Riordan Retrospective: The Tyrant's Tomb

Welcome back to my Riordan Retrospective.  For those of you just joining the fun, this is my look back at the works of Rick Riordan.  That means Percy Jackson, its sequels, and spin-offs.  This is less of a formal review and more of a relaxed look back.  Late time, we finished our look back at The Kane Chronicles (again) with a Brooklyn House Magician's Manual.  This time, we're heading back to The Trials of Apollo.  We're taking a look back at The Tyrant's Tomb, The Trials of Apollo book 4.  As usual, we're starting off with a brief summary.

Apollo and Meg have made it to San Francisco with the corpse of Jason Grace.  They're soon on their way to Camp Jupiter, and not a moment too soon.  New Rome is under attack by an army of the undead.  Tarquin the Proud, the last king of Rome, has risen from the dead.  Worse still, Caligula and Commodus also have their sights set on New Rome.  Apollo and his friends are in a race against the clock to stop the invasions before New Rome is completely obliterated.

This is the most recent book in the series.  As such, there will be major spoilers.  Turn back now if you don't want any of that.

Overall, I did enjoy this book.  On the whole, The Trials of Apollo just keeps getting better.  Though, that having been said, there were some pretty significant issues towards the end.  For now, let's focus on the stuff that I did enjoy.  We have a new character joining the cast with this book.  Lavinia Asimov is the first time we've seen a child of the muses.  Specifically, she's a daughter of Terpsichore, the muse of dance.  Great to see the children of the minor gods getting some love.  Interesting that it was a Roman demigod who was our first child of the muses.  The muses are quintessentially Greek, and lack Roman counterparts.  She's also the first Jewish demigod we've encountered.  Well, unless you count Julia Feingold, but we only know that because Rick said so on Twitter.  Judaism is just as much a culture as a religion, and you can be a Jew without believing in God, so this works out pretty well.

I liked how Lavinia's Jewishness is depicted.  She wears a Star of David necklace, and mentions having a Bat Mitzvah, but that's about it.  She doesn't mention it every twelve seconds, and it isn't the defining characteristic of her personality, unlike a certain poorly written daughter of Loki.  She's also a lesbian, but again, it doesn't define her personality, and she doesn't constantly bring it up.  It was nice that she went through a learning-curve, and wasn't instantly amazing at everything.  It made her earning everyone's praise feel more genuine.  All in all, Lavinia is a welcome addition to the Camp Jupiter family.  I do wonder if she's related to Isaac Asimov, the famous science fiction writer.   Lavinia mentions having a friend who is a daughter of Euterpe, the muse of music.  Wish we could have met that camper.  You'd think that, both being children of the muses, she and Lavinia would have a closer relationship.

I must admit, I wasn't expect Tarquin to be one of the villains.  Wasn't expecting, but he was certainly effective.  I thought it was cool that he came back as an undead lich king.  Apparently, just as Camp Jupiter moves from country to country, so too does the Tomb of Tarquin.  I also wasn't expecting that we'd see Caligula and Commodus defeated in this book.  Unexpected, but it was still awesome, especially with what happened with Frank.  More on that in just a minute.

I was great getting to see Frank and Hazel again.  My only issue would be that it felt like they, especially Hazel, kind of got shortchanged.  Hazel, Frank, Reyna, and Lavinia all have to share the same book.  By contrast, Leo and Calypso got a book all to themselves, and Jason and Piper got a book all to themselves.  Percy wasn't really in The Hidden Oracle, and that meant the Camp Half-Blood gang got more time to shine.  It just seems unfair, as I've long felt the Roman demigods got outshines by their Greek counterparts.  This is especially bad given that Roman emperors are the villains.  You'd think that would mean the Romans would get more love, but not, sidelined by the Greeks once again.

Well, at least Frank got a chance to shine.  Remember that piece of firewood that controls his life?  He burned it in order to destroy Caligula and Commodus.  However, because he willingly sacrificed himself, he broke free of his destiny and didn't die.  Even Apollo admits he isn't sure how that works. I think it was Riordan going "I know it's contrived, just roll with it."  Hey, I'll take it without complaint.  I love Frank.  I'm just saying, after Riordan killed Jason, all bets are off.

