The House of Hades

The House of Hades

The House of Hades, the fourth novel by Rick Riordan in the Heroes of Olympus series, was released on October 8, 2013.

At the conclusion of the previous book in the series, The Mark of Athena, Annabeth Chase and Percy Jackson fell into a pit leading to Tartarus. The protagonists are on a quest to close the Doors of Death, rescue Annabeth and Percy from Tartarus, and stop the Roman demigods from Camp Jupiter from attacking Camp Half-Blood.

The third-person narrators of this book are Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Hazel Levesque, Leo Valdez, Frank Zhang, Jason Grace, and Piper McLean.

Plot

The five remaining demigods: Jason Grace, Piper McLean, Leo Valdez, Frank Zhang, and Hazel Levesque, accompanied by Nico di Angelo and Coach Hedge, continue to set sail towards Greece aboard the flying warship, Argo II, to search for the Doors of Death and possibly saving Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase from Tartarus along the way. After unsuccessfully attempting to cross the Apennine Mountains due to the Ourae's hindering, Hazel leaves with her horse Arion to meet with Hecate, who offers Hazel four directions to choose. She promises the northern route that Hazel picked will work under the condition that Hazel has to practice manipulating the Mist first. Arriving at Bologna, the Argo II is raided by the Kerkopes, Passalos and Akmon, who steal Archimedes's sphere that Leo had found in Rome, among other things. Leo corners the thieves inside the Two Towers and retrieves the items alongside an agricultural book belonging to Demeter's helper, Triptolemus, and an astrolabe belonging to Odysseus but he spares the two under the condition that they head to New York City to stall the impending Roman demigods from attacking Camp Half-Blood. Frank, Hazel, and Nico meet with Triptolemus at Venice, but upon discovering Nico's status as a demigod of Hades, he forces Frank to kill the katobleps of Venice by taking Hazel and Nico hostage first before he gives them barley to make cakes that will render them immune to the poison of the Necromanteion. After Frank succeeds, the Argo II heads to the direction of the Balkans, but is blocked by the bandit Sciron, who would use his giant carnivorous turtle to devour them. By manipulating the Mist, Hazel is able to make him fall into his own trap. Her father, Pluto appears to inform her that the Doors of Death are located at the lowest level of the Necromanteion in Epirus.

Release

The House of Hades was published on October 8, 2013. It is available in hardcover, paperback, eBook and audiobook formats. Special edition versions were also released which were signed, and had exclusive drawings inside. Versions with the short story "The Crown of Ptolemy," a crossover with the other Rick Riordan series, The Kane Chronicles, and the short story "Percy Jackson and the Sword of Hades" printed at the back of the book were also released.

Characters

The Seven Demigods of the Great Prophecy

• Percy Jackson – Son of Poseidon
• Annabeth Chase – Daughter of Athena
• Jason Grace – Son of Jupiter
• Leo Valdez – Son of Hephaestus
• Piper McLean – Daughter of Aphrodite
• Frank Zhang – Son of Mars and descendant of Poseidon
• Hazel Levesque – Daughter of Pluto

The Son of Neptune

The Son of Neptune

The Son of Neptune is a 2011 fantasy novel, the second book in The Heroes of Olympus series written by Rick Riordan. The story follows the adventures of amnesiac Percy Jackson, a demigod son of Poseidon the god of the sea, as he meets a camp of Roman demigods and goes to Alaska with his new friends Hazel Levesque and Frank Zhang to free the Greek god of death, Thanatos and help save the world from Gaea, the earth goddess.

The book received mostly critical acclaim, won the Goodreads Choice Award in 2011, and appeared on several bestseller lists.^[3]The book continues Riordan's use of third person narration, where chapters are from the point of view of one of the main characters, switching between Percy, Frank, and Hazel.

