Apollo is literally always falling in love and doing dumb stuff in the myths, and bringing that back in such a central way is nice. I like the way Apollo’s ridiculous mythical past is tied into the current plot. Although ToA doesn’t have quite the emotional clout of Luke with its villains, Nero (as Meg’s abusive but beloved stepfather) and Commodus (an ex-love of Apollo’s to whom Apollo promised his blessing) are more interesting as antagonists than anything from Riordan in a while. The villains in HOO weren’t all that memorable. The relationship to the bad guy was complicated. Annabeth had a deep emotional connection to him.
TRIALS OF APOLLO THE DARK PROPHECY SERIES
One of the best things about the original series is that the readers really cared about Luke. My point is that I kind of like the idea of seeing all the characters again, but I would also prefer to find a dynamic that really works and then stick to it. I’ve never exactly kept my contempt of Jason or hatred of Ella secret. I’m psyched about seeing Grover again (I super duper missed him in HOO), but I’m not excited about meeting up with some of the others. I adore Leo, but thought he was a bit of a miss this time around. I think this is the first book where he has been absent (yes, he was missing in Lost Hero, but he was narratively still very much present), and it was weird. I like the idea of Percy retiring (it’s about time, dude), but it did feel weird not to have him around. I really, really missed Nico this book (and, to be honest, I was never a huge Nico person until Hidden Oracle, when he really grew on me), and he was only mentioned once.
I do like the idea of seeing the old gang back, but I won’t pretend that I’m not a little dubious. Several other characters-Piper, Annabeth, Jason, Hazel, Reyna, Tyson, Ella-have been namedropped, and I get the impression that all of them (with the possible exception of Annabeth, who is knocking around in the Magnus Chase series) will pop up sooner or later. It definitely feels like Trials of Apollo is going to be a kind of victory tour for all the characters we got to know earlier. I do still like Meg’s age-appropriateness (she seems like a little kid not an adult in a kid’s body, which is one of my only complaints about some of the other books), but I still have not connected to her the way I have to so many of Riordan’s other characters.
This was emphasized, but the fact that Calypso was traveling Apollo’s trajectory-but without the humor and swag-made her difficult to especially care about. Similarly, both Calypso and Apollo were dealing with no longer being immortal and magical. If this had been lampshaded-if Calypso, perhaps, had highlighted their similarities and therefore created some uncomfortable tension-it might have worked out well, changing the dynamic from two characters unintentionally occupying the same space to two characters consciously competing for the role. They don’t fit well together, because they both awkwardly try to occupy the same narrative role. See the problem? Apollo and Leo are variations on a theme, which means that they work exceptionally well with characters who are very different from them (Leo with the implausibly calm, powerful, and perfect Jason Apollo with the taciturn and perpetually unimpressed Nico).
Apollo is… a cocky little bastard who has some cool skills and talks a big game but is a huge spaz and strikes out every time he falls in love, which is all the time. The problem is that Leo is a cocky little bastard who has some cool skills and talks a big game but is a huge spaz and strikes out every time he falls in love, which is all the time. He was my favorite character bar none in HOO, and that includes Percy (though I would probably vote PJO Percy over HOO Leo, but that’s a question for another day, if ever). But he did not mesh as well with Leo and Calypso as he did with Will, Nico, and the other demigods at Camp Half Blood. I love his cockiness juxtaposed with his absolute patheticness. My immediate reaction to the novel is that I enjoyed it, but that it was a bit of a letdown compared to most of the other Greek-based books Riordan has done (when I say most of I am referencing Lost Hero, which I think is the weak point of the first ten books, although I did still like it).Īpollo’s POV continues to be charming. I didn’t invest the time to reread PJO and HOO, but I did reread The Hidden Oracle in order to prepare myself as best as possible. I was super excited to get the second book of Rick Riordan’s Trials of Apollo series.
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