The House of Hades

The Heroes of Olympus, Book 4

By: Rick Riordan

Narrated by: Nick Chamian

Length: 17 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

At the conclusion of The Mark of Athena, Annabeth and Percy tumble into a pit leading straight to the Underworld. The other five demigods have to put aside their grief and follow Percy's instructions to find the mortal side of the Doors of Death. If they can fight their way through the Gaea's forces, and Percy and Annabeth can survive the House of Hades, then the Seven will be able to seal the Doors from both sides and prevent the giants from raising Gaea. But, Leo wonders, if the Doors are sealed, how will Percy and Annabeth be able to escape?

They have no choice. If the demigods don't succeed, Gaea's armies will never die. They have no time. In about a month, the Romans will march on Camp Half-Blood. The stakes are higher than ever in this adventure that dives into the depths of Tartarus.

©2013 Rick Riordan (P)2013 Listening Library

Better than expected, but still not great

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. This is a solid follow up from The Mark of Athena, the only complaint would be that the story is getting repetitive.

What did you like best about this story?

The narration. I know that many people hated it, but Joshua Swanson was way worse in my opinion. Jesse Bernstein was one of the best authors in my opinion because he added maturity to the story while having a good set of voices for the characters. Swanson made the series childish and just sound wrong, even though I also thought he had more character diversity. Nick Chamian, while sounding slightly dull and not having many differences between characters, added some of the old maturity that HoO has been lacking so far.

What aspect of Nick Chamian’s performance would you have changed?

As said before, more character diversity and a more upbeat tone.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Not really, I don't have 12 hours just free to do what I want anyway.

Any additional comments?

Give the narrator more experience. The one thing he lacks.

Loved it

I'm sad that they didn't keep the same narrator from the first three books, but once you get used to it it's still the same great characters and plot

I concur

Any additional comments?

I certainly agree with the vast majority of the reviews posted thus far. If possible, narrators should never be switched, and this one made the switch more frustrating than most. However, I was able to compensate for the very . . . slow . . . diction . . . by doubling the reading speed on my ipod and by listening to the book in long segments to help accustom myself to the new, choppier rate. While I regret the necessity of these tactics, the end result is that the book was not ruined for me. I still greatly enjoyed the story, but I sincerely hope that the original narrator - or at least an equivalently energetic one - ends the series.

his voice growsnon you. *Spoilers ahead*

Good story line. Kinda went mainstream in parts.

Though Frank Jong!?! He's freaking BAMF. Destroying hundreds of those cattle monsters and then becoming built?!? Plus actually stepping into his role as a war child and strategizing and calling out orders to the Roman ghosts. Geez.

Leo and Calypso? please tell me that works out?!? they need each other!
Side note. Thinking Odysseus was building the astrolabe to get back to Calypso because he fell in love with her too? well according to Rick Riordans telling.

Nico crushing on Percy? really? After what they have been through and all the perceived wrongs that had happened, I don't see it.

Poor Bob and Damasen... I know fighting Tartarus was a fools errand but Percy and Annabeth never see them die or get defeated by him soooo they could have made him receed into himself again....

Heroes

Loved the story. Narrator was hard to listen to after listening to the narrator of the previous three stories. He was awesome, this narrator tried to be animated but it didn't work for him.

Narrator completely butchered the characters

The new narrator was absolute basura. Even with a captivating story I am tempted to stop listening every chapter.

Narrator too slow but plot was good

Not the best one in the series but so nice to see all of our characters and their growth!
I listened at 1.25 speed because this narrator was definitely too slow for me.

narrator sucks but good story.

The narrators voice is so bad. He reminds me of jillian from family guy. Everyone he does somehow finds there way to turn into a valley girl and then hazel is just bad, like shes from new orleans but he just defaults her to southernish. Kelley is his best voice because its basically just his narrator voice higher pitched, this isnt a compliment.

Different Narrator

I really struggled with the change in narrators between books. It was kinda unsettling. And he would mess up his character voices a lot. And some didn't sound too different from each other. Not terrible but not great.

A great book

I have been reading this series for a while but I won't forget this book in the series.