What happens when a Roman demi-god gets mixed up and ends up with no memories and in a camp for Greek demigods? That is exactly what happens in The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan. The author gets a lot of his inspiration from the book The Lord of the Rings. He also likes Greek and Norse mythology. The Lost Hero looks at what it takes to be a true or real friend.




The setting of The Lost Hero is mainly on Camp Half-blood. There are dorms for godparent and their kids live there. The camp features a battleground and a huge cafeteria. The characters are always traveling, never staying in the same place. All of this is happening in the 21st century. The main characters are Jason, Piper and Leo. Jason is Roman and son of the Roman god of the sky Jupiter. Piper is the daughter of the goddess of love, Aphrodite. Leo is the son of the god of fire, Hephaestus. The antagonist of this book is Gaia, Mother Earth.
The conflict in this book is man versus man because it’s usually Jason and his friends fighting monsters. Throughout the story, the characters argue quite a lot when they go on their journey to find Percy and regain Jason’s memories. There is man versus self conflict because Piper has internal struggles when she is deciding whether she should betray her friends. In addition, Leo doesn’t know whether he should have told his friends about his fire-controlling abilities. He also battles with whether to tell them what happened to his mother and who was taking “care” of him throughout his life.
My favorite part of the book is when Jason fights King Midas and his son Lit. King Midas is cursed with the ability to turn anything he touches into gold. Jason strikes down Lit, which forces Midas to grab his shoulder to help him up, but he turns his son into gold. Believe it or not, this scene is not the most action-pack part of the book!




The Lost Hero is really worth reading. But don't just jump into this book without reading the other five Percy Jackson books because you won’t understand what is happening with the plot. It was a great and fun book to read. It changed the way I think about friendship. I learned that real friends trust each other and never betray one another. I would recommend The Lost Hero to teenagers and adults; it has enough action for anyone to enjoy. I agree with the author’s approach because he made Greek mythology more interesting for today’s teens -- like me.