The Son of Neptune, Rick Riordon Book Review (By: Omer Younus)

The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordon is the second installment of the “Heroes of Olympus” Series; this time however, is based on three new characters. One of which many Rick Riordan fans will know: Percy Jackson himself. It starts off as many might expect, at the other “Roman” camp for demigods that was mentioned at the end of the previous book, “The Lost Hero”. But that definitely does not mean that it is predictable in any way. This novel allows you get to know the new main characters similar to the beginning of the “Percy Jackson” series. I did find it kind of frustrating at times trying to remember all the new terms of the new Roman Camp, but as a reader, I can assure you that the Roman camp for demigods is not at all the same as the Greek camp for demigods.

While reading this book, my mind was thinking of how Rick Riordan has written this book quite cleverly for readers. It gives you nearly the exact same feeling at the beginning of “The Lightning Thief”. Rick Riordan cleverly brings upon a new series with new characters, new terms, new settings, yet keeping the old and known characters, settings, and terms in the book, which immediately will draw any Percy Jackson’s fan’s attention, because they will see the relation and the similarity between the “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” and “The Heroes of Olympus” series. Like mentioned before, many new concepts have been added to this book giving it an originality of it’s own.

One thing that really kept revolving in my mind while I was coming across the beginning of the book was the comparison with the previous installment, “The Lost Hero”. Percy Jackson has returned to the game with his great humor, skill, and familiar voice, making this an excellent book. Along with great efforts from the author, this book comes with several new and exciting things that such as the new monsters, names of Roman gods and much more. “The Lost Hero” did not have many if not, any, of these factors which made it nice to see the old characters again but left you thriving for something different and a better storyline which this book was capable of achieving.

Overall, since the book did finish with quite of a cliffhanger, many readers will be waiting for the next book, “The Mark of Athena” coming out next fall. “The Son of Neptune” did keep my attention the whole way, did introduce the characters not all at once, but little truths revealed here and there, and did make me crave for the next part. A classic background of a new story.