Book Review: THE MARK OF ATHENA

Parents are always asking what they can do to help their children improve their English.


The answer is simple but difficult to put into practice. Read. Yes, just that one word answer. Reading is truly a very effective way of improving one's English, or any language for that matter. However, it is a sad fact of life that many pupils in Singapore do not have the luxury of time to read. But you know what? If improving your English is really important to you, then you would make sure you squeeze time out from your tight schedule to read. You don't have to read one book a day, just 20-30 minutes a day would be enough. But do make sure that you read with concentration. That means that after you put the book down, you should not only remember the main gist of what you have read but also also the words or phrases that you don't quite understand and then go and look them up in the dictionary or google them.


Another question that parents ask very frequently is what type of books they should borrow or purchase for their children. Hence, once a week, we would be putting out a book review. Along with the review we would also be putting up links that allow parents to purchase the reviewed book from Amazon. These are affiliate links and this blog would earn a fraction of the price of any book purchased. Our reviews will be balanced; we will not write rave reviews just to entice parents to purchase the books. Our main aim is to give parents an idea of what type of books are available to them and their children. Parents could of course opt to buy the books from Popular and most of the books that we review would be available from the library so if parents do not want to purchase the books, they could always borrow or reserve the book from the library.



Our inaugural book review will be The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan:

The Mark of Athena is the third book in Rick Riordan’s Heroes of Olympus series, detailing the adventures of seven demigods, a mix of Roman and Greek, as they try to stop the Earth Goddess Gaia and her giant children from destroying the world.

As with Riordan’s other books, The Mark of Athena is fast-paced and enjoyable, full of witty jokes and action. What I especially enjoyed was that there were a lot more challenges in this book than usual, challenges that seem impossible for the heroes to overcome at first, although they eventually do, and what I like best is that Rick Riordan writes the book such that, despite the incredible powers the heroes have, like lightning and water control, these powers are not enough to overcome their challenges. It takes all of them, working together against the enemy, to overcome these challenges. It sounds cheesy, but Riordan writes it in such a way that we’re fist-pumping at the heroes’ successes.

The characters’ relationships with one another are yet another reason to read this book. There are many rivalries amongst the characters, for example, Jason and Percy are both leaders – the former was the leader of the Roman camp while the latter was the leader of the Greek camp, hence there is much tension and rivalry between the two of them. However, while fighting against two giants they realize that the only way to overcome the giants is to combine their strengths instead of fighting alone, and that builds a bond of friendship and comradeship between them. I liked reading about how the initial tension between the demigods of the two camps gradually lessens and eventually developes into friendship as they experience more and more challenges and obstacles together.

Another thing I enjoyed is the cliffhanger ending that Riordan wrote: Percy and Annabeth being dragged into Tartarus (Hell in Greek mythology), and the remaining demigods swearing that they will find the Doors of Death and save their friends. It was sufficiently shocking – we have just read how Annabeth overcomes her challenges against Arachne – the maiden who excelled in weaving and was turned into a spider by Athena for her arrogance in her skill – when all of a sudden, she and Percy literally get dragged back into hell. What really touched me, however, was how Percy promises Annabeth that they wouldn’t be separated – readers of the previous books will know that they were separated for nearly eight months, during which they had no idea whether the other was alive – hence this promise is extremely touching, especially since this is the couple we are most invested in, as we have been reading about them since the previous series. Nevertheless, Riordan managed to end the book on a hopeful note, focusing on the determination of the remaining demigods to get their friends back. This ending is more than enough for us to anticipate the next book.

One flaw, however, is that there are far too many main characters in this story. In the previous series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the story focused mainly on Percy, and, occasionally, on Annabeth as the female lead. In the previous two books of this series, there were only three main characters in each, Piper, Leo and Jason in the first book, and Percy, Hazel and Frank in the second book. In this book, however, there are seven protagonists in total, and Riordan has to keep on switching between the point-of-views of all seven protagonists, which makes it extremely confusing for the reader, to say the least. Even worse – I actually forgot who the characters were. I had to keep on checking the previous books to refresh my memories on which demigods are of the Roman camp, and which demigods are of the Greek camp. This also makes it difficult for Riordan to flesh out all the characters. Out of the seven, only three of them remain with me – Percy and Annabeth, whom I am very familiar with from the first season, and Leo, because he’s the one who’s always making the stupid (or funny) comments. The other characters are forgettable because they either do not have very distinctive traits or are too similar to one another.

Nevertheless, The Mark of Athena is still a book worth reading – just make sure you check the name at the top of each chapter to ascertain the narrator of that particular chapter, and make sure you’re able to remember the names of all seven protagonists. 


Ratings: 3.5/5

Recommended for aged 11 and above