The three heroes in this book are named Piper, daughter of Aphrodite,
Jason, son of Zeus, and Leo, son of Hephaestus. It starts off on a field trip,
where all three of them are attending Wilderness school (for “bad kids.”) Jason
has no recollection of the school or Leo who claims to be his best friend and
Piper who is apparently his girlfriend. They are attacked by storm spirits
called venti, and their camp director, Coach Hedge, is carried away by them. Of
course, Coach Hedge is a satyr assigned to keep Piper, Leo, and Jason protected,
just like Grover in Percy Jackson. A girl named Annabeth takes the trio to Camp
Half Blood, the only safe place for demigods. There, a lot of the characters
backstories are made known. Annabeth reveals to Piper that Jason was never her
boyfriend, and he used something that is used to cover up all the magic that muggles
mortal humans would not understand, called The Mist. To add to that, Piper’s
dad has been kidnapped by a giant who wants her to betray her friends in
exchange for her father. We learn that Leo is a rare child of Hephaestus who
can produce fire, as well as resist it. His mother was killed by a fire he
started (as well as other things you’ll learn about later in the book), and
Hera was his babysitter. Jason’s whole quest is to regain his memory, but
Chiron the centaur tells him he should be dead, and he strangely knows all the
gods for their Roman names rather than the Greek ones. They embark on the
journey on an epic, metal, happy dragon named Festus (Festus means happy J.) Before they leave here’s what they know: the
gods aren’t communicating with any of their children and they’ve closed off Olympus,
Annabeth’s boyfriend Percy Jackson is missing, and Hera has been captured by a
giant. Not much to go on, but they know they need to save Hera, and Piper’s dad
while they’re at it. They start off by going to see the god of the north wind,
Aeolus, and later run in to all sorts of things like Cyclopes, a hypnotizing witch,
King Midas, and much more.
Riordan is an amazing author! I loved the Percy Jackson series,
and this one isn’t far behind. My favorite thing about him is the characters he
creates. Jason’s very down to earth, very serious, but it’s because of his
conflict with memory loss. Piper’s conflict adds the most suspense to the story.
She’s afraid to get close to Leo and Jason because she knows she’s just going
to have to betray them. Leo’s my favorite character. He adds so much humor to
the story, and he’s just plain awesome. But deep inside he’s really sad because
of his mom and crazy childhood with Hera as his babysitter. He describes running
from foster home to foster home, making friends, and laughing it off, then
running again, “Don’t stay in one place for too long. It was the only way to
stay ahead of the sadness.”
It’s difficult to compare to Percy Jackson. I don’t know
which one is better. Percy Jackson was funnier I think, and The Lost Hero is
more complicated. The clash between Greek and Roman worlds is pure genius! But
again, quite complicated and I liked how carefree-ish the Percy Jackson series
was. The suspense in The Lost Hero kept me on edge wanting to read. My love for
the character in both books is equal. It’s a tough comparison.
Overall, I would totally recommend this book to anyone. It’s
a great read, you don’t really have to read Percy Jackson first (but it’s nice
so you know Annabeth and Percy and have more knowledge on Half Blood Camp.) You
also don’t need too much background knowledge on Greek and Roman gods, because
it is explained in the book. A
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