The Tower of Nero : The Trials of Apollo #5 by Rich Riordan - Book Review

"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."

I'll admit I skimmed through some of it. Okay, maybe a lot of it. But that doesn't mean I hated it. The author's writing style is really compelling and it's fun to read about how he gets all his characters out of seemingly impossible situations. Apollo's fight with Python was kept pretty short, and I liked that. It was convenient how he found a chasm to Chaos and pushed Python in without falling in himself, but most fights are like that.

Just in case I haven't said this enough times already- all the haiku are amazing and hilarious. I had been impatient to finish this book, but now I'm a little sad that I can read no more of the Arrow of Dodona's Shakespearean lingo or Apollo complaining about his Lesterized self. It is also fun when the author makes fun of the names created by himself. Dionysus called Luguselwa something along the lines of "Lulugaga" when he first heard it. Meg was also shown to forget names often, which gave the story a sense of reality.

All the characters in this book felt a little less important than they had in the others, but it made sense that the author wanted to focus on Apollo. All the demigods from the previous books in this series made an appearance here. I like how the author ends his books, with all the characters finding something nice for themselves, but also having some work ahead of them. It's not all good, but not all sadness either. Apollo was shown to have become more human, and he became less judgemental of other demigods. He also began to realise his past mistakes and that of the other Olympian Gods. Meg, too, matured some more and the bond between her and Apollo became stronger. 

I would have liked for the story to pick up faster in the beginning. The snake sprouting the prophecy and Apollo visiting Sally Jackson was happening then, but it didn't feel very important to the story. I was waiting for something of actual significance to happen, and that took some time. The rest of the book was great though.

There was an extra short story at the back in the book I read titled "Apollo Sings and Dances and Shoots People". I'm pretty sure I've read it before, but the author's blatant and hilarious criticism of the Gods' actions never gets old.

"Yo, snake!"
Python opened his eyes. "What do you want?"
"To sing you a song about my awesomeness!"
"Oh, please. Just kill me now."
"Okay!" Apollo drew his bow and shot the snake between the eyes. Then he sang a song about his awesomeness.

I'll definitely be reading anything else Rick Riordan writes.