Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian is the fifth and the final book in the series of Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan. It is the sequel to the fourth book Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth. In this book, Percy’s sixteenth birthday is approaching in mere days which means he could save or destroy the world according to the great prophecy. Kronos who is inside Luke’s body is gearing up his armed forces to invade Manhattan to destroy Olympus, while the gods are busy fighting the great typhon. It is now up to Percy Jackson and other half bloods to win this war and save Olympus. Can Percy save Olympus before his whole city crumbles to ruins?
“I found myself staring at her, which was stupid since I’d seen her a billion times. Still, she seemed so much more mature. It was kind of intimidating. I mean, sure, she’d always been cute, but she was starting to be seriously beautiful.”
-Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian.
This book was a perfect sequel to the fourth one. Along the fourth book, we somewhat anticipated that it would come down to the war between Kronos and the demigods. Wasting no time, the book begins with an initiative to delay the attack. Kronos has posed a great distraction to keep the gods busy so that he could invade the city without much effort. Slowing down the now awakened typhon kept most of the gods busy while Poseidon was busy at his own war against the titan Oceanus. With war explained in great detail, this book is a perfect ending to the series.
“He had the head of a Dobermann, but his clawed hands were almost human. He growled and muttered as he tapped on his keyboard. Maybe he was messaging his friends on uglyface.com”
-Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian.
The ability to keep the characters intact was something to note. Many small characters were given importance and a few unexpected ones were given a heroic ending. There were some bittersweet moments that were very much necessary in this final book. Since this war is taking place in Manhattan where Olympus stands, there is a beautiful description of the city with the avenues, the central park and the reservoir. The description paints a picture even to those who hadn’t been to Manhattan before. The author subtly talks about the pollution of Hudson and the East River. This book is like a little reunion of all previous books in this series. The deadly monsters we knew from book one appear in this part and it gives the reader a sense of joy of recognition to those details. This book showed up a positive change in many characters. Even though this book is pretty much all about war, we do not get bored from it. It keeps the reader captivated as to how Kronos would be defeated with so little help. There were pleasant surprises here and there that kept the reader to go on and turn the pages. Many old legends were referred to, in this book like Pandora, Morpheus, Orpheus and we get an even more clear picture of the entire story plot. Small gods like Nemesis, Pompona, Iris, Hecate and several others were also mentioned in this story and their importance was portrayed in a subtle manner. There were some cute advance in relationship between Annabeth and Percy. Rachel Dare from the previous book turns out to be an important character in this book 361 pages of battle and it could be written in a detailed and most interesting way only by Rick Riordan.
“The world was collapsing, and the only thing that really mattered to me was that she was alive”
-Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian.
Rick Riordan is an award winning mystery writer. With his unique story telling ability he captures the attention of young adult readers.
TITLE: PERCY JACKSON AND THE LAST OLYMPIAN.
AUTHOR: RICK RIORDAN
PUBLISHED: 2009
GENRE: Mythology/Young Adult Fiction
