Riordan Retrospective: The Demigod Diaries

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 took a look back at The Son of Neptune.  This time we're taking a look at the short stories collection The Demigod Diaries. 

As per usual there will be spoilers, so turn back now if you don't like that sort of thing.  Everyone who wants out gone?  Good, then let's begin.

The first story is called "The Diary of Luke Castellan".  It takes place several years before The Lightning Thief and follows Luke, Thalia and Annabeth before they came to Camp Half-Blood.  In fact, it takes place not too long before Luke and Thalia met Annabeth for the first time.  Before that, however, they must meet with a son of Apollo named Halcyon Green.  He has the power to see into the future, but what will he say about Luke and Thalia's futures?

A lot of people had been asking Rick to write a story about Luke, Thalia and Annabeth's adventures before they arrived at Camp Half-Blood.  As such, I'm sure this story made many people very happy.  Can't say I was exactly one of those people, but overall I enjoyed this story.  One of the first things that stuck out to me about this story was the tone.  Even at its darkest moments, the Riordanverse always had an undercurrent of wonder and awe at all of the mythical things going on.  That feeling is completely absent here.  There's a much more ominous and sinister tone.  This story almost feels more like a horror story than a fantasy story. 

  

We see the seeds that would lead Luke down his path to try to overthrow the gods.  We also get to find out just where the knife Luke gave to Annabeth came from.  I get the feeling that this isn't the last we'll see of Halcyon Green.  He's just too good of a character for Rick to not being back in some capacity in The Trials of Apollo.  This story was a great way to provide a sympathetic look of one of the Riordanverse's most tragic villains.  All in all, "The Diary of Luke Castellan" was a great way to start off the collection.   

Our next story is "Percy Jackson and the Staff of Hermes".  This story takes place between The Last Olympian and The Lost Hero.  In fact, it takes place about a month after the end of The Last Olympian.  Percy and Annabeth are celebrating their one month anniversary when the god Hermes ask for their help.  His caduceus has been stolen by the giant Cacus, and it's up to Percy and Annabeth to get it back. 

This one was probably my favorite story of the bunch.  It's another story that shows that Percy and the gang are having adventures even when it isn't the summer.  Cacus serves as some great foreshadowing about how Roman Mythology is going to start playing a bigger role in Percy and Annabeth's lives.  At one point he brags about the time he stole all the cattle in Rome.  Well, he serves as foreshadowing to Percy and Annabeth, at any rate.  By this point, we already knew about the Roman demigods and their corner of the world.  My only really criticism is that it seemed like Percy forgot about his Curse of Achilles.  For that matter, Rick Riordan also seems to have forgotten, given that Percy gets minor injuries even though he shouldn't have. 

Hermes rewards our heroes with a romantic dinner in Paris.  That was awfully nice of him.  Of course, going back to The Sea of Monsters, Hermes has always been one of the nicest and friendliest gods Percy and the gang have encountered.  The scene where Percy turns on the caduceus' laser function was fun, and George and Martha, are always fun.  "Staff of Hermes" is a really great story that helps to expand the Riordanverse.

 Our third story is "Leo Valdez and Quest for Buford".  It takes place between The Lost Hero/The Son of Neptune and The Mark of Athena.  Jason, Piper and Leo are scrambling to find a mechanical table Leo made before the chemicals it contains blows the woods up.  Also, said chemicals are vital for the construction of the Argo II.  If they want to get to Buford they're going to have to put up with some very crazy Maenads.

This was probably my least favorite story of the bunch.  The first problem it had is that it stars Jason, Piper and Leo.  I think I've already made it quite clear that I don't find them to be compelling characters in the slightest.  The second, and by far the greater issue, is that it didn't develop them as characters.  Leo is the same annoying Leo, and Jason and Piper are just as bland and uninteresting as ever.  It would have been better if the story had been set at Camp Jupiter before the events of The Lost Hero.  It would have been a great opportunity to get insight into Jason's character, and to develop him as a character.  Also, the Camp Jupiter characters are much more fun to read about than Piper and Leo; just saying.

For the life of me, I just don't understand why Riordan seems to love Jason, Piper and Leo so much.  Well, I suppose I ought to throw this story at least one bone or two.  I did enjoy the Maenads; I had been wondering when they were going to show up.  They claimed they were drinking kid-friendly non-alcoholic eggnog, but they sure did seem awfully buzzed.  While we're on the subject, same goes for Dakota, a son of Bacchus from Camp Jupiter.  He claims that he only drinks kool-aid, but I've got my suspicions about that.  Also, this story claims Camp Half-Blood doesn't celebrate Christmas, but this is contradicted by what we saw in The Titan's Curse.  Well, anyway, let's move on to the last story.

