This book is too closely tied to PJO & HoO for its own good. The law of diminishing returns had been enacted, I was struggling to care. I’m not sure if there will come a day where these stories and I go our separate ways, but the day I finished The Hidden Oracle, I knew I’d reached a turning point. I’ve seen this author craft 3 and a half world’s based in Mythology(my favorite subject), and populate them with fun and impactful characters, each fully equipped with their own stories to tell. But I’ve been reading these books since 2009, when I was 11. I applaud Riordan for planting another bold flag in his ever expanding banner of diversity, and genuinely hope that Meg McCaffrey is the character that Percy Jackson was for so many.
#The hidden oracle free full#
Unfortunately, I’m a full book into this series, and I’ve already determined that I don’t particularly care for this lead character. It’s this last point in particular that Trials of Apollo wants me to focus on- Meg’s trauma. A tragic history that must be overcome for the sake of her future. A magic sword and an unreasonably high skill level to go with it? Double check. Hero with an uncommon godly context? Check. Take new intrepid demigod Meg McCaffrey, for instance. Quantity runs the risk of eroding quality, and when you’re building your new toys on the backs of the old- particularly if people already think the execution was rushed last time- you run the sincere risk of desensitizing your audience to your product before its barely left the gates. So, it turns out that the last 2 wars were just warmup rounds for the REAL masterminds! Excellent, glad to know that the last 2 series’ worth of conflict was all just fodder for the big guns, maybe if we’re lucky this bad guy will last 45 seconds before being supplanted in the next series! Pardon my sarcasm, but I hope it got the point across.
#The hidden oracle free series#
(I’ll be taking pains to avoid specific spoilers, but the hyper-cautious would likely do well to skip the following paragraph regardless) Unfortunately, that brings me to the meat of my thoughts on this book, which is that this is the third five book series focusing on the Greek pantheon, and that- fun mortal Apollo gimmick aside- the seams of this series have become a bit too strained for my liking. Apollo’s near nonstop commentary, whining, and occasional moments of self-reflection make this easily one of the most amusing books I’ve read in quite some time, but not necessarily at the cost of story or character development. To start my compliment sandwich there, the premise of our protagonist being an extraordinarily flamboyant Greek god forced into an all to ordinary mortal form is undeniably effective. The Hidden Oracle is the first book in Riordan’s third Greco-Roman Modern Mythology series, the Trials of Apollo. I did miss Percy, At least Apollo was Great, That’s About It.