This is the third book in the Trials of Apollo series from Riordan (book one and two can be found at the links). I’ve been a big fan of this series, and this book was just as fun and enjoyable to read!
Our main duo of Apollo and Meg are navigating the labyrinth with Grover as their guide. They pop out over on the west coast, near Grover’s headquarters where they’re trying to control wildfires and save the plants and dryads of the region. Apollo thinks the fires have something to do with the resurrected Roman emperor in the region, Caligula, who was known for his ruthlessness. Caligula also wanted to replace Apollo as the sun god, and to do this he has enlisted a sorceress who wants to take Apollo, boil him down to his godly essence, combine it with the energy of Helios (the sun Titan), and use that to turn Caligula into a god. It’s Helios’ essence that’s causing the fires in the area, so Grover wants to stop them as well. Caligula also has a Sybil, a immortal human with the power to spout prophecies as word games trapped in the labyrinth, who Apollo must free. Meg and Apollo team up with the newly broken-up duo of Piper and Jason to find Caligula’s shoes which will lead them to the Sybil. Jason dies in the attempt. Grover, Meg, and Apollo then head into the labyrinth to find the Sybil. They free her, but also their new friend that Apollo was going to teach how to play the ukulele dies as well. Leo then arrives saying that Camp Jupiter is safe. Piper and her dad head to Oklahoma with Leo, Meg and Apollo go to bury Jason and then onwards to Camp Jupiter.
The main thing I want to talk about is pretty obvious: Jason is the first point of view character to die. It’s a really bold choice, and there are things I like about it and things I don’t. It’s a little disappointing to me in the sense that Jason was only in the book for a few chapters. He barely had a presence. He also just broke up with Piper, which nicely wraps up their relationship just in time for him to get erased out of the series. And let’s be honest, the guy is a carbon copy of Percy. If any of the characters were going to die, Jason is the most dispensable. His whole mission is to make sure all of the gods are worshipped, which is similar to what Percy promised after the first series. So with all that in mind, killing him off feels like just a way to up the stakes without having to develop him into his own character. It does up the stakes considerably though, Jason was a child of Zeus and a pretty powerful demigod. If you want to emphasize how murderous Caligula is, then this isn’t a bad way to do it. Riordan isn’t messing around here.
This book also gave a lot of insight into Meg’s backstory. What’s really nice is that Riordan is giving up bits of her story each book, so we learn more and more about a really central character. If we learned everything about her in the first book, then we wouldn’t keep reading. But developing this keeps the interest going without forcing it.
Like the rest of the books in the series, there’s a great mix of new and old characters. I loved seeing Grover again, he’s one of my favorite characters, and Coach Hedge makes an appearance. It’s a good connection to the rest of the Percy Jackson universe without making the series a direct extension.
I’ve talked about this before, but it is interesting to watch Apollo’s character development. In this book Jason tells Apollo to remember what it is like to be human, which Apollo interprets as remembering his relationships and friendships and grief. I do wonder where this is all going to go though, Apollo has become mortal before, so is all this development going to come to nothing? So far Apollo has kept his same snark and self-centeredness throughout, but how will that change? It’ll be interesting to see what Riordan does with him for sure.
Still a good series, still excited for the rest of it. We
are getting close to the end now, will have to see how this wraps up!
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