The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan

In this latest foray into the demigod world, we find Apollo thrust off of Olympus after having pissed off Zeus over something he can't quite recall. He is, of course, a zitty teenager, because that's what's most humiliating to a god, not to mention you want your readers to identify with the hero. Apollo on Olympus is like that quarterback from your high school team who landed all the hot chicks and all the teachers seemed to fawn over and never seemed to notice the nerdy girl in glasses and braces peeking over her book as he strolled by looking all charming...or so I've heard...ahem...back to the review.

Apollo away from Olympus retains all the memories of his godliness. He knows he's the god of archery, poetry, music, divination, et cetera, but all the powers have left him. So he recalls being great, but can't quite deliver when the time comes. He meets a young girl who has some powers of her own, but there's something about those powers that seem a little suspicious. They make their way to Camp Halfblood where they have to go on a quest. And that's all I'm telling you.

Rick Riordan just continues to delight mythology fans. This is not unexpected. The man is building an empire on updating classical mythology and making it accessible to younger readers. He's clever that way. There will always be kids, and those kids will grow up and have kids, and the former kids will want to introduce the current kids to the books they loved as a child. So Harry Potter will never die. Neither will Percy Jackson, his cohorts, and the other demigods that inhabit his world.

But you don't need me to tell you that, do you?

Why mythology? Granted, I can't say I've got experience of all the mythologies that are out there. Greek and Roman are of course the best known, with maybe Egyptian and Norse following close behind. But I've read some others, and included folklore as well, and I can tell you, there are universal themes. They all have creation myths, of course, because the world had to come from somewhere. But several of them have flood myths, where humanity is wiped out and one last couple is spared and has to regenerate the species. But the psychological archetypes that we can still identify today are present there as well. Carl Jung's twelve main archetypes are:

1. The Innocent
2. The Orphan or the Regular Guy/Gal
3. The Hero
4. The Caregiver
5. The Explorer
6. The Rebel
7. The Lover
8. The Creator
9. The Jester
10. The Sage
11. The Magician
12. The Ruler

Look at that list. Even if you have only a passing knowledge of mythology, you can probably identify a character for almost every archetype. And if you read modern literature - whether it's chick lit, literary fiction, young adult, or some other type of genre - you can probably find a character that fits every archetype. More importantly, if you are a human in this world, you probably know a person that you can identify as fitting each of these archetypes.

And that is why mythology. It doesn't matter that it's thousands of years old. It is still us, here and now. And I find that beautiful.