Book Review: The Hidden Oracle (The Trials of Apollo, #1) by Rick Riordan

 .

BOOK review

Started on: 18 December 2020
Finished on: 1 January 2021

 

The Hidden Oracle (The Trials of Apollo, #1) by Rick Riordan

 

Title: The Hidden Oracle (The Trials of Apollo, #1)

Author: Rick Riordan
Publisher: Disney Hyperion

Pages: 375 pages / 384 pages (e-book)
Year of Publication: 2016
Price: Rp 142,000 (https://www.periplus.com/)

Rating: 5/5 
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"What those trials will be, I do not yet know. But I will suffer through them and prove I am worthy, Zeus will forgive me and allow me to become a god again."

After angering his father, Zeus, the god Apollo is cast down from Olympus and become human. He lands in New York city as a teenage boy named  Lester Papadopoulos with flabs and acne. Without his godly powers, the four-thousand-year-old deity must learn to survive in the modern world until he can somehow find a way to regain Zeus's favour. He seeks help from demigods at Camp Half-Blood, where he discovers that demigods have gone missing mysteriously. And so begins Apollo's first trial in his mortal form.

"How could I get used to being merely good? Why would I strain myself to get better when before I had been divine?"

"Things can turn out differently, Apollo. That's the nice thing about being human. We only have one life, but we can choose what kind of story it's going to be."

I'm sooo happy to finally be back in this world of demigods! I miss Percy Jackson so much and I am so glad he showed up quite a lot in this book 🥺❤️ The series has finally ended so I can start marathoning all five books to start my reading this year! I think I started 2019 by reading Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series, and now I'm starting of 2021 with Rick Riordan as well. I don't think I'll ever get tired of Rick Riordan's writing style and his way of storytelling. Even though some parts of the story is quite predictable (for example during a critical moment, someone or something will eventually come to the rescue kind of thing), I was still able to enjoy it to the fullest. One thing I'm pretty sad about is that I have a vague memory of both the Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus, because this book mentioned a lot of events from those series. I wish I remembered them all so I could get all the inside jokes.

In this series, we focus on the character of Apollo, the Greek god of sun, light, healing, disease, plague, music, art, poetry, archery, reason, knowledge, truth, and prophecy, who became human after he angered his father, Zeus. The whole book is narrated by Apollo so we get to read all of his thoughts and how deeply he miss being a god with all his power and good looks. His overly confident personality and his love for himself is what makes Apollo's character so unique and interesting. For the most part, he's actually a pretty useless character because his mortal form lacks ability; but during the direst situation, Apollo gets a sudden surge of energy that enabled him to use his godly powers for a short time. Even though we don't understand yet where those powers come from, Apollo is just grateful to get out of those situations alive 😂

"For the first time, I understood the trials that awaited me. I knew the enemies I must face. I would need more than wind chimes and enlightenment. I'd need a miracle. And as a god, I can tell you that those are never distributed lightly."

I hope I'm not spoiling too much when I say that Leo Valdez is back in this book! 🤩 This actually happens towards the end of this book, so it really came as a surprise for me because I thought Meg McCaffrey will be Apollo's sidekick throughout the whole series. Leo came back with Calypso, a daughter of Atlas who's now mortal being and became Leo's girlfriend—who's also joining the adventure together with Apollo. Since they showed up at the end of this book, I still have no idea how their dynamic will be as a team. But I think the upcoming quests will be even more interesting with Leo and Calypso along for the ride 🥳.

As for the plot, this book is basically setting up the foundation of the whole series; how Apollo is cast down from Olympus and his quest to restore the Oracles, sabotaged by Triumvirate—an organization with three powerful individuals who are said to be the three worst Roman emperors. In The Hidden Oracle we came across the first emperor, which is Nero. I'm really curious to see who the other two emperors are and how the final battle will unfold. I think it's going to be epic 😎

"Still... perhaps human persistence was an asset. They never seemed to give up hope. Every so often they did manage to surprise me."

Overall, this book is a great start to the series; we get to know Apollo's character and also what he needs to do to reclaim his place in Mount Olympus. As always, Rick Riordan's writing is entertaining and fun to read. Even though the plot is light and simple, his books are always a good time for me. He definitely deserves the title 'the storyteller of the gods' 😄. I am currently reading the second book in this series, The Dark Prophecy, which I hope to finish within this month so I can quickly move on to the next one 😆.

by.stefaniesugia♥ .