The House of Hades

The House of Hades: Heroes of Olympus Book 4, by Rick Riordan, 597 pages

The House of Hades is Riordan's fourth book in his Percy Jackson spin-off series, The Heroes of Olympus. While the original Percy Jackson series focused entirely on Greek mythology, this series combines Greek myths and gods with their Roman mythology counterparts, as well as their modern demigod children. The House of Hades picks up after the cliffhanger ending of Book 3, with a group of Roman and Greek demigods midway through a quest to close the Doors of Death and ultimately stop Gaea from rising and destroying the world. Percy and girlfriend Annabeth are traversing Tartarus to close the doors on that end, while their friends struggle through countless mythical monster encounters in an attempt to reach the House of Hades and close that set of doors, but only after Percy and Annabeth have come through them.

I've been wondering for quite some time (probably since about halfway through the original Percy Jackson series) when Riordan was going to run out of myths to retell and mythological creatures to toss in his heroes' path. While he's found a few new ones for this book, Riordan has also brought back some baddies to reprise their antagonistic roles. Thankfully, the return of such creatures and gods doesn't come across as a creative failure; rather, the encounters, while steeped in vengeance, are fresh.

Something else that freshens this series is the alternating points of view among the seven demigods on the quest. It allows the reader to not only check in on what's happening with all of these plot strands, but also to see situations through different characters' eyes and personalities. Riordan does a good job of letting the voice of these characters come through, and I'm intrigued to see how he'll wrap this story up in The Blood of Olympus.