Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan

*****

Son of Neptune (“SoN”) picks up the story introduced in The Lost Hero tracking the progress of seven heroes who will rise against a burgeoning evil. In the final installment of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series we first heard the prophecy which foretold the struggles to come:

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

 

The Lost Hero introduced Jason, Leo and Piper to us and Camp Half-Blood (see Nat’s review here). The Lost Hero also warned us that our beloved Percy had gone missing, causing frantic searches by Annabeth, Tyson and Percy’s friends.

SoN picks up several months after The Lost Hero and finds Percy fighting to survive without his memory. He knows he is a demi-god and he remembers his girlfriend, Annabeth, but other than that, he has no memory. Percy is led to a hidden camp filled with the descendants of the Roman gods. Percy is declared a son of the Sea God, Neptune, and the goddess Juno vouches for him. He is accepted into camp and befriended by two warriors, Hazel and Frank. The three set out on a quest to the land beyond the gods to stop the rise of powerful giant.

The Heroes of Olympus series is a little more complex and confusing than Percy Jackson and the Olympians because of the distinction between the Romans and Greeks and the duality of the gods, monsters and even the heroes. My nieces and nephew (5, 7 & 9) just finished a family reading of Percy Jackson and the Olympians and I am not sure they would understand the duality in SoN. These themes were hinted at in The Lost Hero; however, Hero took place in the familiar world of Camp Half-Blood and the Greeks. The issues and differences are much more pronounced and essential in SoN. While Camp Half-Blood deals with life and death situations, the Roman camp seems much more intense, making Camp Half-Blood seem light-hearted in comparison.

All this aside, it was wonderful to spend time with Percy again, like hanging out with an old friend you had not seen in a long time. SoN allows you to catch up with Percy and see how he has grown and changed in the 10 months since the Battle of Olympus. We also get to meet some fun new heroes and friends, as they try to defeat Gaea and her giants.

Unlike Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, where each book seemed self-contained, Heroes of Olympus leaves you hanging and clamoring for answers. SoN ends just when things were getting good and left you needing to know what happens next. I hope that Mark of Athena starts where SoN left off, but if Lost Hero and SoN are any indication, I cannot begin to guess where Rick Riordan is going to pick up the story.

Heroes of Olympus is darker, funnier and more mature than the Percy Jackson series. Riordan really brought the funny in SoN, there were several sections that had me laughing out loud. I thoroughly enjoyed Son of Neptune and was sad to see it end. I rarely give 5 stars, but I am giving them to Son of Neptune because Riordan really is brilliant to enthrall me so…

~Shel

A Peek in the Biblio-Bin #8

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren. It is a way for bloggers to share what books they have won, received for review, bought from the bookstore, borrowed from the library or friend, etc.

This week Shel share her finds.

A modern retelling of the German fairy tale "Tristan and Isolde," Tris and Izzie is about a young witch named Izzie who is dating Mark King, the captain of the basketball team and thinks her life is going swimmingly well. Until -- she makes a love potion for her best friend Brangane and then ends up taking it herself accidentally, and falling in love with Tristan, the new guy at school

The year is 2009. Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is a normal guy… he’s in college, has a girlfriend… and he can travel back through time. But it’s not like the movies – nothing changes in the present after his jumps, there’s no space-time continuum issues or broken flux capacitors – it’s just harmless fun.

That is… until the day strangers burst in on Jackson and his girlfriend, Holly, and during a struggle with Jackson, Holly is fatally shot. In his panic, Jackson jumps back two years to 2007, but this is not like his previous time jumps. Now he’s stuck in 2007 and can’t get back to the future.

Desperate to somehow return to 2009 to save Holly but unable to return to his rightful year, Jackson settles into 2007 and learns what he can about his abilities.

But it’s not long before the people who shot Holly in 2009 come looking for Jackson in the past, and these “Enemies of Time” will stop at nothing to recruit this powerful young time-traveler. Recruit… or kill him.

Piecing together the clues about his father, the Enemies of Time, and himself, Jackson must decide how far he’s willing to go to save Holly… and possibly the entire world.

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.