The book was first published in hardcover on October 4, 2011 by Disney-Hyperion with a cover designed by illustrator John Rocco. After an initial hardcover printing of three million copies, the book has since been released in paperback as well as an audiobook and e-book, and has been translated into 37 languages.

Development and promotion

In an interview by Scholastic with Rick Riordan for The Lost Hero, Riordan was questioned about the whereabouts of Percy Jackson. The author hinted that the answer would be revealed as Jason's quest progressed. By the end of the book, he said that readers would have a good idea where the second book is going.^[5] On May 26, 2011, Riordan released both the cover art and the first chapter for The Son of Neptune confirming that Percy would play a role in the book.

Sequel

The Mark of Athena was released on October 2, 2012 and "The House of Hades" was released on October 8, 2013 The Blood of Olympus was released on October 7, 2014.

Synopsis

Several months after Percy Jackson's defense of Mount Olympus during the events of The Last Olympian, Percy finds himself alone and on the run from monsters in southern California without his memories. Under the initial guidance of Lupa, the wolf-goddess and protector of ancient Rome, he makes his way toward Camp Jupiter, the Roman demigod training camp and counterpart to Camp Half-Blood. Upon arriving, he is again attacked by several Gorgons, and successfully defends a disguised goddess Juno as well as the camp with the help of the guards on duty. Because he protected her during the attack, Juno announces his arrival with her approval, identifying that Percy is a son of Neptune. She further tells him privately that he can only regain his memory by learning to be a hero again and successfully survive the challenges he encounters at camp.

Quickly befriending the guards, Frank Zhang and Hazel Levesque, he acclimates quickly to Camp Jupiter's new routines and leadership. Though Frank and Hazel are outcasts at Camp Jupiter, relate to Percy's outsider status and consider it their duty to help Percy adjust. However, the three receive a direct prophecy from Mars, the Roman god of war:

Go to Alaska.
Find Thanatos and free him.
Come back by sundown on June twenty-fourth or die.

Major characters

• Percy Jackson: A demigod son of Poseidon(Neptune), who is the main protagonist in the first Camp Half-Blood series. He and Jason Grace have been swapped, because Hera (Juno in Roman form) has wiped their memories away to unite the two demigod camps. Percy is sent to Camp Jupiter, from which Jason comes from. And Percy is from Camp Half-Blood. He goes on a quest with Frank Zhang, son of Mars, and Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto, to save Thanatos, Pluto's lieutenant and the deity of death. He succeeds and at the end of the book leads the Roman camp into battle against Gaea's forces and is made praetor by the campers. His memories are restored at around the middle of the book, as Percy drinks gorgon's blood when he challenges Phineas.
• Frank Zhang: a son of Mars and a legacy (distant descendant) of Poseidon on his mother's side. A notable ancestor of Frank is Periclymenus, who was given the ability of shapeshifting by his grandfather, Poseidon. It is revealed that the descendants of Periclymenus have inherited this ability, and Frank learns to use it late in the novel. Frank is a Roman demigod at Camp Jupiter, a camp for Roman demigods. Frank has a crush on Hazel, which she reciprocates. He is a Chinese Canadian.
• Hazel Levesque: daughter of Pluto and Nico's half sister. She has been recently resurrected by Nico from her death in 1942 at the age of 13 and lives in Camp Jupiter. She has a crush on Frank Zhang. She is an African American demigod from New Orleans.
• Nico di Angelo: Hazel's half-brother and son of Hades. Initially, he is aware of what Hera has done to Percy, and pretends he does not know who Percy is. He rescues Hazel, his half-sister, from the Fields of Asphodel, giving her a second chance.
• Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano: daughter of Bellona, the Roman goddess of war, and praetor of Camp Jupiter. It is found that Reyna and her sister Hylla were servants of the witch Circe, whom Annabeth and Percy had killed in The Sea of Monsters. Reyna goes on to Camp Jupiter, and Hylla goes to the Amazons, where she later becomes queen.

