Why Rick Riordan's hero had to fall in The Trials of Apollo

When people ask each other about their favorite fictional series, some answers are always a given. Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Percy Jackson come to mind. Today, I would like to draw your attention to a perhaps underrated series also from the author who brought us Camp Half-Blood: Rick Riordan's The Trials of Apollo.

Yes, it is a part of the wider Percy Jackson universe and features many of the key supporting characters we have read about before, including our very own Seaweed Brain. The protagonist of this series is one of the best ever put to page, in this humble author's opinion.

Cast down to Earth for not stopping his son from destroying Camps Jupiter and Half-Blood, we follow Apollo (sorry, Lester) , trapped in the body of an acne-ridden 16-year-old with flab as he stumbles around the globe, freeing the Oracles from the grasp of the Triumvirate and his Joker and mortal nemesis, Python.

Throughout the series, we watch and grow alongside with Apollo as he is forced to pay the price for the sins he committed as a god. All the lives he ruined, either by his negligence or by his direct interference, come back to haunt him. Made to pay, he is forced to stand up and fight to set things right. Despite having no powers, Apollo shows that we do not need special gifts or powers to learn from our mistakes and grow. He challenges the idea that old dogs can't learn new tricks by proving the whole world wrong and showing that even a million-year-old god has things to learn.

Along the way, we reunite with the members of the crew of the Argo II and feel the high of victory when they succeed and the pangs of pain when they give their lives to allow Apollo to live one more day. No spoilers here, but the deaths in the series are some of the most impactful ones and if you have read the Heroes of Olympus series before it, keep the tissues ready.

Front and center is everyone's "favorite" god, Apollo. Starting of as a whiny, selfish and self-pitying character, we watch him and his companion Meg overcome hardships. They grow as people, learning to not only trust themselves with their gifts, but also gain the courage to face their past demons and overcome them. Meg was forced to live with her father's killer, who mentally tormented her and tried to make her his heir. However, she is able to break free from that and embrace her true roots( if you know, you know).

Apollo goes on a journey of his own as well. He is forced to confront every failure from his past. His treatment of other gods, his belief that his Oracles were his and his alone, his unwillingness to accept that someone could say no to him and his darker and bitter impulses get the better of him. All of it is thrown into his face by figures from the past he had long forgotten about. His outer sarcastic exterior is slowly chipped away, piece by piece to reveal a person who knew his wrongdoings, but was too blinded by his pride and ego to accept them. However, by the end of the series, he is able to lay his inner and outer demons to rest, allowing him to shine brightly, as a true Sun God.

Well, that's a wrap. This was just a simple appreciation post by a reader who was hooked from Page 1 and found himself asking a lot of questions he normally wouldn't have. Hope it does the same for you all as well. Happy reading to you all!