Heroes of Olympus #1 – The Lost Hero

Title: The Lost Hero
Author: Rick Riordan
Year of Publication: 2010
Series: Heroes of Olympus
Series #: 1
Goodreads Rating (Avg.): 4.3
Goodreads Rating (Mine): 5

Lost Hero Book Cover - Three kids on a golden metal dragon, against a green backdrop. — *The Lost Hero – Heroes of Olympus #1*

Synopsis: Jason wakes up on a bus with no memory of how he got there, no idea how old he is, or even what his last name is. He doesn’t remember his best friend Leo, or his girlfriend Piper. Things get even more complicated really quickly when a bunch of kids turn up to tell him that he is in fact a demigod – a child of one of the old Greek gods – and that he’s supposed to have answers about their missing friend, Percy Jackson.

Even before he got electrocuted, Jason was having a rotten day.
Jason, tHE lOST hERO

It’s not easy, getting your readers interested in a book about an entirely new character, especially when all they want is to hear more about what Percy Jackson has been up to. I mean, has there even been a funnier character to read about than Percy? (Spoiler alert: there’s about to be)

Riordan carries off the transition with aplomb, even starting with a classic Riordan opening line. The opening chapter carries all the hallmarks of a demigod packed adventure – excitable, inattentive kids with a propensity for getting into trouble, the appearance of class bullies, and mean teachers who enforce the rules arbitrarily and hand out random punishments.

Oh, and classic Riordan humour.

Piper: He’s got amnesia or something. We’ve got to tell somebody.
Leo: Who, Coach Hedge? He’d try to fix Jason by whacking him upside the head.
Which, I mean, true.

After the culmination of his super-successful, best-selling series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Riordan has switched up his writing style a bit for Heroes of Olympus. For the better. PJO was five books from a single perspective – that of Percy’s. And while Percy’s hilarious, there are a lot more characters in this universe who would benefit greatly from a first-person narrative.

Another difference is the introduction of the Roman god pantheon. Historically, as the Greek civilization waned, and the Roman civilization gained in strength, the majority of the Greek gods were appropriated by the Romans, given different names, and set to serving more or less the same purpose. But just as the civilizations themselves had different priorities, cultures and goals, so did their godly counterparts.

With an elaborate Greek mythology already established in the series, it’s difficult to imagine that the entire PJO universe can just be retrofitted with a Roman mythology that exists side-by-side with it. And yet the Heroes of Olympus series pulls it off precisely by making this the central plot device. The Easter eggs that Riordan left behind in PJO don’t hurt either.

It’s nice to see Camp Halfblood with fresh eyes once again. It’s also nice to see in action the kids of gods that weren’t as prominent in the previous series. (Leo is the son of Hephaestus, and Piper the daughter of Aphrodite). Unlike Percy, who had the whole one-of-a-kind, son of the Big Three, Chosen One thing going for him, Leo and Piper are just one of the many kids that Hephaestus and Aphrodite have had. However, it becomes pretty obvious pretty quickly that they are among the most powerful demigods born to their parents. Because what’s a Rick Riordan novel without a dash of Chosen-One-ness?

He’s also gathering steam in his efforts to make the casts of the books more diverse. The main characters of PJO are all mostly white (Percy, Annabeth, Clarisse, Nico, Thalia, Luke…). Characters of colour like Charles Beckendorf and Ethan Nakamura played significant roles, but had barely any page space.

With HOO, diversity makes its presence felt from the get-go. Leo is Latino, and Piper is a mixed race kid of Native American descent (Cherokee tribe). Riordan’s come far since the days of Raj Mandali yelling in Urdu, and the effort he’s taken to be more inclusive is well appreciated.

Writing characters of colour isn’t – and shouldn’t ever be – just about having a name that sounds different, and describing a character’s physical characteristics differently. Unfortunately, that’s as far as Riordan got with PJO. In The Lost Hero, on the other hand, we see real, deeply fleshed out main characters. We get to see their home lives, their parents, how their culture influenced their daily lives. We see how their language is different, what discrimination they’ve faced, and how their non-white background informs their actions and decisions.

That’s good writing, and I’m here for it.