Percy is confused. When he awoke from his long sleep, he didn't know much more than his name. His brain fuzz is lingering, even after the wolf Lupa tol him he is a demigod and trained him to fight with the pen/sword in his pocket. Somehow Percy manages to make it to a camp for half-bloods, despite the fact that he has to keep killing monsters along the way. But the camp doesn't ring and bells with him. The only thing he can recall from his past is another name: Annabeth

Hazel is supposed to be dead. When she lived before, she didn't do a very good job of it. Sure, she was an obedient daughter, even when her mother was possessed by greed. But that was the problem - when the Voice took over he mother and commanded Hazel to use her "gift" for and evil purpose, Hazel couldn't say no. Now because of her mistake, the future of the world is at risk. Hazel wished she could ride away from it all on the stallion that appears in her dreams.

Frank is a klutz. His grandmother says he is descended from heroes and can be anything he wants to be, but he doesn't see it. He doesn't even know who his father is. He keeps hoping Apollo will claim him, because the only thing he is good at is archery - although not good enough to win camp war games. His bulky physique makes him feel like an ox, especially infront of Hazel, his closest friend at camp. He trusts her completely - enough to share the secret he holds close to his heart.

Beginning at the "other" camp for half-bloods and extending as far as the land beyond the gods, this breathtaking second installment of the Heroes od Olympus series introduces new demigods, revives fearsome monsters, and features other remarkable creatures, all destined to play a part in the Prophesy of Seven



Tell us what reads you are looking forward to this week!

A Peek in the Biblio-Bin - #6

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren. It is a way for bloggers to share what books they have won, received for review, bought from the bookstore, borrowed from the library or friend, etc.

This week Nat gives you a peek into the Biblio-Bin.

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

Evie finally has the normal life she’s always longed for. But she’s shocked to discover that being ordinary can be . . . kind of boring. Just when Evie starts to long for her days at the International Paranormal Containment Agency, she’s given a chance to work for them again. Desperate for a break from all the normalcy, she agrees.

But as one disastrous mission leads to another, Evie starts to wonder if she made the right choice. And when Evie’s faerie ex-boyfriend Reth appears with devastating revelations about her past, she discovers that there’s a battle brewing between the faerie courts that could throw the whole supernatural world into chaos. The prize in question? Evie herself.

So much for normal.

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.

Percy is confused. When he awoke from his long sleep, he didn't know much more than his name. His brain fuzz is lingering, even after the wolf Lupa tol him he is a demigod and trained him to fight with the pen/sword in his pocket. Somehow Percy manages to make it to a camp for half-bloods, despite the fact that he has to keep killing monsters along the way. But the camp doesn't ring and bells with him. The only thing he can recall from his past is another name: Annabeth

Hazel is supposed to be dead. When she lived before, she didn't do a very good job of it. Sure, she was an obedient daughter, even when her mother was possessed by greed. But that was the problem - when the Voice took over he mother and commanded Hazel to use her "gift" for and evil purpose, Hazel couldn't say no. Now because of her mistake, the future of the world is at risk. Hazel wished she could ride away from it all on the stallion that appears in her dreams.

Frank is a klutz. His grandmother says he is descended from heroes and can be anything he wants to be, but he doesn't see it. He doesn't even know who his father is. He keeps hoping Apollo will claim him, because the only thing he is good at is archery - although not good enough to win camp war games. His bulky physique makes him feel like an ox, especially infront of Hazel, his closest friend at camp. He trusts her completely - enough to share the secret he holds close to his heart.

Beginning at the "other" camp for half-bloods and extending as far as the land beyond the gods, this breathtaking second installment of the Heroes od Olympus series introduces new demigods, revives fearsome monsters, and features other remarkable creatures, all destined to play a part in the Prophesy of Seven.

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn't expect anything outside of the ordinary: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

But she, for whatever reason, spares Cas's life

Share with us the books you acquired this past week!

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

* * * *

Jason has a problem. He doesn’t remember anything before waking up on a school bus holding hands with a girl. Apparently she’s his girlfriend Piper, his best friend is a kid named Leo, and they’re all students in the Wilderness School, a boarding school for “bad kids.” What he did to end up here, Jason has no idea—except that everything seems very wrong.

