The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan ★★★☆☆

Makes you want to get a Riptide sword of your own and join in!

Fiction – YA - Urban Fantasy

Age Level: 10 and up  Grade Level: 5 and up

381 pages

Publication Date: January 25, 2011 

Percy Jackson and the Olympians #5

Literary awards:  Goodreads Choice Nominee for Favorite Book & Young Adult Series (2009)

Percy Jackson is once again leading the demigods charge against Kronos, Lord of Time, and his army, to protect Mount Olympus.  With the prophecy laying heavy on his shoulders and facing the possibility of fighting members of Kronos’ army that were once his friends, Percy goes to extreme lengths to win.  But will anything he does be enough?  Can you truly fight your fate?

This book is different from the others in a good way.  A more balanced plot to story ratio instead of almost entirely plot (meaning the internal conflict to the external action was more even) providing a better reading experience.  This is not to say there was less action.  This book is jammed packed, but this time we see Percy really getting the fact  people are dying especially with the sacrifice of Charlie Beckendorf, and the “all-powerful” Olympian gods may not win. The gods gather to fight a losing battle against Typhon and Percy’s father, Poseidon, is under siege in the ocean.

This book, as always, has a healthy dose of humor in even under the worst circumstances and the growth Percy exhibits as he nears his sixteenth birthday is good to see.  I finally saw the depth in Percy and a few of the other characters I have been looking for throughout the series.  Riordan makes good use of iconic places in New York and gives enough description for the reader to really picture what he is describing.  I have rarely read better fight scenes, with so many different elements and factions, anywhere else.  The ending is a satisfying wind up to the Percy Jackson series and a great set up for the next series in the demigod world, without leaving too big of a cliff hanger in this one. 

Riordan makes being a demigod seem fun; in fact the whole book is fun.  Sure you would have to deal with a nonhuman, absentee parent, and you could die, but I ask you, what’s life without a little risk and battling a Minotaur?  I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more by Riordan.