Week 15- Apollo Ex Machina

So I finished The Dark Prophecy yesterday. I have to say, I was genuinely surprised by how dark the final battle ended up compared to other Riordan books. I mean, it wasn't super dark, but the precious fluffy griffin mom died!

Plus, Apollo kept bringing up the fact that she'd left behind a dad and unhatched egg.

I know that in The Last Olympian a bunch of people died, but most of them were unnamed, and for the ones who Percy knew, Rick actually described how and when they heroically died. Somehow I feel like that gave me closure. In griffin mom's case, Lester just finds her dead. It seems more sad when you don't know how she died except that Apollo wasn't there to help her.

Which, by the way, was very strange to me. I didn't understand why Apollo and Meg had to go off on their own mini-adventure (~ADVENTURE~) while everyone else was fighting Commode Man. I guess for tension? It just seemed odd to me how that worked time-wise. Maybe it would have been too long of a book otherwise.
By the way, I'm sorry if I switch between “Apollo” and “Lester”. Throughout the book, he seems to be having a serious identity issue, and other characters don't know what to call him either. It actually got worse as the book progressed, with the two personalities merging slowly. At the end of the battle, he even somehow showed his true godly formed. It was literally a Deus Ex Machina.
I'm still not sure how he did it, since he lost all of his powers, including archery and singing. It just seemed so out of place, like Rick went “well, this battle needs to end now, so I guess I'll just randomly give Lester his most godly power possible even though he couldn't even shoot straight in the last book!”

And that goes for Calypso, too. She randomly got magic powers again. The whole point was that the gods removed her powers. She didn't just get weaker and could build them up again; they were supposed to be gone forever. Uncle Rick, do you know what “consistent” means? Because with Calypso and Apollo's powers and Leo calling everyone “ese” and-- *dry heaves* “mAMaCIta”, I'm not sure you do.
Love you, Uncle Rick, but I feel like your books are slowly losing the charm they originally had for me. You're still hilarious, though.
Oh! I drew Lester, by the way. Just a simple one. Ta-da!

I guess I'll start a new book next week. I'd love to read the new Magnus Chase book, but I don't think I'll be able to get my hands on it.

See you on Tuesday~