The Lost Hero

The Lost Hero is the first book in The Heroes of Olympus, written by Rick Riordan, who is also known as the writer of the internationally famous Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Unlike the other books, it is written from the points of view or opinions of three different characters, Jason, Piper and Leo, making them as the narrator.

Origins and development
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 storyline, Riordan created three new main characters, Jason, Piper and Leo, but kept the previous main characters, Percy, Annabeth and Grover as secondary characters. The narrative is told from a third person point of view alternating between the three characters' 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 to three months after the events of The Last Olympian so that previous characters could be involved and so readers wouldn't be confused. He says that "it was my way of letting them revisit that world in a fresh twist, but also to catch up with Percy and Annabeth and the rest of the gang from the first series." He also decided to add in the Roman gods after many readers requested for Riordan to write a new series on Roman gods, who were actually just the Greek gods with a few differences. 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."

Summary
A young demigod, Jason Grace, finds himself in unknown territory without the knowledge of who he is and where he belongs. He befriends Leo Valdez (a son of Hephaestus), and pretty Piper McLean (daughter of Aphrodite).Together they are given a quest to rescue Hera, Queen of the Gods, who has gone missing. They must find her before the winter solstice, or die at hands of a horrible monster, threatening to overthrow the Olympians.

Plot
Jason wakes up with no memory while on a bus from the Wilderness School, a boarding school for delinquent kids with Piper and Leo, who claims to be his girlfriend and best friend respectively. While on a trip to the Grand Canyon, a storm appears, and one member of the class, Dylan, transforms into an Anemoi Thuellai (Jason calls them Venti, its Roman term)or in ither words storm spirits, in the English language. Jason later takes a Roman coin out of his pocket,Ivlivs, that turns into a sword or a lance (depending on which side he flips it to) and saves a falling Piper with his abilities over the winds as Coach Gleeson Hedge, a satyr (or faun, as Jason calls him) who was assigned to protect the demigod students, saves Leo, but is kidnapped by Dylan after retreating to his 'mistress'. Two demigods, Annabeth Chase and Butch,a daughter of Athena and a son of Iris, come looking for Percy Jackson, who has been missing for three days, and collect the demigods on a Pegasi-ridden chariot, to take them to Camp Half-Blood. After they crash in the lake, Leo is almost immediately claimed by Hephaestus, god of fire and forges and the three are taken on a tour of camp.

At Camp Half-Blood
In Hera's cabin, Piper is introduced to Rachel Dare (the oracle). Then Hera appears to her in a vision, asking Piper to free her. After her vision Piper blacks out. During this moment Leo is taken to cabin 9 (the Hephaestus cabin) which had been cursed since Beckendorf's death. None of their machines are working and the Bronze Dragon that someone made long ago went haywire and is hiding in the forest, destroying everything in its path and disrupting campers. Leo learns that possessing the powers of fire, a rare trait among Hephaestus's children, is a dangerous ability. Leo is shocked at this, as he accidentally used his fire powers during his childhood and killed his mother, being provoked by Gaea. Jason is accompanied by Drew, the tyrannic counselor of Aphrodite, to Chiron, who is puzzled at Jason being at the camp, saying, "You should be dead." Jason has a vision of Juno ( Hera's Roman form) asking him for assistance, and he learns from a Clovis, child of Hypnos, that his memories were actually stolen by Juno. Jason walks into the his cabin and finds a few photos. These trigger his memory enough for him to learn his last name and the name of his older sister, Thalia Grace.

A Quest is Given
That night at the warm, cozy campfire, Jason proves himself to be a son of Zeus (though he initially calls him Jupiter) and accepts a quest to save Hera by the winter solstice in four days and return her to Olympus. A month earlier, Olympus was closed by Zeus and none of the gods were making contact with anyone. Rachel issued a new prophecy that demands the need for a child of Hephaestus and Aphrodite to free Hera. Leo volunteers and, shortly afterward, is able to obtain air transportation (since Rachel's prophecy warned them to "beware the earth") in the form of a fixed mechanical dragon, who he names Festus the Dragon (which means Happy in Latin). Leo equips a pair of found wings on him in an underground workshop named Bunker 9 that Festus shows him. Drew also volunteers to go on the quest as well, but Piper intervenes. She asks Jason to let her go on the quest as well. Piper is then claimed by Aphrodite and Jason asks her to be on the quest.

