By Nevyn H.
Rick Riordan released a new book, Tyrant’s Tomb, of the series, Trials of Apollo. The book was published on 24th September 2019. The series is about the Greek sun god, Apollo, who has been turned into a mortal for the third time in his lifetime. The king of gods, Zeus, made him into a human boy known as Lester Papadopoulos, who is seventeen years old. Zeus turned him into a mortal because he gave his Roman descendant, Octavian, to rise in power. Apollo (also known as Lester) finds himself in a dumpster in New York, and he is mugged by two men. He was beaten up harshly until a twelve year old girl called Meg McCaffery rescues him. Apollo is tied to Meg and he must obey her orders until he has his godly powers back. With the help of Percy Jackson, they arrive at Camp Half-Blood. There they realize that Meg's mother is Demeter, the goddess of agriculture. They get to know that all the essential oracles have stopped worked including the Oracle of Delphi, whose spirit is in Rachel Elizabeth Dare. Apollo must bring them back to control again, and he will regain his godly powers. The three most evil Roman Emperors will rule the world once they have destroyed the five oracles. In the fourth book, Apollo and Meg are taking Jason Grace's body to Camp Jupiter. On their way, they are attacked by some Eurynomous, the zombies that eat human flesh and they serve Hades, the god of the underworld. But these ones were talking about another master. The zombies were stopped by Lavina Asimov, a Roman demigod and the daughter of Terpsichore, the Muse of dance of the Nine Muses, and Hazel Levesque, the daughter of Pluto, the Roman equivalent of Hades. They realize that the Roman king (not emperor) has teamed up with the three evil emperors to kill Apollo and unleash the undead to destroy mankind. Apollo goes on a quest with Meg and Reyna (the praetor of New Rome) to seek advice from the soundless god.
The book for me was like a Riordan classic. It was filled with action, and there are bits of Greek and Roman mythology facts we learn about. I like the fact that some of the characters from the previous series (Heroes of Olympus) were brought back and we see that there was a battle before Apollo and Meg arrives and the Roman demigods are recovering from it. There is Don, the faun, doing and helping the wounded. This is unusual to see because, in Roman mythology, fauns are begging in the streets for money or food. We get to see Peaches, Meg’s Karpos (grain spirit) again. The reason I like this book is the dramatic suspense that Riordan puts in the middle of the book. The things that made me lose my expectations for the ending was keeping Tyson and Ella in the Temple of Diana, so they were safe from the war.
Another thing that made me lose my interest was Tarquin was in the bookshop where Tyson and Ella lived and how he was defeated. Overall, we still get the witty sense of humour that Uncle Rick uses in his books. I would recommend this book to someone who likes reading fantasy fiction. The series will end with the fifth and final book, Tower of Nero, which will be released on 29th September 2020.