Riordan Retrospective: The Hidden Oracle

Welcome once again to the Riordan Retrospective.  For those of you just joining the fun, this is my look back at the works of Rick Riordan.  That means we're taking a look at Percy Jackson, its sequel series and its spin-off series.  This is less of a formal review, and more of a look back, along with my thoughts and observations.  Last time we began our look back at Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard with a look back at The Sword of Summer.  This time we're beginning our look back at The Trials of Apollo.  We're taking a look back at The Hidden Oracle, The Trials of Apollo book 1.  As per usual, let's kick things off with a brief summary.  

Apollo is the Greek god of the sun, music, poetry, medicine and archery among other things.  At least, he was anyway.  Lately he's been feeling down in the dumps, and not just because he's just landed in a dumpster.  Zeus has stripped Apollo of his godly powers and forced him to live as the lowly Lester Papadopoulos.  The sources of prophecy have gone dark, and if Apollo wants his godhood back, he's going to have to restore them.  First his first mission, he's heading to Camp Half-Blood to seek the help of a powerful demigod.  A child of the elder Olympians, a demigod destined to do great things.  A demigod named...Meg McCaffery, daughter of Demeter!

As per usual, spoilers ahoy are to be found beyond this point.  Turn back now if you don't want any of that.

Even before the end of The Blood of Olympus, I think we all knew that a third Camp Half-Blood series was on the way.  The sources of prophecy going dark was too big of a plot thread to leave dangling.  It's a bit early to say, because the series is still incomplete as of this writing, but it is shaping up to be one of Riordan's best series yet.  I really hope I don't come to regret saying that, but I'm going to keep a cautiously optimistic attitude.  In many ways, The Trials of Apollo feels as though it was written to address the criticisms of The Heroes of Olympus.  It has a very back-to-basics feel to it.  Apollo and Meg are the main focus of the book.  While there are other characters, they are complimentary, rather than being the over-bloated roster that The Heroes of Olympus had.  Also notable is the limited scope of the book; it takes place almost entirely at Camp Half-Blood.  Camp Half-Blood has always played an important role, but this is the first book set almost exclusively at the camp.

Apollo's characterization...took some getting used to, but it still seemed a bit off.  Back in The Titan's Curse, he was the Mr. Cool Dude with maybe a dash of surfer dude.  Come this book, he's become a total queen.  Apollo gets a bit of a undeserved reputation for being a puff by modern audiences, because of the whole god music and poetry thing.  Well, that and his many male lovers, but there were plenty of other gods who had same-sex lovers, and I don't mean just Zeus.  In ancient times, however, Apollo was considered one of the manliest of the gods.  I should also note that this is the first time we've ever had a book from a god's point-of-view.

On a related note, this series finally addresses the fact that most of the gods are bisexual.  Not only that, but apparently the gods can have demigod children with same-sex lovers.  Now I know that a lot of readers objected to when Apollo pauses to explain his sexuality to the readers.  It didn't bother me, but I can understand why it rubbed some people the wrong way.  All I'm saying is, it was downright nuanced compared to the complete and utter shitshow that is Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard.  Funnily enough, turns out Apollo met Frey and Jack in a bar in Stockholm once, albeit he doesn't remember their names.

Apollo's human name does have some significance.  Papadopoulos is the most common last name in Greece.  In other words, Apollo has been turned into a no-name nobody.  Papadopoulos means son of a priest in Greek, which is kind of funny, since getting called a son of a priest in Greece is an insult.  The children of Greek Orthodox priests, who unlike Roman Catholic priest can get married and have families, have a reputation for being wild and unruly.

Percy's characterization also struck me as a bit off.  On the one hand, I can understand that he'd be pretty pissed about having to be dragged on yet another tour of duty for the gods.  On the other hand, it all really goes against his previous characterization.  Percy might not always have enjoyed having to save the world on a constant basis, but he never backed down nor tried to runway from his responsibility as the world's defender.  You can make the argument that, at the beginning of the book, he didn't know how urgent things were.  By the end of the book, however, that just does not hold water.  He knows the world is danger and goes "piss off, I have homework to do."  Back in The Son of Neptune, Percy had the choice runaway to the sea, but he pressed on even knowing how hard it would be.  The way he's written in The Hidden Oracle, you'd get the impression that Riordan had grown somewhat resentful of his greatest creation.  On the third hand, I'll admit that Percy's reaction seems ways more realistic than Jason does in The Burning Maze.  More on that when we get to it.

Also, why does the University of New Rome charge tuition, and why do they have a special test to take to get in.  What could their test possible test for that a mortal test wouldn't?  It does make sense that New Rome would have an economy, but Percy talks as though the admission fee is pretty bad, explaining why he's aiming to have a scholarship.  Though, I will say, I'm glad that Percy finally came to his senses and joined his school's swim team.  He's also got a baby sister on the way.  Doing the math, would have been conceived around the time Hera/Juno put Percy into a coma.  Does that mean Mrs. Jackson and Paul had her because they thought they'd lost Percy?  Did Mrs. Jackson want at least one kid who wouldn't constantly be going on dangerous quests all the time?  Percy never really mentioned that his mom and Paul were thinking about having a kid, so you never know.

Now let's talk about Meg.  Demeter and her children have always kind of been the butt of jokes in the Riordanverse.  As such, it was bit of a pleasant surprise that a daughter of Demeter turned out to be one of our protagonists.  It is through Meg that the long-standing theory that children of Demeter have the power to make plants grow was confirmed.  On a darker note, Meg is an excellent example of a child in abusive parental relationship.  Nero wasn't mean to her all of the time, and that's reflective of a lot of abusive parents.  Abusive parents often have their moments of kindness, and because of this, abused children will often rationalize the behavior of their parents.  Percy says as much at the end of the book.

