The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan reviewed at SFSignal.com


My review of Rick Riordan’s The Mark of Athena is up at the Hugo-award winning SFSignal.com.

An excerpt:

REVIEW SUMMARY: The third book in Rick Riordan’s Heroes of Olympus series joins Percy Jackson (son of Poseidon), Jason Grace (son of Jupiter) and other Greek and Roman demigods in a quest to save the world from the destructive awakening of Gaia, goddess of the Earth.

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Seven teenage demigods of prophecy race to Rome to save one of their own and to thwart Gaia, one of the most powerful gods in mythology. Gaia sends giants and other mythological creatures against them. And the Roman demigods are threatening the Greek demigods camp. All while the teenage demigods act like…well…teenagers.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Full of Greek and Roman mythology; fast paced; suitable for kids, young adults and adults. And flying ships! And Riordan is from San Antonio!
CONS: Gotta wait for at least one more and maybe two in the series.
BOTTOM LINE: Rick Riordan gets my vote (and my family’s vote) to fill the void left by the end of the Harry Potter series. The books include well-researched Greek and Roman mythology, very ‘human’ demigods and gods, lots of humor and ‘save-the-world’ action.

 

Like most families of our generation, we read J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series as a team. At first my wife and I read the books to our kids, then with them; and, finally, as they got older, toward the end of the series, we all read them in round robin fashion, with our then teenage kids blasting through them first, with my wife and I (and others in our extended family) following close behind. This kind of family reading not only leads to joint experiences and discussions, but always opens the door for my son to ask me “What part are you at, Dad?” and then tease me with “Oh, you’ll love what happens next,” just enough to not spoil the plot (most of the time).

The Harry Potter series ended in 2007 with the seventh and final book, and somehow we discovered Percy Jackson as a more than able replacement. We don’t remember exactly how we found the series; it could have been through the author, Rick Riordan (a fellow San Antonio home-boy!) and his adult mysteries set in San Antonio. But it was more likely through our son’s love of mythology (he once helped a friend ace a test on the subject through what he learned and researched playing the Age of Mythology series of games!).

Riordan’s “young adult” series feature Greek, Roman and Egyptian mythologies, gods with senses of humor (and issues of their own) and demigods that are children of the gods and mortals. The demigods have issues fitting in with normal kids, discover that they are actually different, and still have questions about fitting in and problems like everyone else; they just have to deal with saving the world while fitting in.

The “Young Adult” genre label has good and bad connotations for potential readers; my interpretation of it for this series is no sex, no cursing, with mainly teenage protagonists. There’s lots of violence (fighting) of monsters and gods of all mythologies. As for our family reading group, my son is the youngest (now age 21) and my stepfather the oldest (and the last to get the books; sorry, John!) at 85 years young. The “YA” label is great for parents, but it unfairly tends to send adult readers in another direction; like comedians (a regular Bob Hope), great authors can still tell a riveting tale with nary an F-bomb to be dropped; see Joe R. Lansdale’s fantastic all the earth thrown to the sky for another example.

The Mark of Athena is the 3rd book in the Heroes of Olympus series, which is the next series after the Percy Jackson and the Olympians tetralogy. The Percy Jackson series focuses on Greek mythology, with Greek teenage demigods that train and school at Camp Half-blood. The series follows Percy (son of Poseidon), Annabeth (daughter of Athena) and others on several quests, some with the help of the Greek gods and some without, where in the end, they appear to save the world. The series is loosely based on the Greek War of the Titans (Titanomachy). But there is a prophecy at the end that portends of…the next series, of course.

“Seven half-bloods shall answer the call,
To storm or fire, the world must fall,
An oath to keep with a final breath,
And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death.”

Giving away more would spoil the series, but if interested, reviews can be found by clicking on The Lightning ThiefThe Sea of MonstersThe Titan’s CurseThe Battle of the Labyrinth and The Last Olympian. There is also the movie version of the first book out, with the second due in August of this year (with Nathan Fillion cast as Hermes?!?!).

Read the full review here.

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