I am one of the Percy Jackson and Camp Half-Blood fans. When the series ended, and saw that the Camp Half-Blood series was being published, albeit with new demigods, I was happy, as it's great to read not only a great new book, but learn more mythology. 

There are new demigods, Jason, Piper, new attacks, and some confusion until we can get on to what's happening now with the Gods of Olympus. Their last war took quite a toll killing Kronos and the rebellion.

But it seems things have skewed just a little bit - Percy is missing and his girlfriend and Athena's daughter, Annabeth, has been trying to find him.

Jason and company finally make it to Camp Half-Blood, but he seems to know Latin and call the gods and goddesses by their Roman names, not Greek names.

The gods have been silent for weeks and something strange is happening - Hera has been kidnapped, but nothing seems to be happening to help find her!

Are there separate Gods and Goddesses for the Greeks and for the Romans?

Leo is a son of Hephaestus, the mechanic of the gods, and he finds the remnants of a flying dragon and he gets the dragon going again, and that is so much fun and takes you back to the old Camp Half-Blood.

So we have a combining of gods and goddesses - the Roman folks were a little more warlike - it is not just me - it is mentioned many times in the book, than their Greek counterparts, each fitting to the people who lived and needed their guidance at the time.

The idea of combining the two is most interesting, but to me just doesn't have that spark the first series does. Will know more when Son of Neptune (Neptune?) is published.

Any Camp Half-Blood book is better than no Camp Half-Blood and we still need demi-god heroes and heroines.

A good start for a new series, but it would be good to be aware of Greek and Roman mythology - the Greeks vs the Roman. Riordan makes a mini-glossary of some of them at the end of this book.

The Lost Hero is good, but the first of the Perseus Jackson books was a tad better. Still very much worthy of reading and continuing the series as it comes.

ellen george

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordon, ISBN 978-1-4231-1339-3, Disney Hyperion Publishers, review by ellen george