Author: Rick Riordan
Book One: The Hidden Oracle
Pages: 384
Yay! I am so excited to read more from Rick Riordan. Rick Riordan is the author of The Percy Jackson series and the Heroes of Olympus series. I think they are one of the most underrated series out there. Also, the movies are quite disappointing and downright enough to make you supremely angry. So my suggestion is to stick with the book series. We are all familiar with Percy Jackson, Poseidon’s demigod son, and his story. There are a total of 10 books in the Percy Jackson and Heroes series. Heroes of Olympus picks up where Percy Jackson left off. In that series, we meet all the Greek gods and their kids. More importantly we meet Apollo, who is the god of prophecies, among other things. Apollo slayed the serpent and thus the oracle was born.
The trials of Apollo begins from the last book in the series, Heroes of Olympus, leaves off. At the start of that series, the oracle has just spit out the newest prophecy about the destruction of the world. As we know, Gods are not supposed to interfere with demigod prophecies, it is extremely forbidden by the Fates. Any-who, Apollo and his twin sister interfere and their father Zeus, is not happy about it. Especially because Apollo is always doing these kinds of things. Right after the battle, Zeus expresses his unhappiness and Apollo is swooped away to be handed his punishment. That is the last we hear of Apollo, the Sun God, for a while. The next time Apollo appears he is falling from the sky with flames coming off his body. He is unable to shift shapes or prevent himself from his free fall to earth.
Apollo ends up in a dumpster after his fall aching in pain and smelling of trash. Zeus has decided to punish Apollo for interfering. Apollo realizes he is completely human with only one of his godly abilities left. The ability to heal. He has lost his powers, his looks, and his name is now Lester Papadopoulos. A geeky and pimply face teenager. In his arrogance, he starts a fight with some boys in the alley of the dumpster he crashed in. He gets beat up and suddenly hears a voice of a girl trying to help him. She actually comes to his rescue and sends the boys fleeing from the alley after attacking them with flying garbage.
Right away, this strange girl, knows exactly who Lester truly is the Greek god Apollo. She introduces herself as Meg and Apollo guesses she is a demigod. Thanking her for helping him, he quickly tries to enlist her help to get to someone he knows in New York. Meg than claims his service because part of his punishment is to serve a demigod in order to return to power. This was a binding contract. So they set off in search of Percy Jackson to get some help in getting to Camp Half-Blood. Percy decides to drive them to Camp Half-Blood but that is all. He cannot get involved in helping Apollo’s return to being a god. On the way to the camp, they encounter some spirits who begin chasing them. Turns out they spirits cannot be killed, so instead of fighting they run for it. They are attacked and Meg saves them with rotten frozen fruit and a grain spirit who also helps them kill the spirits. Percy ends up sick from the spirits and has to tend to the car as Lester and Meg head to camp. As they trudged thru the woods to get to camp, Apollo hears a voice inside his head. Seems to be a prophecy but it is too much for him to bear and as soon as he reaches camp he passes out.
Not quite a human and not quite a god, Apollo along with Meg has to find out how to return to being a god through a series of trials as well as being of service to Meg. Missing demigods and the oracle isn’t working, Apollo has his work cut out for him. Even without his powers he has to figure this thing out and try to save Meg in the process.
While Trials of Apollo is no Percy Jackson. I was quite happy how Rick Riordan incorporated characters from the previous series. We get to visit with Percy and Sally. We finally find out if Leo and Calypso successfully escape Ogygia, and we take this wild ride with Apollo. The cocky and arrogant god is no longer that. He is questioning everything and trying to motivate himself while protecting Meg. He makes mistakes along the way. But he eventually comes to understand the things he is capable of, even though he is powerless. He knows that eventually he will have to face the python in order to get his Oracle back. With Leo, Calypso, and Festus to help him, can he complete his quest. The first trial for Apollo or shall we say Lester, now begins. Will he survive or will he run away from his responsibilities and his duty to Meg?
Stay tuned for Book Two: The Dark Prophecy
