The House of Hades recap

The story follows two paths. Below, Percy and Annabeth struggle across Tartarus toward the underside of the Doors of Death, surviving on nerve and each other, and are aided by a gentle, memory-clouded Titan named Bob and a lonely giant, Damasen. Above, the crew of the Argo II, Jason, Piper, Leo, Hazel, Frank, Nico, and Coach Hedge, sails to the House of Hades in Greece to close the Doors from the mortal side so their friends can escape and Gaea's forces can be shut out. Along the way each hero grows: Hazel learns to bend the mist and work magic, Frank comes fully into his strength, Leo is stranded on a hidden island and meets and falls for the sorceress Calypso, and Nico wrestles with secrets of his own. The two groups fight through to the Doors at the same moment; with sacrifices from their underworld allies, Percy and Annabeth escape Tartarus and the Doors are sealed. All seven are reunited, but Gaea's rising nears its climax, and Nico, Reyna, and Coach Hedge set out on a separate mission to carry the Athena Parthenos statue home and stop a war between the Greek and Roman camps.

Previously: Seven demigods, Greek and Roman, were prophesied to stop the primordial earth goddess Gaea, who is waking and raising the giants. After the goddess Hera swapped heroes to force the two long-separated camps together, the Greek hero Percy Jackson, son of the sea god, and the Roman newcomers Hazel and Frank joined the sky god's son Jason and the new demigods Piper and Leo. Aboard the flying warship Argo II they sailed for the ancient lands to close the Doors of Death, the passage that lets Gaea's slain monsters return. Reaching Rome, Annabeth, daughter of Athena, recovered a lost statue meant to reconcile the camps, but in the process she and Percy fell together into Tartarus, the abyss beneath the underworld. As this book opens, the couple is trapped below, trying to reach the underside of the Doors, while their friends sail on toward the House of Hades in Greece to close the Doors from the mortal side and bring them home.

Both journeys converge on the House of Hades in the Greek region of Epirus. In Tartarus, Percy and Annabeth reach the Doors of Death with the help of the kindly Titan Bob and the giant Damasen, who give their lives so the two demigods can pass through, and the couple emerges battered but alive on the mortal side. There the rest of the crew has fought its way to the same place, and together they seal the Doors of Death, cutting off Gaea's endless supply of revived monsters. Along the way the heroes have grown stronger and closer: Hazel has mastered a magic of illusion, Frank has come into his full power, and Leo, briefly cast away on the hidden island of Ogygia, has fallen in love with the immortal Calypso and sworn to return and free her. With the Doors closed and all seven reunited, the crew turns toward Athens, where Gaea intends to wake fully and where the giants plan to make their final stand. To keep the Greek and Roman camps from destroying each other in the meantime, Nico di Angelo, the Roman leader Reyna, and Coach Hedge take on the dangerous task of carrying the Athena Parthenos statue across the world to Camp Half-Blood as a token of peace. The book ends with the two efforts underway: the ship racing to Athens for the reckoning with Gaea, and the statue's bearers setting out to prevent a war between the camps.