Heroes of Olympus, The, Book Five: Blood of Olympus, The-Heroes of Olympus, The, Book Five

All I can say is: "Finally!" I have waited for this book for a whole year, The Heroes of Olympus being one of my favorite series ever I have read each and every book multiple times. This one though, the epic conclusion, ripped my heart out and stomped on it. Ugh, I still cannot believe it's over, I have eagerly awaited the next book in the series for the past three years, always something to look forward to and obsess about as the date looms nearer, I still cannot believe it is over. (The Feels,) okay time for the actual review now. (SPOILERS!) Rick Riordan likes to mess with his fans, by leaving misleading clues around social media and tweeting things that makes us go insane waiting for the book. You will never, ever, ever in a million years be able to predict what Mr. Riordan has in store for us. For example, if someone said they predicted Percy and Annabeth falling into Tartarus in The Mark Of Athena I can say that you are a big liar. I'm also sure no one predicted Bob the Titan would come back from the original Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Anyway, I had no idea what Mr. Riordan would throw at us and I personally did not want to guess. When I first got the book in the mail I was super excited, rushing upstairs immediately to read it. I was flipping through the book when I realized that the only characters that had POV's were Reyna, Nico, Jason, Piper and Leo. I was not very happy, Throughout the whole series I've hated Reyna for acting too strongly as Praetor and almost getting Annabeth killed in The Mark Of Athena. Nico, I do like better but honestly I would have been more happy with a Percy or Annabeth chapter. Jason and Piper, are the lowest of the low for most of the series, they do nothing really except in the first book, but Piper changes a lot in this one. The only POV I was really happy about was Leo's he is one of my all time favorite character's from any book ever. So the book begins with Jason's POV (grumbles.) Apparently, Hazel disguised Jason, Piper and Annabeth using the mist. Jason typically complains about his new form as an old man, claiming he was useless in battle. So we have about thirty-forty pages of them introducing the story and Jason walking into an area with a ton of ghosts who want to kill him. Now he is finally happy about Hazel's trickery with The Mist. Anyway, eventually his form comes back and they have this battle until a ghost of his mother comes out, who abandons him as a child. She asks Jason to stay with her and help the ghosts but he quickly says no, even though so much conflict was rolling through him at the moment. when they were about to leave Jason gets stabbed by someone with Imperial Gold who says "Born a Roman, die a Roman." Imperial Gold is very deadly to demigods and it's really unlikely he would survive, but Piper and Annabeth get him back on the ship and now Jason just has to fight for his life. The POV switches to Reyna, throughout this book I have so much more appreciation for Reyna, she is now a desirable and strong character. She abandoned Rome to stop a war between the Greeks and Romans. Now Octavian, a ruthless, dictator-like praetor rules, obsessed with killing all the Greek demigods, for what purpose I do not know. So she has to deliver The Athena Parthenos, I giant statue Annabeth got in The Mark Of Athena. Nico, who I need to give a lot more credit to, and Coach Hedge, a funny, kung-fu obsessed Satyr have to get the statue to Camp Half Blood to stop the war. Nico is doing the most work, he has to shadow travel and transport all of his friends and a giant statue halfway across the world a bit at a time. But every time he uses underworld magic, since it's so exhausting he deteriorates a little. At one point he become see through so that he can walk through objects but he still accepts what he has to do. Nico probably works the hardest through this entire book for more than just that reason. Leo, is busy on the Argo II fixing up stuff and trying to figure out how to get back to Calypso. He had to leave her in the last book when he was stranded on her island, his goal is to become the first person ever to return. Throughout this book Nico, Reyna, and Coach Hedge run across Orion, who tries to kill Reyna, her sister Hylla who is Queen of the Amazons and who she runs into, and Artemis's hunters. As they transport the statue he is always a major threat and towards the end of the story Reyna finally kills Orion after the Athena Parthenos and her mother, The Roman Goddess of war Bellona grants her powers. Afterwards Nico, Reyna and Hedge arrive at Camp Half Blood and defend themselves, while trying to get the statue in place in time. While this is happening even more is going on with Jason, Piper, Leo, Hazel, Frank, Annabeth and Percy. Before the climax the seven of them got into a fair amount of battles. One of which happened with Percy's sister and a giant. They won because when Jason promised Percy's sister who is a goddess more honor they all teamed up on the giant and defeated him. After that Jason's wound inflicted by Imperial Gold magically healed even though he had been on a death bed before. I'm going to skip over the numerous battles, in which Leo formed a dangerous plan, they got a formula that could raise someone from the dead, and victories and go to the climax because it was super important and this review is way too long. So at