The Trials of Apollo Book Five: The Tower of Nero by Rick Riordan

Summary from Goodreads:

At last, the breathtaking, action-packed finale of the #1 bestselling Trials of Apollo series is here! Will the Greek god Apollo, cast down to earth in the pathetic moral form of a teenager named Lester Papadopoulos, finally regain his place on Mount Olympus? Lester's demigod friends at Camp Jupiter just helped him survive attacks from bloodthirsty ghouls, an evil Roman king and his army of the undead, and the lethal emperors Caligula and Commodus. Now the former god and his demigod master Meg must follow a prophecy uncovered by Ella the harpy. Lester's final challenge will be at the Tower of Nero, back in New York. Will Meg have a last showdown with her father? Will this helpless form of Apollo have to face his arch nemesis, Python? Who will be on hand at Camp Half-Blood to assist? These questions and more will be answered in this book that all demigods are eagerly awaiting.

Review:

It has been a joy reading this series. I have to say The Trials of Apollo has been, hands down, the best Rick Riordan series I have read. It has had the most humor, the greatest character arcs, the widest range of mythology –both Greek and Roman, the most involvement with the gods, and it has my favorite ending. Reading this book was a treat.

I’m not going to lie; I remember having no idea what I was getting into when I started book 1. I remembered the vain Apollo who sang all the time and recited poetry to unwanted ears. And we kind of got him in the beginning. Okay, we kind of got him the whole time…But, he grew more in 6 months than dare I say Percy even grew in the years since book 1 was written? What Apollo was willing to sacrifice in this book actually caused a tear to roll down my cheek. The actual character would be so happy to know that…

I loved seeing old friends in this book. I also loved that characters were still mourning in this book! I hate when characters pass away in other series, and then two books later, they are forgotten. No one is forgotten here! Also, the action in here was crazy. As one comes to expect in all Riordan books, it pretty much begins on page one. This time, on a train!

I also come to love and expect the humor in this series. And I know the cows were deadly in this book. But, oh my god. All the deadly cow haikus killed me. I could not stop laughing. And to think they were so worried about the cows not having food for two days at first….I also have to bring up Meg. She also grew a lot in this series. Her friendship with Apollo was everything. I could read whole books about the two of them just being annoyed with each other.

I feel like there was a bit of a setup for another series in this book. I’m not sure, but when a prophecy is involved with another character, I feel like that’s Rick Riordan saying, prepare now for this character to have a series….I guess we will see? I guess I’m all for it. It will definitely be much darker than the past books. I’ll miss the humor of Apollo for sure. But, I was totally happy with this ending. I loved this book. I loved this series. It was definitely my favorite so far. I give it a 10/10.