Wednesday, October 08, 2014

The Blood of Olympus Book Review

Yesterday, Rick Riordan's Blood of Olympus was released. It's the final book in the Heroes of Olympus series. The book picks up from the 4th book of House of Hades. In the 5th book, our heroes go through many more trials on their way to 2 climactic battles. Riordan shows his usual crazy humor such as the minor sea goddess whom Jason Grace promises to create an action figure for while at the same time keeping the story moving along. I won't spoil the ending but, I don't think there will be any devastated Riordan fans at the end of the story i.e. it has a happy ending.

Overall, I found the story ok. I thought it weak in some parts like the blood certain demigods shed to waken Gaea. I mean we're led to believe there is going to be some terrible sacrifice and, the sacrifice ends up being lame.

Still, the book will be a must read for Riordan fans. Price wise, the Costco near which I live is selling it for $10.99 in hardbound. Also, Barnes & Noble is selling the electronic version for the same price.

Lastly, Riordan fans will be very delighted at the far end of the book where Riordan announces the new series he'll be coming out with next October called Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard. And yes, it's not a coincidence that the Chase in the title has the same last name as Annabeth Chase. We'll find out next October what the connection is. Happy reading all.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Sad to see that this amazing series is finally at an end. :(
Though I did enjoy the book for the most part, particularly Nico and Reyna’s POV’s. I felt that Percy, Annabeth, Frank and Hazel were hardly mentioned. I know this is about 7 demigods not just Percy, but I think his and Annabeth were pushed to the side in this story and then brought out when their blood was needed (even that was anticlimactic).
The thing I loved most about The Last Olympian, was the amazing epic battle finale. In this, the Gods appear from the sky and within a couple of chapters the Giants are defeated. Then Zeus does a volleyball spike to propel the Argo II to Half-Blood Hill to defeat Gaia before she even does any damage!
I’m sorry I felt a little underwhelmed with the conclusion, considering this moment was 5 books in the making.
Its been a great series and despite my issues with the finale I did enjoy it on a whole. I’m not whether I’m going to read the Magnus Chase novels, because even though I’m interested in Norse Mythology, I think I’ve outgrown Riordan’s style.
Here’s my review of BoO … http://rwh92.wordpress.com/2014/10/09/bloody-brilliant/

Ditto said...

Richard, I agree with you about being underwhelmed with the conclusion. The raising of ALL the giants was supposed to be extremely disastrous and yet, they got wiped with hardly a whimper and, Gaea was supposed to be something that could've challenged all the Gods and doesn't. I liked some of the earlier books in this series such as Son of Neptune but, this one in my opinion didn't particularly shine.