The Last Olympian

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The Last Olympian
Author	Rick Riordan
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Percy Jackson and the Olympians (Book 5)
Genre(s)	Fantasy novel Greek Mythology Young Adult
Publisher	Disney Hyperion
Publication date	May 5, 2009
Media type	print (hardback & large print), audiobook
Pages	381
ISBN	1423101472
OCLC	299578184
Preceded by	The Battle of the Labyrinth

The Last Olympian is a novel by Rick Riordan published on May 5, 2009.^[1] It is the fifth and final installment in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and serves as the direct sequel to The Battle of the Labyrinth.^[1]The Last Olympian revolves around the demigod Perseus Jackson as he leads his friends into a last stand to protect Mount Olympus. The book received many positive reviews.

Contents 1 Plot summary 2 Critical Reception 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Plot summary

The plot summary in this article is too long or detailed compared to the rest of the content. Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot. (May 2009)

Percy Jackson and his friend Rachel Dare drive to a ridge overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and she reveals that her father is sending her to Clarion Ladies Academy and that she wants Percy to go with her on vacation. Blackjack, a pegasus and Charles Beckendorf, a fellow camper and son of Hephaestus, interrupt by landing on the hood of the car. Beckendorf announces that it is time for Percy to help him sink the Princess Andromeda, a cruise ship filled with monsters. They sneak onto the ship and put Greek fire explosives in the engine room. Percy, thinking the ship has been alerted, leaves the room to distract the monsters on the ship, telling Beckendorf to meet him at a certain point on the ship.

Percy is confronted by Lord Kronos, who reveals that Beckendorf has been captured. While on board, Beckendorf sets off the explosives and dies while Percy escapes from the ship and passes out in the ocean from the resulting burns. He is also in extreme pain after being grazed by Kronos' scythe, rumored to be able to cut one's soul away.

Percy has a vision as he drifts unconscious through the ocean; his vision takes place on Mount Othrys during a conversation between Krios and Hyperion. In the vision, the two Titans talk of their plans to destroy Mount Olympus. After they are done conversing, Percy hears Nico di Angelo's voice. It tells him to follow the plan that they discussed the previous summer. As Percy wakes up, he realizes that he is in Poseidon's undersea palace and is being tended to by his half-brother, Tyson. Tyson leads Percy to Poseidon's throne room, where Percy meets Poseidon's wife and son, both of whom receive him coldly. Poseidon then tells Percy that, although he is battling Oceanus, Percy should return to Camp Half-Blood to fully hear the Great Prophecy.^[2]

Returning to Camp Half-Blood, Percy and Annabeth retrieve the prophecy from the Oracle's necklace and bring it before the camp's war council. Percy reads the prophecy, discovering that he is doomed to die regardless of which side he chooses to serve. Then Clarisse, angered that the Apollo cabin has claimed a flying chariot that the Ares cabin helped acquire, decides that her cabin and Ares will not support the war. Percy, with the help of Chiron, also discovers that Typhon has escaped his god-made prison and is heading toward the unguarded Mount Olympus to destroy the gods' domain. Percy and the other counselors of the camp decide they need to concentrate on defending Olympus.

The night following the meeting, Percy dreams of Rachel. In his dream, Rachel looks over two pictures she has recently drawn based on dreams. The first is a picture of nine-year-old Luke, and the second is a picture of Percy standing up on Mount Olympus surrounded by lightning and Kronos' army. The next day, Percy and Annabeth inspect the cabins and review reports sent to Chiron. One reveals that Grover has disappeared without a trace. Also, the empathy link that he and Percy shares is weakening.