first Piper, Annabeth and Percy are the only ones fighting the giants and trying to prevent Gaea from rising. Gaea would only rise if the blood of a female and male demigod would soak into the earth, which is currently under their feet. Piper had watched hopeless and Percy and Annabeth were being attacked. Piper was very underestimated being the daughter of Aphrodite but that's a huge mistake. Piper stalled the giants for a while, trying to keep Percy and Annabeth alive until she chopped off the hand of one of them and they dropped Annabeth. Annabeth was already injured so she couldn't help a few drops of her blood soaking into the earth beneath her. Percy was freed soon after, but he wasn't as hurt so no blood soaked into the earth. The three of them battled and tried to hold their ground for a while until Jason, Leo, Frank, and Hazel came down from the Argo II and fought with them. To kill a giant you need the help of a god so at the moment they were just trying to defend themselves. Percy was very careful not to let a drop of his blood hit the soil beneath him but during a battle it was practically impossible. He didn't notice a drop of blood rol of his chin and hit the soil beneath him, that was when Gaea woke, she could kill everyone, she had control of the entire world's ground. Nico, Will (a child of Apollo), and Reyna were battling the Romans when Gaea rose and the ground shifted and a voice echoed through the air. That was undoubtedly Gaea threatening them all. Despite the fact that the statue had been placed Octavion still wanted to kill them all. With the seven half bloods the battle was slowly dwindling. They couldn't hold off that many giants, then the gods came down to help them kill the giants. It took a little while got eventually they killed each one of the giants and they knew they had to get to Camp Half Blood, because Gaea was still awake. Upon arrival Leo stayed in the ship with the formula to bring someone back to life, he knew his plan was the only alternative. The rest of them fought, the Romans were no longer fighting the Greeks and the Greeks were no longer fighting the Romans, they both teamed up on the monsters that were coming in. That was when Gaea got full strength, she morphed into the figure of a person made from earth and grass, Leo's crazy, original plan finally went in action. "FOOOOMP! In a flash of bronze, Gaea was swept of the hillside, snarled in the claws of the fifty ton metal dragon." Leo had fixed Festus, his metal dragon and now the ground solidified for the time being. Jason who could fly took Piper up and they tried to defeat Gaea. The three of them tried to put Gaea back to sleep but in the end it was Piper, who went through so much extensive character development who did it. She used her charmspeak to put Gaea back to sleep, but they were still far from done. Here's when the sad stuff starts. Leo ordered Jason and Piper back to the ground, they hesitantly obliged, then Leo put the final part of his plan into action. He blew up Festus, he died and Gaea was put to rest. Leo died, the jokester, the trickster, one of my favorite character's ever, died to save everyone. Leo who had built the Argo II to bring everyone along the quest to safety died, at the time I realized he would never be able to find Calypso. Back on the ground, I wasn't really paying attention, I was too distraught, but I believe Nico allowed Octavion to kill himself, which I am frankly happy about and then the war was over. The Aftermath: A few days later everyone was still grieving. Leo was gone, no one could believe it. Hazel and Frank returned to Camp Jupiter with Reyna and Nico, son of Hades, who never had friends, who never thought he belonged anywhere, wandered aimlessly. Until Will, who Nico was sure he was avoiding, asked him why he wouldn't visit a friend. Nico was stunned that someone regarded him as a friend and he was so pleased that instead of wandering around aimlessly, pushing people away, and not belonging anywhere, he decided to stay. Percy and Annabeth were going to spend senior year together and then go to college in New Rome. Piper and Jason were fine at Camp Half Blood, but still mourning Leo, who had been their friend before they had found out they were demigods. Coach Hedge and his wife Mellie had a baby named Chuck who was just as crazy as the Coach. Just as I was finishing the book, I was shocked to find the last chapter in the POV of Leo. Leo was funny and witty as usual and apparently he had escaped death using the formula, (yay, but it wasn't a great ending nonetheless.) Festus and Leo descended upon Calypso's island where he would stay forever. He had yelled in glee over coming back to life, but his friends would never know he was alive, he would never see them again. He arrived at Calypso's island, and the series ended with Leo and Calypso riding off, on Festus the metal dragon's back. (I still can't believe that 10 book series is over, I'm really sad.) Easter Egg: But there is an easter egg we will learn more about in 2015. Annabeth mentioned having a uncle and cousin and her last name is chase. At the end of the story, is said: Coming Fall 2015 Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, Book One, THE SWORD OF SUMMER (I'm really sad that this series is over, especially with the melodramatic, somewhat melancholy ending, my heart hurts but may be this next series will have more answers, may be Leo will return. I doubt it but I'm going to hope anyway.)

