Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about Rick Riordan’s latest (last?) PJ novel, ‘Sun and Star’. In this particular novel, Nico and Will go to Tartarus to free… Iapetus/Bob the titan from Nyx, the embodiment of night. Fair enough, but… it is not entirely consistent with the series’ previous installments. In particular, when we last saw Iapetus/Bob, he was not just by himself, (and with Little Bob the calico/sabre-toothed cat), but also with a giant named Damascen, (or something similar). In this novel, the latter is absent.
Moreover, who else is absent? Jason Grace, that is
who. Aye, he died in ‘The Trials of Apollo’ series, but that is not the point –
most of action of ‘Sun and Star’ takes place in the Greco-Roman Underworld,
after all. Jason could have appeared as a cameo, long or brief, nothing more,
and that would have been the end, issue solved. Instead, he’s also a complete
no-show, and what the readers are left is, are Nico’s ruminations as to how he’s
dead, and Bianca’s dead, and Leo’s dead, and Nyx is making cacodemons out of
Nico’s grief, and-
Wait a second. Leo did not die.
No, he had not, but Nico thought that he did, and
for Nyx, that was good enough – she made a cacodemon out of that piece of grief
all the same. However, never fear, gentle reader, but behold and lo – Nico will
overcome Nyx’s negativity and make his cacodemons truly his!
Why? Besides the obvious, one of the themes in ‘Sun
and Star’ is out with the old, in with the new, out with the stability, in with
the change, nothing has to be eternal, everything and everyone can change.
Again, not the worst message, but it comes out of the left field, just as the
fact that Mr. Riordan had co-written the novel with another writer, something
that he never did before, a fact that left at least some people wondering, just
how much of Mr. Riordan is in ‘Sun and
Star’?
Seriously, since ‘Magnus Chase’ and ‘Trials of
Apollo’, Mr. Riordan’s writing regarding his universe was all over the place –
if he began those two series by being all for progress and sexual minorities, by
the time he wrote the final book of ‘Magnus Chase’, and the 3rd-4th
books of ‘Apollo’, he was much more traditional and restrained in those areas;
and in the final book of ‘Apollo’, he… was still restrained. In fact, some time
after this, he wrote a short novella set in ancient Ireland, whose protagonist
would eventually come to the U.S. in the future novel (still hadn’t happened),
and who talked as to how since English came to Ireland, the original Irish
language died as a poisoned tree did. Harsh, not at all like Mr. Riordan’s
regular characters and their attitudes, and it makes one wonder if Mr. Riordan wasn’t
having some RL experiences to affect his latest character’s attitude. What
next?
Shel. She’s Piper’s new girlfriend. This can
certainly work, but… is she also a demigod? Oh, both she and Piper are Native
Americans, but Piper is also a demigoddess, a daughter of Aphrodite/Venus, and
a hero of New Rome and of Olympus. Does Shel know about this? Considering that
Nico and Will contacted both of them via Iris’ messages, (a rainbow), clearly
Shel does. There are analogues of Muggles in Mr. Riordan’s world who know of
the supernatural – the mortal parents of Percy and Annabeth, for example – so Shel
could be one of them too, but we still do not know about her; for all we know,
she’s a golem instead, made and gifted by Piper’s divine parent as a sex-toy to
get over Jason that much faster. What is her backstory? Disney and Mr. Riordan,
we would like to know!
…We already discussed the TV adaptation of ‘The
Lightning Thief’ (into a TV series), and besides, ‘Sun and Star’ don’t have
much in common with it – Percy and Annabeth make a brief cameo in the first
chapters of the novel, but that is it. Instead, we got Dante’s ‘Inferno’
looming in the background as an inspiration for ‘Sun and Star’.
Sigh. Dante’s ‘Inferno’ is just one part of a trilogy
of great literary works, but, sadly, somehow it is the best-known out of the
three by far. Why is that so, one does not know, but that is the facts. In
addition, discussing ‘the Divine Trilogy’ requires a separate discussion, and
now is not the time; there is no time, because real life sucks. However, it can
be said that when Mr. Riordan had Percy and Annabeth stuck in Tartarus in the fourth
novel of the second quintet, Dante’s influence was much less. Guess that is his
co-author’s doing, again. (Or not, because people, even authors, can change
with time). Anything else?
No, not really. ‘Sun and Star’ isn’t a bad novel,
but it doesn’t feel like a good one either; the two authors wrote in tandem
quite professionally, but the end result is a one-shot, and not just because
the novel is a standalone one; the relationship of Will and Nico is thrust in
the face very, very prominently, and it can become overwhelming and obnoxious
quickly enough if you’re in a wrong mood; that is the problem of the Democrats’
U.S. overall – but that is another story.
For now, though, this is it. See you all soon,
hopefully!
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