The Heroes of Olympus


The Heroes of Olympus is a pentalogy of fantasy-adventure novels written by American author Rick Riordan. The novels detail a conflict between Greek demigods, Roman demigods, and Gaea also known as Mother Earth. In the fourth book of the series, there is also a semi-large fight against Tartarus, which, in Greek mythology, was the darkest and deepest point of the underworld. The series is a sequel to Percy Jackson & the Olympians, which detailed the life of modern-day Greek demigods. The sequel to this series, and the 3rd series in the trilogy is The Trials Of Apollo. Riordan introduces Roman mythology in his sequel series as well as several new characters. The first book of the series, The Lost Hero, was published on October 12, 2010. The final entry in the series, The Blood of Olympus, was published on October 7, 2014.

Plot

The Heroes of Olympus is centered around a prophecy, introduced in The Last Olympian, that predicted seven demigods would unite to protect the world from an awakening new enemy, Gaia. Demigods from both the Greek camp, Camp Half-Blood, and a newfound Roman camp, Camp Jupiter, unite to save the world from being destroyed by the terryifying Earth Goddess, Gaia. The prophecy reads:
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. Seven demigodsAnnabeth Chase, Leo Valdez, Percy Jackson and Piper McLean from Camp Half-Blood, with Jason Grace, Frank Zhang, and Hazel Levesque from Camp Jupiterjoin forces. A storm or a fire will destroy the world. The last line details how 2 demigods, a giant, and a titan will free the Doors of Death.
Some other important characters are Nico di Angelo, Son of Hades, Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano, Praetor of Camp Jupiter and daughter of Bellona, and Gleeson Hedge, a satyr. In the books, they are the main people trying to bring peace between the Greeks and the Romans while the main 7 characters are fighting the main battle. Without their unity, it would be impossible to defeat Gaia and save the world.

Books

''The Lost Hero''

The novel begins by introducing Jason Grace, Piper McLean and Leo Valdez, three newly discovered demigods who travel to Camp Half-Blood in response to a prophecy, they set off on a quest to prevent the rebirth of the giant king Porphyrion and rescue Piper's father, who has been kidnapped by another giant, Enceladus. Jason, who has amnesia, also begins to remember pieces of his past throughout the book - most importantly, that he comes from a Roman camp for demigods. Camp Half-Blood resolves to seek out this other camp both to gain allies in the fight against Gaia, the giants' mother and commander, and to locate the missing demigod Percy Jackson, the son of Poseidon.

''The Son of Neptune''

The novel opens with Percy Jackson discovering Camp Jupiter and meeting several Roman demigods. After a prophecy from Mars, he, Frank Zhang, and Hazel Levesque travel to Alaska to stop the rise of the giant Alcyoneus and free the god Thanatos, whom the giant has captured. After successfully completing their mission, the group returns to Camp Jupiter to defend it from yet another giant, Polybotes, and his army. After repelling this invasion, the demigods from Camp Jupiter go to meet the delegation from Camp Half-Blood arriving in the flying ship known as the Argo II.

''The Mark of Athena''

After the Argo II unintentionally fires on Camp Jupiter, the seven demigods of the "Prophecy of Seven" - Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Hazel Levesque, Frank Zhang, Jason Grace, Piper McLean, and Leo Valdez - rush to escape the angered Roman campers. They travel to Rome following the Mark of Athena, a magical talisman designed to lead children of Athena to the missing Athena Parthenos. During their journey, they hear that Nico di Angelo has been captured by the Aloadae, and go to rescue him. Although they successfully free the son of Hades and locate the statue, Annabeth and Percy are pulled into Tartarus and the rest of the group resolves to find some way to save them.

