess, something different), the words that’s closest to what I mean is like it doesn't have the essence of the PJO series. I eagerly await the sequel, and cannot wait until I can finish all five books in this series so I can see the overarching plot/grand picture. I guess I shouldn't be too hard on this book, under the standard of the last few books in PJO, my expectations were high, but The Lost Hero is a more engaging and interesting first book compared to The Lightning Thief, took me six hours and 50 mins to finish reading this and was going to give it a 7/10, but the ending revelations really pulled it up and made the whole reading experience worth it.
Rating: 7.5/10 (if you managed to get through the beginning...)
Rereadability Factor: 8/10