User blog comment:Hermione Chase/"The Blood of Olympus" Expectations/@comment-1411267-20131009154302/@comment-17724486-20131009170129

I think you make a good point, but I also think that there will probably be a lot of surprises thrown in for Blood of Olympus. There were for HoH, like Leo going to Calypso's island and Khione and Co. sending them to Africa. These unexpected side trips kept the entire story from just being about "get to the Doors of Death". I mean, Percy and Annabeth's whole journey was kind-of straight forward that way (though they had plenty of their own problems within that journey), but the others definitely took some unexpected detours. Like Hazel says, it took them 18 days to make a 2-3 day trip, so I would imagine that RR will throw in some twists and turns that keep Blood of Olympus from being just a trip to confront the giants. In comparison, The Last Olympian was mostly about the Battle of Manhattan, but there were a lot of side plots, too, which kept it from feeling drawn out, at least in my opinion.

Plus, the confrontation with the giants itself will probably be pretty involved. They have to re-confront all the guys they already faced, like Polybotes and presumably Enceladus and maybe even Alcyoneus. Then, they have to take down Porphyrion and any other giants, all while trying not to get sacrificed and wake Gaea.