Talk with Boreas and Detroit
The next day, the trio leaves for Quebec, Canada to see Boreas, the North Wind, and try to figure out where to find Aeolus, master of the winds, and track down the anemoi and make them tell where Hera is imprisoned. They make it to Boreas's penthouse. The three children do not let Leo go as he can summon fire. As Jason and Piper meet Boreas, Jason's mysterious tattoo makes Boreas to turn into his Roman form Aquilon and allows them to leave for Chicago, where they will find their next lead. They are detoured when three Hyperborean Cyclopes capture Jason and Piper, and Leo is able to save them using his fire powers after being contacted by a sleeping woman in the earth, who is the real reason for his mother's death.

Meeting with the Hunters
While resting in a mountain cave, the group is attacked by Lycaon and his group of werewolves, before being saved by the Hunters led by Thalia, who is Jason's sister. She explains that their mother was visited by Zeus twice and she gave Jason up to Hera at age two, shortly before Thalia ran away and their mother died while drinking and driving. Thalia leads them to Aeolus's palace. They get separated when the ice bridge accidentally begins to burn. Thalia tells them that the hunters will go to the wolf house and hold it while they rescue Piper's dad from the giant. She also says that Jason already knows where it is and that they'll meet again soon.

Aeolus and the Real Enemy
They go up the mountain and are escorted by Mellie an aura (who develops a crush on Hedge) to Aeolus, who turns out to be a constantly changing weather reporter-type figure and claims to know Jason from before. Though Aeolus stops the order to kill demigods (he explains he was "just cranky") and the children's parents tell him to reveal the location of Enceladus at Mount Diablo, he hears a voice in his head that tells him to kill them. Mellie and Jason are just able to save themselves with their wind powers and are transported to San Francisco thanks to Aphrodite, who tells Piper in a dream of their true enemy - Gaea, mother of the Earth, is raising the giants and the dead in order to destroy the gods and fully awaken herself.

Mount Diablo
They get to Mount Diablo, and Jason, Leo, and Coach Hedge try to distract Enceladus while Piper frees her dad. The giant summons Earthborn to kill them, defeated by Leo and Piper. Jason fights Enceladus, having his lance destroyed in the process and unleashing an explosion that creates a large crater. Jason then prays for assistance from his father, and Zeus's lightning bolt transfers through Jason into the giant, who falls into the crevice it creates, for the only way to kill a giant is for a god and a hero to kill it together.

At the Wolf House
The group manages to 'borrow' a helicopter, and Hedge takes Piper's father to safety as the demigods travel to the Wolf House, otherwise known as Jack London's home. The group crash-lands and joins the Hunters as they attack the house, infested with monsters. They find Hera inside a cage made from the earth with the giant Porphyrion using her power to reform himself. Before they break the cage, Khione, the goddess of snow, comes and reveals herself to be the reason for the giant's rise and Gaea's awakening by manipulating the god's thoughts. Leo fights her using his flame powers, and Jason goes one-on-one with the awakened Porphyrion as Piper forces Hera's cage to sleep and Leo tries to break it in its weakened state. Jason manages to distract the giant long enough for Hera to be released and unleash her divine form, which Jason accidentally looks at. He apparently dies, but Piper is able to revive him, and Hera transports them to Camp Half-Blood.

Aphrodite, Counselor Change, and Bunker 9
After the quest, Piper forces Drew to step down from her position as Aphrodite counselor, (by challenging to her to a duel, Drew backs down) and she and Jason share a moment before going to Leo, who reveals the entrance to Bunker 9 to them, Chiron, and the Hephaestus' cabin cabin, making him the head counselor for breaking their curse. Chiron tells them that a map in the Bunker was made during the Civil War, which had another side to it as being the battle between two different demigod groups and causing the gods to separate them as much as they could. Leo shows them blueprints and a drawing he did as a child for an aerial warship, with Festus's head as the masthead, and Leo names the ship Argo II. They make plans to travel to the original Mount Olympus in Greece in the summer to protect the gods' "roots" and stop Gaea.

