The Lost Hero (Heroes of Olympus #1)


The Lost Hero (Heroes of Olympus #1) by Rick Riordan

Blurb:

Jason has a problem. He doesn't remember anything before waking up on a school bus holding hands with a girl. Apparently she's his girlfriend Piper, his best friend is a kid named Leo, and they're all students in the Wilderness School, a boarding school for "bad kids." What he did to end up here, Jason has no idea-except that everything seems very wrong.
Piper has a secret. Her father has been missing for three days, and her vivid nightmares reveal that he's in terrible danger. Now her boyfriend doesn't recognize her, and when a freak storm and strange creatures attack during a school field trip, she, Jason, and Leo are whisked away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood. What is going on?
Leo has a way with tools. His new cabin at Camp Half-Blood is filled with them. Seriously, the place beats Wilderness School hands down, with its weapons training, monsters, and fine-looking girls. What's troubling is the curse everyone keeps talking about, and that a camper's gone missing. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist they are all-including Leo-related to a god.

Review:

First things first, Leo told himself. Survive today. Figure out crayon drawing of destiny later.

The Lost Hero isn't everything I wanted it to be but it's everything I expected it to. It's funny but not quite up to par with how funny the Percy Jackson series is. It's entertaining but I wasn't quite as invested as I'd hoped I'd be. It's cool but we've seen cool before and done better by previous books. That being said, there isn't a whole lot to criticize except "it wasn't quite as good as Percy Jackson" so make of that what you will.

Everyone,  and their mother, who has ever read Percy Jackson and then The Lost Hero will tell you the same: in comparison, this book is kind of lacking. Maybe it's a shortage of Percy's humor, maybe it's something else you can't quite define. But, while I personally agree with the latter statement, I also think it's quite unfair to treat this book only in comparison with Percy Jackson. Which is why I will now try to totally distance myself from the previous series in this universe and structure the rest of this review solely based on The Lost Hero and everything I know about the Heroes of Olympus universe so far.

First things first: I really, really enjoyed Piper's storyline. She developed from cool to totally bad-ass-how-could-anyone-doubt-Aphrodite-can-be-cool and I fully approve this message. When it comes to greek mythology I always like it when I see the less-explored sides of gods exposed to a wider audience and there are some really cool things about Aphrodite that are easily overlooked because it's easy to point at her and scream self-obsessed (figuratively speaking). Even Piper herself has to learn that being a daughter of Aphrodite isn't what she expected it to be. 

Moreover I really enjoyed the inclusion of Roman mythology and I'm curious to see what this'll lead to. I've, personally, always preferred Greek mythology but that might just be because it was slightly more accessible in my household (and, let's be honest, almost everyone prefers Greek) and I'm enjoying the possibility to learn more about Roman mythology (it's been a while and I've forgotten most of what I once knew). 

What I didn't quite enjoy was how much this book sometimes seemed to drag. And, no, I don't know how I managed to perceive this book as "dragging". The thing is that there is a lot (and I do mean a looooot) happening in this story. So much that each day in Jason's, Leo's, and Piper's life is filled with a week's worth of adventures. Sometimes I didn't understand how they managed to get any sort of rest in-between fighting monsters. Sadly, this somehow made me want to take a break and the story felt like it was dragging. I do hope that this is going to get better with the next book.

And, finally, my only real "qualm" with the storyline is it's main villain. I won't spoil it here but I'm quite fond of that particular figure and, in my fondness, I have decided that [figure] could never do anything outright evil, thus, I was shocked to learn that [figure] will be the main villain for the next couple of books. Scandalous. (I'm kidding - slightly.)

"The girls is pretty," Zethes admitted, "and of course she cannot help being attracted to my amazingness, but sadly, I cannot romance her at this time."

Rating:

There's not much to say, thus, I'll make it quick: 4 out of 5 stars.

Details:

Name: The Lost Hero
Deutscher Titel: Der verschwundene Halbgott
Series: Heroes of Olympus
Author: Rick Riordan
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Pages: 557
Where?: Amazon (English edition), Amazon (deutsche Ausgabe)

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