Needing a break, Percy wanders to the training arena to visit Mrs. O'Leary, a Hellhound. When he arrives there, Mrs. O'Leary runs into the forest, causing Percy to chase after her. He follows her to the clearing where the nature gods of the forest hold their meetings. There, Percy finds Nico, Leneus, one of the Council of Cloven Elders members, and Grover's girlfriend Juniper discussing Grover's well being. Leneus initially refuses to help Grover, but is then forced into doing so by Percy. Leneus leaves to find Grover, and Juniper leaves when Mrs. O'Leary begins to sniff her (since she's part tree). When Nico and Percy are alone, Percy decides to carry out Nico's plan. Together, they shadow travel to the house of Luke's mother, May Castellan, to discover Luke's past. They get there on Mrs. O'Leary, who performs shadow traveling. Nico reveals that he can also do this, but it greatly drains his energy.

Percy and Nico arrive at Ms. Castellan's house to find that she is in a psychotic state. She greets the two boys as if they are the younger Luke that she remembers and invites them to lunch. Percy discovers that Luke ran away in order to protect his mother and asked for his mother's blessing before turning his soul over to the Titans. Having the information they came for, Nico and Percy try to leave, but are stopped by Luke's mother. Her eyes glow green and she begins speaking (in a deeper voice) about her son's fate. Disturbed and frightened, Percy and Nico run from the house to find that Mrs. O Leary has been approached by the goddess Hestia. Hestia feeds the boys and then tells Percy that no matter what side he chooses, he must remember her because she is the last Olympian. She goes on to explain that while all the Olympians are gone, she is the only hope for Olympus and that all must remember her when they fight. Hestia then sends Percy and Nico to Percy's house.

At home, Percy and Nico are greeted by his mom and Paul, who finally believes that Percy is a half-blood. Percy and Nico tell her of their plan and she reluctantly gives Percy her blessing, agreeing that he will signal her with blue if he survives the war. Ready to carry out the plan, Nico and Percy travel to Central Park to reach the Underworld.

When Percy and Nico arrive at Central Park, Nico tells Percy that they will need music to enter the Underworld from that entrance. Suddenly, Percy feels Grover's presence and uses his empathy link to rouse Grover from a deep sleep. Grover falls out of a tree near Percy and Nico. He explains that he was spreading the news about Pan's death and recruiting fighters when he saw a strange man walking through Central Park. When Grover went to confront the man, whose presence seemed to be causing everyone around him to fall asleep, he turned his powers on Grover. After Grover's story, Nico says that Grover had encountered Morpheus and that his presence meant that the invasion was coming sooner than expected. Grover then plays a song to open the gate to the Underworld before leaving to tell Juniper that he is alive.

Traveling into the Underworld, Nico hands Percy over to the Furies including Alecto, who posed as Mrs. Dodds in The Lightning Thief. When Percy realizes that he has been tricked, he gets angry at Nico but the Furies throw his sword off a cliff, leaving him defenseless. Nico explains that his father had promised him information on his past if he turned in Percy. Upon arriving in Hades' throne room, Percy, Nico and Hades are joined by Persephone and her mother Demeter. As a reward, Hades reveals that he sent Nico and his sister to the Lotus Casino to protect them and so that they would never age until he summoned them, and that the lawyer who collected them was Alecto (Mrs.Dodds). Hades promised that he planned to not help out in the fight for Olympus and then after the Titans took over, strike their weakened forces. He then sends off Nico and takes Percy captive.

Percy ends up having a nightmare and wakes up to find Nico in his cell. The two of them escape on Mrs. O'Leary to the River Styx. Percy meets Achilles, who warns him against bathing in the river and mentions that he gave Luke a similar warning. However, Percy bathes in the searingly cold and painful Styx to become nearly invincible (his only weakness is the small of his back), remembering Annabeth to prevent his soul from separating from his body. When Percy is done, he is attacked by Hades' minions and Hades himself. Percy escapes, after defeating the army, telling Nico to stay and convince Hades to fight.

Percy travels to the Empire State Building, meeting up with some other campers and tells the group of his plan to get Zeus to defend Mount Olympus. They head to the 600th floor of the Empire State Building (Mount Olympus) and find the throne room empty except for Hestia, who is still tending the fire. She sends Percy a vision of the day Luke and Thalia found Annabeth. The vision shows Luke giving Annabeth the knife she still uses, and when Luke met his dad, Hermes, for the first time. As the vision ends, Hermes arrives to relay a message from Athena for Percy to stay away from Annabeth. She and Percy go outside to find that all of the mortals in New York have fallen asleep because of Morpheus.