''The House of Hades''

In Tartarus, Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase travel towards the "Doors of Death" with help from Bob the Titan, hoping to escape and simultaneously stop more monsters from getting through. In the mortal world, the remaining demigods search for the mortal side of the Doors to help open them. They also meet with Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, a Roman demigod; she, Nico di Angelo, and Coach Hedge leave with the Athena Parthenos for Camp Half-Blood. Once reunited, the original seven sail for Greece, where they expect Gaia's main force will gather.

''The Blood of Olympus''

While Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, Nico di Angelo, and Gleeson Hedge travel towards Camp Half-Blood, the seven of the quest travel to Athens. With help from the gods, the demigods defeat the giants in Athens. They then return to the fight on Long Island and Leo Valdez sacrifices himself to defeat Gaea and restore peace. In the final pages, Leo is resurrected by his bronze dragon Festus and goes to find his crush Calypso. Unaware that he is alive, Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter mourn his loss, determining to become allies and prevent such a deadly war from happening again.

Supplementary works

''The Demigod Diaries''

Released August 14, 2012, The Demigod Diaries is a collection of short stories. Similar to The Demigod Files, it contains some new stories with character interviews, illustrations, puzzles, and a quiz. The four stories include:

Greeks

After realizing how many Greek and Roman myths he had left untouched as well the immense success of the original series, Riordan began writing a second series, using inspiration for his storyline from experiences that he and his children had while playing video and role-playing games such as World of Warcraft and Scion. After creating the storyline, Riordan created three new main characters—Jason, Piper, and Leo—but continued to use the previous main characters such as Annabeth and Grover as secondary characters.
came up with The Heroes of Olympus after toying with the idea of Roman gods.
Unlike the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series which uses first-person narration solely from Percy's point of view, the second series is told in third-person, with the point of view alternating between various main characters. In The Lost Hero, those characters are Jason, Piper, and Leo. Although initially uncertain how fans would react, Riordan later found that they enjoyed the new format, as it allowed them to learn more about each character.
Riordan says that "it was my way of letting them revisit that world in a fresh twist, but also to catch up with Percy and Annabeth and the rest of the gang from the first series". He also decided to include the Roman gods after many readers requested that Riordan write a new series on Roman gods, who are the Roman equivalent of the Greek gods, with some minor changes in personality. He pondered on how the Roman aspect of the gods would be after moving from Greece to Rome to America. After a while, "playing with that idea gave me the idea for the new series".

Publishing history

The Lost Hero, the first book in the Heroes of Olympus series, was released on October 12, 2010 as a hardcover, audiobook, and ebook. The initial publishing run consisted of 2.5 million copies. The book's official publication was preceded by several "sneak-peek" releases by Disney-Hyperion. A graphic novel version, adapted and illustrated by Orpheus Collar, was released October 7, 2014.

Follow-up series

A sequel pentalogy series titled The Trials of Apollo was released, with the first installment, The Hidden Oracle released on May 3, 2016. The second installment, The Dark Prophecy, was released on May 2, 2017. The third installment, The Burning Maze was released on May 1, 2018. The fourth installment, The Tyrant's Tomb was released on September 24, 2019.

Achievements

Reception

The Lost Hero was a number one bestseller on the lists of The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly. Many critics praised the novel as a good follow-up to Riordan's previous series. A review by The Epoch Times commented, "If anyone was afraid that Riordan couldn’t top his Percy Jackson series—they can quit worrying. This new series, even though in the same genre as the Percy Jackson group, has fresh ideas, more mystery and magic and keeps the reader engrossed from start to finish." Despite this praise, some reviews were more mixed. Vicky Smith of Kirkus Reviews wrote, " far too many pages of stretched-out action, telling not showing and awkward dialogue...Unless Riordan tightens things up considerably by number five, may find themselves hoping that it does not end with a third Great Prophecy".
The Lost Hero won the Barnes & Noble Best Book of 2010 award and was a Massachusetts Children's Book Award Honor book for 2014, among other honors. Rick Riordan was named "Author of the Year" for the novel at the 2011 Children's Choice Awards. The book was also recommended by the ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults list of 2012.