The Lost Hero, Great!

Thanks for Half-Blood Camp Wiki for the link to the picture! 
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    Today, I just completed The Lost Hero, Book 1 of the Heroes of Olympus series. This book is an excellent book. It is described by many as the Roman equivalent of the Percy Jackson series written by Rick Riordan. Riordan does a great job of blending his excellent books in the Percy Jackson series and adapts to this new series.

Summary:

     At the end of the Percy Jackson series, The Last Olympian, a prophecy was made about seven demigods who would affect the fate of the entire world. However, when The Lost Hero begins, the characters do not know any of this. The Lost Hero protagonist is named Jason who has no memory. He is holding hands with a girl he does not remember and another boy proclaims he is his best friend.  The three are attacked by mysterious wind spirits. However, a satyr quickly explains to them that they are in fact demigods. Piper, Leo, and Jason find themselves at Camp Half-Blood. The whole mythos is reborn again. Jason almost immediately realizes that he does not belong at Camp Half-Blood and goes on a quest to find himself. Through a series of bloody battles, Jason's quest for identity is partially revealed. Jason is not the son of Zeus, but the son of Jupiter, Zeus’ equivalent. Jason is told that it his destiny to unite the Greeks and the Romans to defeat the Giants of Gaea. Only together, can the world become peaceful once more.

Review: This is an excellent book, especially if someone loves the Percy Jackson series. I absolutely adore the Percy Jackson series and actually found this one to be almost better. It has a slight more maturity to it which could be from Rick Riordan's practice with all his books being released. This book is great for tweens who love to read about adventure and excitement, with a little romance and a quest for self-identity thrown in. In a way, The Lost Hero almost reads like an earthly Star Wars. Jason is embarking on Joseph Campbell's journey. The familiar characters in both the Percy Jackson series and the new characters in the Heroes of Olympus series blend together greatly. Rick Riordan is a great author who makes mythology fun and exciting.  

Genre Label: Fantasy/Historical Fiction (only because there is a retelling of traditional Greek and Roman History) 

Reading Level: 5th Grade Plus. (It has violence and a sweet romance, but definitely slightly mature) 

Interest Level: Love Mythology, Adventure, Romance, Self-Quest, and Double Identity

Awards: Unoffical Awards taken from: 

#1 New York Times bestseller

#1 USA Today bestseller
#1 Wall Street Journal bestseller
#1 Indiebound bestseller
#1 UK bestseller

http://www.rickriordan.com/my-books/percy-jackson/heroes-of-olympus/the-lost-hero.aspx 

Series Information: This is a spinoff of the Percy Jackson Series (aka The Lightening Thief, The Last
Olympian.) Recurring characters consistently occur and it is actually really fun to identity who is the son of who and guess who the villain is. Riordan is really great at dropping enough clues of who the villain is and believes that the reader is smart enough to figure out the villain at the end.

Personal Thoughts: Rick Riordan is a brilliant guy. He not only revamps mythology that people are so familiar and changes things up so that the Entrance of Mount Olympus lays at the top of the Empire State Building in America, but he so intricately blends Greek and Roman mythos so well. Throughout the The Lost Hero Riordan drops Latin terms and we journey through Jason's journey together. What is really interesting is that I feel that for Jason, unlike Percy who already had a sense of identity, is that Jason starts from scratch and we feel him embarking on that metaphorical Journey that Joseph Campbell so eloquently laid out for readers and writers alike. However, at the end of The Lost Hero, the seemingly "together" Percy is just like Jason, lost without a memory. Riordan introduces paradox or an alternate universe that is extremely brilliant and extremely fun to read. I feel that this book is a really great intorduction to help convince kids how fun reading can be.

If you like this book, then try: Percy Jackson, The Kane Chronicles, The Trojan War, Troy,

Bibliographic Information: Riordan, Rick. (2010). The Lost Hero, Heroes of Olympus (Book 1). Hyperion Press.