The Son of Neptune is a 2011 fantasy-adventure novel written by American author Rick Riordan, based on Greek and Roman mythology. It is the second book in The Heroes of Olympus series, preceded by The Lost Hero and followed by The Mark of Athena. The story follows the adventures of amnesiac Percy Jackson, a demigod son of Neptune also known as Poseidon, as he meets a camp of Roman demigods and goes to Alaska with his new friends Hazel Levesque and Frank Zhang to free the Greek god of death, Thanatos, and help save the world from Gaea, the earth goddess. The novel is narrated in third-person, switching between the points of view of Percy, Frank, and Hazel.
The book received mostly critical acclaim, won the Goodreads Choice Award in 2011, and appeared on several bestseller lists.
The Son of Neptune was first published in hardcover on October 4, 2011, by Disney-Hyperion with a cover designed by illustrator John Rocco. After an initial hardcover printing of three million copies, the book has since been released in paperback as well as an audiobook and e-book, and has been translated into 37 languages.
Development
In an interview by Scholastic with Vikram Sastry for The Lost Hero, Riordan was questioned about the whereabouts of Percy Jackson. The author hinted that the answer would be revealed as Jason's quest progressed. By the end of the book, he said that readers would have a good idea where the second book is going. On May 26, 2011, Riordan released both the cover art and the first chapter for The Son of Neptune confirming that Percy would play a role in the book.
On August 8, 2011, Rick Riordan released a video giving more information about the book and its characters. The video includes pictures of a black haired boy with a bow and arrow in his hands who is later revealed to be Frank Zhang, a blonde-haired boy holding a teddy bear later revealed as Octavian, a girl with black hair wearing gold armor and a purple cloak sitting on a throne flanked by a gold and a silver canine creature, both with red eyes, who was revealed on Rick Riordan's blog to be Reyna, and another girl riding a horse named Hazel Levesque. Along with this, two chapters were released prior to the book's launch: one was put on Riordan's website and another read out by Riordan on Percy's birthday, August 18.
Plot
10 months after Percy Jackson's defense of Mount Olympus in The Last Olympian, Percy finds himself alone and on the run from monsters in northern California without his memories. With the guidance of Lupa, the wolf-goddess and protector of ancient Rome, he makes his way to Camp Jupiter, a Roman demigod training camp and counterpart to the Greek demigods' Camp Half-Blood. Upon arriving, he is attacked by Gorgons — Stheno and Euryale — and successfully defends a disguised Juno and the camp with the help of the guards on duty. Having been protected by Percy during the attack, Juno announces Percy's arrival with approval, identifying him as a son of Neptune. Nobody knows that he is actually a son of the Greek god Poseidon. She tells him privately that he can only regain his memory by learning to be a hero again and successfully surviving the challenges he encounters at camp.
He quickly befriends Frank Zhang, son of Mars, and Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto. Frank is revealed to also be a distant descendant of Poseidon and his grandson the Argonaut Periclymenus with shapeshifting powers while Hazel died in the 1940s and was recently resurrected by her half-brother Nico di Angelo. He is introduced to the praetor of the camp, Reyna, and the augur Octavian, who quickly takes a disliking to Percy. Octavian tells Percy that the Book of Prophecies is missing. Being outcasts themselves at Camp Jupiter, Frank and Hazel empathize with Percy's outsider status and consider it their duty to help him adjust and acclimatize quickly to the camp's routines and leadership. But before any of them has a chance to gain their footing, they receive a prophecy from Mars, the Roman god of war, and are ordered to go on a quest to rescue Thanatos, the god of death, from the Giant Alcyoneus, who is hiding deep in Alaska. Over the course of the adventure, Hazel reveals that she was used to raise Alcyoneus in the 1940s, but she sacrificed herself to stop him, resulting in the Giant's rise being delayed by several decades.