Review: The Lost Hero

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

From Goodreads: Jason 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.

My Thoughts: Rick Riordan may be my new go-to author for audio books. I did the Lost Hero on audio, and much like Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, it was fabulous and I'm again hooked on a series of his!

The Lost Hero is told from the point of view of three demigods, Jason, Piper and Leo. The book starts as the three of them are on a bus on a field trip with their school. There are a lot of similarities as we learn about the trio to the Percy Jackson series. But rather than being annoying or repetitive, they tie the group together in a number of ways.

Piper, Leo and Jason (who is suffering from amnesia brought on by the Goddess Hera, who stole his memories) are whisked away to Camp Halfblood by Annabeth, after the field trip turns into a battle with monsters. Hera has been kidnapped, Olympus cut off, and Jason, Piper and Leo have only a few days to rescue Hera and prevent catastrophe.

The ties to the Percy Jackson series are strong. In fact, I'd highly recommend reading and completing that series before starting this one, but even just having read the first two PJ books I found I was ok. In addition to the quest that Jason, Piper and Leo are on, Annabeth and Rachael (the Oracle) are searching for Percy, who disappeared the same time that Jason appeared.

The story is fabulous, this time bringing in the Roman aspects of the Gods. Riordan does a great job of weaving in history and adventure and tells a great story. I'm still too impatient to want to listen to all the books on CD, but when I have to make a long car trip, they are a great way to fill the time. Not just for kids, I think this is a fun book and think it has set itself up to be a great series. We'll find out if the two camps of demigods can work together to prevent the fall of Olympus...and destruction of the world as we know it.

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