In case you hadn’t already noticed, we at Tosche Station are big fans of young adult literature even if we’re hardly the target age demographic. Everyone should be able to enjoy those books. Sticking an age label on a book shouldn’t stop older readers from enjoying them too. Today, I’d like to extend that argument and say that the Percy Jackson books by Rick Riordan are absolutely not just for kids because wow can anyone enjoy that story.
The basic premise of the series is simple: what if one of your parents was actually a Greek God? Our hero, Percy Jackson, is the son of Poseidon and wow did that cause some problems for him in the first series. Of course, you can’t have ancient gods and mythology without some prophecy so you can absolutely bet that our heroes are always going to have to try and save the world because of one. (Spoiler Alert: Percy Jackson never gets a break from this sort of thing.)
Tuesday saw the release of the third book in the second series about Percy Jackson and company: Mark of Athena. The previous two books in the Heroes of Olympus series saw our group of heroes divided between Camp Half Blood (the Greek demigods) and Camp Jupiter (the Roman demigods) and both camps happily existing without acknowledging the other. But now, because of a prophecy and meddling of Hera, young heroes from both camps have to team up to save not only one of their friends but also the world. And they have to do it fast.
Mark of Athena not only reunites our heroes but tells an awesome story. I was originally worried that the book would struggle with having such a comparatively large cast (the previous books had three main heroes, this one had seven) but my fears were unfounded. Riordan manages the larger cast well, sending different pairs or trios off to face each new obstacle or task. This allows not only for the two groups of heroes to get to know each other but also for Riordan to explore the different dynamics between the heroes.