The Lost Hero and The Son of Neptune are both very good although very different but where characters are concerned they both follow the same formula: heroic male lead, slightly-too-perfect-and-somewhat-irritating supporting heroine with a tragic backstory and a well-rounded ethnic supporting male with a dead mum and the coolest powers available.
The Pros:
The Heroes of Olympus series provides some exposition on gods who had a bad rapport or weren't really important like Aphrodite, Ares/Mars and Hades/Pluto while the gods that were front and center in the original series faded into the background. I like that.
If you've been following Riordan's books you know that he eats foreshadowing and dramatic irony for breakfast. While still prominent in The Lost Hero, it's somewhat less heavy-handed in The Son of Neptune. Somewhat.
An exciting change of setting for people looking from a break from Camp Half-Blood.
If you're a fan of such things you've probably noticed that the books follow the classical Greco-Roman story tradition present in the Odyssey and the Aeneid.
Romans are cool and the book captures some important archetypes of Roman politics like the stately praetor Reyna or the duplicitous augur Octavian.
The the next book in the series promises to take the readers beyond the boundaries of North America, and it's about time too.
The battle scenes are spectacular!
The Cons:
Some characters (I'm looking at you Piper and Hazel) are not as developed as I'd have like and are sort of annoying.
This series is aiming to be more dramatic by using a few lesser-known mythological figures to throw the readers for a loop. Even so you may still see a few of the plot twists coming.
Follows the same formula as the Olympians series. I'm not sure that's a bad thing or not.
And did I mention Romans are cool? Seriously, these guys are hardcore.
Optimus Maximus!
The Lost Hero and The Son of Neptune are both very good although very different but where characters are concerned they both follow the same formula: heroic male lead, slightly-too-perfect-and-somewhat-irritating supporting heroine with a tragic backstory and a well-rounded ethnic supporting male with a dead mum and the coolest powers available.
The Pros:
The Cons:
And did I mention Romans are cool? Seriously, these guys are hardcore.