This is the first time I have given three stars to a Rick Riordan book on Goodreads, and I feel sort of obligated to elaborate on why I chose to do so.
I think THO was awesome—not nearly as strong as Rick's previous work, but the first book in each of his past series was always the weakest, so I still felt that TOA had great potential. Actually, it does still have potential. This book, however, just didn't sit well with me, and here's why.
1. Character choice.
Rick chose Apollo, Leo, and Calypso to be the main questing trio. Calypso is simply an underdeveloped, bland character. I don't even know how to describe her personality. I do like how she could connect with Apollo because of their shared previous lives, I enjoyed the chapter in which she discovered she still had some powers, and the notepad thing was hilarious, but other than that, who is she? A person who just fights with Leo all the time? Speaking of Leo, he used to be one of my absolute favorites. He was developed so well throughout TLH, MoA, and HoH, but BoO just ruined him and Rick's attempt to clean up the mess he made was evident in this book. For example, he mentioned that he wanted to see his friends again, and I got really excited that everything would finally be fixed, but then he goes on to say that he isn't even going to stay in one of the camps. I can't accept the fact that he, a kid who spent pages and pages worrying about fitting in and finally found good relationships with everyone aboard the Argo II, would just toss aside his friendships so casually like that.
The new characters Rick introduced were no better. There were too many of them at once and it was extremely confusing. I wanted to like Jo and Emmie and Georgie but I just couldn't. I thought that Lityerses was actually the most interesting and I hope he continues to appear in the future.
2. Humor.
I still have mixed feelings about Apollo—he was a hilarious narrator in the first book, but this time around, his humor seemed quite forced and honestly overkill. Someone needs to bar Rick from popular culture because, while he used to employ sarcasm and wit, all he does now is reference it and call it "humor." It's like he has run himself dry. This book would be ten times more entertaining if he had cut half of the jokes and replaced it with some serious writing that he actually does so well. Apollo himself—his mindset, attitude, and situation—is enough comedy in itself, and it's great. I don't understand why he feels such a need to make EVERYTHING funny.
3. Plot.
There seemed to be hardly any depth to the plot, and if there was, I couldn't find it buried underneath all the extraneous humor. I enjoyed seeing Apollo grow and become more compassionate. I liked his connection to the villain. I thought that Meg's growth and change was apparent and her storyline is intriguing. But what was the real plot of the quest? I couldn't tell you.
All in all, this book was rather disappointing. It was entertaining, yes, but it was far from reaching the standard that Rick's previous work has set. I am still holding out hope for the last three in this series and I believe that if he tries hard enough, he could redeem himself and write another three four- and five-stars.
If only Grover had appeared sooner. If he is actually going to play a role in TBM, it will (hopefully) be much more enjoyable.
I think THO was awesome—not nearly as strong as Rick's previous work, but the first book in each of his past series was always the weakest, so I still felt that TOA had great potential. Actually, it does still have potential. This book, however, just didn't sit well with me, and here's why.
1. Character choice.
Rick chose Apollo, Leo, and Calypso to be the main questing trio. Calypso is simply an underdeveloped, bland character. I don't even know how to describe her personality. I do like how she could connect with Apollo because of their shared previous lives, I enjoyed the chapter in which she discovered she still had some powers, and the notepad thing was hilarious, but other than that, who is she? A person who just fights with Leo all the time? Speaking of Leo, he used to be one of my absolute favorites. He was developed so well throughout TLH, MoA, and HoH, but BoO just ruined him and Rick's attempt to clean up the mess he made was evident in this book. For example, he mentioned that he wanted to see his friends again, and I got really excited that everything would finally be fixed, but then he goes on to say that he isn't even going to stay in one of the camps. I can't accept the fact that he, a kid who spent pages and pages worrying about fitting in and finally found good relationships with everyone aboard the Argo II, would just toss aside his friendships so casually like that.
The new characters Rick introduced were no better. There were too many of them at once and it was extremely confusing. I wanted to like Jo and Emmie and Georgie but I just couldn't. I thought that Lityerses was actually the most interesting and I hope he continues to appear in the future.
2. Humor.
I still have mixed feelings about Apollo—he was a hilarious narrator in the first book, but this time around, his humor seemed quite forced and honestly overkill. Someone needs to bar Rick from popular culture because, while he used to employ sarcasm and wit, all he does now is reference it and call it "humor." It's like he has run himself dry. This book would be ten times more entertaining if he had cut half of the jokes and replaced it with some serious writing that he actually does so well. Apollo himself—his mindset, attitude, and situation—is enough comedy in itself, and it's great. I don't understand why he feels such a need to make EVERYTHING funny.
3. Plot.
There seemed to be hardly any depth to the plot, and if there was, I couldn't find it buried underneath all the extraneous humor. I enjoyed seeing Apollo grow and become more compassionate. I liked his connection to the villain. I thought that Meg's growth and change was apparent and her storyline is intriguing. But what was the real plot of the quest? I couldn't tell you.
All in all, this book was rather disappointing. It was entertaining, yes, but it was far from reaching the standard that Rick's previous work has set. I am still holding out hope for the last three in this series and I believe that if he tries hard enough, he could redeem himself and write another three four- and five-stars.
If only Grover had appeared sooner. If he is actually going to play a role in TBM, it will (hopefully) be much more enjoyable.
