“The Lost Hero” by Rick Riordan

This was another book that helped with my reading slump, and that’s because it was a reread of a favorite. Reading it again reminded me why I enjoyed it so much my first time through. It’s a quick read, it’s funny, and it’s about Greek and Roman mythologies. What’s not to like?

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Genre

MG Fantasy

Series

Heroes of Olympus, book 1

Pubbed

2010

Quick synopsis

The Lost Hero kicks off a new batch of books by Rick Riordan, the Heroes of Olympus series. This series immediately follows the Percy Jackson series, middle grade fantasy about the demigod children of Greek gods, but focuses on a new cast of characters and is told from various points of view.

The Lost Hero focuses on Jason, Piper, and Leo, three kids on a field trip from the Wilderness School who seem to be leading relatively normal lives — except that Jason doesn’t know how he ended up on the Wilderness School bus — until they get caught up in some storm winds and their adventures in weirdness begins. The trio visit Camp Half-Blood, where they learn who their Greek parent is — or patron, in Jason’s case — and what they must do to help save the world. (Goodreads)

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My thoughts

As on my first read, my favorite character was Leo. Before rereading this, I wondered if that would change, if I would find Leo’s jokes too corny and juvenile to get on with and become annoyed by him and the story. But I’m glad that didn’t happen and that even though the jokes are corny, I still enjoyed them and chuckled a bit.

I also liked how Riordan mixes in situations and characters from Greek and Roman mythologies into his stories. I love that Aeolus, master of the winds, is basically a highly distracted, very energetic weatherman, and I enjoyed the adventure the characters had in Medea’s mall. In addition to Leo, I also liked Festus, the mechanical dragon, and that he folds down into a suitcase… Jason and Piper were fine too, but I just prefer the scenes involving Leo. Those parts were always entertaining.

The great thing about rereading this is that I’m paying closer attention to the story this time, so I caught that it was Medea who roused Gaea because she suspected Leo would be a threat one day with his fiery hands. I missed that my first time through, wondering how the conflict with Gaea got started. I also realized that I much prefer this trio than the trio in the Percy Jackson books, and I didn’t like that Leo always got stuck with cooking duty.

Anyway, it was great to revisit a favorite and find that it’s still a favorite. I look forward to reading the next book, which I didn’t enjoy much my first time through.

Overall: ★★★★★

I had a wonderful time reading it and the fact that it helped with my slump was a bonus.

Buy | Borrow | Bypass

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