This might contain SPOILERS in it. BE WARE. I've got to say - If you asked me six years ago about Percy Jackson, I would probably say "naaa. I already tried the first one. Never finished." But last year, somewhere in March I think, a friend of mine kined of dared me to read The Lost Hero, and by April I finished the entire series of Percy Jackson and the four books of The Heroes of Olympus. So now, to the book. The Blood of Olympus. It was amazing. I liked the way Rick ended the story for each character, let the readers still have someting to dream about, to complete the story but still end it with a smile and some tears. It was beautiful to watch each one of them growing during the books, and to a grand finale gets to a point when you can just feel a relief. Nico, for start, he changed so so much since The Titan Curse - from little naive and "OMG that's so cool" to a lonely boy who lives in the shadows to a boy who understand that people will come to him, and he will be loved the minute he'll stop pushing everyone away (And thank to Solace for that one.). I loved the way the chapter over for Nico, leave us the readers to figure ourselves what happened next after (SPOILER!!!) he turns back to Will. I had so much emotions over all that and I smiled when he (SPOILER!!!) told them he stays. For the first time Nico got a real spot light, and he was amazing. And let's move to Jason. To be honest, the only time I actually loved Jason was (SPOILER!!!) when he was dying. I guess it was cause Jason is a calculate blonde version of Percy, and there was the main problem. People loves percy cause he's this guy who isn't perfect that much, not the avergre hero who is smart as hell, and I don't know - like any other guy in a book - not realistic maybe. And it all was fine for me with Jason until the third book, because Jason is just a bit more mature than Percy, and why would we want that? I guess that is the reason why (SPOILER!!!) when he got glasses I laughed and afterward find it nice and less perfect of him. Also, I liked the fact that he wasn't the one to save the entire fricking universe. And again, it ended beautifuly for him - really, I was sure he's gonna cry if Nico would leave, he was so good for him. Plus - I'm super happy he found out who he is, and that he decided what to do with it. great finle. And now - LEO. oh Leo. smiles, tears, laughs all in the same time. He's the cutest character. And he defentlly as hell grew in the books, All the gags he made and the refrences, but still - he should know that even a duck tape can't fix my broken unbeliving heart. I wasn't expected that to happen (SPOILR!!!) - I imajined him back to Calypso so deffrent than that, even if this is not what I thought would happen - This ending Leo made was the perfect. No words to add. Leo is a Leo. He is important. No one in the fandom is doubt about it. He stood in his words to Calypso. And I'm sure he had the most amazing comeback only Leo Valdez can make. Next are Hazel and Frank. who were never my favorites and in fact I had never put to much attention to them - but their end of this road was pretty nice, Hazel found a Brother and a boyfriend and didn't had to feel lonley. And Frank, well - I guess he found out how great he is. And they were both happy so, that's great. So does Piper BTW - she was that girl who found out she is a dmigod, and that she's great and doesn't need to steal a Porsche to be cared by people. The sence in Jason's cabin was beautiful also, very nice finle for her too. And who can forget the awsomeness theirselves - The demingods which all the prophcies of the world is about to die and stuff started with - Percy Freaking Jackson and Anabeth - I have to say, I was a little bit disapointed they didn't got a bigger spot light in the book, or at list to say the last words in the book - they both were a bit anemic. none of the two was storng in the book, and I don't mean physiclly. They were this sweet couple who had there moment here and there but never like- super importent. And still - I was happy they managed to have there litlle ending which was all about their plans of upgrade their life and having the dream comes true without being to sweet that makes you wanna puke. Also - The last sence of them was funny. Very funny. Bon voyage, seaweed brain and wise girl. And for all the others - Reyna got hell better and nicer, Hedge who just became more like someone I would love to meet, The gods, The campers. They were all great. Well, maybe except Octavian - he was a dush. It was hell of amazing book, I couldn't stop thinking about it, waited all day long to pass just so I could back to read it. The adventures of them were drifted, rich. Rick did great job. So thank you Rick - for riching my world, for writind so amazing and be so great. And for those who hadn't read it yet - READ IT! Doctor's order.