Visit from Juno and Camp Counselor Meeting
While in Cabin One, Jason is visited by Juno, Hera's Roman form, who promises she is watching over him as his patron and gives him a new gladius to replace his old weapon before Piper comes to bring him to the council of cabin leaders. Jason reveals that both Greek and Roman demigods were never aware of each other because they always both hated and respected one another. He also tells them he was a leader of his camp and helped in the second Titan War by destroying Mount Othrys and defeating the Titan Krios singlehandedly. They decide to find the Roman camp, and Annabeth wishes to come with them, as they reveal Percy Jackson, as the war leader of Camp Half-Blood, was traded with Jason to the Roman camp, and probably has no idea who he is.

Prophecy
"Child of Lightning, beware the earth,(Jason, a child of Zeus' Roman form, Jupiter, has to beware the awakening of Gaea, the earth Goddess.)

The giant's revenge the seven shall birth,(The Giants rise to defeat the Olympians and cause the appearance of the heroes of the Great Prophecy.)

The forge and dove shall break the cage,(Leo and Piper, children of Hephaestus and Aphrodite respectively, break the cage Hera is trapped in.)

And death unleash through Hera's rage."(Hera kills all the beasts and nearly kills Jason when revealing her true form.)

Chapter List
There are no chapter titles. Each chapter has a name of one of the main characters and is written in Roman Numerals. There are 56 chapters going alternately in the order of Jason, Piper, Leo. Each characters gets two chapters before it shifts to another character in the order: first Jason, then Piper and lastly Leo; after that it goes back to Jason and the cycle repeats itself.

Characters

 * Jason Grace: A 15 year-old son of Jupiter (or Zeus), and patron of Juno (or Hera) god of the sky, who lost his memory. He is the younger full brother of Thalia. He comes from the Roman version of Camp Half Blood and he is their replacement for Percy Jackson. He has a golden coin, with a man's face wreathed in laurels on one side and a battle axe on the other, that turns into a lance, or a double-edged sword made of Imperial Gold depending on the flip and vice verse. He can survive lightning that would kill twenty men, though his shoe is blasted to bits (The original Jason lost a sandal, and found the Golden Fleece). He can also manipulate air. Jason saw a friend being bullied and took an instant dislike to the bullies, though he couldn't remember them. Jason jumped off the Grand Canyon to save Piper, showing his courage and loyalty to his friends. He and Percy seem to share this fatal flaw (personal loyalty). He is the champion of Hera, and has tattoos on his arm showing the letters SPQR (Senatus Populusque Romanus), an eagle, and twelve lines(His tattoos represent his time at camp and birth god like how Camp Half Blood gives out beads when you survive a summer). His golden coin was destroyed by Enceladus . When it was destroyed, Hera gave Jason a new sword.


 * Leo Valdez: He's Jason's demigod best friend. He's very mischievous. He also likes to build things and is constantly busy with tools. He is the son of Hephaestus and a fire user; the first in hundreds of years. He is fireproof as well, fire can't hurt him, it is unknown if that skill is rare and comes will the power of wielding fire or if some children of Hephaestus, but not all, have that ability. He becomes leader of the Hephaestus cabin after his quest. He shows attachments to all his creations, mostly his dragon Festus . He also discovers Bunker 9, where the Hephaestus children worked on inventions during the American Civil war.


 * Piper McLean: She's Jason's demigod crush, and she is a daughter of Aphrodite who can charmspeak, a very rare talent that is used to charm most people into doing anything. When she was sent to Wilderness School, she unintentionally charmspoke a car dealer into giving her a BMW for free. She also becomes the head of her cabin after challenging Drew, the current leader. (Drew backs down from the duel) Her dad is a movie star, Tristan Mclean. She and Leo are fooled by the Mist before they discover Camp Half-Blood.




