The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson And The Olympians #5), by Rick Riordan

This book’s title expresses a nice sentiment.  The Last Olympian refers to Hestia, the guardian of the hearth, who is often forgotten in this series and in general when one thinks of the Greeks and their religion, and she plays an important part in this particular book in cautioning characters about what it means to lose sight of one’s family and one’s humanity.  And while this book’s title expresses a nice sentiment, the author appears to neglect that which is necessary in order to have the sort of happy family life that leads to happiness and success, and in choosing to write universes based on unfaithful gods whose wandering eyes and whose inconstant and inattentive ways lead to resentful demigod offspring, and when one looks at the author’s own dubious progressive politics, it appears that he is like so many in giving lip service to the idea of happy and whole families without having any idea of what one needs to promote as well as condemn if one is to preserve the well-being of families in a world like ours where family problems do children a great deal of lasting and deep harm.

The plot of this book is apocalyptic in that Kronos and titans are attacking New York City, site of the contemporary Mount Olympus in the author’s mythos, and Percy Jackson and his demigod classmates are left to defend it from assault.  There is the usual heroism and sacrifice on the part of various students, a couple of whom are viewed as particularly heroic dead despite their early treachery, and the problem of trust and cohesion are explored from a couple of different angles.  In his attempts to prepare himself for attacking the turncoat Luke, Percy explores Luke’s background, including the tragic story of his mother, and then takes a bath in the river Styx to gain near invulnerability, and is constantly warned that his weaknesses will be accentuated even as he gains greater invulnerability.  Of course, this doesn’t happen for various reasons, but we see Percy Jackson struggle with a relationship with a human girl who appears to have the gift of being a seer, which one knows isn’t going to end well for the relationship, and Percy continues his flirtatious friendship with Annabelle that appears to drag on inconsequentially for all too long–just let these guys marry already.  Anyway, the ending is a happy one that ensures several more volumes of bestselling but mediocre YA fantasy material.

What would have made this book better?  Percy Jackson is certainly a worthwhile hero, and has a good relationship with his mother and stepfather here.  The book shows the weaknesses of the gods and their unsuitability to be moral exemplars for humanity, which is part of Riordan’s agenda of viewing human beings as the judges of morality rather than those who stand at the bar of judgment to be held accountable for our own misdeeds by a perfect and eternal God.  It is easy to think that a book with a firm and godly view of divine providence (the evidence of which are all over this book, since divine providence is seen by the author’s providential care for his lead characters) would be more internally consistent.  The author’s attempts to ramp up the stakes end up undermining the mythos of his world, not least because he has series on the pantheons of at least four different cultures, all of which suggests that the various gods in question cannot be so powerful as they and the book would like to claim.  Ultimately, one could think of a way that the author could have written a good book, but in doing so he would have had to have a different moral and religious worldview and a different mythos, and in short that he would not be who he is.