Percy. Jason. Annabeth. Piper. Frank. Hazel. Reyna. Leo. Nico. Coach Hedge. Greek demigods. Roman demigods. (and one satyr) Traditional enemies. (except for the satyr) And the fate of the world rests upon their shoulders. (including the satyr) They must stop the evil earth giant, Gaea, from rising to destroy everything of mankind. She’s kind of in a grouchy mood and has made it hard for those demigods to stop her. Especially since she’s convinced the two Greek and Roman camps to fight each other to the death. With about a week before Gaea rises, and the two camps warring, how will the team stop the end of the world happening? This was a very thrilling conclusion to the Percy Jackson Saga. It was also sad to see this series go, but I still enjoyed reading it. Mr. Riordan sure knows how to keep you hooked and reading. He adds just the right amount of humor into this book, mixed with plenty of thrills and danger, and a dash of despair. I finished it in about 3-5 days, only reading it in school (except for the last day). I noticed that The Blood of Olympus is darker than the other books. It seems that everyone is at their wit’s end in it, which makes sense, seeing how they are going to go against extremely powerful giants. Everything gets tied up neatly. It also makes a nice progression in the series. As this is the last official Percy book that Mr. Riordan is doing (he’ll be doing a series on the Norse gods next!) we readers couldn’t have asked for a better end – well maybe that it wouldn’t end! Mr. Riordan has written a rather stunning ending to the Heroes of Olympus series. I can’t wait to read the Magnus Chase books (the Norse god books)!

I know this series has been controversial in terms of its quality as compared to the Percy Jackson series, but I think it has been just as good as PJO, just written differently with the third person POV as well as great deal more characters. I think having those characters enriched the series in a way, because even though I didn't like all of them, we got to see the demigod world from more than one POV. Of course, Percy can do no wrong in my eyes and the series wasn't complete until the Son of Neptune and he reentered the story, but I enjoyed this series just as much as PJO. And the Heroes of Olympus series has finally ended, five years later. I finally like Piper, who has finally come into her own. She isn't scared of what other people think of her anymore, is confident in her friendships, and isn't worried anymore about Jason wanting to be with Reyna. I really liked how at the end (SPOILER ALERT) she sat on the roof of the Zeus cabin with Jason, just as she had in her Mist-memories in the Lost Hero. I also didn't hate Jason. Even though Jason somehow managed to get injured right at the beginning (again!), I actually enjoyed his character in this book, since he actually knew who he was and what he wanted. He has a purpose now, I think. I also really enjoyed having the POVs with Nico and Reyna. Nico has been one of my favorite characters since he was first introduced in The Titan's Curse, so I was glad to finally see inside his head. He also has some really cool powers. I'm glad that he's finally decided to accept Camp Half Blood as his home, that he's going to settle down and be happy. I am most likely in the minority, but I was not disappointed that Annabeth and Percy did not have POVs. I had thought that it was going to be the 7 + Nico and Reyna, which would have been way too many. Seven in the House of Hades was too many. I wasn't looking forward to that, until I found out there were only five. As long as Leo and Nico had POVS, I was happy. Annabeth and Percy had twice as many POVs in the House of Hades, and they're taking a rest after being in Tartarus. They aren't emotionally and physically at their best, which is why they have smaller roles in the Blood of Olympus. I was okay with that. They deserve some time off. Finally, Leo. He's one of my absolute favorite characters. I know he has his bad points, but every character does. Characters are able to be liked because they have flaws, not because they're perfect. I think the ending with him (SPOILER ALERT) ending Gaia was suitable, based on how she had affected half his life, by killing his mother and then making him blame himself for her death. I also loved how Leo hadn't forgotten Calypso, that he mentions her quite often. Some of those scenes made me squeal so loudly and I "ahhed" at cuteness of it all. I'm happy that in the end (SPOILER ALERT) he rescued Calypso. I assume he later found a way to contact his friends, but I'm happy that after thousands of years, Calypso was finally someone's priority. The ending was emotional. The way it ended... I always roll my eyes when I see this in reviews, but it really was explosive (literally). I was also somewhat surprised and very heartbroken. It had a very open ending, and there were some things mentioned earlier in the book that make it clear that there's going to be some of series coming later. This isn't the end. The end of this series yes, but not the end of seeing the demigod world, not by a long shot.