Piper has a secret. Her father has been missing for three days, and her vivid nightmares reveal that he’s in terrible danger. Now her boyfriend doesn’t recognize her, and when a freak storm and strange creatures attack during a school field trip, she, Jason, and Leo are whisked away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood. What is going on?


Leo has a way with tools. His new cabin at Camp Half-Blood is filled with them. Seriously, the place beats Wilderness School hands down, with its weapons training, monsters, and fine-looking girls. What’s troubling is the curse everyone keeps talking about, and that a camper’s gone missing. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist they are all—including Leo—related to a god.



I’ll probably start a riot by saying this but I love Percy Jackson more than…Harry Potter.

There. I said it. Did the world combust?

*Looking around waiting for flashes of lightning*




http://www.dangerousminds.net/comments/photo_double_rainbow_with_lightning_bolt/



Alright, looks like I survived saying the unthinkable.


There is just something about Percy and his friends that I find so endearing. So when I finally found the time to pick up The Lost Hero at the beginning of this year, I was ecstatic and suspicious all at the same time. I was ecstatic because, the world of Camp Half-Blood was back. I was suspicious because Mr. Riordan was starting a new series with new characters. What if I didn’t like them as much as Percy? What if the story was disappointing? What if, what if, what if?

Well I worried needlessly. The Lost Hero manages to stay close enough to the original series to make young fans happy but also holds its own apart from the Percy Jackson books. Jason, Piper and Leo end up being just as lost and loveable as our Percy.

The story begins with Jason waking up on a bus that is taking him and his friends on a field trip. The problem? He doesn’t know who he is, where he is or how he got there. Leo and Piper are at a loss as to why their friend doesn’t remember them. But before they can find a way to regain Jason’s memories, disaster strikes and the three of them find themselves as the newest guests of Camp Half-Blood. As they learn about their parentage and Jason tries to regain his memories, a new prophecy is given:

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

The three of them head off on a quest to not only fulfill the prophecy (or at least part of it) but also to learn more about Jason. And here begins what Riordan does best. Non-stop action. Along the way they meet both old and new friends and enemies. They overcome and/or escape ridiculously dangerous obstacles. It’s a wild ride that leaves you with a doozy of a cliffhanger.

There were three things that I absolutely loved about this book. First, Riordan cleverly alternates between three points of view (Jason, Leo and Piper). And even though each POV is in third person, you are still able to get a clear view into each characters personality. Second, it was super AWESOME to see both Greek and Roman mythology woven together. And third, I loved the age of the characters. Unlike the beginning of Percy, where the kids are 12 years old, Jason and his friends are 16/17 years old. The age difference allows for more action and a slightly more mature narrative.
I honestly could go on and on about how much I enjoyed this book but I don’t want to spoil any part of it for you. So I will just tell you this - buy this or borrow it. One way or another, you MUST read it!

And then when you are done reading it (because I told you to and you should all listen to me, Bel and Shel) go and buy or borrow Book 2, Son of Neptune, which was just released today. Just in case you didn’t figure it out from the title, PERCY IS BACK and the Bibliojunkies could not be more excited!

Now let’s live it up a little and celebrate Greek Week in true book blog fashion. We are GIVING AWAY a hardcover copy of THE LOST HERO by Rick Riordan. You can enter up to three times by doing one or more of the following - Leaving a comment on this post, Following us on GFC, or following us on Twitter.  Be sure to click on the “I Did This” button in the box below after each entry. This contest is open through 12:01AM CST on 10/9/2011. A winner will be announced on 10/10/2011.








If you haven’t yet done so, check out yesterday’s interview with the FABULOUS Jennifer Estep. She talks about her book, Touch of Frost and also tells us what fictional boy she would most want to date. Let’s just say that her response left me in a tizzy as she (along with Tahereh Mafi) is now direct competition for one of my long time fictional loves!  And don't forget to enter to win a copy of Touch of Frost!

And check back tomorrow as we continue our celebration of Greek Week with Shel’s review of Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini!



~ Nat