News: Heroes of Olympus - The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

Nope... not a review just yet, just a little taster of what is to come next month. Many of you will already know that Rick Riordan has started a new series, the first book of which is due out on 12th October. For those of you who didn't know this and are now saying "yeah, yeah we already know..... it's based on the ancient Egyptian Gods abd it came out earlier this year" I am not talking about The Kane Chronicles, I am talking about his new Heroes of Olympus series. Yes... that Olympus. The Percy Jackson Olympus. It seems like Rick Riordan cannot stop writing at the moment, and now wants to take readers back into the world he created with his phenomenally successful Percy Jackson books.

The first book in the series is entitled The Lost Hero but you are unlikely to find any reviews of it before its release date as it is under a world-wide embargo. As a reviewer I find this sort of thing very exciting - I love the idea that everyone gets the chance to own a copy on the same day and I have fond memories of waiting in anticipation for the last few Harry Potter books, and not daring to turn the TV on during the day of release for fear of hearing spoilers. I also remember reading The Half-Blood Prince well into the early hours of a Monday morning so that none of my students at school could ruin things for me. If you want a sneaky peak at the first two chapters of The Lost Hero you can download them from here or alternatively see them online now at http://www.percyjackson.co.uk/, as well as finding out all sorts of other information about Rick and his fantastic books.

Despite being very busy writing Rick Riordan is also somehow finding the time to travel over to Britain for a book tour. I am very excited to have just bought a ticket to hear him speak in Winchester on 31st October as part of the Wessex Children's Book Festival (details can be found here), and he is also going to be making a public appearance to sign books at Waterstones in BlueWater on Saturday 6th November.

I am also very excited about an event called Rick Riordan: Virtually Live which is going to take place at 2pm on 2nd November. School, libraries and individuals can sign up now to register to watch a live webcast by Rick at http://www.rickriordanvirtuallylive.co.uk/ (some of you may remember Eoin Colfer taking part in something similar ealier this year). I hope many schools across the country (and possibly further afield) will take the time to register for this and allow some of their students to watch it and submit questions for Rick to answer.

Of course, when the book is released there will definitely be a review posted on The Book Zone as soon as I have read it so please watch this space.