Summary:

At last, Annabeth and Percy find each other, but things don’t go as well between Romans and Greeks. Leo who fired up the Argo II, got posessed by a demon and shot on the Roman camp, creating a conflict between the two groups of demigods. The seven kids of the prophecy have to flee the camp to go look for Nico Di Angelo, who’s beeing kept at the brink of death by Gaia’s giants. All the Gods live terrible times while their Roman et Greek personas collide, but it’s for Athena/Minerva that times are the toughest! A schizophrenic episode will draw her to push Annabet (her daughter) to find the statue of Athena which has been lost for thousands of years. She’s the only one who can unite the two types of demigods. The Argo II will have to cross the Atlantic in order to get to the Mediterranean, the path leading to Rome...

Review:

It doesn’t work anymore. This book made me feel exactly like the first of the “heroes of olympus” collection : disappointed. Those kids are supposed to have grown from the story of “Percy Jackson”, but instead it looks like they all got dumber ! The IQs have dropped ! The stories sometimes lack logic, and the storyline is definitely deprived of structure and cohesion. It looks like a Brussolo novel, where anything can happen at anytime, and there’s no rule. Which could be fine, but it’s simply not what Riordan has shown us until now... The main characters are caricatures of teenagers led by their hormones (Piper is a girlfriend perfectly insecure!). Only the relationship between Annabeth and Percy goes according to plan, giving the long time fans satisfaction. The ending is very touching. This is, by the way, the only reason I’ll keep reading those books. Heroes of Olympus is, unfortunately, far less amazing than Percy Jackson. We can’t really identify to the characters, even if the idea of multiple narrators is awesome ! (kind like in animorphs). The “fight” between Percy and Jason is to small to be noticed. As to Leo’s great great... grand father, it’s just too far fetched ! Therefore, Heroes of Olympus is destined to an audience younger, and doesn’t keep up to Percy Jackson’s expectations !