SPOIL-FREE SUMMARY
The fate of the world rests in the half-bloods as they start the final battle, fighting for the gods against the titans and their allies. The final fates of Luke & Rachel are decided as well.
SIDE CHARACTERS
Grover does not play a huge role in this book. He does show up after going missing to warn about the god Morpheus who is putting people to sleep. And then shows up again to help Percy fight Hyperion.
Rachel has grown closer to Percy over the summer they have spent together. She has taught him about art and they have just gotten to know each other. No quests, just an evolving friendship.
Nico is over Bianca'a death and how Percy let her die. But he is still out for himself. And you can't really blame him, since no one at camp cares for him because of his parentage. He is still rather naive.
INCONSISTENT & INCONSIDERATE PERCY
Percy is still kind of annoying, mainly because of his treatment of Rachel.
He had the choice of spending time with Annabeth or Rachel, all summer. He chose Rachel every time, which tells you a lot. He never chose to confide in Annabeth, never chose to apologize and explain about Calypso. Or explain that there was nothing between him and Rachel. Instead he went off with Rachel: all summer.
And yet whenever Annabeth shows up, suddenly Rachel is a nuisance, something to be explained. And the summer they spent together, well, that never happened. He never flirted. She never flirted. Because Destiny calls and her name is Annabeth.
This bothered me, because Riordan excuses Percy's bad behavior, basically leading Rachel on, by having Rachel explain that she knew they could never be together. How convenient.
LUKE'S BACKSTORY-SPOILERS
Nico and Percy find out more about Luke's backstory. Basically he was abused by his psycho mom (who could see through the mist). He blames Hermes for abandoning them, and not telling him his future, because both his parents know what will happen to him.
Also, Luke's mom tried to become the new oracle, and when it backfired that's how she went crazy. I didn't quite get why Chiron and Hermes would let her do it. Percy says they didn't know about the curse Hades had put on the oracle, but that was no excuse.
Chiron knew it hadn't worked in twenty years and most likely had seen it destroy minds. But Luke's mom bugs them, so they just let her? None of this made any sense to me.
MORE BAD LOGIC
Percy takes the liberty to explain that god's don't have DNA (I know, so obvious, right?) and that it's not creepy at all for demi god kids to date each other. Except if there are kids from the same god. Then that would be creepy.
I don't know why, since they don't share the same DNA (not same human parent, and the god doesn't have any dna). But I am sure it's logical.
PROPHECIES & MULTIPLE HEROES-SPOILERS
At the beginning of the story, we finally get to see the whole prophecy about Percy. All prophecies talk of others besides the one asking for the prophecy (Clarisse's mentioned Percy, Annabeth's mentioned Nico, ect). They talk of others on the quest in question.
Since Percy is obviously a child of the big three maybe they think he gets a special prophecy? And yet no one, not even Chiron, points out what should be obvious from every other prophecy: it is probably about multiple heroes.
I am fine with Percy cheating death and misunderstanding the prophecy. But I am not fine with not in person even speculating about the obvious possibility.
DEATHS OF BACKGROUND CHARACTERS
Riordan has made the mistake of having background characters suddenly have importance in this plot. There are even names of characters I don't recall existing popping up. Maybe they existed before this but they never got more than one mention in the previous books. I get he needed an army for Percy to command, so he needed names. But they are faceless characters who never had any importance. Clarisse is the only side character who got multiple scenes in a book.
A side character that never previously got any lines dies in the beginning of the book. Near the climax, another side character dies. I think this one got one line previously, as well. I didn't really care, and couldn't relate to Annabeth and Percy grieving.
STUPID CLARISSE
In the beginning Clarisse is mad because her group wants loot from a battle. Percy points out how stupid this is, when the end of the world could be tomorrow. He is right of course. But Clarisse still remains her stupid, two dimensional self. Luckily her stupidity is used to cause the death of a side character. I am pretty sure that was the only point. She was conveniently used.
ANNABETH IS DESTINY...& YOU HAVE NO OTHER OPTIONS
I am not going to lie to you. Riordan pretty much makes it so Percy has no choice but to be with Annabeth. Her love interest, Luke is out of the picture. Percy's love interest, Rachel, is out of the picture. And he had to leave Calypso in the last book (who actually got on with Percy).
