Rick Riordan is the incredible author and writer of the action packed series: “Percy Jackson and the Olympians.” When the “The Heroes of Olympus” was announced, many were excited and filled with high expectations for the follow up to the remarkable series. And for the most part, fans were rewarded with an excellent plot as well as new witty and unique characters. However in contrast with the achievements of both series, “Blood of Olympus” fell short of the standard Rick Riordan had set.

First of all, none of the novel is written from Annabeth and Percy’s perspective even though they play massive roles within the novel. Percy and Annabeth have narrated many of the previous novels almost single handedly, but that is no excuse to omit entirely their internal thoughts and feelings about the chaos surrounding them. The omission of Percy and Annabeth’s point of view was especially felt because the largest struggles they faced were internal rather than external. For the first time in both series, Annabeth was overwhelmed by irrational fear, a fear strong enough to incapacitate her. Yet infuriatingly, the reader is not privy to Annabeth’s thoughts and is therefore incapable of truly understanding how difficult it was for her to overcome the biggest obstacle she has ever faced.  Similarly, Percy Jackson faces what was directly stated as his fatal flaw in all of three sentences. Percy’s entire struggle to arrive at a decision lasted for such a brief moment because Jason had more important things to worry about, preventing the end of the world being the immediate concern. Meanwhile, an account from Percy’s perspective could have extended the split second to entire pages detailing the excruciating pain he felt before finally coming to a decision.

Secondly, a rather strange but none the less important issue within the novel was every single one of the seven ended up in a relationship. Even though it sounds rather strange to complain about an overabundance of love, the intricate manner in which each of the seven is systematically paired into couples is rather absurd when compared to the surrounding war and death. Each of the relationships was well flushed out and fairly believable. In fact, it was only natural some relationships would be formed. Yet disappointingly, the novel seemed to shift its focus to a sort of dating simulation where creating couples was of more importance than saving billions of lives.

Both “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” and “The Heroes of Olympus” are incredible and worth every single minute, yet “Blood of Olympus” seems to be an exception. Sadly, the novel would make very little sense without having read the previous novels. As a result, “Blood of Olympus” will continue to be overshadowed by the magnificence of its predecessors. For 17 AR points and a reading level of 5.2, reading any other novel in the series would be far more enjoyable.