The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus #1)
October 2012: Had the inescapable urge to re-read this series as an alternative to reading the new book because WAH IT IS TAKING SO LONG TO GET IT FROM MY LIBRARY. Liked it as much, if not more, as the first time.
March 2011: Not as immediately engaging as The Lightning Thief, but loads better than the first book of The Kane Chronicles. Riordan uses third person POV for the first time to mixed effect. Even though using first person for the British Sadie Kane kind of killed that book for me, half of what makes the Percy Jackson series so engaging is Percy's voice as a narrator. We lose out on that in The Lost Hero. However, we do gain an extra two POV characters, one of whom is probably one of my favorite characters in the Demigod universe: Leo Valdez. What a wonderful smart-ass. Even though I still have some problems with Riordan's style (his over-reliance on dreams as plot devices, his overly simplistic descriptions), the overall narrative arc of this new series has me really super excited. The book really picks up steam towards the end and then leaves you hanging. Even despite my problems with his writing style, I couldn't put this thing down, and as always, I learned a little something about Greek mythology to boot.
I almost gave this three stars, but the ending had me so excited for #2 that I just couldn't do it. I can't wait for Leo to build his flying dragon ship, and I can't wait for the Greek and Roman kids to meet. I also have to confess that I didn't know how Riordan was going to top the baddies from Percy Jackson. Who knew Mother Earth was the scariest bitch out there?