User blog comment:SayuriDarling/The Blood of Olympus Official Discussion/@comment-3146930-20141013211630/@comment-1820614-20141015210930

The lack of closure is an issue for me as well. Honestly, the last third-fourth of the book feels like Riordan was running out of space and decided he had to wrap things up in a hurry. So you have a lot of loose ends and hurried final confrontations.

As for Apollo's punishment, in story I think it is Zeus being Zeus. He suffered from wounded pride due to being proven wrong once again, manipulated by Khione, having to rely on mortals, and the gods disobeying him to save the day. He needed someone to blame to try and make himself look good in future retellings of this story and Apollo was a convenient scapegoat since he is in charge of prophecies and he blessed Octavians' actions. I think this version of Zeus is the worst combination of excessive pride, paranoia, and childish insecurity.

Out of story, it is an issue some people like myself have with Riordan's version of Zeus. He is far too stupid to be alive or inspire any faith in his leadership. So the readers are left asking themselves on why this guy is king. No version of Zeus I have ever read from myth or modern media was this stupid.