A review by vader
The Burning Maze by Rick Riordan

adventurous funny sad tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This, I thought, was being human. Standing on the tarmac, watching mortals load the body of a friend and hero into the cargo hold, knowing that he would never be coming back. Saying goodbye to a grieving young woman who had done everything to help us, and knowing you could never repair her, never compensate her for all that she'd lost.

The Burning Maze is, by far, the most somber of the first three Trials of Apollo books. This is probably what makes it the best, with the stakes through the roof and a tone that leaves little room for an overabundance of witty one-liners.

If Riordan had learned anything about writing characters of color, this would have been a 5-stars novel. As it is, he still shows that his knowledge of the cultures of his non-white cast is shallow, if it's there at all, and he's not heeded any of the criticism he's received.

In The Dark Prophecy, it was Leo who showed he still was a mass of latino stereotypes. This time around, it's Piper: still oversexualised, still a "mystic" native american. Still another stereotype.