  

Our final story is "Son of Magic".  It follows Dr. Howard Claymore, a leading researcher into the study of death.  During one of his talks he is approached by a boy named Alabaster C. Torrington.  Alabaster wants to know if there is a way to stop death.  Dr. Claymore is hesitant at first, but agrees to follow up with Alabaster.  Before long, Dr. Claymore finds himself drawn into a world of gods, monsters and things he can't even begin to fathom. 

This story is unique compared to the other three because it is not written by Rick Riordan.  Instead, it is written by Rick's son, Haley Riordan.  The first thing that stuck me about this story is the tone.  It's dark, ominous and there is a strong sense of foreboding.  That goes hand-in-hand with the second way this story sticks out: the protagonist is both an adult and a bog-standard mortal.  This is a first on both of those counts.  Dr. Claymore' reaction to discovering the world of demigods and monsters is, I would say, pretty realistic.  We all might fantasize about visiting the Riordanverse, but without magic powers or special training, it would probably be a downright terrifying place to live in.  At times this felt very much like a horror story.

Now let's talk about Alabaster, son of Hecate.  He was one of the demigods who fought for Kronos.  Even after the war ended, he wanted to keep fighting, and refused to accept the armistice.  The gods worried that he might cause an uprising, but Hecate convinced them to spare Alabaster, in exchange for him being exiled from Camp Half-Blood.  He is the first, and thus far only, demigod this has ever happened to.  Chalk another one up for how dark this story is.  I actually had wondered if there were demigods who wanted to keep fighting after the war was officially over, and now I have my answer. 

We also finally get an answer for why monsters can smell demigods so easily. Lamia, the mother of monsters, did it after Hera killed her children in retaliation for Zeus trying to court Lamia.  This was back before Lamia was turned into a monster.  Anyway, due to being a daughter of Hecate, Lamia cast a spell so that monsters could find demigods easily.  She did this so that Hera would know what it's like to lose a child.  Unfortunately, Hera's feelings for demigods ranges from indifferent to downright antagonistic...unless they're Jason Grace, for some reason.  So yeah, thanks a lot Hera. 

Though, I suppose she did throw them one bone.  Well, besides the whole bringing the camps together to fight Gaea the giants thing.  Argus, the hundred-eyed giant, was Hera's faithful body guard.  She loaned him out to Camp Half-Blood as the head of security.  I always thought it was kind of a shame that Argus didn't play a bigger role in the stories, but I digress.

Hecate overall was reasonably well written, though this depiction seems at bit at odds with how Hecate appears in The House of Hades.  However, my biggest issue with this story also involves Hecate.  There are several times that Dr. Claymore has visions/conversations with Hecate where she is sitting in a church and praying.  The implication being that the Judeo-Christian god is real, and all of the polytheistic gods are subservient to him.  The biggest problem I have with this is that it just doesn't fit with the established universe. 

We've seen multiple times that the afterlife is radically different than what Christians say.  Back in The Lightning Thief we even saw a corrupt televangelist burning in Tartarus.  Why would the Judeo-Christian god let people go to pagan afterlives?  It just makes no sense.  Rick has hinted that maybe the Judeo-Christian god does exists somewhere out there, but given the afterlife problem, it feels like red herrings more than anything else.

  

Still, despite these hiccups, overall this story was quite well written.  I'm still partial to "Staff of Hermes" but "Son of Magic" can certainly give it a run for its money.  I see a bright future for Haley Riordan and his writing career.  A very bright future indeed. 

I'll also take a moment to plug the audiobook version of this short story collection.  Each story is narrated by a different narrator.  "Diary of Luke Castellan" is narrated by Nick Chamian, "Staff of Hermes" is narrated by Jesse Bernstein, "Quest for Burford" is narrated by Joshua Swanson, and "Son of Magic" is narrated by Aaron Groben. 

There isn't really much to analyze on the cover.  We have a green background, along with a brown spine, with the shield Aegis and two swords all glowing.  Simple, but I would say still reasonably effective. 

Well, I think that wraps up this retrospective.  Next time we're returning to the world of Egyptian Mythology to finish our adventure with the Kane siblings.  Join me again next time when we take a look back at The Serpent's Shadow.  I will see you then.