Taking a break from saving the world to grow up

Almost immediately after I finished rereading The Heroes of Olympus series, I read the Chalice of the Gods, the first in a new Percy Jackson trilogy. This wasn’t actually intentional. I had put a hold on the book a few months ago and the timing was just a funny coincidence.

That being said, holy Poisdien, what a contrast,

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Seriously, I’m going to be taking about the ending

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The book is less than a year old, stop now if you don’t want it spoiled

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And I thought that the Trials of Apollo were a big shift from the Heroes of Olympus, the Chalice of the Gods is almost the diametric opposite of Heroes. While Heroes is a globe-trotting epic with the biggest cast of any of Riordan’s series, Chalice never leaves New York state (other than Poseidon’s undersea castle) and goes back to just Percy, Annabelle and Grover.

However, Chalice isn’t just some sort of return to form. Instead, with the conflict being Percy getting divine reference letters so he can go to New Rome University with Annabelle, it’s a more reflective work. It’s less a callback and more a mediation of how Percy and company are becoming grownups.

This comes to a blatant but surprisingly satisfying point when Percy has to wrestle with Geras, the god of old age. Percy can’t win but he is able to resolve the conflict by accepting the inevitability of growing old, with the implied goal dying havinbfg lived a full life.

The smaller scale of Chalice, Percy working on becoming a grownup instead of saving the world, was charming and effective. Instead of going bigger, Riordan reminds us why we care about Percy and his friends. 

There are still two more books scheduled to address Percy’s quest for letters of recommendation. There’s still time for the entire world to be in danger. But I’m hoping it stays cozy.