Instead of losing steam & becoming stale like many other sequels do, Riordan manages to once again offer an extremely fun, action-packed & heartwarming adventure in 'The Dark Prophecy' !
During the first book, Riordan briefly explored the meaning of mortality through the eyes of the now mortal Apollo. And during this sequel he doubles down! At this point I shouldn’t be surprised by how tastefully & effortlessly he manages to highlight deep philosophical aspects of humanity & society, while also making it accessible to his young audience. However, I was still impressed by how beautifully he handled themes of abuse, family & regret in this book. His talent to portray such mature topics to middle-grade readers will never cease to astonish me.
Besides the “heavy” stuff, this book is also filled with lots of the humor & fun action we’ve come to expect. Leo, Apollo & Calypso surprised me by being an incredibly fun trio. I would even say that Leo fits in better with them than he ever did Jason & Piper! Moreover, Riordan also introduces new interesting & diverse characters that along with Calypso offer new perspectives on how to manage losing ones immortality. We also get to see some old faces that will put your memory of the past series to the test!
The only fault I found in this book was that, like in ‘The Hidden Oracle’, there were some pacing issues. In plenty of occasions, action peak moments worthy of being the book’s main climax were followed by long "slow" scenes of exposition. This made it harder for me to stay engaged. However, this was but a small flaw within an astonishing book.
I would recommend this book to any fans of Riordan's previous work, mythology lovers & middle-grade readers. However, the previous books must be read first in order to understand this one.
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