The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

Summary from Goodreads:


Jason has a problem. He doesn’t remember anything before waking up in a bus full of kids on a field trip. Apparently he has a girlfriend named Piper and a best friend named Leo. They’re all students at a boarding school for “bad kids.” What did Jason do to end up here? And where is here, exactly? 

Piper has a secret. Her father has been missing for three days, ever since she had that terrifying nightmare. Piper doesn’t understand her dream, or why her boyfriend suddenly doesn’t recognize her. When a freak storm hits, unleashing strange creatures and whisking her, Jason, and Leo away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood, she has a feeling she’s going to find out. 

Leo has a way with tools. When he sees his cabin at Camp Half-Blood, filled with power tools and machine parts, he feels right at home. But there’s weird stuff, too—like the curse everyone keeps talking about. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist that each of them—including Leo—is related to a god

I like the Percy Jackson series and after hearing people say how The Lost Hero is a "new and improved" version of it, I came in with high hopes. And yes, I wasn't disappointed at all.

I like the three main characters: Jason, Piper, and Leo compared to Percy, Annabeth, and Grover. They are more real and relatable in their identity struggles, and all the other inner conflicts that they had to go through. The story is much more complex with Roman gods and demi-gods thrown into the mix. We all know how conflicted Greco-Roman relations are. But still some parts I found to be a bit contrived (like when they were saved from Aeolous, the wind god, the details I'll leave to you to discover) Although in anything that involves mythological gods, goddesses, and creatures, one has to learn that irrationality would often come up. They mostly act according to whim and this book isn't short of that. This is not a complaint on my part, it makes the story all the more exciting and less predictable but I can't say the same for the demi-god or hero involved. Aside from that I love that the story also involves more lesser known mythological characters. Rick Riordan is great at reinventing minor mythological characters (think Medusa, Circe, Calypso etc. in Percy Jackson series). He normally starts off by putting the protagonists in a place that has its indications as to who or what mythological character lives in it, letting you anticipate or guess as to the identity of the said mythological character. 

All in all Rick Riordan is truly a master at Greek/Roman Myth reinvention. I am glad that he did not stop at The Percy Jackson and the Olympians series because I need my Greek/roman Myth fix and I don't know any other book/s as good as his. I am in great anticipation for the Son of Neptune. I hear there is a bunch of new demi-gods in it and I bet there will be more reinventions of mythological characters involved as well.