Riordan Wiki:Featured Articles/The Lost Hero

The Lost Hero is the first book of The Heroes of Olympus series, written by Rick Riordan, who is also the author of the internationally famous Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Unlike the books in the previous series, The Lost Hero  is written in alternating third person points of view between Jason Grace, Piper McLean, and Leo Valdez, in contrast with Percy Jackson's first person point of view in the first series.

This time, the story tells of three unlikely friends: an amnesiac, an apparent kleptomaniac, and a mechanic, as they are thrown in together on a quest to save Hera, Queen of the gods, before she is lost to the world forever.

Rick Riordan began writing a second series after realizing how many Greek and Roman myths he hadn't been able to explore and twist into tales for modern-day readers in the first series. After creating the story line, Riordan created three new main characters, Jason Grace, Piper McLean, and Leo Valdez, but kept the previous main characters, Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase as secondary/main supporting characters. The narrative is told from the three main characters Jason Grace, Piper McLean, and Leo Valdez's perspectives. Although initially nervous Riordan later found that most fans enjoyed the new format which allowed them to learn more of each character.

Riordan set the book two seasons after the events of The Last Olympian (during the winter) so that previous characters could be involved and so readers wouldn't be confused. He says that it was his way of letting his readers "revisit that world in a fresh twist, but also to catch up with Percy, Annabeth, and the rest of the gang from the first series."

He also decided to add the Roman gods after many readers requested for Riordan to write a new series on them, who were actually just the Greek gods with Roman names and slightly different personalities. After such requests, he began to think how the Roman aspect of the gods would be after moving from Greece to America. After a while, "playing with that idea gave me the idea for the new series."

(more...)

Recently featured: Annabeth Chase | Nyx | The Quest for Thanatos | Satyr | Nico di Angelo