Review of “Percy Jackson: The Last Olympian” by Rick Riordan

Review of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Last Olympian” by Rick Riordan

So, like the other books I went into this one not remembering what happens. I knew there was a battle in New York, but that was all I remembered. I was surprised to pick up with Rachel Elizabeth Dare, because I didn’t remember her character’s journey in this series. The opening fight on the ship the Princess Andromeda was good, but I wish we would have gotten to know Beckendorf more because it would have made his death more impactful. One of the weaknesses of this book is the supporting characters, that all of a sudden become important, even though we barely knew them.

Silena Beauregard was a character mentioned throughout the series but we never spent much time with her. So, it was hard to feel sorry for her when Beckendorf dies, just because we’re told they were dating. If we had seen them as a couple their deaths would have been more emotional. The twist of making Silena the spy was interesting, but she immediately dies, so it feels like it was an after thought just to tie up lose plot strings. I do like seeing Clarisse’s friendship with Silena, because it gives her more emotional depth and she’s not just a cliché mean girl. It’s also nice to have Clarisse be the one to defeat the drakon. I think my biggest criticism of this series is the lack of character development for the side characters like Clarisse, Silena, and Beckendorf. Instead, we get a whole book about Zoe, Thalia and Bianca, but two of them die and Thalia is barely in this book.

One of the interesting things in this book is that we learn more about Luke’s past. We meet his mother, and we speak to his father, Hermes, who knew Luke’s fate all along. This book gives us the backstory of Luke that I think we needed earlier in the series. It’s a little too late for me to care about Luke as a person that was troubled and could be redeemed, especially after the 4^th book, which I think did a good job of making him a villain. In the end he does the right thing and defeats Kronus, but I think the book series took too long to give him a redemption arc, and then he dies in the process. Kronus as the overall villain is also fairly weak. He doesn’t really do much, mostly his army does the fighting. Another weakness of this series is the lack of setting up Kronus and Luke as the villains. They’re just not developed enough and don’t do enough of the antagonistic work against Percy and friends. While Luke’s motives are decent, the execution of his plans weren’t well explained or explored.

We do get a good amount of Nico in this book, and he feels like he’s matured a bit since the last book. I like learning what happened with his family. As well as how it relates to the prophecy, and the oracle. I love learning more about the oracle of delphi, the curse that Hades put on it and how that ruined Luke’s mom. If Zeus hadn’t killed Nico’s mom, then Hades wouldn’t have cursed the oracle and Luke’s mom wouldn’t have been affected by the curse. So, it’s interesting how it all comes around in the end. It’s also nice to have Hades come in at the end and the house of Hades be accepted on Mt. Olympus.

Speaking of the Oracle, I love the character arc of Rachel Elizabeth Dare. I liked seeing her in the beginning sort of dating Percy and then having her become the new spirit of Delphi. It makes sense given that we know see can see through the mist, and in this book, she also paints prophetic images. I like that even though she did like Percy, she knew that her place was to be the new Oracle and that Percy belonged with Annabeth. At the end of the book Rachel gives a prophecy that sets up future stories in the Percy Jackson universe. The very ending of the book is Annabeth and Percy finally kissing each other. It’s a sweet ending to finally have Percy and Annabeth get together.

As the final book in the series, I’m not sure that it works well enough to wrap up the series nor does it stand alone. A lot of the things that happened in the previous books don’t play well into this book. What was the purpose of Bessie the ophiotaurus? Why didn’t Thalia play a bigger part? Why introduce Pandora’s Box only to give it to Hestia? And I don’t like the Olympic gods ignoring Percy about Kronos rising. The first third of this book, is good, but the middle section with the battle of New York is a bit slow and boring. I do like the resolution of having Luke be the one to defeat Kronos, it’s a nice twist since we’re expecting it to be Percy. Also, I like that Percy’s wish from the Gods is selfless. He just wants Half-Bloods to be claimed and more Gods to be included.

Also, a minor nitpick but the title of the book, “the last Olympian” refers to the goddess Hestia. I’m not sure why her character becomes the title of the book. At one point Percy leaves Pandora’s Box in Hestia’s hearth for safe keeping, but the box wasn’t that important to the story either. It feels like the author introduced the box then didn’t know what to do with it, so he gives it away. The box represents hope, the hope that Percy can’t give up if he wants to win the battle. But even that isn’t a part of Percy’s character arc, so it feels weird that the title of the book actually doesn’t mean much in the story.

So, overall, this book did some cool things, and we got some good reveals, however it didn’t do enough to capture my full attention and imagination. I think the book is crammed with too much minor stuff that’s not actually important to the plot and doesn’t focus enough on Percy vs Kronos/Luke. So, those are my thoughts about the book. I think it might be my least favorite of the five books. However, a new book has been released, Percy Jackson and t
he Olympians: The Chalice of the Gods, so I’ll have to read that and share my thoughts. Thank you all for reading my reviews of the Percy Jackson series!

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