THE MARK OF ATHENA REVIEW SERIES

Perhaps, with the story coming together under The Mark of Athena, this series will be worth it after all. Percy Jackson books just don’t work too well when Percy is nowhere to be found (as happened in Lost Hero,) or when Percy is completely detached from everything he knows (as in Son of Neptune,) which makes the return to form in this book feels somewhat refreshing, and a homecoming of sorts. This is in part thanks to unifying the massive, diverse cast Riordan built over the last two books. According to this wonderful, spoiler-free review, Mark of Athena may be Rick’s best book yet My rating: 5 of 5 stars. While this wasn’t for me as outstanding as for others, it is so far the best in the series. It’s coming together nicely, and that’s something I can more than appreciate even when I wish the books were just a bit shorter. The plot lines and character interactions are great and well established which makes this book a great read. Now, despite the flaws in this series when compared to Olympians, it is actually getting good. The Mark of Athena is adventurous, suspenseful, and humorous. On top of that, having Percy finally meet with some of his friends gives us back some of the funny banter that makes these series regularly funny that was somewhat missing in the previous two installments - a huge improvement, considering it’s humor what has always kept these books from feeling too gloomy. In The Mark of Athena, we finally see the cast of both books get together, and with it the storyline starts feeling more cohesive. The Lost Hero and The Son of Neptune felt notably different from the earlier books in the saga, particularly Lost Hero with its almost entirely new cast and in-media-res beginning. Now, other than the books being perhaps longer than I enjoyed (this, I understand, thanks to the more epic nature of the story this time around,) the core of the series is still there, particularly on this installment. I read through The Titan’s Curse in a single afternoon - granted, I had nothing to do on that afternoon, but still - while the fastest I could read one of the Heroes of Olympus books so far is almost a fortnight. But the thing is, they’re no longer short - and I feel that has somewhat hurt them, since storylines drag more to the point where they don’t quite feel like light reads anymore. I found those books to be creative, inherently funny (as Percy couldn’t keep himself from getting about every single person around him to hate him,) and very light reads.Īnd it’s not like the books in The Heroes of Olympus so far aren’t creative or funny or interesting. I’ll start by making one thing clear: I loved the original Percy Jackson series, Percy Jackson & the Olympians. I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with this series.

The mark of athena review