Review: #189
Title: The Son of Neptune
Series: Heroes of Olympus - 2nd book
Author: Rick Riordan
Read Before: no
My Comments: First off, I’m disappointed in this book, I’m biased by the Percy Jackson series, yet I don’t want to be blinded by it. There are many elements that I personally don’t really like here, but it was still a decent read. The plot was too slow, unlike The Lost Hero, where there was a good reason for that (slowly revealing the plan of Hera and the two factions of demigods), Son of Neptune is slow just for the hell of it, and if anything, the plot progresses even slower than The Lost Hero. The first one fifth of the book, you get a feeling that it seems to be repeating the formula, and it’s starting to get stale, you get a guy who’s lost his memories, a quest that requires them to defeat a giant within a time limit (five days in this case) before an important date, and two companions, who each hold their own secrets. Sounds exactly like The Lost Hero. Thankfully, the similarities end there, and it gets a bit better, still not super awesome like you would expect though. The secrets and back stories of Hazel and Frank takes too long to be told, it was near the end of the book where it’s finally revealed what abilities Frank has!!! Speaking of his abilities, it feels wrong somehow, like it doesn't suit him as much as Leo’s power or Hazel’s power. It also felt that while I had turned over hundreds of pages, it felt that the story hadn’t advanced that far, the encounters weren’t interesting. I had noticed this with The Lost Hero, but it’s even more apparent here. The encounters with mythological beings have gotten far less interesting and enjoyable to read. Percy seems to have been downgraded too, he’s not the awesome funny powerful guy that’s loyal to his friends anymore, and I guess once you have defeated Kronos, it’s very hard to top that. I think I have been used to him being the leader of the group, or close to it, or even when told in first person view, it is much better than the third person approach the author has taken here (it worked well enough for The Lost Hero, but then we didn't have a comparison). Two giants are defeated in this book, you’d expect Percy would have defeated them, but one of them is by Hazel and Frank. That defeat was disappointing, but what was even worse was how Percy defeated the second one. When compared to how Jason defeated Enceladus, Percy’s fight just wasn't as impressive. Last negative I have is that there are way to many relationships going on here, the one between Hazel and Frank feels like it’s just missing something, so it doesn't work well (Piper’s and Jason’s relationship worked perfectly). Then there’s Percy with his relationship with Annabeth, she was mentioned just a tiny bit too much, to the point where it’s annoying (and not to mention how there are a few other characters interested in him, like Reyna). It’s just that there are a lot of elements that while it’s not bad, just doesn't feel quite right. Yes, and the vital thing that was mission was… an actual prophecy for the quest!!! There are still good points, the obvious one is how Percy is back, but he seems to have lost his humour. I really like the explanation on how Percy loses his Achilles Heel, that was perfect. There are many great one-liners scattered throughout the book, and the appearance of Mars at the Roman Camp was hilarious. The scope of the plot has gotten much much bigger, and we delve more into the world of Pluto/Hades/Underworld which was excellent. Nico appears again, and we get to see the results of his constant travelling and realise just how much he really knows. The author has also pulled up very minor characters from previous books into this one, which is pretty cool (but totally unnecessary), and it even ends with something interesting about Leo. The ending is supposed to be a cliffhanger, but I’m just not feeling the same pull that The Lost Hero gave me. I am still looking forward to The Mark of Athena though. In the end, I may be a bit too harsh, but this is the worse book in the Percy Jackson series and the Heroes of Olympus series so far. It just seems to have lost the ingenuity of The Lost Hero and the Percy Jackson series.
Rating:
6.5/10