Percy figures out that the invasion will start, so he sends troops out to all entrances. Annabeth executes Deadalus' twenty-third plan (which she discovered on his laptop) to wake up the automatons disguised as statues outside Manhattan to protect Olympus. Percy goes to meet the Hudson and East river gods, who ignore him at first, but then agree to help him prevent Kronos' water invasion in exchange for Percy's sand dollar, which can clear up their pollution. Percy splits the sand dollar in half and agrees to the deal. Percy and Annabeth head toward a group of campers who are battling a section of Kronos' army that is led by the Minotaur that Percy defeated nearly four years ago. The battle, which mimics the events of the Trojan War, commences.

The Minotaur is killed by Percy, who is nearly indestructible (due to his bath in the Styx) and able to kill most of the monsters. Ethan Nakamura shows up as part of the reinforcements and, attempting to stab Percy's weak spot (i.e. his back), stabs Annabeth, who jumps in front to protect Percy, in the shoulder. Blackjack takes Annabeth away, and Kronos shows up and begins to cross the bridge. However, he is stymied when Percy floods and destroys it. Michael Yew, the new head of the Apollo cabin, disappears with the bridge and is later revealed to be dead. Percy then receives a phone call from Silena Beauregard, leader of the Aphrodite cabin, saying that Annebeth is hurt.

When Percy arrives, one of Apollo's sons, Will Solace, tries to heal Annabeth. Silena decides that since she is no good at fighting, she should go and try to convince Clarisse to bring the Ares cabin and fight. Grover shows up, telling Percy that he convinced some nature spirits to fight; Thalia also brings the Hunters of Artemis to fight. Percy dreams of Nico, who is trying to make contact with his dead mother, Maria di Angelo. Bianca comes and tries to convince him not to; however Nico ignores her and finds a horrible memory of his early childhood in which his mother is killed by Zeus. Grief-stricken and enraged that Maria was killed because of the Great Prophecy, Hades blames the young Oracle and curses her: she will never be able to take another mortal form and will instead rot away. Then Percy dreams of Rachel at a beach in St. Thomas, who writes his name in Ancient Greek in the sand. She then convinces her dad to take her home because she believes Percy is in danger. In return, she promises her father that she will attend finishing school. Percy is then woken by Thalia, who says a Titan wants to speak with him.

The Titan, who is accompanied by an empousa and Ethan Nakamura, turns out to be Prometheus. He tries to get Percy to believe there is no hope of Percy beating Kronos but does not succeed. He then gives him Pandora's pithos (meaning jar, not box), which contains Hope, and instructs him to use it as a signal of surrender if need be. Percy then has a vision of Luke talking with Hermes when he was on the run with Thalia and Annabeth.

Percy soon dreams of Poseidon's palace and Tyson fighting, and the monsters staying at Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium (where he killed Medusa). Kronos is suspicious of Percy's weak spot and interrogates Ethan Nakamura; however, Ethan says that he cannot remember. Following this is another vision of how May Castellan came to be delirious--by trying to take the old Oracle's power. Seeing the cursed Oracle's visions of Luke's future, Mrs. Castellan went somewhat insane.

When Percy wakes, a full-scale battle is going on. He rushes outside and attacks Hyperion, one of the Titans. Eventually he wins, and the satyrs turn the titan into a maple tree. Just as Percy finishes, a winged sow soars through New York. Percy wakes up some automatons and instructs them to attack it.

With the pig destroyed, Percy heads back to a losing army. However, his spirits are lifted by the appearance of Chiron's cousins, the Party Ponies. After the invading army retreats, Percy learns that the gods are losing, and that Hephaestus and Dionysus are injured and missing. A helicopter appears with Rachel in it. However, Morpheus' sleeping spell has affected the pilot, so Annabeth saves Rachel's life by landing the helicopter.