The Last Olympian

The Last Olympian

Book 5

The Last Olympian is a fantasy-adventure novel based on Greek mythology by Rick Riordan, published on May 5, 2009. It is the fifth and final novel of the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series and serves as the direct sequel to The Battle of the Labyrinth. The Last Olympian revolves around the demigod Percy Jackson as he leads his friends in a last stand to protect Mount Olympus. The title refers to Hestia, the goddess of the hearth, who refers to herself as such in a conversation with Percy on Mount Olympus.

Plot

The novel opens with Percy Jackson on a drive with Rachel Dare. He is approached by Charles Beckendorf, and the two head off to attack The Princess Andromeda. Kronos, hosted in the mortal body of Luke, is not caught off guard because of a spy at Camp Half-Blood, and Beckendorf is killed. Percy awakens later in his father's underwater palace, which is under siege by the Titan Oceanus. Percy wants to stay and help fight with his father, but Poseidon sends Percy back to Camp Half-Blood to hear the "Great Prophecy". Once there, Percy informs the camp of the spy and also learns the Olympians are occupied fighting Typhon. That night, Percy leaves again with Nico di Angelo, son of Hades, following a lead on how to defeat Kronos. After visiting Luke's mother in Westport, Connecticut, and talking with Hestia, Percy procures a blessing from his mother. He then descends into the underworld to bathe in the River Styx and take on the curse of Achilles. Despite being betrayed by Nico in exchange for information on the boy's mother, Percy is successful and uses his new invulnerability to defeat a small army of Hades's minions.

Percy emerges from the Underworld in New York City, leaving Nico behind to convince his father to join the fight against Kronos. Percy calls the campers to help defend Olympus, as the gods refuse to end their struggle with Typhon. Just before the battle begins, New York City is affected by a powerful sleeping spell from Morpheus, Hecate, and Kronos himself. Despite being joined by Thalia'sHunters of Artemis, the Party Ponies, and a few other allies; the Olympian army struggles to hold back repeated assaults by the Titan army. Camp Half Blood suffers approximately 16 casualties, out of an original 40 campers. Annabeth herself is badly injured when she saves Percy from an attack by Ethan Nakamura that would have hit Percy in his Achilles point. Even after these setbacks, Percy still refuses a chance to surrender offered by Prometheus, and entrusts the titan's gift of Pandora's pithos to Hestia. The campers successfully defeat Hyperion, and Kronos becomes even more enraged.

Rachel Dare, who has been experiencing inexplicable moments of prophecy, arrives to warn Percy of a deadly drakon that can only be killed by a child of Ares and that he is "not the hero". The campers do poorly against the enemy until Silena Beauregard arrives disguised as Ares's head counselor Clarisseand breaks the cabin's boycott of the war. The real Clarisse arrives in a fury and kills the drakon by herself. As Silena lies dying, the campers learn that she was the camp's spy, but chose to right her wrongs after her boyfriend Beckendorf's death.

Prophecy

The first Great Prophecy was issued more than seventy years before the events of The Last Olympian, and reads as follows:

A half-blood of the eldest gods
Shall reach sixteen against all odds
And see the world in endless sleep,The hero's soul, cursed blade shall reapA single choice shall end his days,Olympus to preserve or raze.

Meaning

Though there is much speculation beforehand, the prophecy is finally understood with the death of Luke Castellan and the end of the Titan War.

1. Percy Jackson is the half-mortal son of Poseidon, one of the three eldest male Twelve Olympians.
2. Percy reached age sixteen despite several dangerous quests and multiple attempts on his life.
3. Morpheus put a massive sleeping spell on the mortal residents Manhattan to limit their interference in Kronos's final assault on Olympus.
4. When Luke and Annabeth first met, he handed her a knife with the promise that they would always be a family. His choice to betray her and the gods "cursed" the blade, and his much later choice to commit suicide with it led to the reaping of his soul.
5. Percy Jackson's choice to trust Luke with the knife - at the time his only weapon - ended the older hero's life.
6. Luke's suicide banished Kronos, the Titan possessing him, back to Tartarus and saved Olympus and its gods.