So, why have all communications been down.  Turns out, the Triumvirate took a trip to Alexandria, Egypt and literally dug up a Greco-Egyptian god.  Specifically, Harpocrates, the Greco-Egyptian god of silence.  This was because, once the Greeks conquered Egypt, they found statues of the god Horus, in the form of a human child, holding a finger to his lips.  This is the Egyptian symbol for child, but the Greek thought it meant silence.  Thus, a god who never should have been was born.  This marks the first time an Egyptian god has appeared outside of The Kane Chronicles.  Well, not counting the crossover stories.  Also, Harpocrates is only half-Egyptian, but close enough.

Apparently, Apollo bullied Harpocrates back in the day.  There's no mythological evidence of this, it was made-up for Trails of Apollo.  Interestingly, Harpocrates was said to be a child of fellow Greco-Egyptian god Serapis, who appeared in the crossover stories.  Harpocrates is fully aware that he shouldn't exist, and he longs for the release of fading.  Some gods, like Pan and Helios, fight against fading for as long as they can.  Harpocrates, by contrast, embraces it with arms outstretched.  Same goes for the Oracle of Cumae, who has struck-up something of a romance with Harpocrates.  A god who can't speak, and an oracle who is only a voice.  Quite a pair they are.

Speaking of romance, Tyson and Ella are back, and just as adorable as ever.  Ella has been busily tattooing the Sibylline Books on Tyson's skin.  Cyclopes have very tough skin, so he doesn't mind.  Also they have a pet cat named Aristophanes, named after the Ancient Greek comedy playwright, and they're running a book shop.  I enjoyed getting to visit New Rome again, even if it had seen better days.  It's not just humans and demigods who call New Rome home.  Apparently, they got people with two heads, dog-headed Cynocephaly, and more.  Oh, and they do have fauns and nature spirits.  I felt really bad when Don the faun died.  I called him lazy, but he was a hero when it counted, and I enjoyed his friendship with Lavinia.  I was intrigued that one of the senators was a legacy of Luna, the Roman form of Selene.  I had been wondering if there were any legacies of Sol and Luna.

Terminus has adopted an orphan girl named Julia, which I thought was nice.  He's certainly one of the kinder gods.  Still, this does reinforce my theory about New Rome lacking an equivalent of Child Services.  Not that Old Rome was much better in that regard.  One of the reasons Christianity managed to gain a foothold was that it filled in the gaps the Roman welfare state left behind.  Julia is probably the closest to a child of Terminus that we'll get.  I'm just saying, from what we've seen, he doesn't appear to have any naughty bits.

Well, we covered what I liked, now let's talk about what didn't work for me.  Well, first of all, we had to endure the characters weeping and wailing about St. Jason of the Blessed Grace.  I knew this was coming, but it still annoyed me.  How can they be sad when worthless Jason is gone for good?  Although it was cool to see the Romans building all of those new temples in record time.  Why do I get the feeling this won't be the last time Jason Grace spites me from beyond the grave?

Now let's talk about Reyna.  At first, everything seemed to be alright.  She appeared much as she did in The Heroes of Olympus.  Then she joined Apollo on his quest.  She was incredibly snippy and prone to emotional outbursts.  This is in sharp contrast to The Heroes of Olympus, where Reyna was stoic and a consummate professional at all times.  Even her internal thoughts maintained that level of stoicism and professionalism.  She had doubts and deep sadness, but never had emotional outbursts like we see here.  As such, you can't blame it on stress or anything like that.  It feels incredibly out of character in the same way I felt about Annabeth in The Mark of Athena.

Also, Reyna and Meg are outraged that Apollo turned ravens black.  Apparently, they think this makes them ugly.  Meg is excusable, because she wears glasses, but Reyna might want to schedule and optometrist appointment.  Ravens are beautiful just the way they are with their dark plumage.  Also, why does Reyna drive a pickup truck?  If Camp Jupiter can afford SUVs for traveling across the country, then surely a praetor could afford a better ride than a pickup truck.  Unless she just really likes pickup trucks for some reason.  Puerto Rico would be one of the southern most states, if it ever gets statehood, but not that kind of southern.  I never really pinned Reyna as someone who'd like reggaton music.  She always struck me as more of the classical music type.

Reyna's characterization in this book really feels like a recycling of what Riordan did with Piper's characterization in The Burning Maze.  It worked for Piper, but it not only doesn't work here, but just feels lazy.  Oh, but we aren't done yet.  Towards the end of the book, Apollo must call upon Diana, Artemis' Roman counterpart, for help.  Admittedly, I had been wondering if there was a Hunters of Diana out there.  Turns out, they are exactly the same as the Hunters of Artemis.  They're all one big happy family.

