The Blood of Olympus

By: Rick Riordan

Narrated by: Nick Chamian

Length: 14 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's Summary

Though the Greek and Roman crewmembers of the Argo II have made progress in their many quests, they still seem no closer to defeating the earth mother, Gaea. Her giants have risen - all of them - and they're stronger than ever. They must be stopped before the Feast of Spes, when Gaea plans to have two demigods sacrificed in Athens. She needs their blood - the blood of Olympus - in order to wake.

The demigods are having more frequent visions of a terrible battle at Camp Half-Blood. The Roman legion from Camp Jupiter, led by Octavian, is almost within striking distance. Though it is tempting to take the Athena Parthenos to Athens to use as a secret weapon, the friends know that the huge statue belongs back on Long Island, where it mightbe able to stop a war between the two camps.

The Athena Parthenos will go west; the Argo II will go east. The gods, still suffering from multiple personality disorder, are useless. How can a handful of young demigods hope to persevere against Gaea's army of powerful giants? As dangerous as it is to head to Athens, they have no other option. They have sacrificed too much already. And if Gaea wakes, it is game over.

©2014 Rick Riordan (P)2014 Listening Library

Why?

What disappointed you about The Blood of Olympus?

The voice actor. As with the last book I was barely able to finish this one due to the grating illiterate sounding voice of Nick Chamian. Now that I have finished this series I will seriously never buy another audiobook narrated by this guy. Whether or not I like the book will be irrelevant.

If you’ve listened to books by Rick Riordan before, how does this one compare?

Not well. There have been several books made into successful audiobooks from this author and all but this and the house of hades have been amazing. I have listened to the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series numerous times, and loved the Kane chronicles but I can't bring myself to listen to the heroes of Olympus again because it means having to again suffer through the books read by this guy.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Nick Chamian?

Honestly, anybody. Though I would probably have held out for the actor who started the series and let him finish it.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Anger and disappointment. I mean did you guys even listen to house of hades? If so, I shudder to think how this book got made.

Any additional comments?

Please please please spend the money and re record this book with the original actor or at least someone I don't want to pop my eardrums listening to.

22 of 23 people found this review helpful

why oh why did they ever switch narrators!!!!!!!!!

What did you like best about The Blood of Olympus? What did you like least?

the story was great. the narrator was TERRIBLE !!!!!!!!!!.

Would you be willing to try another one of Nick Chamian’s performances?

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

YES

Any additional comments?

WHY WOULD YOU STAY WITH NARRATOR AFTER HIS PERFORMANCE IN THE LAST BOOK (HOUSE OF HADES) THE NARRATOR IN BOOKS 1, 2 AND 3 WAS GREAT!!!!!

33 of 35 people found this review helpful

Great story, terrible narrator

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I hate this narrator. I had to adjust the speed of the story to 2x just so I could finish it. He is slow... very slow.

How could the performance have been better?

By hiring someone, anyone, else.

Any additional comments?

I love this series. The books are excellent. The narrator is horrible.

32 of 37 people found this review helpful

Nick Chamian has gotten worse

What did you like best about The Blood of Olympus? What did you like least?

Well the best was the end, um spoilers though. As for what I like least (aside from the narrator) well the first half seemed a little to focused on the female characters wondering about their relationships.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Blood of Olympus?

Spoilers

What didn’t you like about Nick Chamian’s performance?

All of it, the voices he chose for most of the characters. Many of them sounded identical, most were just bad.

Was The Blood of Olympus worth the listening time?

Yes

Any additional comments?

I really can not believe Nick Chamian was brought back for a second time. I did not see a single positive review about his performance in House of Hades, and quite frankly, he did a worse job this time. I do not want to go into anything about the story as I am writing this 2 days after the book was released, so yeah, spoilers.

21 of 25 people found this review helpful

If you are having trouble with this narrator...

Would you listen to The Blood of Olympus again? Why?

I haven't gotten far in the book yet but I agree with the narration comments completely. I found if I change the narration speed to 1.25x it makes it a lot more tolerable so I can pay more attention to the story. I do wonder with audio books in general, why they don't pay a little more attention to the consistency of narration in a series; it can really be distracting when suddenly the narrator doesn't do as well as others.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

No.

15 of 19 people found this review helpful

Love the Story!! Dislike the Narrartor....

What did you love best about The Blood of Olympus?

The story wrapped up so many loose ends. I loved seeing the relationships develop between the characters. I loved seeing Nico start to move past some of his issues and begin to connect with the other characters. In the end, we get to find out what will happen with many of the characters and the series concludes much like I hoped it would. While this isn't my favorite book in this series, that would be Son of Neptune, however, this could have been my favorite with just a different narrator. Because I can't really find time to sit down and read, this one was worth the listen, even if I had to grit my teeth while listening to Nick Chamian and ignore his narration and do my best to focus just on the words of the story.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Blood of Olympus?

There are many great moments in The Blood of Olympus, but the last campfire scene is a really great one.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Nick Chamian?