Battle Of Labyrinth

 The Battle Of Labyrinth

Book 4

The Battle of the Labyrinth is a 2008 fantasy-adventure novel based on Greek mythology; it is the fourth novel in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series by Rick Riordan. Fictional demigod Percy Jackson (who is fifteen years old by the end of the book) attempts to stop Luke Castellan and his army from invading Camp Half-Blood through Daedalus's labyrinth by trying to convince the inventor not to give Luke Ariadne's string.

The Battle of the Labyrinth was published in the U.S. by Hyperion Books for Children, an imprint or division of Disney Publishing (succeeded by the Disney Hyperion imprint). It was released on 6 May 2008, in the US and Canada.

Plot

The book opens with Percy Jackson attending freshman orientation at Goode High School, where he sees Rachel Elizabeth Dare, who helps him to recognize and fight two empousai disguised as cheerleaders, Tammi and Kelli. Percy is forced to flee to Camp Half-Blood, while Rachel stays behind. On the way, Percy runs into Annabeth, who is annoyed to find him in the company of a mortal girl. When they reach camp, Percy learns Grover is in trouble from the Council of Cloven Elders for not having made progress finding the god Pan after claiming he felt Pan's presence in New Mexico that winter. Percy also encounters a middle-aged demigod namedQuintus, who the new sword instructor of Camp Half-Blood. Chiron describes the man as "hard to read", a description Percy agrees with.

During a competition organized by Quintus, Annabeth and Percy accidentally find an entrance into the Labyrinth. Chiron holds a council of war, and it is revealed that Annabeth and Clarisse have been working together under the suspicion that Luke plans to use this door as an invasion route. To do so, he will use Princess Ariadne’s magical string, which is assumed to be in the possession of the ancient inventor Daedalus. Annabeth is given leadership of the quest to stop him, and chooses Grover, Percy, and Tyson to accompany her. Chiron warns that three heroes is the traditional number for a quest, but Annabeth is shaken by her prophecy and insists. That night, Percy receives a collect Iris-message and learns that Nico plans to bring back his late sister by exchanging her soul for one who has cheated death. Percy fears Nico will come after him.

The next morning, the four start the quest. After a rattling run-in with the minor god Janus, the questers encounter Hera, who offers to grant the questers a single wish. Annabeth wishes for a way to navigate the Labyrinth, but Hera tells her Percy already knows how. He has no idea what she means, and so the quest continues. Between their adventures, Percy also suffers from frequent nightmares about Daedalus, the Labyrinth, and King Minos, who is now "living" as a ghost advisor to Nico di Angelo. The quartet encounters the monster Kampê and her prisoner Briares; visits the ranch of Geryon, where they find Nico and commune with the deceased Bianca di Angelo; and meet with Hephestus, after which they part ways. Tyson and Grover go to search for Pan, and Annabeth and Percy go to Mount St. Helens. At Hephaestus's mountain forge, Percy confronts some telkhines (who are reforging what is later learned to be Kronos's scythe) and is almost killed, but triggers an earthquake that shoots him out of the volcano.

Prophecy

The prophecy given to Annabeth by the oracle reads:

You shall delve in the darkness of the endless maze,

The dead, the traitor, and the lost one raise.

You shall rise or fall by the ghost king's hand,

The child of Athena's final stand.

Destroy with a hero's final breath,

And lose a love to worse than death.

Meaning

1. Percy, Annabeth, Tyson, and Grover go into the labyrinth to find Daedalus.

2. The dead would be the ghosts Nico Di' Angelo raised; the traitor would be Ethan Nakamura; the lost one would be Pan.

3. At first the ghost king was perceived to be King Minos, the old enemy of Daedalus, but was later revealed to be Nico.

4. The child of Athena was thought to be Annabeth but was revealed to be Quintus (Daedalus), who "raised" Camp Half-Blood through his destruction of the Labyrinth.

