Similar to how he might be with, let’s say, a precious sports car, Percy has a serious problem letting other people ride Blackjack. You’d think a talking horse would have more say in the matter. Still, Blackjack has been permitted to give rides to Annabeth, Nico, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, and Charles Beckendorf, to name a few. Blackjackis one of the supporting characters in Rick Riordan's mythological series of books. He is one of Percy Jackson's companions. No Naked Ads - Here! The titans curse, p.16. The Titans Curse, page 16 part #3 of Percy. Then Blackjack took off, circling twice around the monument before disappearing into the clouds. I looked over at the white van. Everybody was getting out. Grover pointed toward one of the big buildings lining the Mall. An Interview with Blackjack the PegasusPercy: Hey, man. I hear you had the final say on our new book cover.Blackjack: That's right, boss!

1. List Of Rick Riordan Books In Order
2. Rick Riordan Books In Order
3. Rick Riordan Biography
4. Blackjack Rick Riordan Book
5. Blackjack Rick Riordan Books

The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan
Series:The Heroes of Olympus #5
Published byDisney-Hyperion on October 7th, 2014
Genres:Fantasy, Mythology, Young Adult
Pages: 516
Format:Hardcover
Source:Purchased

Though the Greek and Roman crewmembers of the Argo II have made progress in their many quests, they still seem no closer to defeating the earth mother, Gaea. Her giants have risen—all of them—and they're stronger than ever. They must be stopped before the Feast of Spes, when Gaea plans to have two demigods sacrificed in Athens. She needs their blood—the blood of Olympus—in order to wake.

The demigods are having more frequent visions of a terrible battle at Camp Half-Blood. The Roman legion from Camp Jupiter, led by Octavian, is almost within striking distance. Though it is tempting to take the Athena Parthenos to Athens to use as a secret weapon, the friends know that the huge statue belongs back on Long Island, where it 'might' be able to stop a war between the two camps.

The Athena Parthenos will go west; the Argo II will go east. The gods, still suffering from multiple personality disorder, are useless. How can a handful of young demigods hope to persevere against Gaea's army of powerful giants? As dangerous as it is to head to Athens, they have no other option. They have sacrificed too much already. And if Gaea wakes, it is game over.

