The second title in Rick Riordan's Trials of Apollo series - set in the action-packed world of Percy Jackson. The god Apollo, cast down to earth and trapped in the form of a gawky teenage boy as punishment, must set off on the second of his harrowing (and hilarious) trials. He and his companions seek the ancient oracles - restoring them is the only way for Apollo to reclaim his place on Mount Olympus - but this is easier said than done. Somewhere...

How do you punish an immortal? By making him human. After angering his father Zeus, the god Apollo is cast down from Olympus. Weak and disoriented, he lands in New York City as a regular teenage boy. Now, without his godly powers, the four-thousand-year-old deity must learn to survive in the modern world until he can somehow find a way to regain Zeus's favor.

When the goddess Artemis disappears while hunting a rare, ancient monster, a group of her followers joins Percy and his friends in an attempt to find and rescue her before the winter solstice, when her influence is needed to sway the Olympian Council regarding the war with the Titans.

John Hayden, a death deity, takes seventeen-year-old Pierce Oliviera back to the Underworld against her will to keep her safe from the Furies, but her family is still at risk and she, herself, may never escape his captivity.

Think you know all there is to know about the god of the underworld? Listen well, mortal, as I tell you my tale. Marvel at the sorrow and death I weave into the world from my dark and terrifying kingdom. You've never known a Greek god like me, for…I AM HADES!

Think you know all there is to know about the queen of the gods? Listen well, mortal, as I tell you my tale. Marvel at my mightiness as I rule from my throne on Mount Olympus. You've never known a Greek goddess like me, for…I AM HERA!

Think you know all there is to know about the god of war? Listen well, mortal, as I tell you my tale. Marvel at my fearlessness as I move through the battlefield, felling enemies in my wake. You've never known a Greek god like me, for…I AM ARES!

My dear children, some of you have heard already of the old Greeks; and all of you, as you grow up, will hear more and more of them. Those of you who are boys will, perhaps, spend a great deal of time in reading Greek books; and the girls, though they may not learn Greek, will be sure to come across a great many stories taken from Greek history, and to see, I may say every day, things which we should not have had if it had not been for these old Greeks....

According to the Greek historian Herodotus, the fables were, written by a slave named Aesop, who lived in Ancient Greece during the 5th-century BCE. Aesop's fables and the Indian tradition as represented by the Buddhist Jataka Tales and the Hindu Panchatantra share about a dozen tales in common although often widely differing in detail. There is, therefore, some debate over whether the Greeks learned these fables from Indian storytellers or the other...

"Carrying her pail of milk upon her head, a milkmaid daydreams of what she will purchase once she sells the milk at market. But the milk is spilt before the maid can sell it, and thus readers learn the phrase "don't count your chickens before they're hatched.""--