Anyway, Reyna has been having issues because everyone keeps trying to find her a boyfriend, but she isn't sure if she wants one.  She talks about how even she considered pairing up with everyone from Frank, to Percy, to even Octavian.  Although, the way she phrases it, she makes it sound like ending up with Percy would have been worse than winding up with Octavian!  Either that's another out-of-character moment, or Rick needs to get a better proofreader and editor.  Reyna is also feeling the stress from how she's been subordinate to other people throughout her life.

So, how does she resolve this?  Why, by joining the Hunters of Artemis.  Um, what?!  So she's tired of being a cog in the machine of Camp Jupiter, so she becomes a cog in the Hunters of Artemis?  That makes no sense.  It's not like the Hunters encourage people to explore their sexuality.  In fact, they actively discourage it.  Moreover, she's still having to follow orders and have expectations.  Seriously, this is the best Rick could do to resolve Reyna's character arc?

Look, having the message that there's no need to rush into romance could have worked.  However, the message her seems to be that this is only possible if you join the Hunters of Artemis.  It's a complete cop-out.  Although I think I know why Rick did it.  For a while, many Riordanverse fans shipped Reyna and Apollo together.  I don't know why, but I don't pretend to understand shipping.  Well, that and shipping Reyna with basically everyone became popular.  Of course, who am I to judge?  I've been known to ship Reyna with Ahsoka Tano from Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Yes, it was kind of like how Nico got shipped with everyone before he came out as gay...huh, I wonder if that might have factored into Riordan making him gay.  Anyway, the whole thing feels like Riordan thumbing his nose at the Reyna shippers.  Unfortunately, it feels like he prioritized this over giving Reyna a satisfying conclusion.  Look, I get that shippers can be crazy and annoying at time, and you gotta be true to yourself, but it feels like Rick prioritized pissing them off over plot.  That accounts for why Reyna though her and Apollo getting together was side-splittingly hilarious.  Also, apparently Reyna and Thalia are pen pals.  I think they did briefly talk at the end of The Blood of Olympus, but it still seems a bit odd.

Speaking of Nico, Reyna joining the Hunters means we won't get to see her relationship with Nico get developed.  I loved there surrogate brother/sister dynamic, but I guess we won't get to see that expanded on.  This is the second time Nico has lost a sister to the Hunters.  At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if the next book has him going on a rampage and slaughtering the Hunters.  

As I've mentioned before, Rick mentioned he originally considered making Reyna lesbian, but decided against it for fear it would play into harmful stereotypes.  Hmm, I wonder if Lavinia was born out of those original plans.  Part of me also wonders if he did it to score social justice point s for having an asexual character.  Strange, given he already had the Hunters of Artemis, and I'd say Reyna is confused and trying to sort things out more than anything.  Maybe we ought to stop trying to label every little thing.  My mom tells me that, back in her day, you'd her things like "that boy/girl is a bit confused, and a little funny, but he/she is a good person."  Maybe we ought to bring that sort of thing back.

Look, I don't want this to sound like I hated this book.  Overall, I loved it, and Trials of Apollo does, in most regards, feel like it keeps getting better.  Still, what Riordan did to Reyna is going to be major black mark against this series.  Let's move on to the cover analysis.

Oh, sweet Reyna, what has the cover artist done to you?  I mean everything else about the cover looks perfectly fine.  But as for Reyna...yikes.  Even Lester doesn't look as bad as she does.  Help me, Viria.  You're my only hope. 

Ah, that's better.  Thank you, Viria.  Once again, I'll give a shout-out to the audiobook.  Though a must say that Robbie Daymond certainly has an odd way of producing certain words, such as praetor.

So that was The Tyrant's Tomb.  It had some pretty serious flaws, but overall, still a solid and enjoyable book.  Well, at this point we're pretty much caught up.  Camp Jupiter Confidential and The Tower of Nero haven't been released yet.  Haven't had a chance to listen to the audio version of "Percy Jackson and the Singer of Apollo" yet.  If I do, I might make a mini-retrospective out it.  The point is, it might be a while before the next retrospective comes out.

It has been fun, and it has great to have all of you along for the ride.  I look forward to getting to do this once again.  Until that day, I will see you guys next time.