This is a very fun read. I like it because it feels different enough from the other books. There’s action – but not too much. Instead we get to see the characters who were separted for so long kind of merge and the struggles that go with that. There’s a lot of drama relationship wise, and I know Percabeth fans will be very happy with this book because there are a ton of Percy/Annabeth moments.

I also thought it was interesting seeing so many different views of Percy. Of course we know him very well, but then you have Piper’s view point who is like – well Jason is way hotter.

And in this book we are FINALLY able to get to know Annabeth a lot more, even more than we did Percy in this book (which is kind of disappointing) I think her personality really shines. In the Percy Jackson books we had Percy’s POV of Annabeth, but Annabeth is a master at hiding her emotions. She is a really complex person underneath that blonde hair, and I like that. Plus, she really cares for Percy, and she has such a big burden that doesn’t have such a simple solution which made for an exciting read.

A problem I found with this book was that there were too many view points that didn’t offer anything meaningful. Piper is sort of just there, and more worried about her relationship. Sadly, Percy also seems like a filler character. He has some concerns but I don’t think his POV added much besides that. Annabeth and Leo combined told the story well, and the thoughts of the other characters could’ve been told somehow through their chapters. I almost wish Frank or Hazel also had a POV but I suppose that’s for the next book.

What I really loved in this book were all the funny moments. Leo is quickly becoming my favorite character. He’s likable in that Percy kind of way, but different enough with his own problems that it’s not tiring.

Overall a solid book. As usual the wait for next year is going to be long and hard.

My oldest son made me read The Lightning Thief a few years ago, and after whipping through that series, he and I both await each new entry into the series with excitement. I just finished reading it on the Kindle, and the hardcover awaits my son. So let me start by saying I enjoyed this book almost as much – but not quite – as the others to date. I enjoy the characters, the mythology, Riordan’s ability to portray the ages and culture of the teenage characters. I loved that the new series (The Heroes of Olympus) brought back favorite characters and the familiarity of the demigod world while still keeping his material fresh with new characters and the introduction of the Roman camp and demigods.

In The Lost Hero, I enjoyed having the narrative voice switch from character to character – it made a nice change from the first series and gave insight into more than one character. Riordan repeated this device in The Son of Neptune, and while it still worked, I never developed the attachment to Hazel and Frank that I had for Jason, Piper and Leo. I realized that for me, it was because Percy’s narrative voice was familiar and overshadowed the others. I couldn’t get “into” Hazel and Frank because I just wanted to go back to Percy’s POV. So, while I’ve enjoyed the changing narrative voice, which I think is one of the ways Riordan is distinguishing the second series from the first, it presents some challenges. And for me, using the different POVs was a challenge that didn’t work as effectively in Mark of Athena.

As hinted at in Son of Neptune, Mark of Athena brings together all 7 demigods. So I expected to read chapters from all 7 points of view. That’s not the case. There are only 4 narrative voices, and I found it distracting from the story to keep wondering when/if I was going to get the other points of view. I’m first to admit that having seven different narrative voices would probably have been worse. That probably would have been too frenetic and fractured. So even though I was distracted by the “missing” voices, I’m willing to accept this was probably Riordan’s best option.

Regarding the other “spoilers:” I’m not giving anything away. But I will say that in every previous book, Riordan has satisfactorily concluded a quest within the framework of the multiple-book story arc. The quest is complete and everyone’s together at the end of the book enjoying some well-earned R&R. That’s not *quite* the case in this book. A goal has been successfully achieved, yes, but it’s definitely a departure from the other books in that it’s more of a “prelude” to what will come next. The end feels more like a stalemate than a celebration. Think Empire Strikes Back, or even the end of Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Ring.

It’s going to be a very long time until the next one!

I love all of Rick Riordan’s books. I am disappointed that this book crashes the Kindle Fire. I thought I was alone last night with this issue but I see that there have been more people with bad files reporting crashes. I have read numerous books on the Kindle Fire and this is the first one that has crashed my Kindle. I got to around chapter 25 and 4 pages in the application crashed back to the home screen. I contacted Customer Service and was informed that the book would be removed from the Kindle store and the publisher would be contacted to get the issue corrected however it will take at least a week before this happens. Hopefully it will be resolved soon so I can continue reading this wonderful book.

I am a major Percy Jackson fan, Ive read every single book- and loved all. This book was no exception, it was amazing!

I was very excited to read the Percabeth meet up that was torture for waiting ONE YEAR! The meet up was not how I excpected but that didnt make it bad. It was still great!

The POVs were good, I thought there was going to be 7 POVs but now I realized, that would have been awful. The four POVs worked very well.

I really liked how Annabeth was in this a lot. It let me get to know her, shes a very interesting person and it was fun getting to learn from her point of view! Also Leo’s chapters were very good. He was just the right amount of funny and serious. I felt like those POVs were the best and most important of all of the POVs. Of course Percy’s was very interesting and funny but it did seem rather fillerish and I looked forward to Annabeth and Leo’s the most.

Now, we have Piper. I love Piper and all, she’s an amazing character but not all of her chapters were the best. Most were of course, I mean this is RICK RIORDAN we’re talking about, but some where all about her relationship with Jason. I fully support that but some of those chapters were fillers.

Jason, Hazel and Frank- the triangle between Hazel, Frank and Leo was very well written and I loves reading those parts. I hope to have Hazel and Franks POVs in the next chapter! Jason, isn’t my favorite character- but this book made me love him! Not as much as Percy and Leo but more than I excpected! I also look forward to his point of view in the next book.

The mythology and fights were brilliant as always- no complaints!

So overall, this book is an AMAZING book! I really love it and have already re-read it, and.if I could, I’d rate it 10 stars!

Great job as always Riordan! And wish me good luck waiting for The House Of Hades!!

were the best. Some were, but others talked

The third installment of what will be a five book series has finally come out and I could not be happier. Before I get to the nitty gritty I want to start off by going over the cover art and my thoughts on it.

The cover art on this book is excellent. I’ll make a bold statement and say it’s the best cover art of any of the Percy Jackson or Heroes of Olympus books (still not as good as the cover art on the Kane Chronicles). It is however, a bit mis-leading (though certainly makes a great image) as the scene between the two boys depicted is very very short. It takes up a total of 2-3 pages and is not significant in any way really. The red owl overall is a big part of the story/theme and should make more sense once you actually read the novel.

This book starts off where the last one ended, with a flying ancient-Greek trireme floating in at the Roman Camp. You’ll find out what happens and how it causes some stressful situations later on in the book but I’ll leave that knowledge out of this article so I don’t ruin it for you. The story continues on the premise of the next great prophecy where seven demigods from both the Roman and Greek camps have to unite to defeat the Giants.

Lets move onto character development and new characters in general. Everyone you loved from the first two stories are back in action and ready to go. However, not many new characters were added and if they were they are not an integral part of the story. Also, many of the fan-favorite supporting characters like Ella, Tyson, and Grover just show up for a page or two and are gone for the rest of the book, which is sad but understandable. The main characters also do not develop at all (I suppose one weird one does but it just..eh just read the book) and we lose the complex relationships and feelings we got from the first two books.

This story has a TON of action. Almost every scene is action, action, action. I enjoy books that have a lot of action but also has some slower, more meaning-full, sections that bring the pacing down to an enjoyable stroll in the park. I wouldn’t say the pacing in this book is bad but just faster than my taste. The heroes get into one scrap, get out of it, and are right back into another one. They have the stamina of the Gods themselves and thank goodness for ambrosia or we’d have a bunch of puddle stains left.

The plot develops nicely as it answers many questions from the previous book and really kick starts the great battle that we all know is coming against the Giants. The first two books were back-drops into how the Romans and Greeks were going to team up. This book moves the plot forward dramatically and is giving us the warm-up act to the big show. The plot twists at the end were truly great and made it one of my favorite cliff-hanger endings ever (laugh out loud).

Pros:
Lots of action, our favorite main characters are back, plot moves forward dramatically, writing is superb and flows easily, keeps you entertained for hours on end, and we are one step closer to the finale.

Cons:
Pacing is a bit too fast, character development was put on hold, favorite supporting characters are MIA, and the always present cliff-hanger ending bursts my bubble.

I really enjoyed this book, despite my few nit-picking complaints, and would recommend this book to just about anyone (unless you don’t enjoy awesomeness). It’s not my favorite Heroes Of Olympus book, nor is it my favorite Percy Jackson Universe based book, but it’s very comparable to the others. I’m going to give this title a 4/5 which is a B+!

About me: I’m just a college student who enjoys writing about technology, video games, and fantasy books. I do this for free and don’t make any money on it! You can checkout my site at jmharkey[dot]com – thanks!

Like The Lost Hero and Son of Neptune, Mark of Athena uses a 3rd person limited point of view switching between the perspectives of Percy, Annabeth, Piper and Leo. Rick Riordan wisely chose the characters with the most personality. I was really impressed with Annabeth’s chapters. It really improved her character and I felt we learned more about her in this book than we did in all the other books combined. I loved seeing the Percy and Annabeth relashionship through her point of view, and it not only help develop Annabeth’s character but it even improved upon Percy’s as well. The Leo chapters were as strong if not stronger than they were in The Lost Hero and they made me laugh out loud numerous times. We also find out the answer to the whole Leo/Sammy conundrum through his point of view which makes the situation all the more interesting. The Percy chapters are fantastic as always. We still have the brave, goofy and lovable Percy as before. Finally their’s Pipers, Piper’s chapters aren’t bad, they’re just not as good as the others. It’s mostly just about her love of Jason (who I feel is the weakest character of the 7).
The writing of this book is just fantastic. The characters are still amazing. Overall I would recommend this book to anyone (Just be sure to read Lost Hero and Neptune first!)

If you’re a Riordan fan you’ll enjoy this book. With Percy Jackson and the Olympians Riordan hit on a winning formula and he sticks with it here: heroes on a limited-time quest to save the world with the help (and hindrance)of the gods. What’s made this series fun is exploring the different aspects of Greek vs. Roman myths, and Mark of Athena continues to delve into those topics as well as the themes of friendship, loyalty, and sacrifice.

The Lost Hero continues to be my favorite book in this series. Mark of Athena is an enjoyable roller-coaster read, but at times feels almost too random and too rushed. Riordan’s books are always action packed, but something about this one felt too frenetic to me at times. Riordan took on a pretty big task in juggling the points of view of four heroes, and I think that’s what put this book on somewhat of an overload. At almost every stop the team has to split up and head multiple directions. While not every mini-quest is detailed, I still felt like I was on information overload. The short respites when the action slowed down enough to focus on character were appreciated, but I felt that there were just a few action sequences too many.

Mark of Athena is very much Annabeth’s story, and I think most of Riordan’s readers will enjoy hearing her voice throughout the book. We’ve always seen Annabeth through Percy’s eyes, and it’s fun to have that perspective reversed. I enjoyed hearing from Annabeth, but I also really enjoyed Leo’s chapters in this book. Of the seven demigods Leo is probably the character that feels the least like he fits in, and it’s going to be interesting to see where Riordan goes with that as the series progresses.

This wasn’t my favorite book of the series, but it’s still a fun read. It’s always fun to see how Riordan recasts the classic myths with a modern twist. Be warned–the book ends on one crazy big cliffhanger. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

I choose this rating because this book deserves it and because I love this series. I would recommend this book to people who love Greek and Roman mythology