The Trials of Apollo

[meteordust]

By Rick Riordan.

This is the series I read all the Percy Jackson books to get to.

(I mean, you could start here, but it has spoilers for the books before it.)

The premise: the god Apollo is punished by Zeus by being turned into a mortal, until he fulfils an almost impossible quest.

Stories I love: (1) An immortal learns what it's like to be mortal. (2) A terrible person learns to be a better person.

This series delivered everything I wanted.

Apollo starts off as the most melodramatic, whiny, and arrogant god ever, who just can't believe he's been humbled this way by Zeus. Namely, being transformed into an ordinary teenager called Lester Papadopoulos. Not even a demigod, like Percy Jackson and friends, but an actual mortal human, with no powers at all.

Apollo is saved from being annoying by being hilarious. His narration is funny because he's so oblivious. He expects worship, but no one takes him seriously. In addition, Zeus magically binds him into the service of a plucky young girl called Meg McCaffrey, kind of like how Monkey was bound to Tripitaka. (Meg definitely doesn't take Apollo seriously.)

Meg also has her own share of secrets and shadows, and during their long quest to save the world, they learn about each other and help each other through all kind of challenges and crises. Watching their unlikely friendship grow into something genuine and powerful is so good.

The story doesn't hold back from holding Apollo accountable for his sins in the myths and legends. (Well, mostly. It's all kept to a PG level, and there are one or two more egregious events that are stated to be not actually true.) Apollo gets confronted by his past misdeeds and starts acknowledging the wrongs he has done, while his demigod allies are also finding out about them and not being shy about judging him.

His character arc is so satisfying. Learning about being human. Learning about courage and sacrifice and loss. Learning how fucked up the gods are. Learning about, yes, the meaning of friendship.

The main antagonists are the sinister triumvirate of former Roman emperors trying to take over the world. Their ambition and cruelty is realistic, chilling, and depressingly familiar.

One of my favourite quotes, just because:

"Commodus blames me for his death," I said.
"Why?" Meg asked.
"Probably because I killed him."
"Ah." Leo nodded sagely. "That would do it."

- The Dark Prophecy

I love a good unreliable narrator. I love all the moments that we see other people's reactions to Apollo, while he's unaware of how it looks from the outside - whether it's when he sings beautifully and doesn't get the impact, or when he's severely injured and doesn't realise how badly.

And like in Dogsbody or The Last Unicorn, when you have an immortal who experiences being mortal for a time, that ache of wistfulness and poignancy afterwards - it just hits you right in the heart.

I really appreciated that the series finished with a long denouement, that gave us the chance to say a proper farewell to everyone who had been with Apollo on this journey.

I don't really have a name for that feeling you get, when you turn the last page and it's the end of a long journey and you just have to sit for a bit. But after these five books, I felt that feeling.

(I kind of want all the futurefic now.)

Comments

[senmut]

Awesome. I have only managed PJO by fannish osmosis so far; every attempt to read them has me too distracted to work with it. But I have loved seeing what was done in the series.

[meteordust]

Yeah, there are a lot of books, and some are definitely better than others. But it is such a fun and inventive world, and the characters are easy to care about.