The Heroes of Olympus: The Son of Neptune by: Rick Riordan

 

Going back to Percy Jackson as the main character for the second book in The Heroes of Olympus series was to be expected, but was more risky than fans may have realized.  The Last Olympian had essentially ended Percy’s story: he had fulfilled his prophecy, gotten the girl, and finished everything he needed to do.  But The Lost Hero had him kidnapped by Hera as an emissary to the Roman demigod camp implying that that perfect ending wasn’t the final ending.  Rick Riordan, however, avoids making Percy’s story feel unnecessary through a number of things.  Like Jason he has amnesia throughout The Son of Neptune, though he does recover his memory throughout, and The Son of Neptune isn’t about Percy Jackson.  Sure, he is a major viewpoint character and the audience cipher for the segments at Camp Jupiter, the Roman demigod camp, and the title refers to him, but the book isn’t actually about him. Instead, like The Lost Hero was about deeper themes of identity, The Son of Neptune is about coming to terms with death in all its forms.  First, is the death associated with being forgotten, which is where Percy Jackson actually figures into the narrative proper.

 

Percy starts the novel as a homeless team just trying to find his way to Camp Jupiter with a sword in his pocket and no memory except the name Annabeth.  Riordan shows Percy in a truly desperate and animalistic state, just trying to survive a world where the monsters don’t die and every normal person spits on the less fortunate.  It only lasts a few very early chapters, but there is a lot of groundwork laid for just how Percy has changed by the loss of his memories.  He has to confront past mistakes throughout this novel with events of The Sea of Monsters catching up to him in unexpected ways.  Riordan also gives Percy a power downgrade upon entering Camp Jupiter by stripping him of the invulnerability which, while done slightly clunkily, shows a knowledge of how to keep Percy’s story going in future installments of The Heroes of Olympus without making it feel artificially extended.  Camp Jupiter itself is markedly different from Camp Half-Blood, as Roman society was markedly different from Greek.  It is run by the campers themselves as they are all guided to its location by the wolf Lupa, with a Senate made up of full centurions.  Percy is placed in the Fifth Cohort on probatio, having to wait a year before ranking up to a centurion (until godly intervention sends him on a quest).  It’s a harsh, but not uncaring, operation, with the one Praetor Reyna knowing Percy from her own past on Circe’s island.  Reyna is an interesting character, a leader in battles, but not the best when it comes to political machinations, trying to keep Jason Grace’s Praetorship open and free of Octavian, a sniveling little wretch who’s far too prideful for his own good.  The political machinations and secrets become the main thrust for the early part of the novel, including a surprise appearance from Nico di Angelo who is an honored guest.  By the end of the novel Nico’s goals aren’t ever quite explained, but he does go missing implying he was in over his head.

 

The actual conflict of The Son of Neptune involves Thanatos, the god of death, being chained in Alaska and the Doors of Death being forced opened.  Nothing that dies is staying dead and the Roman god of war Mars demands a quest for his un-Marslike son Frank Zheng with Percy and daughter of Pluto Hazel Levesque to kill the giant Alcyoneus and returning glory to the Legion and the Fifth Cohort.  There isn’t some grand prophecy which Riordan can twist into character motivation, just a feeling of dread of the consequences of death no longer occurring while Frank and Hazel both have links to death itself.  Frank Zheng’s life is tied to a piece of firewood, which if burned will kill him completely and his journey is one of growing to accept his parentage and being willing to die to save the world.  At the climax of the novel, Frank comes to burn the stick near to the end right as he comes into his own.  As a descendent of Poseidon he was given the gift of shapeshifting in his family line, something which is obvious to the reader from the first mention of who his family is.  Frank as a character is a fascinating parallel to the rest of the Roman legion and the idea of someone in war.  While he shows a proficiency for tactics in battle, Frank wants peace throughout and is more of a softy who loves his family, has a crush on Hazel, and really doesn’t want to get caught up in war.  There’s also this real insecurity in his own ability and self-worth which he must work to overcome throughout the book, once finding this he is given the strength to put his life on the line, only surviving due to a fluke.

 

Hazel Levesque should be dead.  She is the one responsible for giving Alcyoneus and Gaea the ability to even rise in the first place and it killed her, but once the Doors of Death opened she escaped the Underworld with Nico.  Hazel comes from the 1940s and is black, which Riordan mostly portrays well: there’s that sense of displacement with Hazel and genuine guilt that she has caused the problem, but the reaction to how racism has changed since the 1940s isn’t really touched on which I feel is probably for the best as this is aimed at younger readers.  Hazel already has to come to accept that freeing Thanatos may mean that she will be sent back.  She’s also someone who’s life was taken away at an early age: her mother was greedy and wished for wealth so Hazel was cursed with the ability to make precious gemstones and metals rise from the depths of the Earth and it was this power that attracted Gaea.  Her mother manipulated her into raising Gaea, which would give her mother eternal punishment, but it was Hazel’s sacrifice in the Underworld which gave them both a settlement in Asphodel.  Hazel, while scared, is incredibly brave to go on the quest and actually succeed.  Yes, a blind eye is turned as she’s part of the Prophecy of Seven, but if that wasn’t the case, she would be dead.  She is also a horse girl who has a crush on Frank.  Frank and Hazel’s romance throughout The Son of Neptune is a perfect example of two people who love each other, but are far too scared to actually admit it.  Wrapping that around Thanatos, who is portrayed as closely linked to love, adds an interesting depth to the book.

 

Overall, The Son of Neptune is a far more mature book than it has any right to be.  It sets up Camp Jupiter and the rest of the series as it ends with the cliffhanger of Camp Half-Blood coming to find them due to a harpy who knows prophecies being sent to Tyson.  There is a sense of uneasiness as the conclusion isn’t quite as happily ever after as other books Riordan has written, though there are a few stumbling blocks along the way with some of the middle feeling a bit too long and maybe one two many moving pieces.  The themes of death and identity seem to be the prevailing themes for The Heroes of Olympus going forward and it seems that this could outlast even the first series.  9/10.