Published by: Puffin
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9780141339252
Pages: 577
Price: 550 INR
Seven half-bloods shall answer the call.
To storm or fire the world must fall.
An oath to keep with a final breath.
And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death.
It’s a strange feeling, this. Melancholy might be the perfect word to describe it, but one can find hints of other fleeting emotions within. It is a little sad to reach the end of one of your favorite series. When the first book came into my life in 2005, I had no idea about the kind of impact the lot of them would bring into my life. For the next nine years, I was spellbound as I got introduced to new gods, goddesses, situations and, more importantly, monsters. Kronos. Gaea. Circe. The Fates. Minotaur. Luke. Hades. Boy, has Riordan done a beautiful job!
‘The Blood of Olympus’ released last week and it was a page-turner all the way to the finish. In their race against time to prevent the awakening of the Earth goddess Gaea, we see the seven demigods of the great prophecy travel to Athens on their beloved Argo II. Her giants have risen, all of them, and are stronger than ever. They have to be stopped before the Feast of Spes, which is when Gaea plans to rise by having two demigods sacrificed and their blood spilled into err, her. Which is to say, the earth.
Frankly speaking, nothing is as good as an all-out battle of the forces of good and evil, and we see bits and pieces of the same in some of the chapters. The plot is not as tightly woven as House of Hades was, nor is it as gripping. But then, throughout the years, Riordan has managed to build a spell-binding universe all by himself, and a few flaws can be expected. Nico’s and Reyna’s characters are the most well thought out here, which is just as good because between the two of them, they have a story worth 30% in the novel and it is a good thirty percent. Nico outshines the rest most of the time, and there were times while reading where goose bumps were inevitable. Especially that part where he gets rid of…no, that would be unfair on my part.
There are a lot of loose ends in the novel though. The major hype surrounding Percy and Annabeth’s big sacrifice at Athens, the former’s fatal flaw being revealed, how there wasn’t enough of the couple to read about, and whatnot. Despite all of this, a little part of me is sad. Lamenting over the fact that a good part of my childhood is now officially over, and it really was that good.
While I wanted a grand The Last Olympian conclusion in this one, I must say I got a miserable The Lost Labyrinth ending. Suffice to say, readers who have begun with book one of the Percy Jackson series will have enough cause to be dejected. All of it, our introduction to the fact that Greek Gods (and subsequently, Roman) existed in the modern age and mingled with humans to spawn off demigods, all of it, began with Percy. And I am sad to note that there isn’t a lot of Percy in this one. With the introduction of Reyna’s point of view in the chapters, it seemed as if there was very less space for character development, which was fine if you really think about it- we have had five books separately for Percy. Be as that may, ending the book/ series with the characters that began it would have been melancholic to a certain degree. Riordan fans have something to look forward to though, for a spin-off series featuring Annabeth’s cousin Magnus Chase is on its way next year. Nevertheless, it is indeed sad to see this fantasy young adult Greek mythology full of adventure, action, magic and romance come to a full circle.
Rating: 8/ 10
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