The Dark Prophecy (Book #2 of The Trials of Apollo) by Rick Riordan

Synopsis :

Go west. Capture Apollo before he can find the next oracle.
If you cannot bring him to me alive, kill him. 

Those were the orders my old enemy Nero had given to Meg McCaffrey. But why would an ancient Roman emperor zero in on Indianapolis? And now that I have made it here (still in the embarrassing form of Lester Papadopoulos), where is Meg?

Meg, my demigod master, is a cantankerous street urchin. She betrayed me to Nero back at Camp Half-Blood. And while I'm mortal, she can order me to do anything . . . even kill myself. Despite all this, if I have a chance of prying her away from her villainous stepfather, I have to try.

But I'm new at this heroic-quest business, and my father, Zeus, stripped me of all my godly powers. Oh, the indignities and pain I have already suffered! Untold humiliation, impossible time limits, life-threatening danger . . . Shouldn't there be a reward at the end of each completed task? Not just more deadly quests?

I vow that if I ever regain my godhood, I will never again send a poor mortal on a quest. Unless it is really important. And unless I am sure the mortal can handle it. And unless I am pressed for time . . . or I really just don't feel like doing it myself. I will be much kinder and more generous than everyone is being to me—especially that sorceress Calypso. What does Leo see in her, anyway?


This is what I say :

Please bear with me as I go through this phase of demigods series in the universe of Percy Jackson and the rest of the Heroes of Olympus.  I am sure I will be over them shortly and move on to other genre in times to come. *fingers crossed*

The Dark Prophecy is the second book of the Trials of Apollo with The Hidden Oracle being the first book.  If you are not familiar with the Percy Jackson's universe of demigods, I really do not know if you will enjoy this series.  There are many references of people and incidents made on the previous series so you might find it confusing?  Or perhaps not as the story itself and the way the author writes are quite engaging.

However, if you have not read the first book of the series, then there's no point to read the rest as the stories are connected and needs to be read in the sequence of the books.

I enjoyed The Dark Prophecy better than The Hidden Oracle.  While The Hidden Oracle was good, I would say The Dark Prophecy is better. It's more engaging, captivating, funny and generally has more excitement.  Apollo still feels sorry for himself but at lease he moans less about being mortal than in the first book.  He also exercised his 'godly' power when situations call for it.  I think he has come to terms with his fate thus far.

There are new characters introduced in The Dark Prophecy and they are worth characters which might have their own spin-off in the future especially someone from a totally different godly parentage (like from the African nations) which is something to keep an eye on in the future.

Anyway, the next book/title is The Burning Maze and it won't be long before my review is up. :)