(Of course, as a white cis-het dude writing about cultures he doesn’t personally have any experience with, Riordan still messes up sometimes, but he’s open to learning, and open to revising his books when something is pointed out to him, and open to apologizing. All good things, especially considering the reach he has when it comes to young kids growing up.)

The writing still is a tad stilted for my purposes, but as usual, that’s down to the fact that I am not his primary demographic – these are books meant for middle schoolers and up, and the fact that a bunch of obsessed 28-year-olds like my friends and I still read them avidly should not really be a factor when it comes to influencing the writing style.

It’s interesting to see how Percy Jackson as a character has influenced the entire series. And by “entire series” I mean all 15 books in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Heroes of Olympus, and Trials of Apollo series. For example, Percy doesn’t make a single appearance in The Lost Hero. And yet, the book manages to be all about him in several places – including the title. Percy is missing, where could he be. Percy was at the head of all the adventures that Jason, Piper and Leo hear about. Percy, Percy, where the heck is Percy.

I’m currently reading Tower of Nero, the final book in the Trials of Apollo series. Trials of Apollo isn’t meant to be about Percy at. all. And yet several pages in Tower in Nero are devoted to describing what he’s currently doing, why he cannot be part of this quest, why he’s not helping out when the end of the world is clearly (once again) upon us.

It speaks to the lasting impact that a character like Percy has made on the English-reading swathe of kids that grew up within the last two decades, that 15 years after The Lightning Thief was first published, Riordan still gets messages asking him for more books about Percy. He has since written so many memorable books with excellent main characters. And yet, at the end of the day, we find ourselves coming back around to Percy.

Is it Percy’s irreverent, excellently timed sass? Because I know I miss that. But if yes, The Lost Hero has us covered in the form of Leo Valdez, who takes sass to the next level.

“So, a crash course for the amnesiac,” Leo said, in a helpful tone that made Jason think this was not going to be helpful. “We go to the ‘Wilderness School'” – Leo made air quotes with his fingers. “Which means we’re ‘bad kids.” Your family, or the court, or whoever, decided you were too much trouble, so they shipped you off to this lovely prison – sorry, ‘boarding school’ – in Armpit, Nevada, where you learn valuable nature skills like running ten miles a day through the cacti and weaving daisies into hats! And for a special treat we go on ‘educational’ field trips with Coach Hedge, who keeps order with a baseball bat. Is it all coming back to you now?”

If it’s not obvious already, I love, love, LOVE Leo. He’s funny, has a good heart, and has had a much rougher go of it than even Percy has.

“Shut up, me,” Leo said aloud.
“What?” Piper asked.
“Nothing,” he said. “Long night. I think I’m hallucinating. It’s cool.”
Sitting in front, Leo couldn’t see their faces, but he assumed from their silence that his friends were not pleased to have a sleepless, hallucinating dragon driver.

I mean, let’s face it. Percy’s life has been pretty much on the uptick since The Lightning Thief (basically ever since he and his mom got rid of Smelly Gabe), and there’s nothing I love more than to root for an underdog. And Leo is the definition of the underdog. He lost his mother in a dreadful tragedy, grew up in the foster system, and pretty much all of the horrible things that have happened to him can be traced back to the primary antagonist of this series – Dirt Lady. Absolutely nobody would blame Leo for wanting to take a step back and process all of his PTSD when he realizes that Dirt Lady and her minions are coming for him once again.

“I cannot destroy you yet,” the woman murmured. “The Fates will not allow it. But […] they cannot stop me from breaking your spirit. Remember this night, little hero, when they ask you to oppose me.”

Unfortunately for Dirt Lady, she badly miscalculated. Her torment of Leo Valdez over the years served only to strengthen his resolve to end her, once and for all. Because Leo is brilliant and brave and also amazing.

[My instagram username is basically devoted to Percy and Leo so my effusive praise should come as a surprise to absolutely no one who actually knows me. :P]

The Lost Hero is a lovely beginning to a wild, fantastic series, and a solid, exciting continuation to a heartwarming, existing series. It carries the transition and expansion of the Percy Jackson universe effortlessly, and provides endless entertainment to avid fans and new readers alike. And best of all, the author’s not a TERF. 🙏

Next: I Love You But Only On Weekends by Anurag Minus Verma
Next in this Series: Heroes of Olympus #2 – Son of Neptune