SPOILER ALERT!!!! I really wanted to give this five stars (since I would definitely give all five to the previous four books) but it didn't quite make it there for me. First what I liked: 1) The writing style, as always, was fantastic. All the wit and irreverence was still there. The personalities of all the characters continued to be well fleshed out. The descriptions of everything was great. 2) Nico. Need I say more??? I was so glad to see him get some spotlight for once. He did so much during the first series and even more this time around and deserves the recognition. In fact, in this book he quickly catapulted up to the top of my list of favorite characters. Although I know it's too much to ever hope for and completely unrealistic, I would love to see a Nico-centric series in the future. 3) The plot for the most part was great. I thought some of the side quests got a little tiring and distracting from the main storyline though. It may have been better to just focus more on the final battles. What I didn't like: 1) Percy gets kind of sidelined in this one. I know that he had a huge role in the last book and that was sort of the point of this series, to demonstrate that sometimes you have to step back and let someone else be the hero. But it sucked that he didn't have a single chapter to himself for the finale. In particular, the "huge sacrifice" that he supposedly would have to make never really happened. Rick mentioned it a lot throughout the series so it's kind of disappointing. It apparently was meant to be when he let the original three pursue Gaea into the sky, but that scene was allotted only a few sentences and had zero emotional impact. 2) This book seems pretty rushed to me, almost like he was struggling to meet his publisher's deadline and had to race through it. I know a lot of reviewers thought the battle with the giants was rushed and "too easy" but I actually disagree on that aspect. We spent the last four books seeing the giants be defeated so I didn't really feel like reading a bunch about that same thing over again. In fact, I think it really says a lot about the power of the gods working with their children that they were able to overcome the giants so quickly. I found the demise of Thoon to the Fates to be especially rewarding. However, the battle at Camp Half-Blood and the fight against Gaea WERE definitely rushed. Gaea appeared, was whisked into the air, and blown up over a matter of a few pages. She didn't even get to wreak any sort of havoc or carnage. We had five books of build up about how terrible and all-powerful she was, only for her to be vaporized as soon as she awakened. Very anticlimactic. Really sucked all the meaning out of everything the heroes had done up to this point. I also found the epilogue-type material to be exceptionally rushed and glossed over. 3) Many characters were mentioned yet completely overlooked and ignored (i.e. Chiron, Clarisse, Grover, Rachel, etc). 4) And finally, the thing that really basically ruined this book for me. The physician's cure was an absolutely TERRIBLE idea. It completely invalidated the idea of sacrifice. Not to mention it was so heavily foreshadowed that you knew exactly who was going to "die" and that they were going to come right back to life well before it actually happened. It completely obliterated all meaning and emotional impact for me. You tried to mentally prepare yourself for the death of one or more major characters, only for it not to happen. There is no feeling. No depth. The only casualties were the nameless Greeks and Romans that were mentioned off-hand at the end of the battle. I found that I couldn't connect with the story on anything other than an action/adventurey level (aka superficial entertainment value). The only part that drew me in and gave me any kind of feels was the emotional development of Nico and his budding friendship (romance?) with Will Solace. So in conclusion, I think this book is definitely worth a read, especially if you've read the rest of the series, but that it is ultimately a disappointment on many levels. I honestly think Rick either grew tired of the topic or, as I mentioned, he was close to missing his deadline and had to rush through it at the expense of quality. I really believe if he had given some more thought and time to this, it could have been the best book he's written. But, alas, that did not happen.

