The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
Series: The Heroes of Olympus #1
Format: Hardcover
GoodreadsJason has a problem. He doesn’t remember anything before waking up in a bus full of kids on a field trip. Apparently he has a girlfriend named Piper and a best friend named Leo. They’re all students at a boarding school for “bad kids.” What did Jason do to end up here? And where is here, exactly?
Piper has a secret. Her father has been missing for three days, ever since she had that terrifying nightmare. Piper doesn’t understand her dream, or why her boyfriend suddenly doesn’t recognize her. When a freak storm hits, unleashing strange creatures and whisking her, Jason, and Leo away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood, she has a feeling she’s going to find out.
Leo has a way with tools. When he sees his cabin at Camp Half-Blood, filled with power tools and machine parts, he feels right at home. But there’s weird stuff, too—like the curse everyone keeps talking about. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist that each of them—including Leo—is related to a god.
First off you might notice that I have abandoned my desperate attempts to give a synopsis and have gone to using Goodreads. Now…
I bought the first three books of this series without any real idea of how they connected to the original series, just because I liked Percy Jackson so much. I will admit I expected Riordan to give our heroes more space. I did not expect this series to take place so soon after the first. The series begins with new faces: Jason, Piper and Leo who are soon thrown in with our original heroes. There is a lot of mystery especially early on. You know that Jason was transplanted, but not from where. You feel especially for Piper who was manipulated in this. I suspected Jason’s source and I’ll admit I am not a big fan of the concept but honestly all of Riordan’s books are more about having fun. The mythology isn’t perfect and this series definitely makes it more convoluted. Sometimes I wonder if Riordan planned this all along but then I think he would have been more careful with not crossing any Roman and Greek terminology… anyway.
Leo is probably my favorite new character. Jason and Piper are a bit too beautiful and perfect. Neither of them rub it in but really it is part of their biggest flaw that they don’t like how perfect they are. Piper has her issues but they are mostly external. Leo is more of a tortured soul. He has had a very hard life all around. He is also the son of a less glamorous god. This volume took more adjusting to, but still a wonderful adventure.
