Get your first look at Rick Riordan’s THE TRIALS OF APOLLO: THE HIDDEN ORACLE!
Rick Riordan may have his new Magnus Chase series based around the Norse gods out right now, but he’s still not ready to let go of the Greek gods quite yet!
While finishing up the Heroes of Olympus series, Riordan discovered a myth about the Greek god Apollo being turned into a mortal after angering his father, Zeus, and decided to build his newest series, The Trials of Apollo, on that legend!
Abandoned in New York City as an immortal named Lester, Apollo still has his fair share of gruesome enemies out to get him. That’s why the smarmy former god seeks out infamous demigod Percy Jackson to help him survive in the wild world of mortals in Book One, The Hidden Oracle!
USA Today has released the cover design and the first excerpt for the epic middle grade adventure. Check it out!
Excerpt:
We turned east on Eighty-second Street.
By the time we reached Second Avenue, the neighborhood started to look familiar — rows of low-rise apartment buildings, run-down hardware shops, convenience stores, and Indian restaurants. I knew that Percy Jackson lived around here somewhere, but my trips across the sky in the sun chariot had given me something of a Google Earth orientation. I wasn’t used to traveling at street level.
Also, in this mortal form, my flawless memory had become . . . flawed. Mortal fears and needs clouded my thoughts. I wanted to eat. I wanted to use the restroom. My body hurt. My clothes stank. I felt as if my brain had been stuffed with wet cotton. Honestly, how do you humans stand it?
After a few more blocks, a mixture of sleet and rain began to fall. Meg tried to catch the precipitation on her tongue, which I thought a very ineffective way to get a drink of dirty water. I shivered and concentrated on happy thoughts: the Bahamas, the Nine Muses in perfect harmony, the many horrible punishments I would visit on Cade and Mikey when I became a god again.
I still wondered about their boss, and how he had known where I would fall to earth. No mortal could’ve had that knowledge. In fact, the more I thought about it, I didn’t see how even a god (other than myself) could have foreseen the future so accurately. After all, I had been the god of prophecy, master of the Oracle of Delphi, distributor of the highest quality sneak previews of destiny for millennia.
Of course, I had no shortage of enemies. One of the natural consequences of being so awesome is that I attracted envy from all quarters. But I could only think of one adversary who might be able to tell the future. And if he came looking for me in my weakened state . . .
READ THE FULL EXCERPT AT USA TODAY!
The Trials of Apollo: The Hidden Oracle is out on May 3, 2016!
