By Sidney Reynolds

Rick Riordan’s latest book The Mark of Athena, the third book in the The Heroes of Olympus series, is full of action and plot twists that will keep readers on the edge of their seats throughout the entire book. During the story, there is never a dull moment whether it is monsters attacking, a god or goddess going on a rampage, or another prophecy being shelled out to our heroes. The plot of the story also has the minds of the readers constantly trying to figure out the prophecy and wanting more.

The story begins with Percy Jackson at Camp Roman. Recovering from his amnesia that goddess Hera gave to him and Jason Grace, he is reunited with Annabeth and the young heroes she brings along. Together, Percy and Annabeth combine their groups of three Roman heroes: Jason Grace the son of Jupiter, Hazel Levesque daughter of Pluto, and Frank Zhang son of Mars. The two other Greek heroes — Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite, and Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus — make up the seven heroes from the Prophecy of  Seven.

The seven must go rescue Hazel’s half brother Nico di Angelo from giants while dealing with other monsters, Roman soldiers, and gods/goddess that have it out for them. Annabeth, in her own quest given to her by her mother Athena, strives to learn more about the Mark of Athena. She wants to know what it has to do with her, and what she needs to do in order to fulfill the prophecy.

Because Percy was one of main reasons for the popularity of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, it was really nice to have this new story being told from his point of view. It reminds readers of how much Percy has developed from the first time we read about him in the book The Lighting Thief. It gives readers the nostalgic feeling they experienced with him in his first series.

The book is also told from the point of views of Leo, Annabeth and Piper. While I feel like this could have easily gone wrong and would have made the book hard for readers to understand, Riordan did an amazing job making sure all of the points in the plot lined up with the side stories in the book. This allows readers to see what is happening with the other six members of the group and to get a more complex story.

I could not put this book down for a moment and I cannot wait for the fourth book, House of Hades, to come out next fall. If you have not read this series or the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, I highly suggest starting. Reading the books in chronological order will keep things from getting complicated. The overall plot is thrilling and the characters themselves are deep and complex. This book is worth reading over and over again.