The Sun and the Star: A Nico di Angelo Adventure

Will is a co-protagonist of the novel, along with his boyfriend, Nico. While Nico is initially characterized by his relationship to darkness, Will is associated with light and the sun. His last name, “Solace,” refers to comfort in a time of distress—this is the role Will plays in Nico’s life. The beginning of his last name, “Sol,” is the Latin and Spanish word for “sun,” a reference to his father’s power.

Will’s father is Apollo, the Greek god of sun, light, healing, prophecy, the intellect, and more. Will inherited his father’s healing ability; Will heals injured demigods in the aftermath of their deadly battles by singing his father’s Greek hymns or songs his mother wrote. His mother, Naomi, is a famous alt-country singer. She and Will have a close relationship and he toured with her when he was younger. Will literally and figuratively “radiated light and energy” (5). His smile is brilliant, he has bushy blond hair, and Nico often describes Will as being backlit or enrobed in sunlight. One of Will’s powers is the ability to emanate light, resulting in Nico nicknaming him “Night Light” and “glow-in-the-dark boyfriend” (128). While fighting Epiales, Will discovers the ability to shoot a beam of light, which earns him the nickname “Demigod Carebear.”

Since Will gets so many of his powers from light and the sun, he physically and emotionally suffers in the Underworld more than Nico. Immediately after entering the Underworld, Will begins to lose his strength. In less than a day, he grows confused and disoriented, forgetting why they are there and what they are doing until Nico reminds him. Though Will experiences real ill effects in the Underworld, he also has some unfair prejudices against Nico’s second home. He tells Nico he doesn’t know how anyone can live there and pokes fun at the troglodytes’ food, forcing Nico to remind him that the food they are served is “a delicacy among trogs” (136).

Will starts the novel thinking Nico’s “darkness was something to be conquered or healed” (431), seeing it as his role to heal Nico with his light. In Persephone’s Garden, Will realizes that “darkness and life could coexist” (236). This realization is spurred by his growing appreciation of the trogs, seeing Menoetes’ nectar grove, and seeing Nico embrace his light, all of which inspires Will to “find a little darkness within” himself (411). He stops pushing away negative emotions like anger, loneliness, and jealousy, and realizes “it’s better to learn to live with the darkness” (431). He realizes he is more complex than he initially gave himself credit for. He also realizes that while he is right to want to take care of Nico, he has “to do a better job of figuring out how to take care” of him (431), instead of projecting his assumptions onto Nico.

Gorgyra is a key secondary character. Will and Nico meet Gorgyra at the edge of the Underworld, just before the Acheron falls into Tartarus. She is a nymph with blonde hair, light blue skin, and indigo lips. Her husband was the river spirit Acheron, but he eventually “lost his physical form and his sense of self” (275) due to the time he spent absorbing the pain of the lost souls the river contains. Gorgyra helps the river’s lonely souls by saving them from the water and sewing them into her dress, uniting them with the other lonely souls there.

She is drawn to tales of romance, drama, and emotion. In the novel’s flash forwards, she prompts Nico and Will to tell her stories about their relationship in exchange for the use of her boat. She craves stores that will help her “feel the texture of the world again” (279), but she also knows that Nico and Will need the strength these positive memories will give them to survive in Tartarus when they leave her.

She thanks Will and Nico for “visit[ing] an old nymph […] offer[ing] me kindness” and showing her “that love and companionship still exist in the mortal world” (284). Their treatment of Gorgyra relates to Accepting Yourself and Others. Gorgyra, along with Bob and the trogs, show how many creatures are sidelined or forgotten as the gods and demigods fight their flashy battles to save the world. Remembering Gorgyra, spending time with her, and offering her kindness makes her hopeful again.

Bob the Titan, formerly known as Iapetus, is a key secondary character. Though he is only present for the last portion of the novel, Nico and Will’s quest to rescue him from Tartarus drives the plot of the novel. In Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Iapetus fought with Kronos against Percy and Nico. Percy dragged Iapetus into the River Lethe, which wiped his memories of his identity as Iapetus. From then on, he was known as Bob and assisted demigods when he could. Bob regains memories of his past life in The House of Hades and regrets what he did as Iapetus. He makes friends with a spartoi in the form of a cat, whom he names Small Bob. Bob and Small Bob sacrifice themselves by jumping in to fight and distract Tartarus while Percy and Annabeth escape, saving their lives.

Bob is characterized by his ability to change. Nyx, who hates change, imprisons him to force him to become Iapetus again. She tries to use his past against him and convince him that he cannot escape his identity. Nyx does not anticipate that Bob does not want to run from his past, but to use it to change his future: “I can never stop being a Titan. It is a piece of my past […] But what Nyx does not know is that it is possible to change” (400). Bob’s acceptance of his past inspires Nico to accept his demons and darkness after he is confronted with his Cocoa Puffs.

At the end of the novel, Bob and Small Bob aren’t sure where their new destination is but are glad to “have choices when I used to have none” (448). While they do not know where life will take them, it’s important to have the freedom to choose your future.