This is yet another book in The Trials of Apollo series by Rick Riordan (see previous posts here, here, and here). I thought this book continued the series, and it did deal with some disappointing aspects of the previous books. You can tell that Riordan is stepping up his game to get to the finale of the series.
The book starts with Apollo and Meg bringing Jason’s casket to New Rome. They join the Roman demigods who are recovering from a rough battle where a lot of them died and they see the impacts of this on the people there. They also meet up with a harpy who is writing out prophecies, and learn from that to go on an information-gathering quest. So they head out on that with some new and old friends, and learn about the plans for a bigger attack soon. And that they are keeping an old god captive, this god’s power is scrambling communication for the demigods. So on the eve of the attack Apollo, Meg, and Reyna head to free this god where they also find the remains of one of Apollo’s oracles. Apollo has to confront his past where he cursed the oracle and bullied this god. In the end, both decide to pass peacefully. They head back to camp in the middle of the battle, Apollo does a ritual to summon his sister Artemis. He then returns to the fight to watch Frank sacrifice himself, then heads to find and protect the harpy who is wanted for her gift of prophecy. Artemis finally shows up and defeats the last of the forces. A lot of characters die in the aftermath of the battle, but Frank is revealed to be alive! Apollo and Meg realize they have to head back to New York to confront the last remaining tyrant.
Alright so it is nice to catch up with some old characters. Thalia, Hazel, and a few others make an appearance. The battle in this book does also have stakes, there are characters that are beloved that die. Frank being revealed to be alive though is a nice twist as he would have been the second point of view character to die. I was actually really satisfied with that, as you see the characters grieving others so it isn’t a cop out to avoid their harm. And we do see the impacts of the battle that I criticized earlier for just being described as bad but not naming who died and giving consequences to that. You don’t often see that in the series, since it is for kids, and while it’s depressing it is important.
I also liked that Apollo had to confront parts of his past here. Again, still worried that he won’t be as entertaining, but his changes so far have been more in the way he approaches things rather than a totally different narrative tone which I like. In effect, he’s becoming a more fleshed out character as he becomes more human which is a cool twist. Like he has a backstory and a past and weaknesses and strengths (as his godly strength returns). Honestly the way this is being handled is masterful, really nice work by Riordan for making that happen.
All this is leading up to the final book in the series which I can’t wait to get my hands on!
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