A Worthy Conclusion

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

I was pleasantly surprised. After reading The Battle of the Labyrinth, I had serious doubts that Rick Riordan would wrap up the series suitably. The Last Olympian was a worthy conclusion.

There were a few moments that were too hokey for me to place it on the same level as The Titan's Curse, but this was a very good book. The action starts right away. The first four books of the series began with two or three pages of fluff before really getting started. Not this one. The first sentence is, "The end of the world started when a pegasus landed on the hood of my car." No buildup here.

The Last Olympian also features Riordan's best job of blending the action with the relationships while avoiding filler. As a result, The Titan's Curse's biggest flaw does not exist here.

While there was some stupid (gods to not need war strategy advice from a teenager who has proven on multiple occasions to be a bad war strategist himself), most of the storylines developed and wrapped up in a logical and satisfying fashion. I have previously praised Riordan for his ability to write the teenage girls well, but he managed to step his game up this time. I was happy with what he did with Annabeth and Rachel and Clarisse and Silena. His writing of Nico di Angelo was much better this time around. In general, all of the characters are better written in The Last Olympian than they were in The Titan's Curse.

This was, in my opinion, the series' second-best book. I couldn't put it down.

One thing that did bother me was the curse of Achilles. There are many references to it, but even after Percy completes the process, there is never any mention of what dangers he may face because of it. There is a great deal of hype about it, but there is no substance behind it. That keeps the book from being as good as it could have been.

B+