As a huge Percy Jackson fan's, my son and I found this to be another great addition to the series. We love the way Mr. Riordan combines humor, action..Show More », and learning about Greek and Roman characters. We can't wait for the next book in the series. All we can say is "Write faster, Mr. Riordan, write faster".

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I continue to find great joy in Rick Riordan's books. The Heroes of Olympus series builds significantly on his Percy Jackson and the Olympians series...Show More » In this third book, the demigods of Camp Halfblood must join forces with the demigods of Camp Jupiter on a world-wide quest. The Greeks and the Romans must work together, which is no small task as they were not even aware of each other! Moreover, an incident in the beginning of the book causes war to break out between the Greeks and Romans. Seven demigods (from both camps) are chosen for this quest: Percy, Annabeth, Jason, Piper, Frank, Hazel, and Leo. In this quest, the demigods work to fight the rise of Gaea and save Nico di Angelo. In addition, Annabeth must go on her own quest to follow the Mark of Athena in the hope of finding and saving the Athena Parthenos. It is believed that this statue will help bring peace to both the Greeks and Romans by uniting Athena with her Roman form, Minerva.

There is a lot going on in this story, and it takes the characters all over the United States, across the Atlantic Ocean, through the Straits of Gibraltar, and on to Rome. In the past, I have frequently given Riordan's books five stars. I'm giving this one only four stars for one main reason: the number of characters is starting to get a bit challenging because its not always easy to remember who is Greek and who is Roman. In addition, the relationships between and among the demigods are becoming rather complex. The only way I could remember which demigod was which was by thinking about who he or she was dating--or not dating. In some ways, this caused the book to slip a bit into the teen romance genre, which is not what I enjoy about the series. While I understand it's a common part of growing up, I am hopeful that there will be just a bit less emphasis on it in subsequent books in the series.

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