“Being productive. Ugh. It's such a human concept. It implies you have limited time (LOL) and have to work hard to make something happen (double LOL).”

This second book was more dynamic and darker in ways than the first book, but it was just as good. I love Apollo as the main character, he's arrogant but also brave and hilarious. I like when characters that aren't perfect and all around good and righteous. Flawed characters, even when they are 'gods', are more relatable and human. And Apollo, in this book, is definitely becoming more human., without losing his cocky side. I loved his relationship with Meg, he kinds of adopted her as his 'little sister' and the fact that she defied Nero to help him shows how much she cares for him as well, even though she doesn't like to show it.

Also, LEO IS BACK IN THIS BOOK AND IT'S SO GOOD. We've got to know Calypso a little better as well, and honestly she's kinda bitchy. Idk, she doesn't seem to care for Leo as much as he does for her. I was pretty mad at her a couple of times in this book. Actually, one of the things that bothered me a lot in this book, thus the 4 stars rating, is the fact that everyone here seems to look down on Apollo and just dismiss him somehow. No matter that the guy just risked his very mortal neck to save everyone and did it all by himself and it's doing his best without his godly powers and in the body of a teenager, people seems to be mad at him and treat him poorly for no good reason. He doesn't even get a 'thank you for saving our asses' and everyone seems more concerned with everybody else, except for him. I don't know if that's on purpose, so he feels like he's not as 'godly' and revered as before and gets his ego down or something (in this process of humanizing him, I think), but IDK, it pissed me off a little that somehow he is to blame for everything and he's kind of alone in all this, except maybe for Meg. Nobody considers him a friend yet, I think, and that's kind of sad. But that's the only complaint I have about the book.

Another thing I really enjoyed here were some of the myths regarding Apollo that we see here, because it's an important background to the story. Also, more on minor gods and goddesses, as well as some information on the Emperors. I like how Riordan is always exploring the Greek mythology and the less known stories. AND, apparently, Rick is ready to explore other mythologies as well, since we get a character that's a demigod from an African mythology, Yoruba. Apollo not only acknowledge the fact that are other pantheon of gods, he also says they coexist. I'm hoping we can have a future series exploring these more unknown mythologies!

I'm pretty excited for the next book, because we're going to see familiar faces from the other series, and soon I'm hoping this one will entwine with the Magnus Chase series (it's hinted here about some of the events going on in Magnus Chase and Annabeth, in Hammer of Thor, hints about the loss of communication among the demigods). I can't wait to see where Riordan will take this!