Review: The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus #1) by Rick Riordan

Title:  The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus #1)
Author:  Rick Riordan
Pages:  557
Release Date:  October 12, 2010

Synopsis:
Jason has a problem. He doesn’t remember anything before waking up in a bus full of kids on a field trip. Apparently he has a girlfriend named Piper and a best friend named Leo. They’re all students at a boarding school for “bad kids.” What did Jason do to end up here? And where is here, exactly? 

Piper has a secret. Her father has been missing for three days, ever since she had that terrifying nightmare. Piper doesn’t understand her dream, or why her boyfriend suddenly doesn’t recognize her. When a freak storm hits, unleashing strange creatures and whisking her, Jason, and Leo away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood, she has a feeling she’s going to find out. 

Leo has a way with tools. When he sees his cabin at Camp Half-Blood, filled with power tools and machine parts, he feels right at home. But there’s weird stuff, too—like the curse everyone keeps talking about. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist that each of them—including Leo—is related to a god. 

Join new and old friends from Camp Half-Blood in this thrilling first audio book in The Heroes of Olympus series.

Review:

After reading Rick's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series earlier this year I was looking forward to reading this new installment in the same world.  I'm glad he continued the story of Percy Jackson and the gang indirectly with the introduction of new main characters.  We now get to see the Roman side of the mythology and the alternate personas of the gods.  There is even a glossary in the back of the book telling you the gods name, what they're known for, and their Roman counterpart.  In the Percy Jackson series there was a lot of Greek; in this book there is a lot of Latin which is an added bonus for me because I took Latin for my college language requirement.  It's fun being able to translate the Latin sentences before the characters do. 

When I first started reading the series it took me a little while to get into the story because I'm so used to reading about Percy and Camp Halfblood and now, after the events of The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #5), there are more demigods which means new faces in the story.  After all, we did have five books to get to know Percy, Annabeth, Grover, Tyson, and the rest.  After reading a couple chapters I started realizing that, while this is in the same world with some of the same characters from the first series, it definitely has a slightly different feel to it and a new threat.  Most of the book is spent covering the identity crisis of Jason, our new main guy.  He doesn't have any memories beyond the first chapter of the book but it added to the suspense and mystery of his character.  I was really intrigued with all his abilities and I'm starting to think that I like him more than Percy.
 
The book is told in first person from the point of view of the three main characters: Jason who seems to have a bad case of amnesia but is driven by instinct, Piper who has had a rough yet privileged childhood and is on a mission of her own, and Leo with a dark past that weighs heavily on his shoulders.  They are the same age as Percy and Annabeth meaning this series is starting off with older characters (when Percy first started his journey he was only 12) which makes it a little better for me because I think I have a slight crush on Jason. 

Overall, I enjoyed this book and the non-stop adventure.  I am happy with the new characters and glad that we get to see what happened to the characters from the previous series.  The Lost Hero was an exciting ride and another favorite of 2010.

The next book, The Son of Neptune (The Heroes of Olympus #2), will be released October of 2011.