| Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters Posted: The gods of old keep having kids. Hephaestus, Ares, Apollo, Hermes, Dionysus, Athena, Aphrodite, Hera, Artemis (who, technically is a virgin and doesn`t have any kids), Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon all have children roaming the earth, stirring up the order of things and trying to keep humans from destroying themselves. These demigods, or half bloods, congregate in a camp in New York called Half-Blood Hill, where the activities are run by Chiron (the trainer of Hercules) and Mr. D, the infamous Dionysus, who is serving a sentence of sobriety for chasing after the wrong wood nymph.
The thing is that three of these gods should not be siring any more children. Since the debacle of World War II Hades, Zeus, and Poseidon have sworn an oath on the river Styx that they would not father any more children, seeing as how their children are infinitely more powerful than the other gods. All but one has broken this oath, and one of the offspring to be born from Poseidon's dalliance is Percy Jackson (Perseus).
Percy, known to many reader's from the first book "The Lightning Thief" is adjusting to the fact that he is the son of Poseidon, the Sea God. His Mother has sent him to a progressive school for troubled kids, Meriweather College Prep. Here he has befriended the school's charity case for the year, an overgrown teenager who happens to be homeless, named Tyson. Tyson has gotten Percy into many scrapes this year because of his sensitivity, his brute force, and his ability to break down into convulsive sobbing.... Everything is going fine until a game of dodge ball one gym class turns into a fight for their lives as Percy and Tyson realize they are up against a race of cannibals called the Laistrygonians, and they are saved by none other than Annabeth, daughter of Athena and friend of Percy's from Half-Blood Hill. She takes them to the camp where all Hades has broken loose.
For one thing the protective barrier of the camp is weakening thanks to a the Pine tree of Thalia. Thalia is the daughter of Zeus, a half blood who some years before had been changed into the tree to protect the others from certain demise. Now the tree has been poisoned and the activities director, Chiron, has been fired because of this. In his place is a starving man named Tantalus who sees Percy as nothing more than a puffed up brat. Even when Percy reveals that he has been having dreams of his satyr friend Grover and how his quest has led him into a perilous place, the Sea of Monsters, Tantalus does nothing to help Percy save him. In fact when it is revealed that the legendary Golden Fleece is on the same island as Grover Tantalus assigns Clarisse to quest for it before Percy. It is believed that the retrieval of the Golden Fleece will save the camp, but Percy is more concerned that his friend Grover may end up as a meal for the cyclops, Polyphemus, and wants to rescue him. Together with Annabeth, Tyson, and some aid of the gods the three set off into the unknown, and learn a few new secrets along the way.
This is a fantastic sequel to "The Lightning Thief". Percy Jackson is simply the fantasy character to watch in the next few years. This book has everything in it one can wish for. The characters are deep and flawed, the quest is compelling, the drama oozes on every page. I found that this was a compulsively readable book, one that I had a difficult time putting down in the three days it took me to read it. I marveled at the introduction of Tyson, because he is such a sweet and sympathetic character, and the connection between him and Percy is just a great touch. The mythos surrounding Thalia heats up in this book too, and I am aghast at the role she will seem to play in the following books. Even the emergence of Luke as a villain is perfect, as he is the ideal character to have as a rival, and Kronos is a nemesis to be feared in the future. My biggest gripe is that the cliffhangers, the introductions of new characters (and the implications of said characters and prophecies surrounding them) will make it very difficult for me to wait for the next book to be published... this is, for all accounts, my "Harry Potter" series that I would wait in line at midnight for. I am on pins and needles to see what Riordan dreams up next for Percy Jackson and the Olympians. |
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