This is the second book in Riordan’s The Trials of Apollo series (first one can be found here). I honestly think that this one was even better than the first installment! Which is rare, but I think also makes sense for this franchise, the first book had to tie it to the rest of the universe and this one allows the series to open up and breathe a little.
The series opens with Apollo, Leo, and Calypso flying their dragon to Indianapolis. Apollo had visions of the place and then end up landing there to check it out. Almost immediately, the dragon malfunctions and they end up getting chased by demons through the streets to the Waystation, an outpost designed to protect travelling demigods. Right now it’s not used much, one of the Triumverate (a group of 3 reincarnated Roman emperors who want to take over the world or something) is in town and he has his minions all over the place. Emmie and Josephine are two ex Hunters of Artemis and they run the place.
Here Apollo learns that one of the ancient Oracles is in town. It’s a wild one, there’s a cave you enter that destroys your sanity and gives you a prophecy. You then exit and sit on the Chair of Memory to release the prophecy and regain your senses. Jo and Emmie’s daughter went there and they think she was captured. Apollo gets enlisted to help them, so he goes into the enemy camp with Calypso. There they manage to free the griffins that were kidnapped from the Waystation and Apollo is reunited with Meg. They head back and make plans to return and find Jo and Emmie’s lost daughter. They do find her, and many others that they then free. The Emperor starts making plans to find the Waystation and destroy it, Apollo and Meg though need to find the ancient Oracle so they peel off to do that. Meg then gets infected with the prophecy, Apollo drags her back and returns to a fight. One of the griffins is killed in the fray, but our heroes are eventually successful. Meg’s prophecy is a Shakespearean sonnet telling them to head to Camp Jupiter, and saying that they need a satyr to guide them. The book ends with Meg finding Grover Underwood and telling him to lead them.
There’s a lot to love about this book. To start broadly, I love the world building within the Midwest since that area tends to get overlooked. The Waystation is a really cool piece of history and it makes for a neat stopping point for the crew. There aren’t many places that demigods are able to grow old (we don’t even see that at Camp Half-Blood, it’s just Camp Jupiter) so it’s good to see more of that emerging in the world.
There’s also world building within the universe of this series. One of the liberated captives from the emperor is a demigod who is from Yoruba mythology. His powers are clearly different from the Greek/Roman gods, even though it isn’t specified at this time. Riordan has implied this in the past, but this is the first confirmation that we get from Apollo that this is a real, and valid, occurrence.
Finally there’s clearly a move to make this book really accepting. Apollo is very queer, and a lot of this book revolves around him as a parent and as a person. Previous relationships that he’s had with men are brought up and play a large role in it. And it’s never seen by any of the characters as odd or strange. And there are multiple instances where it’s specified that everyone should be respected regardless of ability. This is stated in response to some demons being color-blind, and when a character is literally blinded by Apollo. It’s really nice to read this and to not have to encounter hatred within this fictional world.
I’m very excited for the third installment. Grover is one of
my favorite characters, and it seems that we’ll be back at Camp Jupiter seeing
that cast of characters. Onwards!
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