5. Daedalus, whose life force was tied to the Labyrinth, gave his life to destroy the Labyrinth.

6. Annabeth finally admits (to herself and Percy) that she loved Luke, and the "fate" was having the Lord Kronos possess Luke.

The Titan's Curse

The Titan's Curse

Book 3

The Titan's Curse is a 2007 fantasy-adventure novel based on Greek mythology written by Rick Riordan. It is the third novel in thePercy Jackson & the Olympians series and the sequel to The Sea of Monsters. It charts the adventures of the fourteen-year-olddemigod Percy Jackson as he and his friends go on a dangerous quest to rescue his friend Annabeth Chase and the Greek goddessArtemis, who have both been kidnapped.

The Titan's Curse was published by Miramax Books, an imprint of Hyperion Books for Children^[1] and thus Disney Publishing (succeeded by the Disney Hyperion imprint). It was released in the United States and the United Kingdom on May 1, 2007.^[2] The novel was also released in audiobook format, read by Jesse Bernstein.

Mostly well-received, The Titan's Curse was nominated for numerous awards, winning ones such as the No. 1 The New York Timeschildren's series best seller and Book Sense Top Ten Summer Pick for 2007.

Plot

Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, and Thalia Grace get a ride from Mrs. Jackson to Westover Hall, a boarding school in Bar Harbor, Maine, to escort two sibling half-bloods named Nico and Bianca di Angelo that Grover Underwood has found. They are attacked by amanticore named Dr. Thorn. Though Artemis and her hunters arrive to help, Annabeth is captured by Dr. Thorn. Artemis is troubled by the manticore's mention of a "Great Stirring" of monsters, and goes off alone to hunt an Olympus-destroying monster she believes to have finally returned from Tartarus. She sends the half-bloods and Hunters (whose number now includes Bianca di Angelo) to Camp Half-Blood with her brother Apollo.

While there, Nico settles into camp life; Percy and Blackjack save a sea monster Percy nicknames Bessie; and Artemis's lieutenantZoë Nightshade has mysterious dreams about the goddess being in grave danger. Percy has similar dreams about Annabeth. Both are unable to act, however, until the Oracle (a shriveled mummy) somehow leaves her storage room and delivers the Huntress a prophecy. Chiron and Zoë organize a quest,but Percy is not included because the Hunters refuse to travel with a boy. He successfully sneaks away from camp on Blackjack, though he is almost stopped by Mr. D (Dionysus).

When they arrive in Washington, D.C., Percy notices Dr. Thorn heading into the National Museum of Natural History, and follows him using an invisibility cap. Luke and a man called the General are there, and summon spartoi to hunt the official quest group, who are currently in the National Air and Space Museum nearby. Percy runs to warn them, but they are attacked by the Nemean Lion before they can leave. They flee, and, on the advice of Apollo, travel to Cloudcroft, New Mexico. In Cloudcroft, Grover senses the presence of Pan, who sends the Erymanthian Boar to help them escape the spartoi who have caught up with them. The boar carries them as far as Gila Claw, Arizona and the "junkyard of the gods". After a brief encounter with Ares and Aphrodite, the group enters the junkyard, where Bianca tries to take a cursed statuette for Nico. Her theft awakens a prototype ofTalos, and she gives her life to bring it down. The remaining quest members travel to the Hoover Dam, and, after narrowly escaping the spartoi again, arrive in San Francisco.

Propechy

The prophecy given by the oracle to Zoë Nightshade reads:

Five shall go west to the goddess in chains,

One shall be lost in the land without rain,

The bane of Olympus shows the trail,

Campers and Hunters combined prevail,

The Titan’s curse must one withstand,

And one shall perish by a parent’s hand.