I admit, I haven’t been paying that much attention to how long this series is intended to be so I thought this might be the conclusion given that the novel was about an upcoming attack on the Roman camp but halfway through Riordan mentioned a few other foes that hadn’t been entirely defeated yet, so there is more to come after this one. As much as I like Riordan, I am also kind of ready for this one to wrap up but let’s be honest, I’m a 35 year old woman reading books for children, it’s probably more that I am not the intended audience.
This whole series has involved Apollo facing the consequences of his previous actions, and seeing how his godly actions actually hurt mortals. It especially hit him hard at the end of the last novel when Jason died in their quest, and he had to see someone else pay for his past decisions.
This novel continues on this path as Apollo, Meg and assorted demigods from the Roman camp try to figure out how to defeat the upcoming threat, and discover that the evil triumvirate have another ally from early Roman history. Frank and Hazel play large roles in this one so it was nice to see catch back up with them. Of course, the quests to save the day involve more mythical figures from Apollo’s past that he mistreated or made irrelevant in various ways.
Apollo was never one of my favorite gods because he just seemed boring but I definitely didn’t pay attention to just how much asshole shit he pulled – I mean they all did. Athena turned someone into a spider for being a better weaver than her but it seems like all of Apollo’s stories involve something like that and I can’t think of too many of him doing good things to balance those out. This reminded me off what an interesting approach this series is – I mean, I think most of us would agree that the gods were assholes but I think the obvious god that first comes to mind would be Zeus/Jupiter or Ares.