*Reread Review* I don't know how I managed to never have rated this during my previous read...but apparently I did. 5 Riordan stars, since I started this author his own star chart on my last read of his work. I cannot lie..as I was going through all my highlights I found that 80% of them were "Leoisms," yep I made that word up, but for real though Leo is probably one of my all time favorite characters. The man is the all time class clown, underdog, and 5th wheel....I mean whats not to love. Such a splendid wrap up to this series! I felt like the author really took alot of effort to make this series less of a one man show than the Percy series. The amount of work it must have taken to develop these characters so well is awe inspiring. I did finally notice a theme in this last book... basically their plan facing every enemy is to annoy them, cause mass chaos and destruction, and then run lol. I love it! I also "think" I saw the introduction to The Apollo Trials there toward the end... I haven't read them yet but their on my list. Mwahahahah. The thing I love most about these books is the humor as you can probably tell by my favorite character lol. Intense scenes with lots of action and anxiety often times cause me to have extreme anxiety in real life... which can be painful at times, but when its broken up with humor it allows me to enjoy these scenes which just happen to be my favorite and not need intermittent breaks to calm my over anxious spaz nature lol. Love, love, love these books!

My gods. All I can say is... WOW. Holy goodness. Just... WOW. This book is indescribable, ineffable in the best way possible. Rick Riordan totally finished this series with a wrapped up ending and a final conclusion that made my poor heart melt after exploded from anxiety and feels. I finished this book in less than a day, and it's 12:30 AM right now. It really touched my heart, even though most of the time I was just in tears or laughing about all the fun memories throughout the whole book. It was definitely enjoyable, action packed and it will not let you down. Nevah. The second you turn the first page, you just cannot put it down. You're sucked in and there's no way out. And just for your information, quite a few people are curious about the perspectives from the characters of the book, and since this book is written from two sides (The Seven & Nico, Reyna, and Couch Hedge) , Nico's and Reyna's point of views will be included as well. Anyway, the characters never ceased to make me laugh... Especially when narrowed it down on Percy and Leo, their awesome sense of humour and random comments just made the rest of the seven roll their eyes. I love how they have that special unique bond with each other, even though they're always making sarcastic remarks or hilarious lame jokes. There was a handful of Seaweed Brain moments that I'll never forget. And of course, we are all aware of all the ships, like Percabeth and Jercy, etc. You'll see how much they rely on each other or have that protective urge to keep their partner safe, and I'm not only referring to romantic relationships. Nico definitely started revealing himself more and opened up, not guarding his feelings and emotions from the world, and who knows, maybe he'll find someone someday. But particularly, SACRIFICES and the bonds of friendship are very important roles. All loose ends are tied and PROMISES were kept, let's just say that. This book probably not what you will except, it certainly wasn't for me, it was much better than I could even imagine. Even though I am absolutely devastated that the Heroes of Olympus series are finally over, I was never disappointed and couldn't expect more from the brilliant author, Rick Riordan. So... Blood of Olympus. WHO WILL DIE? WHO WILL SURVIVE? WILL THEY LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER? *no spoilers* Just buckle your seatbelts. It's going to be hell of a bumpy ride. ~KN

Tears, laughter, heartache. And the characters felt them too! :) such a great joy to adventure with the demigods & watch them grow.