But oddly enough, he tries to write it off like it's happily ever after. Even though throughout the last two books in the series, they could barely get along. And that wasn't all Percy's fault.
It's just laid on too thick. When he goes in the river styx, it's Annabeth's vision that saves him...because they are destined to be together. It doesn't matter that they can't carry on a conversation without her being irrational or losing her temper. It's destiny I tell you.
Annabeth saves Percy from getting attacked in his one weak spot...because she had a special feeling. A special feeling that is never explained. It's magical destiny. Or something.
RACHEL'S FATE-SPOILERS
Rachel becomes the new oracle, since the last one was a dead corpse. She thanks Percy but says she wasn't meant to be with him and she never really liked him or something. She was just drawn to the world of the gods. It's not really coherent.
And when she is told she cannot hang on to anyone (no friends or lovers) she just says, okay, sounds good. No fear. No hesitation. No nothing. It felt so orchestrated.
She was portrayed as being rather lonely before (remember how she mentioned her parents didn't care about her? Which I think why she didn't hesitate in helping Percy.) Turns out she just wanted to be a an Oracle detached from society and forbidden to marry. Who knew?
I NEVER LOVED YOU ANYWAY-SPOILERS
It's quite obvious from the first book that Annabeth has a major crush on Luke. When Percy mentions it to her she gets mad at him. But even after he tries to kill Percy, she still thinks he can be reasoned with. She thinks she can change his mind and then she thinks that he is still alive, even with Kronos taking over his body. It's a stubborn hope that never dies. And if it's questioned she lashes out, too often at Percy.
And then on his deathbed, Luke asks if she ever loved him. (To put this in perspective, Percy says Luke is nineteen in the first book, and I think Annabeth is his age, twelve. So it's doubtful that Luke himself ever felt anything romantic for a child that had yet to go through puberty. But I am ignoring this for now.)
I knew the answer, yes, she loved him. It was obvious. But it was immature, a crush. But she definitely loved him. But Riordan has to set the record straight: nope, she never loved him. She couldn't have. Then she couldn't live happily ever after with Percy. It's destiny. And Percy can't have any bad feelings (because Annabeth yelling at him more times than anyone can remember doesn't count.)
It was so inconsistent, as though Riordan didn't remember the last four books he had written.
LUKE'S FATE-SPOILERS
So it turns out, Luke dies. I think it was mean to be redemption. But the problem was, I never knew Luke, or cared about him and by the time I learned about him it was far too late. He had been whiny, selfish and arrogant for four books.
My version of redemption was him living on, repenting, and trying to make amends for his selfish ways. Basically rebuilding the relationships he had cut off (not that I got to see any of them.) Not conveniently dying so Percy didn't have to and Annabeth had nothing to keep her from Percy. Which basically was the reason he died.
WHY FIGHT FOR THE GODS?
In book two the idea that the gods are immoral and selfish and use demigods is planted. But it never really goes anywhere. Sure, Percy gets annoyed about secrets being kept from him, but he never stops trusting those in charge. He never questions if he should be going on quests, doing the bidding of the gods.
The argument so far seems to be, the gods are awful yes, but the titans are worse. Not exactly inspiring stuff to make you want to put your life on the line. Promethius makes a case for Percy to change sides, and Percy doesn't really have any argument against it.
Mr. D then contacts Percy and lets the reader know why Percy is fighting to for the gods. The titans are chaos and will destroy Western civilization...eventually. And the gods are order. Even if they are selfish jerks who don't really care about anyone but themselves and just use the demi gods. I felt this was tacked on because Riordan realized Percy didn't really have any motivation and he had forgot about it.
CLIMAX-SPOILERS
Kronos is defeated. Percy gets the choice to be a god. Big shocker, he says no. Instead he wants the gods to claim all of their kids, and make cabins for them at camp half blood. Hermes points out how naive Percy is, as the gods have existed for thousands of years and never changed. But Percy thinks he is special and they will change for him. Yeah. I am sure that will work out great. Ah, youth.
CONCLUSION
A big part of my problem are the characters and the plot. Those things are kind of important. The characters are often selfish and suffer no consequences for their reckless actions. And they never develop in any realistic way. And when there is some development, it feels unearned and out of the blue. The relationship between Annabeth and Percy feels way too forced. Other crucial characters are swept away without any thought just so they can live happily ever after. I give “The last Olympian” one and half stars.
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