The Lost Hero (Heroes of Olympus, Book 1)
by Rick Riordan
Hyperion, 2010. 553 pgs. Fiction.
I have good news and bad news. The good news is that the first book in Rick Riordan's new Heroes of Olympus series is a crackling good read, Riordan once again employing his breakneck/wisecracking mythological adventure formula to splendid effect. The bad news is that the next volume, The Son of Neptune, will not come out until Fall of 2011. Until then we will be left to wonder what will become of young Jason, a Roman hero with amnesia, who finds himself at Camp Half-Blood after a terrifying fight with storm spirits over the Grand Canyon. With him are two friends whom he doesn't remember: Piper, daughter of Aphrodite and my personal favorite, Leo, son of Hephaestus who can generate fire with his hands and can fix or fabricate anything with the help of us trusty magic tool belt, including Fetus, the mechanical dragon. Without revealing too much I can tell you that the three friends leave Camp Half-Blood almost immediately upon arriving, on a quest to save Hera/Juno from an unnamed captor who wants the gods to fall and the giants to take over. On the way they meet Aeolus as an Olympian weatherman; King Midas; Llycaon and his wolves. They also go shopping in at a mall which must be entered through the sewer which is run by one of the most evil women ever to live; namely . . . but you can figure that our for yourself. Though there is a fairly long line of people waiting to read Riordan's latest, it will be well worth your time, and the wait.
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