This is Rick Riordan's final book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, The Last Olympian. The synopsis is provided by Goodreads:
All year the half-bloods have been preparing for battle against the Titans, knowing the odds are against them. Kronos is stronger than ever, and with every god and half-blood he recruits, his power only grows.
In this momentous final book in the "New York Times" best-selling series, the prophecy surrounding Percy's sixteenth birthday unfolds. And as the battle for Western civilization rages on the streets of Manhattan, Percy faces a terrifying suspicion that he may be fighting against his own fate.
Reference:
This is the fifth and last book in the series, and I heard about the series from the movie.
Review:
(safe for those who haven't read this book yet)
Starting this book I knew there'd be fighting, but I wasn't expecting it to be most of the book. And while at first I didn't mind, I loved all the action, eventually 200 pages in or so I got bored. And the trouble is I don't know if it was because of incessant fight scenes or just that I had been reading for 4 days straight, but it was getting a little overwhelming. In the prior books Percy and friends went on quests and visited different places and met new people so it didn't feel so fast-paced. Another issue was something I encountered in the first book which was Percy asked questions and no one answered him. I understand not answering immediately to bring up the solution later, but the questions kept coming and stacking up. The second, third and fourth books weren't so bad, but in this book I remember 6x back to back, Percy would ask for the meaning or explanation or the story about something and Annabeth or Chiron would just leave him standing, well to be frank, answerless.
Last thing I didn't really like was the ending. And it wasn't a big thing. I think that Riordan ended the series on a brilliant note, but I also felt like all the work he put into the series didn't get the ending it really deserved.
But aside from that, there was a lot I loved about this book. One being that Riordan intertwined characters and storylines from past books and made them come together to make sense. While each book had it's own separate quest, throughout the series there's been an overlying prophesy or destiny that involved so many characters-- it's astonishing to believe that it all started with a monster attacking twelve-year-old Percy when he went on a field trip. We discover who the spy is in the camp, and who is really loyal to who, and even those that are still on the fence on true allegiance. We find out who Rachel Dare truly is (which I called it, I knew she was going to be important ever since the third book), and who Camp Half-Blood wins and loses.
What drew me to this series, aside from the great reviews, was that they dealt with ancient Greek characters. The mighty gods of Olympus, the Titans of old, the legendary heroes, the terrifying monsters, and even creatures and gods we normally don't read about. Minor gods or forgotten monsters, Riordan gave them the breath of life again and I hope he does this in the Heroes of Olympus series. I'm excited to see gods play in that series with new heroes.
I give this book 4.5/5 stars.
I give this series 5/5 stars, because, it's Percy and the Olympians. It would be hubris if I didn't. I highly recommend to anyone. :)
Author's Quote:
"The world will fall, the gods will die, and I will never achieve a perfect score on this stupid machine."
—Dionysus [regarding the Pac Man game], Rick Riordan, The Last Olympian
My Goodreads:
Next To Read:
Stolen by Lucy Christopher
River Song's Spoilers:
(unsafe for those who haven't read this book yet, so don't read this section)
I was so surprised to learn that Selina was the spy. I can't remember if she was introduced in the third book or the fourth, but I was surprised when she revealed to have the necklace.
Yayy!! Annabeth and Percy are together! Hehe, like I said in my review in the fourth book, I like Rachel, but Annabeth is the one meant for him. They're just perfect for each other. While I thought it was hilarious in the scenes where Rachel was there and they got all awkward, or when Luke was there and things got awkward. I was like, these are my people! Haha xD But no, I think it was meant to be cute since this is for middle-schoolers.
I felt the ending wasn't as mind-blowing as I thought it would be. The last line actually just confused me. Apparently Percy didn't look back after chasing Annabeth? I didn't really get it, so now I just wonder if I missed something in the previous books (and I just finished reading them so I guess my memory is getting real bad now). Another thing I was let down was dealing with the final "choice" that Percy had to make. I figured it was going to have to do something to do with Pandora's jar, since why make an entire chapter about it if it wasn't going to be important. But then it was just Percy giving the knife so Luke can kill himself. In a way, I like how it fulfilled the prophesy but I was just expecting more.
Until Next Time,
Nicole Ciel
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