Riordan Retrospective: The Son of Neptune

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 returned to The Kane Chronicles for a look back at The Throne of Fire.  This time we're returning to The Heroes of Olympus.  We're taking a look back at The Son of Neptune, The Heroes of Olympus book 2. 

Percy Jackson is confused and on the run from monsters.  He can't remember why he's on the run, or much of anything for that matter, but thanks to the wolf goddess Lupa he's made it to a safe haven.  Oh, but this isn't Camp Half-Blood, this is Camp Jupiter: training camp for children and descendants of the Roman gods.  Percy barely has time to adjust to this brave new world when he soon finds himself on a quest with his fellow campers Frank Zhang and Hazel Levesque.  The three of them must free Thanatos, the god of death.  To do this they must travel the west coast of North America to the Land Beyond the Gods: Alaska!

As per usual, there will be spoilers, so turn back now if you don't want any.  Okay, everyone who wants out gone?  Then let's begin.

The Son of Neptune always felt like a much better start to The Heroes of Olympus than The Lost Hero to me.  It almost feels as though it was written in response of the criticisms of The Lost Hero.  We're got Percy, a long established and beloved character, to act as our anchor as we are introduced to new characters and new settings.  Also, rather than wasting time on build up, we get straight to the point with all of the revelations and new information. 

One thing in particular that I like was that Percy still acted like the seaweed brain we all know and love even with his amnesia.  This is particularly note worth as it is in sharp contrast to Jason Grace, who appeared to have no personality.  Boy, was that ever foreshadowing about Jason's lack of personality.  On a side note, if you'll remember back to The Titan's Curse, one of the Ares campers was also named Jason.  Just a fun little tidbit I thought I'd point out. 

It was a bit disappointing that Percy lost his Curse of Achilles so early on, but I understand why it had to happen.  Well, you know, apart from the curse being Greek, so he had to lose it to go into Roman territory.  If Percy was, effectively, invincible it would be hard to maintain a sense of drama and tension.  Though, granted, he could always have been in danger from choking or poison.  In fact, he nearly gets killed in that bet with Phineas, but is smart enough to know that he's too important to Gaea for her to let him die.  That scene is also a prime example of how, though he might not be book smart, Percy is smart in other ways. 

After the build-up of The Lost Hero we finally get to see Camp Jupiter and New Rome, and they are glorious.  We've gotten a few hints of Roman Mythology, a few gods like Janus here and there, but this is the first time it's front and center to the plot.  In edition to the mythology we also get a good dose of Roman History.  One of the things that always kind of disappointed me a bit about Camp Half-Blood was that it didn't really do much with the history and culture of Ancient Greece.  New Rome also gives us an answer to the question of what happens after camp, at least for Roman demigods.  After they serve their time in the legion they get to retire to New Rome and do whatever they want, and they don't have to fear any monster attacks.

Unsurprisingly, New Rome appeals to Percy, but I think there's an even deeper level to that.  We learn that Neptune, Poseidon's Roman counterpart, is considered a fairly unimportant god by the people of New Rome and Camp Jupiter.  At Camp Half-Blood he's a living legend and many of the other campers hold him on a pedestal.  At Camp Jupiter he has a chance to be just another face in the crowd.  The fact the Camp Jupiter is decided into cohorts, rather than cabins, probably appeals to him as well.  It might be nice to have Poseidon Cabin all to himself for privacy, but it probably gets lonely in there at times. 

We also get an answer to the question of, what happens when demigods have kids, in the form of legacies.  Legacies apparently get powers too, but those powers get weaker with each successive generation.  Octavian is described as looking like a faded copy of an Apollo kid.  We only ever see Roman legacies, but Greek demigods don't have an equivalent of New Rome, so the implication is that most of them get killed before they can have kids.  Well, that's actually not quite accurate, but more on that in just a minute.  You get a tattoo based on your godly parent and/or ancestor when joining Camp Jupiter.  Do legacies get combo tattoos?  That could lead to some pretty complex tattoos.  If I did have one minor quibble it would be that legacies didn't really factor much into the plot of the series, baring a few notable exceptions, as demigods did.

Now let's talk about the characters.  I really loved Reyna.  She was stoical, a strong leader and overall a woman in control.  Yet beneath it all she has her own doubts and insecurities.  I'm very happy that she got to play an even bigger role in the later books.  Some people have noted that she and Annabeth has some similarities, but I think she different enough to be interesting.  For example, Annabeth is very fiery and outspoken, but Reyna is more reserved and introspective.  She's also very Roman, given that her mother is Bellona.  Technically, Bellona's Greek equivalent is Enyo, but they are as different as night and day.  Enyo was, essentially, the female version of Ares.  Bellona, by contrast, was a much more honorable and noble goddess, not all that dissimilar to how Mars contrasts with Ares. 

Now let's talk about Hazel.  Like Nico and Bianca she's from the 1940s, but unlike them she actually remembers what it was like back then.  She spends most of her time at Camp Jupiter, so culture shock doesn't come up that much, which I'd say was a bit of a wasted opportunity.  She's a child of Pluto, but her powers are more oriented towards gems and precious metals, rather than the dead.  It does make a certain amount of sense; Hades/Pluto was the god of wealth, especially with regards to the riches beneath the Earth, in addition to being the god of the dead.  

