The Last Olympian is the long-awaited fifth and final volume in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan. The series focuses on “half-blood” children of one mortal parent and one Greek god, who are targeted by monsters from Greek mythology which they must fight in order to save themselves and, occasionally, Western civilization.
(Kids whose makeup includes dyslexia and/or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder will be pleased to learn that, in Riordan’s world, these are hallmarks by which one may recognize a demigod or hero.)
The series begins with The Lightning Thief, which was reviewed by our blogger Lauri, and continues with The Sea of Monsters, The Titan’s Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, and now The Last Olympian.
The series has hilarious chapter titles, among them: “Nico Buys Happy Meals for the Dead,” “I Accidentally Vaporize my Math Teacher”, “My Brother Duels Me to the Death”, “I Battle the Cheerleading Squad”, and “Grover Wears a Wedding Dress”. This last book continues the tradition with chapter titles including: ”I Go Cruising with Explosives” and “ My Parents Go Commando”. How could any 9-14 year old boy resist?
In The Last Olympian, the titans’ challenge to the gods comes to a climax. The Titan lord is willing to destroy the entire island of Manhattan—and the mortals on it—to destroy the gods’ city of Olympus, weakening their power. In addition, most of the gods cannot defend their city because they are in the Midwest battling a monstrous giant who escaped from Mount St. Helens in Washington State and is now on a rampage across the country. (Most mortals believe the wake of destruction sweeping from west to east across the U.S. is a powerful storm system causing tornadoes.)
In this last book the young demigods must also deal with loyalty and betrayal. One of them is spying for the enemy, and the mortal body taken over by the Titan lord is one of their own as well—is the hero they loved like a brother still somewhere inside the titan’s body, and if so, can they really destroy him? And what is the role of a mortal girl who has mysterious visions of the past and can see monsters like the half-bloods do?
This book has lots of battle scenes. I know of someone who thought it was too fast-paced compared to the first books, where we hear more of Percy’s thoughts, and someone else who would have liked a little more “romance”. But for many kids, the fast pace of the plot would be a positive. ( For parents like me, the slower pace of the teens’ relationships is also a positive.)
This series has proven fairly popular with youth—girls as well as boys. In fact my son maintains that he is the only fifth grader who didn’t read them last year. (Of course, he also believes he is the only eleven-year-old not allowed to play Halo, bicycle around the city alone, or totally stop eating vegetables.)
After reading the first couple books of the series, I concluded that the series was a whole lot of fun and taught some Greek mythology as well, but wasn’t a book I would read again and again like the Harry Potter series, The Lord of the Ring trilogy, or the Chronicles of Narnia. The above three series seemed to have a depth of insight into the characters, who demonstrate rather than preach the ideals of making the world better and being loyal to your friends.
(To be fair, there are very few fiction books I read again and again. I have a good library of nonfiction titles, but usually read fiction books from the county library.)
This last book has almost changed my mind, though. It does have some nice messages about being loyal to friends, watching out for your own “fatal flaw” such as arrogance or holding grudges. It also points out the importance of parents paying attention to their children, and respecting everyone no matter their family heritage or status.
Mainly, though, this book is just a really fun read!
Some people have complained that the book feels too similar to the Harry Potter stories. I honestly did not have this link spring to mind while reading the first four books, although in retrospect I see it in several places. This final volume does have some more obvious plot similarities.
The Percy Jackson series is ended, but at the end of the book the Oracle gives another Great Prophecy foreseeing a dangerous mission for seven demigods. The centaur who teaches the half-blood youth explains that this may occur soon or it may be several generations from now. It sounds like fans can anticipate another series about these “half-blood heroes”. Whether any of our favorite characters from this series will be in this series is an open question.
Related book and movie reviews here at Families.com include:
Jason and the Argonauts, a movie based on Greek mythology; and The Iron Ring, in which well-known fantasy writer Lloyd Alexander departs from his past books based on Welsh mythology to base this novel on the mythology of India.