…………………………………………………

The Last Olympian Book Review

The Last Olympian is a 2009 fantasy novel by Rick Riordan. It is the fifth and final installment in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series. It’s a satisfactory conclusion to this saga.

………………………………………………….

“It’s hard to enjoy practical jokes

when your whole life feels like one“

…………………………………………………..

Percy and his friends lead the last stand to protect Mount Olympus. Most often with these last novels in these epic fantasy sagas the action is overwhelming, but that is just not the case with this book. In what was a surprisingly pleasant twist, the war only takes a section of the book, not the entirety of it. The rest contains adventurous and dramatic elements that are more appealing to me personally.

The twist that Luke was supposed to die as a hero not only worked, but it differentiated this franchise from numerous other fantasy stories. This way Percy’s role was diminished, which was both welcome and quite realistic. But still, Percy as the protagonist was excellent here and his arc was quite moving. His romance with Annabeth was lovely and thankfully Annabeth returned to be more proactive after being almost absent in the predecessor.

But Luke is by far the highlight of this novel. It was expected that he would redeem himself and become a hero toward the end, but still this transition was smoothly dealt with and his final sacrifice was quite emotional. How Kronos was defeated was anti-climactic, however. I expected much more from a creature that is supposed to the big baddie of the franchise.

…………………………………………………..

Grover got a solid arc here and the same goes for Thalia. It was also a lot of fun witnessing Clarisse be badass and funny as always. But Nico is one of the most interesting characters here as he got to betray and then save Percy in that terrific section with Hades that was the most entertaining of the bunch. I also liked seeing a more pronounced role of the gods and goddesses themselves. Poseidon got a wonderful moment with his son toward the end.

When it comes to the writing, The Last Olympian is one of the most best-written entries in this series as by this point Rick Riordan became more confident in his writing abilities. There is still that overwhelming angst and cynicism that is typical in young adult fiction, but overall the dialogue is pretty good. Thematically, this is one of the worst entries as there is nothing really sophisticated about this story with the mythological elements also being underwhelming this time around.

But just because those elements were sacrificed doesn’t mean that the rest of the novel failed. Quite the opposite is the case. The emotional arcs of the characters were much more meaningful and complex here while the overall characterization is surprisingly strong for this genre as even the supporting players got a lot to do in this story.

…………………………………………………..

What I particularly liked in this final installment is the heightened stakes as a couple of characters actually die and the villains did seem imposing throughout. The adventurous elements were also superb with the best parts being set in the Underworld. The whole idea of the prophecies was very well explored and the twist that it has never been about Percy himself is the best revelation in the entire series.