Still, ever since Hazel showed up Nico definitely started to specialize in death powers, while ignoring his earth-related powers.  Also, apparently Bianca opted for reincarnation, so there goes any hope of her and Nico being reunited, even if only temporarily.  Well, at least Nico's still got Hazel, if nothing else.  Something I found interesting is that Hades/Pluto is the only god of the Big Three to not break the promise to not have any more kids.  Going back to the myths, Hades was the most faithful of the Big Three; he only cheated on Persephone twice, and both times ended badly for the women he got involved with.  I like to think he said faithful because Persephone scared him so much those two times. 

With Frank Zhang with get our first major character from outside the United States.  Well, technically Sadie Kane spent most of her life in Britain, but she was born in America.  Frank, by contrast was born and spent most of his life in Canada.  I liked how it was explained that he had Greek and Roman ancestry despite being Chinese.  He's descended from Romans who were capture by Parthians, who were in-tern captured by the Chinese and taken to China.  Riordan clearly put some thought into that, and I tip my hat to that.  I loved Frank's interactions with Mars, and how it really showed just how different Mars is from Ares.  Mars is a kind and honorable god, as well as a loving father; by contrast, Ares is a bully who's relationship with his children is...rocky at the best of times.

Mars also gives us a brief candid look into the life of the gods.  He says he somewhat envies humans because their lives are finite.  Personally, I've always been of the option that immortality would be pretty great; you'd get to see all your long-term projects to the end, wouldn't have to fear death, ect.  However, Mars does raise the point that you'd also have to watch your loved ones get old and die.  Humans must seem like mayflies to the gods.  I've touched on this before, but maybe that's part of why the gods tend to ignore their children and mortal lovers.  Not getting too attached makes it easier when they enviably die.  On a lighter note, Mars also provides one of the funniest prophecies, because of just how direct it is.

I found Octavian to be entertaining just because of how shamelessly evil he was.  He was just so bombastic and over the top; subtly clearly isn't his style.  He certainly inherited his great-grandfather's flair for the dramatic.  Speaking of which, the fact that he's a legacy of Apollo makes his hatred of Greeks all the more ironic.  Apollo was one of the most quintessentially Greek gods, he even has the same name in both Greek and Roman Mythology.  

All in all, I found the Camp Jupiter characters to be a welcome addition to the Riordanverse, and I welcomed them with open arms.  

We also get some insight into demigod history.  Apparently, the American Civil War was a fight between the demigods; the Greeks fought for the North and the Romans fought for the South.  It's explained that Greek and Roman demigods have been at each other's throats ever since the Trojan War.  The Romans believed themselves to be descended from Trojan refugees, and in the Riordanverse, they really were.  The American Civil War killed so many demigods that the gods decided to keep them separate and ignorant to each other existence.  In real life, the American Civil War killed two percent of America's overall population, and is one of the deadliest wars America has ever fought; only the American Revolution rivals it in total body-count.  The Greeks are always in the East, and the Romans are always in the West, because of the way the Roman Empire was split; with Byzantium/Constantinople as the eastern capital and Rome as the western capital. 

We'd gotten hints of this before, it was mentioned in the original series that most of the Union generals were demigods, and so was Harriet Tubman.  However, it is also stated that the gods came to America in 1860, which makes no sense.  At the point in history the British Empire was at the height of its power and influence.  That means the Heart of the West should have still been in Britain.  It would have made more sense for it to come to America after World War II, or after World War I at earliest; in both of those cases, America was becoming a rising star and major power on the world stage.  

While we're on the subject of historical discrepancies, our trio of heroes discover that New Rome's navy is a single rickety dingy.  Hazel and Frank didn't even know New Rome had a navy.  It is explain that this is because the Ancient Romans didn't put much stock in naval power.  This is a gross oversimplification.  It is certainly true that the Romans didn't trust any water that their horses couldn't drink from, and their ships tended to be coast-huggers.  However, they were by no means slouches in regards to sea power.  During the Punic Wars, Rome defeated Carthage, the top naval power of the time, by reverse-engineering Carthaginian ships they captured.  

These are only a few issues, overall the information about Roman History is perfectly solid.  Moving along, we also get an answer to a question I've pondered for quite some time: what if an Iris Message was sent to something doing something where they would want to be seen?  Turns out it goes through all the same, as Frank found out when he sent one to Reyna while she was taking a bath.  We also finally get an on-screen appearance by Iris, and she's a hippie.  Well, rainbows are often associated with hippies.  She's also debating is she ought to convert to Buddhism or Taoism.  Amusingly enough, Buddhism teaches that it is perfectly possible to be both a god and a Buddhist, since even the gods are subject to the cycle of rebirth.  

Speaking of gods, I loved pretty much every scene Terminus was in.  As our heroes travel they get assistance from a couple of adult demigods and legacies who live outside of New Rome.  None of them are name nor do they having speaking role, and that's a shame.  It would have been interesting to see the perspective of an older demigod or legacy, and to hear their words of advice to our heroes.  As another side note, Amazon.com being run by actual Amazons was kind of obvious, but I loved it nonetheless, especially the scenes with Kinzie. 

I'd also like to take a moment to plug the audiobook version of this book. 

Now let's analyze the cover.  The cover depicts the climactic scene in Alaska. Percy triumphantly arises from the water carrying the lost standard of the Twelfth Legion.  If you'll note, you can see him wearing a purple Camp Jupiter t-shirt.  Up on the cliffs we can see the builds of Alcyoneus.  

All in all, The Son of Neptune was a much better start to The Heroes of Olympus than The Lost Hero, and I loved every minute of it.  We're going to be doing something a little different next time, because we're taking a look at another collection of short stories.  Join me next time when we take a look back at The Demigod Diaries.  I will see you all then.