God of Prophecy, save the future! Literally, your oracles aren't functioning.
I picked up this book at a book sale hosted by my local library. It sounded interesting. I haven't read the other Percy Jackson books. All I know of the series is from Pop Culture Osmosis. So I was unaware that two series preceded this book, and that made for a fun experience.
I didn't feel lost at all. The author did a great job on adding relevant info from previous books without being exposition heavy about it. Evidently, the premise of this book, the god Apollo being punished with mortality, is a direct result of the outcome of the previous series, The Heroes of Olympus. So there are a lot of Late Arrival Spoilers. That is not a problem from my perspective.
It actually made me interested in going back to those earlier books and learning the full story of the snippets. Like what happened with Leo and why he's wandering a sea of monsters and some such. Basically, the past books are treated...casually, for lack of a better word. They're like fun pieces of series lore. What you need to know for this particular series is presented neatly. For fans of the series, I imagine they are fun call-backs.
Apollo himself is the first-person narrator, and he is obnoxious. He is prideful, self-centered, and doesn't like taking responsibility for things etc. However, the narration itself is fun to read. It's lively and comical. While full of himself, Apollo is, I wanna say, "harmless". The times that he was malicious are played up, like that satyr he flayed or the cyclops he killed, but in this story, Apollo is not mean to other people, not even in pursuit of his own goal. It is more like he is thoughtlessly selfish. Thankfully, he gets a good dose of character development. It helps that three of his demi-god children are part of the cast. They bring out the best in him.
The plot in this book is essentially Apollo traveling to Camp Half-Blood, learning of the situation with the Oracles (because the God of Prophecy wasn't paying attention to them), and finding a solution. That solution being a "hidden oracle", as the book's subtitle suggests. None of the characters know how to go about doing that, and what moves the plot forward appears to be prophetic dreams that Apollo receives from SPOILER. And Zeus. At many times in the story, Apollo suspects that Zeus is mucking with his memory to hide certain knowledge from him, and only allowing him certain godly power at certain times. It makes me think that Zeus has some sort of In Mysterious Ways kind of plan.
It was a fun book to read, and its has its serious moments too.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "The Trials of Apollo - The Hidden Oracle" an A+
Click here for my next book review: Tasha's Cauldron of Everything - Dungeons and Dragons 5E
Click here for my previous book review: No Game No Life volume 6 (read for fun)
Brian Wilkerson is an independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor's degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).
His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.
No comments:
Post a Comment