Way back at the beginning of this year, before I started writing individual book reviews, I read the first three Trials of Apollo books by Rick Riordan. I’ve been meaning to write full reviews for these books for a while, since the fourth book just came out and I’m on the waiting list to get it from the library. But the bar got in the way. I feel like I say that about a lot of things, but it’s true. The bar got in the way of everything.
Anyway, here I am now. For the sake of space and time, I’m going to review the first three books all in one post. I will do my best to keep this spoiler-free for all three books, but I can’t promise, so if you haven’t read any of these books and you think you might want to, I’d stop after the review of the first one.
The Trials of Apollo series takes place after the Heroes of Olympus series (the second Percy Jackson series). It stars the sun god Apollo, who has been cast down to earth by Zeus to live as a mortal. I won’t say why because that’s a spoiler from the fifth Heroes of Olympus book. This new series features many of our favorite characters from the two Percy Jackson series, but they’re more side characters than main characters, which is nice because it feels like something new rather than just a continuation of what we’ve already done.
Okay, enough background. Let’s dive in.
The Hidden Oracle
So Apollo, now a mortal, lands in New York City as a normal teenager. No magical powers to speak of. Not even demigod powers. But it gets worse. Because he’s a god, he has a lot of enemies, monsters and such, and he has to figure out how to survive as a mortal so he can reclaim his godliness. He teams up with another demigod, Meg, and together they head to Camp Halfblood. Meg technically claims Apollo as her slave and gains the power to order him around and he has to do what she says. I forget how that works but it’s a thing. Adventures ensue, but pretty soon Apollo learns that his oracles have gone quiet, and he and Meg set out to find what’s keeping the oracles quiet. And Meg might have some unfortunate secrets of her own.
This book was classic Rick Riordan fun. It reminded me a lot of the very first Percy Jackson book, with the going to Camp Halfblood and having fun camp games and camp adventures and such, and I liked that. I will say, as the eleventh book I’ve read in this world, all with the same kind of structure, it’s starting to feel a bit familiar, but it was still a lot of fun. I really enjoyed Apollo’s character development. He starts as a really arrogant, pretty insufferable guy, and it’s a bit painful to be in his head. But at the same time, it’s understandable, because he is a god. And there’s nowhere to go but up from there. And up he goes. Also, the ending of this book and the reveal of who the bad guys are is just awesome.
The Dark Prophecy
There will be spoilers for The Hidden Oracle here. Sorry, I can’t avoid them. So if you haven’t read the Hidden Oracle and you think you want to, stop here. These are major spoilers. You have been warned.
After the end of The Hidden Oracle, Apollo sets off to Indianapolis with Leo and Calipso. Yay Leo! And of course they’re traveling by dragon. They’re going in search of the next oracle, but Apollo is also hoping to find Meg and to pry her away from her evil stepfather, Nero. And again, adventures ensue.
I admit I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the first one. I loved getting to see Leo again, because yay Leo! But Apollo was a bit insufferable in this book. I felt like a lot of the character development he had in the first book went out the window. At least his self-centered narration made it seem like that. But even so this book was a ton of fun and I just breezed through it. Basically these books are candy to me.
The Burning Maze
Same warning as above. Spoilers. Lots of spoilers.
The prophecy we get at the end of The Dark Prophecy points to the big bad guys going to attack Camp Jupiter. So Leo heads off to warn them, and Meg and Apollo head to the American southwest to journey through the labyrinth, which has rebuilt itself, to find the third oracle. They are led by Grover, and they eventually team up with Piper and Jason. Yay Grover! Less yay about Piper and Jason—I was never a huge fan of them, they’re kind of boring.
Again, this book is a lot of fun. It gets decidedly darker toward the end, which I like, but it’s still a lot of fun. I also really enjoyed the puzzles in this book, and the stakes have definitely gone up. Meg has a lot of great character development here. But I have to say that by this point, reading them in quick succession as I did, they all started to feel the same, and it was annoying that Apollo didn’t seem to be learning anything as a character. Like I know he’s a god, but three books is still a long time.
On the whole, these books were a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on the fourth book and then finishing the series when the fifth one comes out. But they are starting to feel very similar to one another, and I’m honestly not enjoying them as much as I enjoyed the Percy Jackson books.
If you’ve read The Trials of Apollo books, what did you think?