Tag: mythology

Marshmallow has already reviewed the first four books of Rick Riordan’s Heroes of Olympus series: The Lost Hero, The Son of Neptune, The Mark of Athena and The House of Hades. Today she shares her thoughts on the fifth and last book: The Blood of Olympus.

Marshmallow’s Quick Take: If you like books about mythology or if you have enjoyed reading other books by Rick Riordan, then this might be the book for you. (But again, if you have not read the first four books of the Heroes of Olympus series, you will not get too much out of it.)

Marshmallow’s Summary (with Spoilers): After spying on their enemies, Jason, Piper, and Annabeth summon Juno, who tells them that they must find Nike, and then they must find Artemis and Apollo, both of whom were banished by Zeus. The crew of Argo II finds the place that Nike should be, and sends Frank, Hazel, Leo, and Percy, since their godly parents don’t have any rivalries. (Nike is all about victory, and she gives off an aura of fighting that leads to fights among people with any underlying conflicts between them. If they had sent Annabeth, Athena’s daughter, with Percy, Poseidon’s son, the two might have fought and killed each other since their parents are rivals, even though Percy and Annabeth are friends.)

Nike tells the four friends that one of them will die and that they will need the Physician’s Cure to survive. They take Nike hostage to stop her from giving off her war aura, which is making the Romans and Greeks fight. They start to look for the ingredients needed for the Physician’s Cure.

Meanwhile, Leo is starting to make a plan to defeat Gaea. Remember the 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.

Leo is sure that he is the one meant to die, since Argo II’s crew thinks that the “To storm or fire” line in the prophecy means that one of the storm or fire people will die. Jason, being the son of Jupiter, is storm and Leo, who as a child of Hephaestus, has the power to create fire, is fire. But Leo is the only one that overlaps both of the groups, storm or fire, and the people who captured Nike.

Meanwhile, Reyna, Nico, and Coach Hedge are trying to get Athena Parthenos to Camp Half-Blood as a peace offering to stop a full-on war between the Romans and the Greeks.

Marshmallow’s Review: This is a great book to finish a great series. And I think that this is one of the best books in the series. Rick Riordan satisfyingly ties up the story about Greek and Roman gods and goddesses.

An interesting thing about this series is that the story in each book is told from more than one person’s point of view. And sometimes the narrators following one another are not in the same place, so we switch from one scene to another when we change narrators. For example, in the chapters told by Reyna, my favorite character, she is not in the same place as the crew of Argo II because she is with Nico and Coach Hedge, trying to bring Athena Parthenos to Camp Half-Blood.

The narrators in The Blood of Olympus are Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Jason Grace, Piper McLean, Leo Valdez, Frank Zhang, Hazel Levesque, Nico di Angelo, and finally Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano. So we do read the point of view of each of the seven belonging to the prophecy but also two other characters, Nico and Reyna, who are not part of the seven but turn out to be very important to the quest and the story.

Marshmallow’s Rating: 100%.

Marshmallow has already reviewed the first three books of Rick Riordan’s Heroes of Olympus series: The Lost Hero, The Son of Neptune, and The Mark of Athena. Today she shares her thoughts on the fourth book: The House of Hades.

Marshmallow’s Quick Take: If you like books about Greek or Roman mythology and have liked some of Rick Riordan’s other books, then this might be the book for you. However you will definitely need to have read the first books in the  Heroes of Olympus series to be able to dive into and get something out of this one.

Marshmallow’s Summary (with Spoilers): The Mark of Athena ended with Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase falling into Tartarus while trying to save the Athena Parthenos. Right before he fell, Percy had Nico promise that he would go to Greece and meet him and Annabeth when they escaped so they could all close the Doors of Death. Nico is a half-blood, a son of Hades, who is not part of the seven trying to fulfill the prophecy of seven, but he is also very important. We first meet him in The Titan’s Curse, the third book of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, and he will play a very important role in this book.

The crew of the Argo II moves toward Greece. They face many challenges, but they overcome them. A lot of excitement is unleashed. In the meantime in Tartarus we also read about Percy and Annabeth’s adventures. Some old friends and enemies show up.

Hazel, one of the seven, meets Hecate, the goddess of magic, who tells her that she should start to learn how to control the Mist, a magical mist that blocks mortals from seeing gods and monsters. If controlled, it could give one the power to create images that would appear real but they are really fake. Hecate leaves her polecat with Hazel to oversee her test. As they travel towards Greece, Hazel knows that she will meet an enemy who can control the Mist to make it look like anything. 

Marshmallow’s Review: The House of Hades is a great fourth book for a great series. And at over 580 pages and in 78 chapters, it is also a big book, in size!

Though it is a great book, The House of Hades should not be read unless you have read the previous books in the series. Reading the first series is a good idea too, since then you would know more about the characters.

I think that Rick Riordan does a great job of writing this book in multiple people’s views. He is also good at creating great characters, like Bob, or Iapetus. His character’s backstory was from a short story Rick Riordan wrote, Percy Jackson and the Sword of Hades from The Demigod Files.)

My favorite character is still Reyna, as I already said in my review of The Son of Neptune. One reason I like her is because she is probably one of the strongest female characters, and she is good at fighting. Every character is well thought of, and they are developed in a consistent way, so you could guess what they would do in a given situation. You can also pity them too, since some of them have sad pasts: some of the characters have lost family members or people that they cared about. 

Marshmallow’s Rating: 95%.