The Lost Hero - Rick Riordan Book #3

  For the final book I decided to read this summer, I decided to revisit a world that I loved a while ago with Rick Riordan's book, The Lost Hero. In the new(er) series The Heroes of Olympus, The reader is reunited with older characters and places from the original, Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, but now with new characters and events. The Story starts of with our new protagonist Jason waking upon a bus full of kids, completely lost and hardly knowing who he is. Jason meets two other kids, Piper (the "beauty queen", with a disturbing secret) and Leo (his best friend and master/magical engineer) who tell him that they are his friends and that they are traveling with the Wilderness school for a tour of the grand canyon. Once they reach the canyon they are attacked by a ventus or storm spirit that disguised itself as a school kid, however they are saved by their gym couch and also disguised satyr, couch Hedge. To his own surprise Jason pulls out a magic coin-sword and helps fight. After the battle, hedge is captured and the ventus escapes. Moments later a girl named Annabeth, with some other campers find our 3 heroes and take them to Camp-Half blood, a magical place where Demigods can take refuge before they are brutally murdered by monsters once they reach their teens. Once there our Heroes have a pretty average time at camp, at least by camp Half Blood standers. Once they arrive at camp our hero are either claimed or figure out who their godly parents are (Jason is the son of Zeus, Piper's mother is Aphrodite, and Leo's father is Hephaestus), meet their long lost half siblings and have many small adventure all while learning a neat bunch of things like: 1;Every thing you have known (more or less) is a lie; there are gods, mythical creatures and mythical places oh my!) 2: there are more lies; Leo and Piper have only just meet there supposed best friend Jason and the past months that had meant so much was just a cruel illusion by a force called the mist that prevents mortal from seeing the supper natural. 3: The mystery; The god Hera has gone missing and Olympus has effectively shutdown with no communication to or from. 4:More mystery...; Camp favorite Percy Jackson is missing. 5:Everyone may die; many monsters and mortal are escaping the underworld and an ancient threat, the giants are starting to make their way out of tartarus, the world is in danger. And much much more. One night at the camp fire an oracle tells the camp a prophecy for a quest. Jason Leo and Piper are chosen for the quest. The next day Leo repairs a magic metal dragon named Festus for a ride and embark. Throughout their quest our heroes travel the continent through places like Quebec, Chicago, Detroit and many more doing errands for gods like Aeolus and fighting many notable figures in greek mythology like King Midas  Medea, and Lycaon, along with monsters such as wolves, cyclops and giants. Throughout their journey Festus is destroyed, they save couch Hedge, Jason meets his long lost sister, and discover that the reason all of this is happening, is because Gaea, mother earth her self, is waking and has captured Hera to absorb the energy to revive Porphyrion the king of giants. Eventually they find the giant Encledues, kill him, and then have the final battle with Porphyrion and others they have encountered before like Lycaon, king of wolves and the first werewolf and Khoine goddess of snow. While fighting along side the hunters of artemis (the group his sister Thalia is in) our heroes, manage to kill Porphyrion (for now) and put Gaea back to sleep (for now) effectively saving the day. Finally our heroes return home, become the leaders of their cabins, and it ends on a cliffhanger with them discovering another camp but for Romans that Percy may have ended up on. (book 2 the sun of neptune anyone)?

     A few connections I noticed to this book are: 1:while reading this book I felt I could defiantly relate/I am pretty similar to the character Leo, for example we are both really smart and funny but both of us have a serious side, and a strong drive to do what we do. 2: any other book or movie that uses that same basic main friend group, usually made of three friends, one smart, one pretty/funny,  and the last one - the main character, is heroic. It is every where, from harry potter to the last series. Finally 3: obviously it is related to the Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and Greek and Roman mythology itself.

     I would defiantly recommend this book to people that enjoyed the original series because for me at least, it is an amazing extension to an amazing world. Also I would also recommend this to any one who really enjoys greek and women mythology or to anyone who has wondered what it would be like to live in ancient greek myths, because now they are coming to you. Finally I would recommend this to anyone that like the genres of action or comedy because this book offers both.