Book Chop: The Lost Hero

Title: The Lost Hero (Heroes of Olympus, #1)
Author: Rick Riordan
Genre: MG/YA Fantasy
Verdict: Good.

I really liked Riordan's Percy Jackson books. Read the Chops here and here. I picked up THE RED PYRAMID a few months ago and was about bored to tears with it, so that made me skeptical about his new HEROES OF OLYMPUS series--a new Camp Half-Blood adventure.

It's okay though. The series was good. It had everything enjoyable about the first series in it, including new and unexplored tales in Greek (and Roman) mythology. He changed it up a little though, by following three characters in third person narrative so as to explore many new facets of the world.

The three characters are Jason, Leo and Piper--children of Zeus/Jupiter, Hephaestus and Aphrodite respectively. They're among the most powerful of their kind though, and they've been chosen for a quest (naturally.) But unlike previous quests involving the recovery of artifacts or objects, they have to save Hera from being devoured by a giant...and Olympus has cut off their children from having contact. Despite the bridge-building efforts at the end of the Percy Jackson books, the young 'uns are on their own again.

Some parts lagged a little, but overall the pacing was good and it reminded me what I loved about the original series so much. It set up the rest of the series really well, so I'll keep up with it. Definitely worth a read.