I was ridiculously disappointed when the book went on presale to see that Nick Chamian was returning. The only thing I can figure is they had him under contract and couldn't get out of it. I have come to expect a lot from this series because of the excellent narration Joshua Swanson and Jesse Bernstein have provided in the past. Nick Chamian just does not have the range or tone of voice to adequately narrate a story with so many characters and personalities. I'm most upset that the characters I had formed so strongly in my head based on the narration of the first three books was just completely wiped out with the last two.

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

No, I can not tolerate Nick Chamian for that long. If I was listening to Joshua Swanson or Jesse Bernstein, then yes, I would have wanted to listen continuously.

Any additional comments?

My family loves Rick Riordan's books. They are great in the car on trips. But switching the narrator was a big mistake. We have listened again and again to the Percy Jackson series and to the first three books in the Heroes of Olympus series. However, we only occasionally listen to House of Hades because Nick Chamian takes an amazing, exciting series and actually makes it boring. This was the same for Blood of Olympus. I wanted so bad for him to improve between books, and while I think he did get a little better, he still didn't do nearly a good enough job to make listening to the book a great experience. We only purchased the audiobook because we have the other nine audiobooks. I'm going to get the physical book to read eventually because I know I missed some things in the story in my effort to ignore Nick Chamian's narration and focus on the story.

24 of 31 people found this review helpful

Frustrating

I hated that he made Percy, the great Percy! A weakling and an idiot in this book. Also not ONE chapter was from Anna Beth or Percy's perspective.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Not the best but ties up everything satisfactorily

I purchased this book only because I had either read or listened to the entire Percy Jackson series. The last two books were very difficult for me to get through. Not because I thought that Rick Riordan did a poor job, but rather I did not care much for the reader. The story itself is interesting enough but this story line could have ended a book or two earlier. A bit tired in the end.

I recommend the story for those die hards that have worked their way through the entire series, but not the audio book version.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Okay conclusion to this series...

This was the final book in the Heroes of Olympus series. I know a lot of people are steadfast fans of this series. While I have enjoyed it, I haven't liked it as much as the Percy Jackson books.

I listened to this on audiobook and the narrator does a decent job. There are a ton of different voices to narrate for, so it is a challenging book to narrate. The narrator does a pretty good job of making all the characters sound different.

One group of our heroes needs to get the Athena Parthenos to Camp Halfblood. The other need to go east in the Argo II. Everything needs to be fixed before the Feast of Spes, when Gaea plans to sacrifice two demi-Gods and fully awaken. Gaea can’t be allowed to awaken or it will mean the end of the Earth as we know it.

I do enjoy that Riordan is exploring the more obscure mythology of Gaea and the Titans. There is a lot of action and the plot moves at a fairly decent clip.

However there are a lot of problems with this book, and the whole series in general. These books are incredibly formulaic; that is to say they use the same plots over and over again. There's always a time limit, our heroes always fight increasingly harder enemies that lead to a final battle. This book was no different. It's kind of like a video game in book format except but not as interesting.

The Gods/Titans/Gaea are always really stupid and make predictable and bad decisions...this never varies from book to book. The action is very slapstick to the point of being just downright silly. I love humor in my books, but most of the fight scenes are just roll your eyes silly. The final battle with Gaea was incredibly anti-climatic too.

Then the characters, holy cow there are just so many of them. I have trouble engaging with any of them because there are just a million of them. Between all the different Giants, Gods, and Demi-Gods it is tough to keep track of it all. This book does focus more on Nico and Reina, so we do hear from them more than the others.

All the above being said, I still did enjoy the conclusion (mostly I enjoy the fact that this series is finally over). Unfortunately there are still a lot of loose ends which lead me to believe that there is yet another spin off series in the works (which I will not be reading).

Overall an okay conclusion to this series. The series is a bit ADD and reads more like a video game than a book at time. There are tons of characters to keep track off and the story is predictable and very similar in plot to every other book in the series. I think middle grade readers who like somewhat silly adventure fantasy books will enjoy this book. I think adults will find the plot too repetitive.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Loved It

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

I always recommend Rick Riordan, even for not so young adults. They are such a fun departure from our crazy adult lives.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Leo has been my favorite since the beginning of this series and he will always been my favorite of the entire two series. He has such heart and love for his friends.

Which character – as performed by Nick Chamian – was your favorite?

Nico. I tend to forget he is younger than the other heroes but has been through more than them as well and Nick Chamian's Nico was a good mix of teenager and adult. I liked it.

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

I couldn't put it down. It played in the car, in the kitchen, in the shower, in bed.

Any additional comments?

Loved it. Concluded the series perfectly. The pace was fast and amazing. It really opened up a lot of the characters we had come to know and love and showed us even more sides of them and I loved that. It was a strongly emotional book. It takes you on a few emotional rollercoasters with the heroes, and plays at the heartstrings a few times, making it even better. I feel like the more blood, battles, quests a book has, it has to have equal heart and soul, and it did a great job with that.

9 of 15 people found this review helpful