Rachel tells Percy that she had a vision that Percy is not the hero mentioned in the Great Prophecy. Percy later dreams of the Underworld, where Nico tries to persuade Hades to help with the war. Hades refuses, and Percy starts to dream about the United Nations complex, which Kronos and his army are occupying. There, Kronos reveals that he will not hold Luke's form forever. Kronos interrogates Ethan about Percy's weak spot, but Ethan denies his knowledge. Percy wakes up and finds that a massive Lydian drakon is attacking them, and Rachel tells them that a child of Ares will kill it. Suddenly, Clarisse appears, leading the Ares kids into battle. It is quickly revealed that this girl is not actually Clarisse, showing fear and having blue eyes. After the drakon spits poison in the girl's face, she is revealed to be Silena Beauregard as she dies. Silena disguised as Clarisse to inspire the Ares cabin to fight. The real Clarisse quickly slays the drakon in a frenzied rage.

Silena, who is dying from her attack on the drakon, reveals that she was Kronos' spy. Luke had been kind to her and had manipulated her into thinking that Kronos would not harm Beckendorf. He later threatened to tell the other campers that she was the spy. However, he broke his promise by harming Beckendorf, eventually getting him killed; Silena had lost faith in him and felt guilty for betraying the camp. She soon dies, thinking of Beckendorf. Clarisse, enraged, then decides to kill Kronos and goes on a killing spree against his army. Percy arrives at Olympus and runs into Hestia. Rachel speaks with Hestia about her fate and tells Percy that their destinies are not entwined, cryptically mentioning her "calling." When Hestia asks about Pandora's Box, Percy considers surrender. He then decides to leave the box with Hestia, proclaiming that Hope survives best at the hearth. Hestia supports this decision.

Percy then goes to the throne room and sits on Poseidon's throne to attract his attention, eventually convincing his father to leave his underwater palace and help Olympus. Suddenly, Thalia bursts in and tells Percy to come back down. At the base of the building, they find the campers, Hunters, and Party Ponies all slaughtered in a surprise attack by Kronos. Chiron is the only one in fighting shape. When Chiron attempts to stab Kronos, Kronos uses a wall of sheer force to push Chiron back. Chiron slams into a building and disappears under a pile of debris.

Nico and Mrs. O'Leary appear to assist in the battle against Kronos. As they fight, it becomes more and more clear that Kronos is struggling to control Luke's mind. Hades, Demeter, and Persephone appear along with Nico to fight, but Kronos is not affected by their arrival and tries to cut off Olympus from America. Percy's mother and Paul Blofis, now awake, try to keep the armies away. Paul stabs a Dracaena, revealing that he was a Shakespearean actor in college and still remembers some swordplay; this increases Percy's respect for him.

As Percy runs to the palace, Thalia is pinned down by a statue and is unable to move. Percy confronts Kronos and convinces Ethan that siding with Kronos is not the balance that his mother Nemesis intended--Kronos only destroys. Ethan attacks Kronos and, stabbed with a shard of his own sword, which shatters upon hitting Kronos, dies in the process. Percy continually attacks Kronos as he watches Typhon's rampage. Poseidon arrives to fight Typhon and, aided by the Cyclopes, the gods defeat Typhon and imprison him in Tartarus. This serves as a sign to Percy that the gods are on their way to Olympus. Annabeth reminds Luke that he promised not to let her get hurt years ago. Slowly, Luke overpowers Kronos just as he is beginning to destroy Luke's body. Percy eventually makes the choice that would end Luke's days--he trusts Luke enough to give him Annabeth's knife, the cursed blade. Luke stabs himself in his weak spot, underneath his left arm. As he lies dying, he asks Annabeth if she loved him, and she replies that she only loved him as a brother. He breathes that his last wish is that there will be no more unclaimed demigods, and Percy promises to make sure it won't happen again.

