This review is not endorsed by Rick Riordan, Hyperion Books, or Disney Book Group. The Trials of Apollo, Book 2: The Dark Prophecy. I just struggle so much with Apollo himself and his narration. Grover will be here! Apollo was one of the gods I was most excited to see whenever he showed up in Percy Jackson in the Olympians, though more because he made me laugh with his horrible, egotistic haikus than because he was a solid character. Here again are more human villains, a more relatable foe for the reader than the gods and Titans and giants of previous series. In fact, I think if that first book had been as good as this, I would be completely on-board with this series, but The Hidden Oracle drags this down because this one cannot stand well without it. This novel still for me though does not hold up to the sort of love that I have for the rest of Riordan’s series, though this far more than The Hidden Oracle, climbed near them. I hope soon that Rick will leave them alone to discover life outside of monsters and quests and new foster homes. They are discovering that they don’t really know one another, and Calypso particularly is discovering that she doesn’t really know herself. They had not seen each other again until Leo landed, having narrowly escaped death, to rescue her. Calypso softened to Leo during that time and Leo to her, and he left, vowing as most heroes seem to do, to come back and rescue her. But their relationship was built on a few weeks when Leo was stuck on her island and spent most of that time devising a way off for himself and, a good bit of that time, the pair spent sniping at one another, neither wanting to be stuck with the other’s company. Given that Leo quite literally died to rescue her and that Calypso has been waiting eons to leave her island, I expected and wanted a glorious ship. For all that, their relationship was a bit of a letdown. I’ve said a lot about Leo and Calypso in this review. This book more than in the previous one Apollo’s past comes back to haunt him. We get to see Apollo’s bisexuality not as a long-ago myth as with his labeling last book Hyacinthus as one of his greatest loves (the other being Daphne)-not just through his attraction to Jaime but also through his broken relationship with Commodus, a relationship we visit in its prime in flashbacks that Apollo experiences. Moreover, I love the idea of a adult hero from Riordan, suffering the horrors of graduate school while also having to battle monsters and gods–probably with a good sense of humor and a passel of friends.Īpollo is really attracted to Jaime but backs off when Jaime lets slip that he has a serious girlfriend. I’m not sure that it’s his place to explore Yoruba myth and tradition, but I’d be interested to read such a series–and I already know that I’d love the style if Riordan wrote such a series. I am both excited and scared that the appearance of Jaime suggests that Rick is researching for another series. He fights using Gidigbo and Dambe, both West African fighting styles, and lightning, which I and Apollo in this writer’s world take to suggest godly parentage or patronage. He is a graduate student in accounting, working as a gladiator to support himself. Olujime is descended from the Yoruba people of Western Africa. Riordan has introduced another new character that I want to keep an eye on: Olujime (Jaime). I’d love to see more teen and child heroes raised by two women in love-or two men in love. They are also not just lesbians, but an older, married and settled lesbian couple, particularly underrepresented in children’s literature maybe partially because adults are so rarely the heroes in children’s literature. They loved each other so much that they left the Hunters of Artemis and its accompanying immortality. Jo and Emmie, new characters, are large characters too (and if you want to give us the continued or previous adventures of Emmie and Jo, Uncle Rick, I won’t complain). Their relationship, one in which I was fairly invested prior to the beginning of this series, serves as a good breaker of a subplot to Apollo’s narcissism. Here is Leo, already well-developed and greatly loved, and Calypso with him. This is a story of overbearing fathers or fathers who overshadow their children-Marcus Aurelius, Nero, Zeus, Midas, Apollo himself, maybe even Ssssarah’s father should be included in the list (is that Tartarus?)-the weight that they put on their children, and the right and wrong ways to react to that weight.Īpollo seemed to me less annoying in The Dark Prophecy, whether because this is a god much humbled or because the supporting characters are larger, helping to balance him better. That title seems harsh, but it is nonetheless true.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |