“The Mark of Athena” by Rick Riordan

I’m slowly but surely going through Rick Riordan’s books again and revisiting the books that had such an impact on me when I was in high school and college. The Mark of Athena is part of the Heroes of Olympus series that follows the Percy Jackson series and focuses on seven different demigods instead of just one.

To recap, there’s three demigods from the Roman camp and four from the Greek camp. They’re working together to stop Gaia, mother earth, from rising again and unleashing monsters upon the world. Plus the Romans are mad at the Greeks and are attacking their camp soon. Low pressure. In this book they start at the Roman camp to bring them all together, where one of their party unwittingly starts a conflict between the camps, and from there they head to Rome to try and save another demigod who has been imprisoned by giants and has information that they need. Plus Annabeth, daughter of Athena, has been called by this mysterious duty called the Mark of Athena (ooo title drop) to rescue her mother’s statue in Rome.

Once in Rome, Annabeth heads off on her quest; Piper, Jason, and Percy go to save Nico; and Leo, Frank, and Hazel get led into a trap while also looking for Nico. Annabeth ends up finding the statue, but she opens up a hole to Tartarus (the godly depths of hell) in the process. Nico tells them that the Doors of Death, which need to be closed to prevent Gaia from awakening, have to be closed from both sides. One in Greece and one in Tartarus. Which then makes it oddly convenient that Annabeth and Percy are both pulled into Tartarus through the hole created. The others prepare to sail to Greece and meet them there.

There’s a lot of stuff in the book that I skip over. But honestly, my favorite part is the fact that it focuses more on Annabeth. Annabeth was in the Percy Jackson series, and played a huge role in it, but we never got to hear from her perspective. Even in the earlier Heroes of Olympus books we didn’t hear from her in favor of learning more about the newer characters. It’s great to see things from her perspective and see her get her own quest for once.

One of Riordan’s big themes is questioning that the gods are right or good in what they do. This comes up a number of times, but most dramatically with the spider Arachne who was turned into a spider for bragging that she was a better weaver than the gods. Was this a just punishment? Annabeth doesn’t seem to think so. But she also doesn’t want to die so she ends up casting the spider into Tartarus. Arachne then drags Annabeth in with her. A lot of Percy Jackson dealt with this theme, and how the gods’ whims could have a huge impact on mortals. It’d be nice to see it elaborated on a bit further here, especially as the end grows close.

And then there’s the ending. Percy and Annabeth falling into Tartarus together is one of the most vivid book endings in my mind. It sets up the next book so perfectly, and devastates you in the process. Percy doesn’t want to be separated from Annabeth again after he was transplanted to the Roman camp and she had to do a solo quest to get the statue. So he refuses to let her go and tumbles into hell with her. It’s enough to rip your heart out.

The next book is The House of Hades, let’s see how this series progresses!