The Fates come to personally retrieve Luke's body, and he is given due honors as a hero and son of Hermes. The gods personally honor each hero, making the deceased Hunters achieve Elysium, promoting Tyson to a general of the Cyclopes, making Grover a member of the Council of Cloven Elders and a lord of the Wild, having Annabeth become the official architect for the redesigned Olympus, and eventually offering Percy the chance to become a god and achieve immortality. However, he declines so he can have a "normal" life with Annabeth and his friends as a regular human. The gods offer him a wish which, after making them swear on the River Styx, he reveals: the gods must recognize and claim every child they have by the age of thirteen, children of the minor gods and Hades will have a place at Camp Half Blood, and that no child will be abandoned or made to feel abandoned. The gods (somewhat reluctantly) agree.

Percy then finds out that Blackjack, his black pegasus, was taken by Rachel. Percy and Annabeth get a ride from Rainbow, the friendly hippocampus who befriended Percy's brother, Tyson. Both Percy and Annabeth arrive at Camp Half-Blood and discover that Rachel has flown over the magical barriers of the camp using Blackjack, which did not keep her out even though she is mortal. Rachel is in the attic of the Oracle, and has decided after talking with Chiron to transfer the Oracle's spirit into herself so that it will not die. Percy tries to stop her, thinking that Hades' curse is still in effect, but Chiron stops him. Apollo appears and performs the ceremony that transfers the Oracle's spirit to Rachel's body. Unexpectedly she makes a prophecy, recognized by Apollo as the next Great Prophecy. Although Annabeth and Percy worry about the prophecy's completion, Apollo says that the last one took seventy years to complete and this one may not even happen in their lifetime.

Later that night, funeral rites are conducted for all of the dead campers. Percy and Annabeth privately celebrate Percy's birthday, and Annabeth and Percy discuss why Percy denied Zeus's offer to make him a god. Percy hints that it was because he wanted to be close to Annabeth, and Annabeth kisses him. The campers, who were eavesdropping, interrupt this moment and carry Percy and Annabeth to the canoe lake, throwing them in as a practical joke. (Percy, however, continues kissing her in an underwater bubble he made with his powers).

Grover becomes a leader of the protection of the Wild, and a member of the Council of Cloven Elders, campers begin to be claimed, Hades and other gods receive their own cabins, and the number of campers increases exponentially. Annabeth and Chiron discuss the building of new cabins, and Percy witnesses the creation of the Hades cabin. Percy meets with Poseidon, who suggests that Percy may have some undiscovered siblings. On the last day of camp, Rachel prepares to go to finishing school, worried that she might spout prophecies there. Annabeth and Percy mull over Rachel's prophecy predicting future trouble, and conclude that for a demigod, life will never be peaceful. Annabeth then races Percy to the road and he runs after her, commenting that for once he doesn't look back.

[edit] Critical Reception

The Last Olympian received overwhelmingly positive reviews. Publishers Weekly wrote "...fans will not be disappointed"^[3] and remarked "As the capstone to this beloved series, this story satisfies".^[3] They praised Percy's "brave leadership"^[3] and said that "the final clash would keep a Hollywood special effects team busy for years"^[3]. Booklist's starred review commented that "...Riordan’s imagination soars in the climactic battle scenes"^[4] but said that he manages to "bring the whole series to a satisfying close in the down-to-earth conclusion".^[4] It also received starred reviews from Kirkus.^[5]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Percy Jackson official site
• Percy Jackson U.K. site
• The Last Olympian Starred Review

v • d • e Percy Jackson & The Olympians Characters Percy Jackson • Annabeth Chase • Tyson the Cyclops • Grover Underwood • Luke Castellan • Clarisse La Rue • Rachel Elizabeth Dare • Nico di Angelo • Thalia Grace Main Series The Lightning Thief (film) • The Sea of Monsters • The Titan's Curse • The Battle of the Labyrinth • The Last Olympian Companion books The Demigod Files (2009) • Demigods And Monsters Related content Rick Riordan