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As I have said before in my Heroes of Olympus review, I was not satisfied with The Blood of Olympus. I thought that as a stand-alone it was alright and enjoyable. However, as a final book, it was disappointing. There should have definitely been more in there. Rick Riordan himself admitted that he knows the book ended openly and that he understands why fans still have questions after the final page. His answer to that is Trials of Apollo, a series following a mortal Apollo trying to regain his godly status and will serve as the "capstone" for the previous series.
At the time of the series' announcement, I thought it was either gonna be a disaster, an unnecessary extension to an already gigantic world or a new and refreshing take on Percy Jackson's world. I was still terribly excited (I mean come on I was going to read about Percy Jackson again, one of my all time favorite characters) but I can't help feel hesitant and anxious too. I really wanted this series to succeed and you can almost always tell if the series is going to be great with the first book.
So after reading the book cover-to-cover, did it live up to the hype? Was it gratifying?
Yes. Yes it was.
The Hidden Oracle was a great book. It was refreshing, fun, heartfelt, and just plain awesome.
The plot itself was fast-paced and very simple. I guess after the massive scale the Heroes of Olympus series took, Riordan wanted to go back to basics and I couldn't be happier. Almost everything happened inside the borders of Camp Half-Blood. It felt familiar and yet foreign because we explored another part of the camp that we never got to see before in the previous books. This does not only apply to the setting but the whole book itself. It had the same formula as the early Percy Jackson books but it still had a lot of interesting and captivating elements that made it distinct from the others. This book was also entertaining as hell and I can't stress this enough. I found myself laughing for minutes in numerous scenes in the book. Without a doubt one of the funniest books Riordan has written yet. The writing as always, is clever and witty. Some stuff in the novel are outright silly but Riordan managed to make it work as usual. And of course those silly things mainly came out from our main character Apollo.
Apollo has always been one of my favorite Olympian gods. From the moment he showed up back in The Titan's Curse, I loved him. Seeing everything through his eyes was a good kind of different. Even though he is no longer immortal, he still possessed that arrogant and aloof attitude that gods often have. Don't get me wrong, I loved reading from our heroes in the previous series (especially Percy Jackson) but it was kind of nice not really reading the customary teenage angst thoughts. I suppose Apollo would gradually get this since he is after all been forced to think as mortals do but as of now, it was a good break. Apollo was also a really good choice for a protagonist. I'm not the only one who loved him in the previous books therefore I'm not the only one who was invested immediately in his character and wanted to see him triumph.
This book was filled with good characters. It wasn't only Apollo. It was amazing to see old faces again. Characters like Nico, Will, Sally and more popped up and continued being their charming selves. On the other hand, seeing new characters was equally amazing. We get to see more campers from Camp-Half-Blood and they all had something to add to the story, even the really minor ones. Meg, the new major character to be introduced, was unlike any other character from the Percy Jackson world. Her relationship with Apollo and the way they play off each other is also really great. I can't wait to see more of her character and how she will progress in the upcoming books.
It's pretty clear I loved a lot of things in this novel but what I loved the most was how this book set up the main antagonists of this series. I had no theories whatsoever going into The Hidden Oracle on who the new villain would be because how can you go bigger than Kronos and Gaea? The direction Riordan took with his new antagonists surprised me and got me so excited. The logic behind the existence of the antagonists totally made sense and fit in perfectly in the grand scheme of things in big world it is in. I seriously can't wait to see more from them. They got me more excited for the inevitable battles coming up in the next books than reading about Gaea for the first time in The Lost Hero and that is really saying something.
Overall, The Hidden Oracle was satisfying, it was exactly what I wanted. Sure it wasn't the most mind-blowing book in Rick Riordan's collection of books and it had some minor problems in terms of the pacing in the climax but it barely diminished the shine of this book. Not only did it have a delightful protagonist, lovely supporting characters, great antagonists, and good plot but it also promoted diversity. There were much more people of color and LGBT characters in this book which is so important in today's world. I sincerely thank Riordan for acknowledging the need for this. I cannot wait for the second book, The Dark Prophecy, to come out in May 2017 but until then let us relish in The Hidden Oracle's awesomeness. Definitely a strong comeback.
8.5/10
(If you want to read my initial review of The Hidden Oracle, click here)
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