As all fans of Percy Jackson will be aware, The Lost Hero is the first book in the second series about the Half-Blood heroes, children born with one ordinary mortal parent and one parent a Greek god or goddess.
Having enjoyed the original series very much, I wasn't sure how the second would work as Rick Riordan had already worked his way through the Greek pantheon, and solved the problem of what to do with all the unacknowledged children roaming around Camp Half-Blood and the rest of North America. The solution is brilliant - take the Roman aspects of the Greek gods and their children and see what happens when you set them up against the next wave of monsters trying to take over the earth.
The story is told from the point of view of the three new characters in turn two chapters at a time, so the reader sees the events through different eyes, and very different understandings of what is going on. Jason has completely lost his memory, and much of the action is driven by his need to discover who he really is and how he has ended up at Camp Half-Blood. His friends Leo and Piper have their own troubles to deal with. With Percy Jackson off-stage throughout the book, Rick Riordan has made his readers care very much about the new characters and how the changes at the end of the last series have affected the Half-Bloods. Piper is a good strong character, and very much like Annabeth will (probably) be pivotal to the action later on.
If you are looking for a fast-paced action adventure this is for you, but at over 500 pages you will need to set aside a bit of time to read it all. The sequel Son of Neptune has recently been published too.
