Monday, October 29, 2012

The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan




Seven half-bloods shall answer the call
To storm or fire the world must fall
An oath to keep with a final breath
And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death


Oh, the fad of reading books geared toward teens and pre-teens. We all know Harry Potter. How can you avoid those? Better yet, who would want to avoid those? Rick Riordan has written a couple of different series for a similar audience and I'm not ashamed to say I love them. Adore them. Have read them multiple times. The Mark of Athena is the latest in his The Heroes of Olympus series and Riordan did not disappoint. 

For the most part. 

We start with both Romans and Greek demigod (a mythological being who is partly divine and partly human) teenagers meeting in California. Yes, Cali. Near San Francisco to be exact. This is the part of the book that got the "for the most part" comment. I don't understand why it is important. I understand why it is important for both branches of Greek and Roman demigods need to meet, but then they start fighting and the Romans decide to try to blow the Greeks out of the sky. Riordan did not clarify why this was an important event and it seems to have no solid hold on the story other than the cop-out "they are supposed to." I just have to hope the Riordan follows up on this in the next book and explains why this needed to happen because it seemed so ruddy pointless. 

The story centers around Annabeth who is the daughter of Athena. She and her friends Percy (son of Poseidon), Jason (son of Jupiter), Piper (daughter of Aphrodite), Leo (son of Hephaestus), Frank (son of Mars), and Hazel (daughter of Pluto) need to get to Rome to stop Gaia from rising and destroying the world. Sounds like fun for a bunch of teenagers. Of course on the way they get waylaid multiple times, possessed by servants of Gaia, nearly shot down by the now angry Roman demigods, and stop to have tea and cookies with Aphrodite. Wait, what?

Upon reaching Rome, Annabeth goes off on her own quest as given to her by her mother. Her quest is really quite interesting so I won't spoil it for you here but I have to say it is the most interesting part of the book. Yes yes, running around saving the world from the evil Earth Mother is wonderful and all, but, once you read it you will understand why Annabeth's quest (hence the title Mark of Athena) is so compelling. 

At the end of the book, Annabeth and Percy are in Tartarus heading toward the Doors of Death while the rest of their friends are topside heading in the same direction. I can't wait for the next book in the series to come out, but unfortunately that will be about a year. Hurry up, Riordan! I'm on pins and needles. As a whole, I'd give this book three and a half Greek statues out of five however the series as a whole is a solid 4.5. 


This book inspired me to make Crunchy Taco Chickpeas
      Not only are they vegan, which would appeal to Piper, but they are full of protein to keep the demigods on
      their toes and spicy enough to keep things interesting.

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