It’s here. The end of an era. The end of Percy Jackson. NO NO, DON’T CRY, DEBBY. Breathe. In many ways, this was a nice conclusion to the Heroes of Olympus series, but in other ways, I couldn’t help but be frustratingly disappointed. So this review will be a long one. You’ve been warned.
The Blood of Olympus is the climax of the five-book long plot, so obviously, this is where the action really picks up and those mysterious twists are finally revealed. In classic Rick Riordan fashion, it’s complimented with humor, excellent world building, and awesome, quirky secondary characters. Primarily in this one, Nike, the goddess of victory, is introduced. Many lols ensued as the demigods try to convince her that peace is also an option – and if anything, beating Gaea and her giants is more important. Blackjack also returns and steals my heart as always ♥
There are a number of POV characters in this book, but two in particular absolutely stole my heart: Nico and Reyna. The two have partnered up to bring the Athena Parthenos to Camp Half-Blood as a gesture of peace and encounter quite some obstacles along the way. Nico manages the journey by shadow traveling, but it slowly becomes a massive and dangerous drain on his energy, and Reyna proves her strength and belief in their cause in spite of broken oaths – past and present. The two gradually become good friends as they share their histories with each other, and I had some major feelings. I friendship them so hard, guys. And Nico fills me with all the feels ever. So when he got a ship(!!) at the very end, my heart rejoiced and I just wanted to skip around my room in glee. Seriously, his storyline was probably the highlight of the entire book for me.
Now, you’re probably wondering, “But Debby, what about Percy and Annabeth???” Well, that’s the problem. They aren’t POV characters in this book. In fact, they are hardly even important to the story at all – except for one element of the prophecy that could just as well have been completed by any of the other heroes. No. I cannot even begin to express my disappointment that there is no Percy or Annabeth in this, the last installment of this epic series. I knew about this beforehand though, because Rick Riordan responded to some outraged readers on Twitter with his reasoning, “There are 7 heroes – it’s never been about just Percy and Annabeth.”
Dude. Okay. I get that. But here’s the thing: there didn’t need to be 7 main characters (plus Nico and Reyna) in the first place. At the end of the day, when I’m now looking back on this series, I’m disappointed in what I believe was a calculated response to critiques that the original Percy Jackson and the Olympians series was not diverse enough. I agree, there could have been more diversity there – it was shamefully white white white. But, I don’t feel like The Heroes of Olympus was a great solution. Now, instead, we have seven main characters that are each from different ethnicities. In essence, YAY DIVERSITY, but in actuality, this didn’t feel organic at all. It’s so calculated and trying so hard to be all-inclusive that it loses its spark – especially because these characters are barely developed at all. (And let’s not get into how he describes some character as having skin the color of toasted bread, which I believe we can all agree on is a diversity no-no.)
Seven (or nine) main characters is hard to do well, because you can’t make them all equally interesting. Some personalities will sparkle more than others, so it’s extremely frustrating that Percy and Annabeth are sidelined in the last installment of the series in some effort to be like, “BUT YAY, THE DIVERSE CHARACTERS ARE EVEN BETTER,” when their personalities are so thoroughly uninteresting. Percy and Annabeth’s voices have always been more developed, more endearing, more humorous, and this book is lacking that. In fairness, Leo is for the most part a fun, interesting voice, and Nico has enough emotional depth to keep me on the edge of my seat begging for more of his storyline, but that’s about it. The imbalance between the POVs makes the pacing feel sluggish and awkward.
It frustrates me to no end that Piper gets such a big part of this book and the series as a whole. I believe if we’d go back and calculate, she’s had the most screentime of everyone. But seriously, I cannot even with the amount of hatred that I bare for Piper. Not only is her romantic obsession with Jason just asdfjkl; meh, but Rick keeps actively trying to convince us all that we should love her – that she’s not useless despite being Aphrodite’s offspring. She gets powers whenever the plot requires it that supposedly make her an awesome asset to the team. In this book, out of nowhere, she gets magical singing power. MAGICAL. SINGING. POWERS. I shit you not. And to top off all of her ridiculousness, ANNABETH STARTS TAKING ADVICE FROM HER. Okay. The daughter. Of the goddess of wisdom. Is taking advice from Piper. In the first instance, I could kind of understand it – they were in a battle where tactical strategies could be read easily, so they followed Piper’s gut instincts instead and won. But after that, any time the team was facing a decision, Annabeth would look to Piper for help. SO FUCKING RIDICULOUS. SO MUCH RAGE. UGHHHHHHHHHHHH.
But to really highlight just how unnecessary it was to have seven/nine main characters: in this book in particular, but I believe in the previous installments as well, whenever there’s been a mini-quest inside the main quest, they’ve split up into teams of two or three. I suppose it would have been hard to cover all seven of them in one small scene – not to mention it may be inefficient or whatever – but it just makes the whole set up of the series feel so pointless. One team of three could probably have done just fine – then one or two extra characters could come in for the Athena Parthenos thing and there would have been more room to really make each POV character jump off the page instead of being boring stand-ins in an effort to be all-inclusive. This just does none of the characters justice.
BUT. All hope is not lost. Look, I still liked the story because of the world building and the classic adventure fantasy aspects. The battles at the end of the book were INTENSE. Seriously, the last 50 pages pretty much saved the book for me, although after that the ending is extremely cliché and predictable. View Spoiler »SOMEONE should have died, though it shouldn’t have been Leo because he’s one of the only tolerable characters. So I guess I was okay with that but… ugh. Was it too much to ask for Piper to DIE??!??! And Jason? Both of them. A Romeo and Juliet ending would have been excellent. (Though I didn’t even actively dislike Jason in this book, I still found him boring.) « Hide Spoiler But it’s a happy ending on many different fronts, so… there’s that.

Summing Up:

It might look like a rage fest, but I still liked The Blood of Olympus. I just have so many issues with this series as a whole. While I appreciate the attempt at a diverse, all-inclusive series, it failed largely in the execution. There were too many characters to be used and developed effectively, creating a massive imbalance in pacing and in my response as a reader. And to put Percy and Annabeth in this story and then NOT use them? That should be punishable by law.
It feels like Rick Riordan wrote himself into a corner. He had to make each character seem all powerful and equally important and interesting so as not to offend any of the minorities he was portraying. It’s not convincing, it’s hardly endearing, and it is a drain on my enthusiasm. To be clear: I’m all for diversity. But I want it to be done well – for those characters to stand out and be well-developed. It should not be a gimmick, and great plot, pacing, and characters should not be sacrificed for it.

List Of Rick Riordan Books In Order

At least I’ll always have my Nico feels.

GIF it to me straight!

Recommended To:

Fans of the series, I guess.

Congratulations are in order! Well, kind of. It really depends on whether you see this as good news or the worst news of your life. As it turns out, you are a descendant of a mythological god! Woo hoo, right?? OK, sure, it has its pros and cons. Just ask any of the protagonists from Rick Riordan’s series—Percy Jackson from Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Carter and Sadie Kane from The Kane Chronicles, Magnus Chase from Magnus Chase & the Gods of Asgard, or Apollo of The Trials of Apollo.

