With Rick Riordan’s novel, “The Lost Hero” he continues the story of Percy Jackson and brings in the new hero of Jason Grace, Jackson’s counterpart.  “The Lost Hero” introduces the newest hero of Jason Grace along with his two sidekicks, Leo Valdez and Piper McClean. As Grace relearns his heritage and gets reacquainted with his supposed best friend and girlfriend, he discovers a new world of Greek demigods. However, is this new world as new to Jason as it may seem? One has to read in order to find.

Riordan’s new series continues the journey of Percy Jackson as it takes on a new direction. Our heroes meet new people, battle new foes as well as old, as the unite against the most powerful goddess, Gaea, also known as Mother Earth. Riordan commences the book with Jason’s perspective as he wakes up on a bus filled with kids his able who have apparently known him for months, though he has no memory of it.

Despite the new direction the series has taken, Riordan continues to write a novel that is humorous as well as educational. He definitely does a better job of making mythology more fun that Edith Hamilton could ever do. Riordans is able to make younger audiences as well as older audiences put into context the myths of ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. He relates to his audiences by use of pop culture references and modern technology. The simplicity of his writing makes the classic myths easy for everyone to understand.

However, the main element to this book is the characterization. The key to “The Lost Hero” is that you start out with this character who has amnesia and even before someone restores his memory Riordan incorporates ways for him to find out more about himself. All of Riordan’s characters have a difficult past as well as a generally fatal future, yet they do their best to stay hopeful.