Review: The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

Title: The Lost Hero
Author: Rick Riordan
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Publication Date: October 12, 2010
Series: The Heroes of Olympus #1
Related Series: Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Book Depository
Source: Purchased

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 his best friend is a guy named Leo. They're all students at the Wilderness School, a boarding school for "bad kids", as Leo puts it. What did Jason do to end up here? And where is here, exactly? Jason doesn't know anything - except that everything seems very wrong.

Piper has a secret. Her father, a famous actor, has been missing for three days, ever since she had that terrifying nightmare about his being in trouble. Piper doesn't understand her dream, or why her boyfriend suddenly doesn't recognize her. When a freak storm hits during the school trip, unleashing strange creatures and whisker her, Jason, and Leo away to some place called Camp Half-Blood, she has a feeling she's going to find out, whether she wants to or not.

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, and some camper who's gone missing. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist that each of them - including Leo - is related to a god. Does this have anything to do with Jason's amnesia, or the fact that Leo keeps seeing ghosts?

People who liked the Percy Jackson books will love this first installment of the new companion series. It follows three new heroes and is set in the same world as Percy Jackson, a couple of years later. Riordan makes a switch from the first person view of Percy to a third person, rotating POV featuring the three new heroes:  Jason, Piper, and Leo. I really like this switch. It works great with the new characters and made them feel equally important to the story. There are also cameos by some favorite PJ characters which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Piper is my favorite character! I don't know why, but she is. Maybe it's a girl power thing, but I found myself looking forward to her chapters the most. Leo has mad skills with gadgets and some of the stuff that he does is pretty sweet. I'm so glad that Riordan added in this goofy, tech savvy character and highlighted his abilities. I found him to be a really cool and interesting addition to the group. Jason feels like the 'main character' of the three. He didn't interest me quite as much as his counterparts, but that is probably because he has amnesia and therefore has no memories which makes it difficult for him to have a proper personality outside of struggling to remember things. I still cared about him though, so that is good. I look forward to future books and to seeing Jason really develop as a character because I think that, the more he grows and remembers, the more that I will like him. As a trio, these characters are great fun and I really liked reading about them.

The plot follows archetypal hero quest plot lines, which is fine by me because I could read about heroes on quests forever and probably never get bored - especially when the characters are awesome. The story in this one was pretty cool, but it is clear by the end that the follow-ups will be pretty epic, and now I can't wait to get my hands on them.