Book of the Week

Trials of Apollo: The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan
Recommended by Kian Kamshad

This book is the first in a trilogy about the Greek god Apollo, who has been cursed by Zeus to become a human called Lester Papadopoulos. He has to complete tasks for the first ‘demigod’ that claims him, and then he will become a god again. A demigod is the child of a god and a human. Apollo is ‘claimed’ by a demigod girl called Meg McCaffrey.

The action scenes in the book are thrilling, and the plot is very interesting to read as well, with very well constructed characters. Apollo, for example, is portrayed very cleverly as someone who is quite weak but thinks he is very powerful. There are several moments when he tries to use his ‘godly power’ and fails, keeping the reader attentive and in suspense. He makes many normal things seem extremely comical, and still acts like a god even though he is now mortal, which serves as more good comedy.  I also really like how Rick Riordan manages to combine action, fantasy and comedy very well, and fits in many very funny jokes without them being so distracting that they pull you out of the book.

Although the fantasy is written in a way that it is very easy for the reader to follow, and everything about the mythology is explained clearly, one of the weaknesses about this book is that it is part of a larger universe of Rick Riordan’s other books. For this reason, when someone reads the book they may not understand certain contextual aspects and characters unless they have read Rick Riordan’s other books. I dislike this, as it would probably be quite annoying for the reader if they did not know the backstory for this book. Also, another problem is that the trilogy has not yet been finished, which means that you have to wait until the next book comes out before you can finish the series.

In conclusion, I think that this is a great book for someone looking for a story that has both action and comedy in it. Aside from the unfortunate lack of context and the incompleteness of the series, I think that this book is an excellent read.