The Dark Prophecy (B&N Exclusive Edition) (The Trials of Apollo Series #2)

Hardcover$17.99 $19.99

Speaking of Riordan’s series, one of them, incidentally, is going to be your reading assignment to get you all caught up on your new life. And extra good news: If it’s The Trials of Apollo, you’ll have a brand-new book to read in May when the series’ second installment, The Dark Prophecy, comes out. (Squee!)

So here’s the bad news (you know, if you considered the “descended from a god” thing the good news): We don’t know which of Riordan’s series you should read. The only real way we can determine this important bit of info—other than a mythological paternity test, which the gods are all a little prickly about—is by you taking this highly scientific quiz. We wish you luck.

1. Which godly power do you think is the most awesome?
A. Controlling the oceans
B. Healing people
c. Changing the seasons
D. Manipulating the weather

2. What would be your weapon(s) of choice?
A. A sword that is only effective on gods, demigods, Titans, Giants, and monsters—it passes harmlessly through mortals.
B. A wand for defense, a staff for offense
C. A talking sword that can fight on its own
D. A bow and arrows

3. Even godly descendants have some downtime. So, which movie would you rather watch?
A. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
B. Stargate
C. How to Train Your Dragon
D. The Hunger Games

4. Pick a spot in your living room to watch the flick.
A. The couch
B. The floor while leaning against the couch
C. A pile of pillows and cushions on the floor
D. The loveseat

5. What are you going to eat during the movie?
A. Blue raspberry gummy bears
B. Some spicy Indian takeout
C. Falafel with yogurt sauce
D. Cheese and bread

6. With this godly parentage revelation, you really need to get away and unwind. Where would you go on vacation?
A. New York City—You love the bustle of Manhattan, and you can always pop out to Montauk for some beach time while you’re there.
B. Cairo, Egypt—You’ve always wanted to see the ancient Egyptian pyramids.
C. Scandinavia—Perhaps one of those Viking Cruises, so you can see all the sights!
D. Athens, Greece—There’s so much rich history to explore, and you’ll dine like a Greek god.

7. Whew! Back from vacay! You look tan. And, to top it off, you got a new kitten! What are you naming it?
A. Blackjack
B. Muffin
C. Stanley
D. Sunny

So what’s the perfect Rick Riordan series for you?

Percy Jackson and the Olympians 5 Book Paperback Boxed Set (new covers w/poster)

Paperback$27.99 $35.00

If you got mostly A’s, it’s Percy Jackson & the Olympians. Based on Greek mythology, Riordan’s first middle-grade series is a classic place to start. The series is told from the perspective of Perseus Jackson—Percy, as his friends and legions of readers know him. Everyone’s favorite sardonic demigod begins as a struggling student living in New York with his single mom before he discovers his true heritage as son of Poseidon, Greek god of the sea, and embarks on various quests toward completion of the Great Prophecy. And once you get through the five books in this series, you have its follow-up The Heroes of Olympus to delve into.

Rick Riordan Books In Order

The Kane Chronicles Box Set

Paperback$26.99

If you got mostly B’s, it’s The Kane Chronicles. Get ready to dive deep into Egyptian mythology with Riordan’s adventure trilogy narrated by siblings Carter and Sadie Kane—the pair are powerful magicians, having descended from pharaohs Narmer and Ramses the Great. After their father, a brilliant Egyptologist, inadvertently unleashes a terrible Egyptian god, the children are forced to run for their lives. The siblings soon discover that other gods are awakening, and they must be stopped. Prepare to race through this stellar trilogy.

The Sword of Summer (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard Series #1)

Hardcover$17.99 $19.99

If you got mostly C’s, it’s Magnus Chase & the Gods of Asgard.
Looks like you’d be most interested in Riordan’s take on Norse mythology—woo-hoo, Vikings! As the first book’s description ominously states, “Sometimes, the only way to start a new life is to die.” And while Magnus Chase, who discovers that he’s the son of a Norse god, does make a fatal decision, the end of his life is only the beginning of his many adventures to come and your journey through the first two books in this awesome series—the third book will be out in October 2017 .

Rick Riordan Biography

The Hidden Oracle (B&N Exclusive Edition) (The Trials of Apollo Series #1)

Blackjack Rick Riordan Book

Hardcover$17.99 $19.99

Blackjack Rick Riordan Books

If you got mostly D’s, it’s The Trials of Apollo.
“How do you punish an immortal?” Riordan ominously asks in the description of the first book in the series. “By making him human.” Zeus is the punisher here, and his son Apollo, god of the sun, is on the receiving end after angering his pops. But rather than being sent to his room, the 4,000-year-old deity is cast down to Earth, landing in New York City as a regular teenage boy without any of his godly powers. Apollo quickly realizes he can’t manage alone and heads to Camp Half-Blood. The Hidden Oracle is the only book available from the series so far, with The Dark Prophecy on deck for May.