The Son of Neptune (Heroes of Olympus, Book 2) [Hardcover]

With The Son of Neptune Rick Riordan continues his immensely popular Heroes of Olympus Saga. Neptune does a brilliant job of picking up where the first book in the series, The Lost Hero, left off. It deftly moves the series forward introducing new plot lines even while it answers some of the questions that fans of The Lost Hero have been wondering about for a year now.

Of course, the big question that gets answered in this book is: What happened to Percy Jackson? In The Lost Hero we learned that he had disappeared but only got vague hints of what might have happened. In The Son of Neptune, Percy returns as one of the main characters. At the very beginning of the novel we find Percy Jackson stripped of his memories and being hunted by two gorgons. He encounters Juno in the form of an old lady and she gives him a choice. He can regain his memories and save the gods by going to the Roman half-blood camp or stay where he is and be assured of his safety.

Percy's decision to go to the Roman camp becomes a launching point for introducing the Roman demigods and initiating a new quest. The Roman camp, where Percy lands, is in and of itself fascinating. Awash with Lares (house gods) and divided into legions similar to those of the Roman army the camp beautifully introduces readers to aspects of Roman culture as well as the differences between Greek and Roman mythology.

At the Roman camp, Riordan introduces us to new demigods. Although Riordan's capacity for outstanding character development does not shine quite as brightly as it did in The Lost Hero, I still really enjoyed the new heroes that take center stage in The Son of Neptune. The most striking of these is Hazel, the daughter of Pluto. Hazel has inherited the wealth aspect of Pluto so she can make precious metals and jewels spring from the earth but the people who find or accept them are inevitably cursed. The other key actor is Frank Zhang, a son of Mars, who is gifted in archery and carries around a quiver of special arrows. The three of them soon find themselves sent on a quest by Mars himself. Thanatos, the guardian of the underworld has been taken into captivity. We learn that Thanatos's absence is what has been allowing monsters to keep reforming after they are slaughtered. Mars sends the three demi-gods to Alaska to free Thanatos and thereby prevent Gaea from releasing more monsters into the world.

The Son of Neptune picks up nearly all of the key threads that were started in The Lost Hero. We get further hints as to the meaning of the prophecy about the seven half bloods. We also learn more about Gaea's plots to destroy the gods and how the half-bloods are supposed to stop her. As always, Riordan demonstrates an incredible flair for expressing teenage language and emotion. I am an adult reader, but I am always impressed by how Riordan's ability to create very real teenage characters reminds me of what it felt like to be an angst filled adolescent. The diversity of the characters in this series remains one of its strengths. Their different ethnicities and backgrounds make them believable and relatable in ways that the characters in many other young adult novels are not.

Unlike in the Percy Jackson series, which was written entirely in the first person, The Son of Neptune continues with the third person narrative that Riordan used in the first novel of the Heroes of Olympus series. Here he switches back and forth between the perspectives of Percy, Frank and, Hazel. This style feels more mature in many ways and I admire how Riordan uses it to get readers invested in all of the key characters.

Fans of the Heroes of Olympus Series who have been waiting for the next installment for the last year will undoubtedly be very satisfied with this action packed, page-turning continuation of Riordan's epic saga. Thanks to Riordan, a generation of young Americans will gain and appreciation for the mythologies of ancient Greece and Rome and the rich cultures that they were a part of. The only hard part will be waiting another year for the third volume.

The Heroes of Olympus series is best selling author Rick Riordan's spinoff of the Percy Jackson novels. This is the second in the series, following the introduction of the Roman hero, Jason Grace. As expected, Percy joins up with Roman forces and we are introduced to two new main characters: Frank Zhang and Hazel Levesque. As usual in a Riordan tale, the perspective changes from chapter to chapter among the main protagonists.

Riordan is maturing nicely as a writer, and each new book shows an emerging style that is both engaging and descriptive. Fans of previous Riordan books will find familiar elements, such as nods to popular culture. For instance, in Seattle the heroes find that Amazon.com is run by Amazon warriors, who are often found reading their Kindles.

Educational elements are skillfully intertwined in Riordan books, and this one is no exception. Young readers are introduced to Greek and Roman mythology and pick up quite a bit of classical detail despite the fact the story is modernized to a considerable extent. Even though the story is dealing with pagan gods of antiquity, quite a few Christian elements shine through, such as love, friendship, and shared sacrifice.

Character development remains strong, and retains typical Riordan memes such as teen angst and finding ones purpose in life (albeit from a demigod's perspective). Fans will enjoy most all aspects of learning about and caring for Zhang and Levesque as well as other minor characters.

My biggest beef with the Kindle version of the novel I downloaded was the plethora of typos. Odd paragraph breaks were very common, and words were often smashed together to the point of distraction. For instance, here's part of a sentence that typifies mistakes in the text: "... no wall she had to worry about ..." It should read, "... now all she had to worry about ..." Mistakes like that went on chapter after chapter.

Today, Amazon sent an e-mail indicating the publisher is aware of these many mistakes in the electronic text and offered a corrected version. As I have already finished the book, and waded through the errors, it's no big deal. One of the benefits of electronic books is the ability to quickly fix mistakes, but a simple read through by somebody in charge could have prevented these many errors from appearing in early electronic versions in the first place. That said, I'll take off a star from an otherwise five star book

Excellent read! The book flowed fantastically and Riordan really has improved his writing skill since the days of "The Lightning Thief." I was not able to put the book down for the entire time I was reading. The book has some obvious challenges, being the 2nd of 5 books, however Riordan stands to the challenge well and does a good job by allowing this adventure to be (mostly) stand alone, while fleshing out character's and plot for subsequent books. Our new characters, Hazel and Frank are amusing narrators who are fully capable of bring in new perspectives to the 7 Demigod team.

My main complaint is that this book clearly does follow Riordan's typically outline (get quest, work under time constraint, travel the world/USA, get into trouble along the way, save the day) and, after reading the Percy Jackson Series and the Kane Chronicles, this can get a little repetitive. Despite this predictability, I still find Riordan's writings incredibly entertaining and it is always exciting to learn which geographical locations and Greek/Roman gods he will bring in next.

I am excited to say that the series as a whole looks like it is headed for an excellent conclusion. When Riordan started this series I was initially worried that the series could only be an underdeveloped disappointment. However, upon finishing the second book I have become optimistic about the series. The characters and series plot is growing to be well developed, original, and interesting.

As a warning to any readers: the book has a very frustrating cliffhanger! I was very disappointed when I realized I had just finished the book.

My largest complaint, as I think someone has already noted, is that the Kindle version is filled with unnecessary typos and errors. While this isn't reflected in my star ratings since it doesn't reflect Riordan's writing, it was extremely disappointing that Amazon published such a low quality adaptation. UPDATE: Amazon has re-released the text without the typos!