Hey :) just found this forum, feels like a good place to kind of fume out and voice my opinion, see if other people agree, so here i go :)
Imo The Lost Hero is the weakes of all the books, Percy Jackson and the Heroes of Olympus series. For couple of reasons, tho i find it rather good idea to start a new series with new characters in the first book i was really rather dissappointed by the characters, by the reaslism of their behaviour (something i have problems with in general, never really understood the behaviour of some characters in certain parts of the plot, but i learned to live with it :D) The story isnt bad i have to say, its a bit overfloating with random stuff but since they are flying most of the story its easily possible to get to so many places and go thru so much stuff. But thats pretty much it, while i really enjoyed Leo (hell, the guy is awesome:D) i was rather dissapointed with Piper, her thinkink and reactions, were ridiculous most of the time and just didnt make any sense, also her personal life and the drama of it felt forced and just something to put in there to make her more interesting. Also for crying out loud what the hell is up with the insane Jason obsesion of hers i mean yea i get it she likes the guy but not a page goes by without her telling or thinkink about him, even amids fighting or after almost dying the scene just ridiculously bends into admiration for how jason looks or whatever (now after reading Mark of Athena tho, i can calmly say that the trend of the overflowing and forced romance everywhere was not just exeption of this book, only Percy and Annabeth are ok in this matter imo) Now to my second biggest issue, which is combined from many things, first is Jason as character, second is his importance and third is this whole roman/greek side of the demigods they implemented and how it kind devalues the Percy Jackson and Olympians story.
Jason is not bad, i rather like him, he is your standard son of Zeus, awesomly powerfull and whatnot, he is presented rather ok, which is not really that hard considering he has amnesia so everything about him is plain, simple and up to your imagionation what i disliked tho is how much importance is laied on him. I mean did we forget that Percy is still the main character? I know it is not the Percy Jackson series anymore but still, i cant imagine anyone else but Percy really taking over things (than again maybe Annabeth would be fine :D) during the story u hear all the time how Jason is important, how he will lead everyone, how he will be the bridge and how its his destiny, i know that Percy hears something very similar from Hera at the start of Son of Neptune but than again, so does Leo, so how it really is? The lack of Percy evidence and lack of people caring about him (except Annabeth and Thalia for which i am eternaly grateful, and maybe Grover, nothing known about him till now :() is just disturbing, Percy dissapears, everyones friend, the camps leader and hero and thats all they do? Just wait for Jason to come, be amazed and accept him as leader?
Something is not right here. I don not wish for Percy to be the sole hero, ofc not, but there is a delicate balance between the main characters and for lack of better word, sidekicks, it was perfect in Harry Potter series, and Son of Neptune for that matter (tho it might be cuz the characters were more interesting overall) but here it was disturbed cuz, well, they forgot about Percy and gave us new hero, who isnt bad, but just came as a stamp that overshadows Percy much too quickly and easily. Imagine that they would make Seventh book of Harry Potter, in Hogwarts, while Harry is still there but with a new hero from Hufflepuff, who, while Harry was killing basilisk, was killing a dinosaur that attacked Dumbledore outside the castle o.O you wouldnt roll over for the new hero either. (only really heartwarming thing on this note happened at the very end of Mark of Athena when Nico says that Percy is the strongest Demigod he ever knew, that shows everyone, ha! :D)
And here comes the last problem, damn it how Riordan disgraced his own first series, now, whenever i read the first books it feels wierd im not just asking what the gods are doing (i was so pissed most of the time, THEY NEVER DO ANYTHING, let just the heroes work and suffer, morons) but also what are the romans doing, where are they and so forth. Also as was said in the new books, Kronos and his Titans were basically chew toys compared go Giants, so that kinda makes the whole war against Kronos a bit pointless and much less important in our eyes, which is just sad. IT was the climate of five books, you cant just say it was nothing. When i finished reading Last Olympian i had great feeling from this great prophecy i knew its gonna be a new great adventure, even more dangerous and exciting, but not that kind that spits all over the old one.
That said i absolutely love the books, big fan, dont take me wrong, keep the books coming Rick :) and thanks for reading if u got here :D