 * Gleeson Hedge: He's a satyr (or faun, the Roman name for satyrs, as called by Jason) posing as a middle school P.E. coach who was assigned to protect Leo and Piper. He sees through the mist when Jason shows up on a school bus. Once Jason is attacked, however, Gleeson decides to protect him. Previously, he tried to defend a park in Toronto from a giant evil badger. He is the only one who wasn't fooled by Jason's Mist. He was earlier mentioned in The Last Olympian by one of the letters sent to Grover. He is later found in Medea 's department store captured with a bunch of storm spirits. He accompanies them for the rest of the story and becomes Piper's dad's counselor. Also he can be a bit over protective at some times.


 * Dylan: He is a cruel boy with blinding white teeth. He transforms into an Anemoi Thuelli, also known as a Ventus in Roman mythology. He is storm demon (a son of Typhon) or a storm spirit and tries to kill Jason, Piper, and Leo. He summons two other storm demons, but Jason slays them. Gleeson Hedge protects the kids, but is captured by the storm spirits. Dylan says that his "mistress" will destroy all demigods. Later in the story, his mistress is to be revealed as Khione, goddess of snow and storms, daughter of the wind god Boreas, the North Wind.


 * Butch: He arrives with Annabeth on a chariot pulled by a pair of pegasi. There is a rainbow tattoo on his arm, as he is a son of Iris, goddess of the rainbow. Leo makes fun of his love for rainbows and Pegasi, the quote is, "Rainbows, Ponies...", but stops when Butch threatens to knock him off the chariot.


 * Annabeth Chase: A 16 year-old daughter of Athena (a main character from the previous series). Annabeth arrives in a flying chariot with a demigod named Butch, on account of the dream Hera sent her, telling her to go there and find someone with one shoe in order to find her boyfriend, Percy Jackson, who has been missing for three days.


 * Percy Jackson: Son of Poseidon . He has a celestal bronze sword named Riptide. He has been missing for three days and is apparently "The Lost Hero". Percy was sent to the Roman Camp by Hera, just as Jason had been sent to the Greek camp. Also, Percy probably doesn't even remember who he is. In the last chapter, the leaders of Camp-Half Blood, along with Piper, Jason, and Leo decide to go to the Roman version of Camp Half Blood, so he will presumably be reappearing in Book Two, The Son of Neptune.


 * Hera: Hera is found on The Lost Hero website in the characters section alongside the three main characters, the only Olympian god to be featured there. When Jason was 2 years old, he was given to her to be her champion, by Jason's mother (Mrs.Grace). Captured by Gaea to be used to feed the giants return, she was the one who stole both Jason's and most likely Percy Jackson's memory. When Jason's magic coin broke, she gave him a new sword.


 * Drew: Drew is a daughter of Aphrodite at Camp Half-blood. She can also charmspeak. She seems to dislike Piper very much, and have feelings for Jason. She was the leader of the Aphrodite's Cabin at the beginning of the book before she stepped down to Piper. She is known as a tyrant of the Aphrodite cabin.


 * Thalia Grace: Jason's long lost full sister- meaning they have the same father and mother. Thalia's father is Zeus (Greek aspect), and Jason's father is Jupiter (Roman aspect). Same father, different aspects, Greek and Roman.She was mentioned in Chapter XIV (in the end) where Jason says his last name is Grace after he finds a picture of Thalia. In chapters XXXIV (in the end) and XXXV she is mentioned where she saves Jason's and his friends life from Lycaon and his Wolves and she finds Jason. When Leo first sees her, he thinks she is extremely beautiful. She was frozen by Khione- goddess of snow. Fortunately, when Hera revealed her divine form, she and the other Hunters were unfrozen.


 * Auntie Tía Callida: Leo's childhood babysitter. Tia Callida is Hera in disguise. When she babysat Leo, she put him in the chimney and set it on fire. She seemed to try to kill him back when Leo's mother was alive.