Book Two: Dark Prophecy, The Trials of Apollo

As always Rick Riordan released another amazing book in The Dark Prophecy. Full of humor but also tense and serious moment my expectations were more than met. This series really is an amazing story of character development and I can't wait to read the third book.

Liked the concept of a mortal Apollo. He becomes a more developed and sympathetic character in this book, but Meg's ultimate role remains a mystery. (Then there is the thorny issue of how a mortal 16 year old boy Apollo/Lester's affection for 12 year old girl Meg will be resolved).

Very good. Clear concise and has a good flow. Apollo as Lester Papadopoulos, feeling all the angst and troubles as a 17 year while still having more of his Godly memories make for good reading. Meg's character is funny,and well-rounded. I love that you can tell she cares for Apollo , even though she seems to not want him to know, while still trying to figure out who she is.

Following the disappointment that was The Blood of Olympus, I was again let down with The Trials of Apollo, The Hidden Oracle. Book One just didn't do it for me for some reason. I found that the book dragged on, the adventures weren't; very fun, the characters weren't as fun as others, and the voice of Apollo was repetitive, exhaustive, and not at all how he was depicted in the Titan's Curse. He was just so whiny. I wasn't; sure if I should buy the second book, but commitment to the Riordan brand didn't give me another option. And I'm so glad I didn't give up on him after two major disappointments.

Book Two, The Dark Prophecy, didn't allow me to put down the book. While I struggled to finish Book One, Book Two was exactly what you would call a page-turner. The adventures were a lot of fun, Apollo was less whiny and more 'goddy', as he should've been from the beginning, and even though this particular book did not feature Percy Jackson, the characters were amazing and bad ass. Oh, and LEOOOOO. My only qualm is that there wasn't NEARLY enough Leo in this book. It also seems like this will be the most LEOO we will be getting, which is heart quenching since we just got him back, but Riordan makes up for this by that INCREDIBLE surprise he left for us on that last page.

Book One left me hoping this would just be a trilogy, Book Two left me begging for an extension on the five book deal. Good job, Rick! You're still not forgiven for the drab that was Blood of Olympus, though!

This book is a fantastic addition to the series, we know plenty of the story from Percy Jackson and the other heroes of Olympus, sure it would be fantastic if we got more story of say Jason's time at Camp Jupiter before the war against Gaea and the Giants, but to hear what happened to Apollo after that war is fantastic.