The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan

In this sequel to The Lost Hero, Percy Jackson finds himself battling his way to California, to join the Roman demigods at Camp Jupiter. Like Jason Grace in the preceding book, Percy has amnesia, but he quickly finds acceptance among the Roman legions at Camp Jupiter. He, a young daughter of Pluto, Hazel Levesque, and a son of Mars, Frank Zhang, realize that Gaea is waking and poses a terrible threat to the demigods and all humanity. They are assigned a quest to travel to Alaska to free Death and return the legion's lost eagle. Along the way, they'll each have to battle their own personal demons as they fight not only to save Camp Jupiter, but to find redemption.

Well, Rick Riordan continues with his fast-paced, action-packed style in The Son of Neptune. As with his other books, I didn't want to put this one down. In fact, I finished it in three sittings, over a period of three days; it was highly entertaining.

It was interesting to contrast the lifestyles of Camp Jupiter with those of Camp Half-blood. It's too bad readers don't get a more in-depth look at life in the Roman camp, but hopefully, that will come in the next book, The Mark of Athena. And I'll tell you what, if you didn't know both the Greek and Roman names of the gods before you read this book, you will when you're done. Percy realizes his Greek heritage a lot earlier in this book than Jason did in The Lost Hero, so you need to keep track of all the gods' names to understand who's being talked about.

The only flaw I find in this book is that it's formulaic. The characters are different, the quest is different, but events play out in the same order. And while there are more kick-ass female characters in this book, Percy is still the star of the show. However, these are just nitpicky details, because, let's face it, I devoured this book like a piece of deluxe fudge chocolate cake. It was delicious, and I want more.

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Copy source: personal library
Genre: young adult fantasy
Format: hardcopy

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The Son of Neptune