After angering his father Zeus, the god Apollo is cast down from Olympus as punishment. He must learn to survive in the modern world as Lester Papadopoulos until he can somehow find a way to regain Zeus’s favor. He starts out in an alley in Manhattan, where he meets Meg McCaffrey, an alley kid and a daughter of Demeter, who sucessfully claims his service. Apollo, now known as Lester, has to pass trails in order to become Apollo again. He goes to Camp Half-Blood when he realizes something is very wrong, the Oracle of Delphi is not working! Without prophecies to create the future there won’t be a future. He sets out on a quest to find the Grove of Dodona. Can he fulfill this quest in time?
While there are a few exceptions, I find this book very pleasant to read. One thing I didn’t quite like about it was how some things kept repeating. For example, Apollo’s mind keeps going back to the same thoughts over and over again about his life as a god, and as a god he could marry couple of times. So it was very disturbing to have it repeated so many times in the book. It seems as if Rick Riordan wants us to get the gist of it, even if we don’t want to. I believe that children at a young age shouldn’t read a book like this.
One memorable part about this book is, even though he is now a mortal, Apollo still mocks the “simplicity” of humans. “I will never understand how you mortals tolerate it. You live your entire life trapped in a sack of meat, unable to enjoy simple pleasures like changing into a hummingbird or dissolving into pure light.”
Reviewed by Aditi, Grade 7, Twin Hickory Area Library
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