REVIEW: Trials of Apollo: Part One.
The Hidden Oracle:
After the events of Blood of Olympus, Zeus was not best pleased with his son Apollo. So as a way to punish him, Zeus sends Apollo down to earth. We begin our story when Apollo awakes in a dumpster and is now aware he is a human who is also known as Lester Papadopoulos. In the alley, where he was dumped by Zeus, two thugs try and mug him, Apollo being Apollo goes all high and mighty but that epically fails because he is human now. A young demigod named Meg McCaffrey saves him. Because Meg saved him, Meg claims his services and binds him to her till the debt it paid. Apollo and Meg make the journey to Camp Half-blood. But whenever you make your way there, you’re bound to get attacked by monsters and that’s exactly what happens.
Once they arrive, Apollo finds that the new Oracle of Delphi, Rachel Dare can no longer issue prophecies and that communications and travel are also having these problems. After all of this, the other demigods don’t exactly like Meg much and so they break out into a fight. During this fight, Meg reveals her golden rings can turn into sickles made of imperial gold. Demeter, the goddess of Agriculture, then claims her.
Apollo is not used to being human. He cannot do the two things he loves, music and archery. He hates being imperfect at these things he is meant to be perfect at and so swears on the River Styx to never use a bow or musical instrument until he is a god again. Flash forward a bit, he uses it before he’s is a god again! After some activities at Camp, meg and Apollo find themselves overhearing a conversation they shouldn’t. They over hear the Delphi’s guard, Python, talking to the ‘Beast’ about how to control the oracles and destroy the Grove of Dodona. Meg explains her history with the beast, that he killed her father and that’s when her stepfather took her in. With this revelation, Rachel tells them about a secretive company, called triumvirate Holdings, whose main goal is to destroy the oracles. As we later see in a turn of events, that the Beast is Emperor Nero who is the leader of triumvirate holdings and is Meg’s Stepfather. Nero manipulates Meg into believing that the beast and him are two separate people and gets her to betray her friends and family at Camp Half-Blood.
Side Note: When Apollo visits the grove of Dodona, he is given the arrow of Dodona. The arrow is not prophetic but does give the readers a comedic relief as it speaks in an Elizabethan accent and constantly mocks Apollo.
Overall, this book was great and truly delved back into the world that Rick Riordan created.
4 out of 5 stars.
The Dark Prophecy:
This is the second book in the trials of Apollo series. Six weeks after the events of the previous book, Apollo, Leo, Festus and Calypso are headed out on a quest to stop Emperor Nero from controlling all of the oracles. They are rescued from a Monster from an old friend of Apollo’s, Hemithea. A long time ago Apollo offered to turn her into a goddess but she refused and went to join the Hunters of Artemis where she met her true love Josephine. Josephine and her sacrificed their immortality as hunters to be together. They also have an adopted daughter named Georgina. Georgina went missing after going to seek a prophecy from the Oracle of Trophonius. Instead this message damages her and causes her to wander away. Britomartis, the Goddess of Nets issues Apollo and Calypso a quest to rescue her griffins from Commodus. They get captured but rescue the griffins. Meg Mcaffery shows up fights with them to get all of the caged animals freed.
They search for the Throne of Memory to restore Georgina but unfortunately Commodus discovers them. They manage to escape with the help of Festus. They go back to the Waystation and find out that Georgina has a message from Trophonius, we find out that he is Apollo’s son and that Georgina is his sister meaning that she is Apollo’s daughter. Apollo and Meg decide to go to the oracle for the prophecy and whilst on this misson, Apollo drinks from the River of memory and of Forgetfulness which causes him to lose his sanity. Meg restores him by singing a song about him. Trophonius awakens and Apollo is upset that he won’t take him instead of Meg. They end up destroying the oracle which was what Trophonius wanted. They come back to the waystation just in time to defeat Commodus. Apollo warns him and Commodus still doesn’t back down. Apollo warns the gang to cover their eyes and he releases his Godly form, destroying and blinding Commodus. At the end of the of the fight, Meg reveals the prophecy that was given to her. We find out that an impending attack is happening in 5 days time on Camp Jupiter. They have to travel in the labyrinth with a satyr and summons the closest one which turns out to be Grover Underwood.
I honestly loved this story and it was such a good continuation of the saga.
4 out of 5 stars.