The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan

January 4, 2018     erinthebooknut     Book review

The Mark of Athena by Rick RiordanThe Mark of Athena (The Heroes of Olympus, #3) by Rick Riordan
Published by Disney-Hyperion on October 2nd 2012
Pages: 586
Goodreads

Annabeth returns in the third installment of the biggest series yet from Rick Riordan, author of the #1 New York Times best-selling Heroes of Olympus, Kane Chronicles, and Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.

In The Son of Neptune, Percy, Hazel, and Frank met in Camp Jupiter, the Roman equivalent of Camp Half-blood, and traveled to the land beyond the gods to complete a dangerous quest. The third book in the Heroes of Olympus series will unite them with Jason, Piper, and Leo. But they number only six—who will complete the Prophecy of Seven?

The Greek and Roman demigods will have to cooperate in order to defeat the giants released by the Earth Mother, Gaea. Then they will have to sail together to the ancient land—Greece itself—to find the Doors of Death. What exactly are the Doors of Death? Much of the prophecy remains a mystery...

With old friends and new friends joining forces, a marvelous ship, fearsome foes, and an exotic setting, The Mark of Athena promises to be another unforgettable adventure by master storyteller Rick Riordan.

5 Nuts

We’ve meet Jason and gone with him to Camp HalfBlood. We’ve sent time with Percy and discovered the wonders of the Roman Camp Jupiter. Now the two  groups of campers come together and it’s just a little bit of a disaster.

This book is when Riordan brings the heroes together to heap a load of crap all over their heads…and it’s awesome. If you’re an Annabeth fan this is totally your book as she not only gets a lot of the action in the book but she also gets her own POV chapters.

Now admittedly there are a lot of characters in this book, among the heroes alone there are 7 POVS. However some characters get more page time than others, and I think that is for the better. We don’t need to know what everyone is doing and thinking at every moment, just stick with the character who is going to further along the story. Riordan masters this in the third book of this epic five-book series.

While I don’t think this book is quite as good as Riordan’s previous, SON OF NEPTUNE, it’s still up there. As expected our lead type A personalities Jason and Percy butt heads, a natural progression from two Big 3 heroes.

I love the merging of Greek and Roman in this book, the Gods are so confused and flip floppy with all of their personalities in flux. For some reason it entertains me. Riordan proves again and again that he knows his stuff, pulling history and myth into the contemporary world flawlessly yet staying accurate to the original stories as much as he can.

I really enjoy the narrator for this series. He manages to keep all the character POVs straight in tone and voice. He is totally in the moment as he reads, even as more characters and monsters are thrown at him. He also delivers Riordan’s comedy superbly.

Now this is the point in the series where I stopped on my original read. I bought each book as they came out but I was unable to keep up with them each year and actually sit down to read books 4 and 5. So as I continue into this series it will no longer be a reread, this will all be fresh and new.

So how do you feel about Mark of Athena? Share your thoughts in the comments.

From my shelf to yours,

Erin

One response to “The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan

  1. This is something I would normally read, but I do admit that it sounds interesting ? I actually love reading about the Gods – with the Greek being my favorite. Yay for meeting your reread point! I bet everything from here on will be exciting since it’s something you have not read before. I look forward to coming back to see how you feel about the rest of the series!

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