The Heroes of Olympus: The Mark of Athena by: Rick Riordan

The Lost Hero and The Son of Neptune setup The Heroes of Olympus as a series where two opposing groups with two opposing ideals have to work together and hopefully avoid disastrous consequences.  The Mark of Athena is the third book in the series, and the midpoint for Rick Riordan’s mythological work thus far, and that is a dangerous position to be in for a series as the middle is where everything needs to keep moving.  Middle book syndrome is often ascribed to the second book in a trilogy which doesn’t have a real beginning or an ending so the author does not leave the reader feeling satisfied and Riordan easily could have succumbed to this point.  Like the previous books there is a theme here: trust.  Trust is what underpins this book which is appropriate as it is the first time the Greeks and Romans truly meet and where the seven half-bloods actually have to work together for a quest.  Instead of his usual time jump in between books, The Mark of Athena starts right where The Son of Neptune leaves off with the Argo II arriving at Camp Jupiter and the meeting between the two parties.  This lulls the reader into a false sense of security where Riordan pulls out his best character work yet.  First, the reunion between Percy and Annabeth is amazing, ending with Percy being flipped over Annabeth’s shoulder.  Second, it’s the calm before the trust is broken completely and everything shatters: Leo Valdez decides to shoot the Romans down forcing Jason, Percy, Piper, Annabeth, Hazel, and Frank to flee across the country to find a captured Nico di Angelo in Rome before hopefully moving on to Greece.

 

The seeds of trust are seeded early on between the conversations with Annabeth and Reyna.  Reyna was characterized as the warrior with no political competence, however, The Mark of Athena shows that that was more in Reyna’s head than anything else.  Reyna immediately likes Annabeth and takes her advice (before everything falls apart).  Reyna is the one to offer Annabeth one final chance to turn themselves in, and it is Reyna who is willing to trust the Seven.  Reyna represents the faithful trust of someone already seemingly betrayed in the book: only appearing a handful of times, and not at all once the plot moves to the open sea and then Rome.  Like Reyna, Nico is a character who barely appears yet represents trust: trust in his friends.  Nico is captured by the twin giants Otis and Ephialtes and placed in a jar where he has to trust that he will be rescued.  He leaves himself completely vulnerable, putting himself into a trance that when his time runs out he is dead, no coming back.  The reader only sees a little of how this damages him, but ultimately improves him.  He is rescued in the end and making it out alive is one final note of hope and reconciliation with the way Riordan ends the book.  Once again, I’m avoiding spoilers here, but it is an ending that elevates the rest of the book up in the best way.  I’m not talking about a copout ending with one good scene, I’m talking a climax where everything was building right to this gut punch of a moment.

 

Frank and Hazel have the most closely connected arc in this book, interestingly because their arc is told from the perspective of others.  They do not have point of view chapters in this novel, they are the Romans, they are the outsiders.  They are the ones who still have to prove their trust to the Greeks, except Percy.  Frank does that in Atlanta by essentially saving Percy’s life (and later Annabeth in a very clever way) while Hazel’s devotion to Nico is enough to win them over.  They both have things to give to the group as a whole, suggesting things that end things over.  They also have to trust themselves more than ever.  Frank feels like the outsider: intimidated by Leo and really just a big softie at heart, oblivious to the fact that he’s the one intimidating Leo in the first place.  He finds himself confounded by Chinese handcuffs and genuinely threatened by Leo and not really able to hold a candle.  Hazel on the other hand finds herself drawn to Leo in what could have easily become a repeat of the Percy/Annabeth/Rachel love triangle that plagued The Last Olympian, but this relationship isn’t a triangle, so much as Hazel trusting that Leo isn’t actually her long lost Sammy Valdez.  She also has to trust in her own abilities to protect Frank as throughout the book she has his firewood.  It is only mentioned once or twice outright, but there are subtle hints that it is weighing her down.

 

Meanwhile Leo also has to learn to trust in himself, but it’s a journey the reader gets to know intimately.  Leo calls himself the seventh wheel of the group, which works because he is the only one who isn’t paired up with someone else.  He doesn’t know what his place is in the group as an ‘outsider’ which he really isn’t one.  He has to trust himself to become vulnerable around others, putting behind him his overtly cocky persona, and like all human beings, he isn’t perfect at doing that.  He loses control of himself when possessed by a spirit sent by Gaea which possess other members of the Seven, and that nearly breaks him.  He gets an audience with Nemesis, Greek goddess of revenge, and she gives him a deal that comes with a price, that hasn’t yet been paid at the end of the book.  Leo may just be the best written of the Seven and the most human: he does amazing things but barely believes that he deserves to and interestingly has the second most points of view chapters.  There’s an interesting reflection with how he deals with Narcissus and eventually gets out of an obvious trap at the novel’s climax by using his sharp wits.  Piper and Jason are also paired and have to learn to continue to trust each other.  Piper has these fears that Jason will abandon her due to the fact that Camp Jupiter is his home.  Jason doesn’t get any point of view chapters in this book as he is Roman and while trusted, could have betrayed them.  Jason is the one who has to be the moral support for everything going on and they both have chances to shine in the book when they get a side quest assigned by Hercules at the Straight of Gibraltar.  Everyone else has to put their trust in the two to finish this little side quest and come back.  Piper also has to trust herself into charmspeaking her way into Camp Jupiter and saving everyone’s life in the end of the book.

 

Percy has to trust in his abilities, as he’s really suffering from trauma after nearly drowning in The Son of Neptune.  Yes, this was almost lampshaded in the previous book, but it did happen and Percy survived broken.  He begins having recurring nightmares that he won’t be able to control water and this book actually builds to a scenario where he cannot control the water, instead trusting himself, Piper, and Jason to get out of the scenario alive.  Though his book was the previous book while The Mark of Athena is really Annabeth’s book.  This is the first book where we got anything from Annabeth’s point of view and that becomes one of the absolute best decisions made.  We’ve only seen her from the perspective from others and finally getting into her head we can see her insecurities.  Readers already knew of her family troubles, but The Mark of Athena is where she feels most abandoned by her mother.  She has planned and planned for the reunion with Percy and then to go to Greece and defeat Gaea.  This entire book could be summarized of that plan going horribly wrong as another quest gets in the way and war is brewing from the Romans.  This book ends without that resolved and the quest in a way is a failure as Annabeth puts her trust in Percy to save them in the only way that she knows how.  There’s a moment where she could easily be dead as her ankle breaks, she’s being crushed, and Arachne wants her dead and is going to get it.  She’s not a damsel like in The Titan’s Curse, but actively saving herself to the best of her ability.  The final scene with her is a gut punch.

 

Overall, The Mark of Athena is the best installment of The Heroes of Olympus yet, with twists and turns, and another theme to add to this series’ running list.  It climaxes the series with the villain finding herself close to winning and the characters scattered.  This is the breaking of the fellowship moment of the series which makes the reader just want to continue on.  10/10.