Marshmallow reviews The Mark of Athena (Book 3 of the Heroes of Olympus Series) by Rick Riordan

Marshmallow reviewed the first book of Rick Riordan’s Heroes of Olympus series: The Lost Hero, as well as the second book, The Son of Neptune. Today she reviews the third book: The Mark of Athena.

Marshmallow’s Quick Take: If you liked reading some of Rick Riordan’s other books or just like reading about Greek and Roman mythology, then this might be the book for you. 

Marshmallow’s Summary (with Spoilers): Before you read this blog post, you might want to read my other reviews of this series.

With the Argo II, a flying ship with many cool additions, Annabeth and the three half-bloods who were the main characters in the first book (Jason, Leo, and Piper), together with their protector Coach Gleeson Hedge, set off to find Camp Jupiter, the camp for Roman half-bloods. When they arrive, Annabeth is introduced to some of the main characters from the second book: Frank, Hazel, Reyna, Octavian, and others. Percy Jackson is also there, and Annabeth is glad to see him.

They spend some time in Camp Jupiter, until somebody in the Argo II fires at the camp inhabitants. Octavian convinces the Romans that the Greeks are attacking them. The Romans start to attack the Greeks from the Argo II so the crew has to run.

The Seven half-bloods that will make up the team responding to the Prophecy of Seven have to flee. Here once again is that prophecy:

Seven half-bloods shall answer the call,
To storm or fire, the world must fall,
An oath to keep with a final breath,
And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death

These are the Greek demigods in the group: Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon; Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena; Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite; and Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus. These are the Roman demigods: Jason Grace, son of Jupiter; Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto; and finally, Frank Zhang, son of Mars. And now people at Camp Jupiter think that they are bad guys and follow in pursuit.

Soon the seven half-bloods figure out it was Leo who fired at the Camp, but he cannot explain why he did it. And Annabeth has her own secrets she is hiding from the others: she hasn’t told them about the mark of Athena yet.

Marshmallow’s Review: I think that this is a great book that really makes the reader want to keep reading till the end. Once you have read the first chapter you will have to read the whole book. 

The Mark Of Athena is a great book, but it is part of a series, and this one especially will make the reader have to read the fourth book, The House Of Hades. Also before reading this book, you should definitely have read, at least, the first two books in the series: The Lost Hero and The Son of Neptune. I also think that you should read all of the previous books in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series (which is apparently abbreviated as PJO).

Most of the characters in this book have appeared in some of the earlier books, but we definitely learn a lot more about each of them, and we do meet some new characters (like Echo and Narcissus, for example). At the end of the book you are probably going to be so interested in the stories of these characters that you will just have to read the whole series.

Marshmallow’s Rating: 100%.