I suppose I ought to talk about Nero.  I'd been wondering when Riordan was going to incorporate the emperors of Rome.  Nero and the other members of the Triumvirate make for an interesting contrast to previous villains.  They might not be powerful deities, like Kronos and Gaea, but that doesn't mean they're any less deadly.  Arguably, they're an even bigger threat, as they rely on their wits and cunning rather than brute force.  As it turns out, Luke and Octavian were funded by the Triumvirate.  Unfortunately, there is a minor plot hole.  Roman emperors were indeed deified after their deaths as part of the Imperial Cult.  However, bad emperors, such as Nero and Caligula, were denied the Imperial Cult after their death.  I'm hoping future books will explain this discrepancy.

Also, when Nero is about to burn the trapped campers, and the Grove of Dodona, Apollo says "Don't trust him Meg, he burned Christians!"  Um, Apollo, quick question, why do you care about that?  It sure seems weird that a pagan deity would care about Christians being killed.  Especially given that Christians are a big part of the reason that the Greek and Roman gods are no longer worshiped, except for a handful of Neo-Pagans.  I also found it rather annoying that Apollo constantly referred to Nero as a nackbeard.  It was a pretty obvious attempt by Riordan to prove that he's hip and down with the kids, and it failed miserably.  Rick, it is a trite but true staying that you don't have to be cool to rule our world.  Just be yourself.

Nero almost did something Kronos and Gaea could have only dreamed of: destroying Camp Half-Blood itself.  You knew that hearth in the center of the cabin grounds?  Turns out that's the heart of camp, and if it is destroyed then the camp dies and stops moving from nation to nation.  The land around it would have been useless for centuries, and Chiron and the campers would have no home.  A chilling thought indeed.  Still, where was Hestia?  She's the one who tends the hearth, and is goddess of the hearth, so shouldn't she have been able to defend it?

After a long absence, Rachel is finally back, and she's gone a bit nuts from losing her prophecy powers.  Hey, she did give up boys and dating to be the Oracle of Delphi, she does have a bit of case to be pissed at Apollo.  I'm hoping she shows up again in future books of the series.

The way Rhea was portrayed was kind of lazy.  Riordan already used all his hippie jokes with Iris, so having Rhea be a hippie too just smacks of lazy writing.  On the flip side, I loved getting to meet the new campers.  Of particular note are Chiara Benvenuti, a daughter of Tyche from Italy, and Paolo Montes, a son of Hebe from Brazil.  They are nods to the Italian fandom and the Brazilian fandom respectively.  It is certainly nice to see that the international Percy Jackson fandom is getting recognition.  Though, wouldn't it make more sense for Chiara to be a Camp Jupiter camper?  Granted, the Ancient Greeks did have colonies in Southern Italy.  Also, why can't Chiron speak Portuguese?  Shouldn't he have magical omniglot powers?  If not, you'd think he would have mastered most languages if only out of shear boredom from having lived for so long.  It is nice to see some more children of the minor gods get a bit more time in the spotlight. 

During this book we discover that, though Chiron tries his best to discourage it, maiming isn’t unheard of at Camp Half-Blood.  Paolo can attest to that, but never fear, the Apollo campers are masters at reattaching severed limbs.  Yeah, Harley from Hephaestus Cabin sure seems to get a bit too much pleasure out of hurting his fellow campers.  Chiron might want to keep an eye on him.  We also learn that Mr. D still hasn't come back.  I've said it before, but I'm surprised at how much I miss him and Clarisse, who has apparently gone off to college.  Travis has also left for college, and Connor is learning to be responsible and keep his younger siblings in line.  This is further proof that the Stoll brothers are indeed not twins.

So, Nico and Will are officially a couple now.  As I've previously stated, it was unexpected, but it worked out in the end.  It looks like Nico might be getting some happiness for the first time in a while.  And hey, at least they've got more to their personalities than being gay, and they aren't jerks, unlike Alex Fierro.  On a less than pleasant note, this book sees the return of Leo Valdez. You know, it's kind of fitting that his last name is Valdez, because he's a complete disaster of a character.  Just as I feared, the return of Leo also meant we had to hear the other characters gushing about what a great guy he is.  Although, we did get to see Percy and Calypso meeting each other again, so I guess it wasn't a total waste.

With the main villains of the series being Roman emperors, and going off of later books, it looks like Roman Mythology is going to be much more at the forefront of The Trials of Apollo.  One of my issues with The Heroes of Olympus was that, even though it introduced Roman Mythology to the Riordanverse, it felt like it got a bit sidelined in favor of more Greek Mythology.  As such, I'm glad to see that The Trials of Apollo is working to correct that, and to incorporate more Roman History as well.  I'm hoping that more Greek History will also be incorporated in future books.

As per usual, there is an excellent audiobook version that I'm going to plug.  It is narrated by Robbie Daymond.  Maybe he isn't quite as iconic as Jesse Bernstien, but he's better than the narrators of The Heroes of Olympus.  Though that is not to say that they were terrible, or anything of that sort.

Now let's analyze the cover.  We see Apollo crouching in the alleyway in New York City, not too far from the dumpster he landed in.  In the background is a golden glowing image of his former godly glory.  Note how the alleyway is far drabber than Apollo's godly self.

I hope I didn't sound overly negative or nitpicky.  The Hidden Oracle was a breath of fresh air after The Blood of Olympus, and I enjoyed it very much.

Well that should do it for now.  I know I said we'd alternate between Trails of Apollo and Magnus Chase, but we have one more Trails of Apollo book to look at before we return to Magnus Chase.  As such, join me again next time when we take a look back at Camp Half-Blood Confidential.  I hope to see you all next time.