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What I really like about Percy Jackson though is Riordan’s ability to seamlessly include and explain a whole host of Greek characters and monsters without letting up either the fast pace or humourous tone to indulge in an unwelcome info-dump. They still don’t play a big part, but it’s nice to see that they’re being acknowledged and aren’t just props but characters in their own rights. Tyson and Tantalus are my absolute favourites of these, but I was really glad to see other campers being given names and a bit of personality as well – one of the things that bothered me in the first book was that Percy only seemed to interact with about three named half-bloods while he was at camp and the rest were simply nameless blobs on the sidelines. Both Percy and Annabeth feel a bit more fleshed out after a whole book getting to know them and a whole host of side characters have been introduced. The tone felt more in keeping with the idea of classical greek myth and epics than the previous book, which was Orpheus as a modern roadtrip with added monsters.Īlso an improvement in this book was the characterisation. It probably helped that Odysseus and Jason are probably my favourite heroes and that I’m a complete sucker for adventures set out at sea – and this book was heavily based on the Odyssey with Scylla and Charybdis, Circe, Polyphemus, and the Laestrygonians all making appearances. Here the things at risk are people and places both the reader and Percy are more familiar with, and I felt far more invested in Percy’s quest to save them than I did in the previous book. The stakes feel a lot higher and far more real than they did in The Lightning Thief with its rather generic threat of a war between the gods. If Percy and his friends can’t travel through the dangerous Sea of Monsters and get there in time Camp Half-Blood will be destroyed and Grover eaten by a sheep-loving monster. But the Fleece lies all the way across the mythical ‘Sea of Monsters’ and is currently in the possession of one of the worst of them all – the man-eating cyclops Polyphemus – who has captured Percy’s best friend Grover. Only the Golden Fleece can purge the poison from camp and renew its protections. The gods have blamed Percy’s mentor, Chiron, and replaced him with the wonderfully horrid Tantalus. Once there, however, things pick up.Ĭamp Half-Blood is no longer safe – somebody has poisoned the magical tree that protects the camp and monsters are breaching the barriers to attack.
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The first few chapters felt rather like a rehash of the start of The Lightening Thief: it’s the end of school year and Percy is unpopular and picked on because he’s befriended and defends the ‘weird’ guy – who inevitably turns out to be more than just a ‘weird’ guy – followed by a monster attack and a run to the safety of Camp Half-Blood. Picking up a year later after the events in the previous book it got off to a slow start. Graaaar! Where were these books all my childhood? Damn Rick Riordan for not writing these a decade earlier! To save their camp, Percy and his friends must embark on a quest that will take them into the treacherous Sea of Monsters and a desperate fight for their lives. And then Percy’s friend Annabeth brings more bad news: the magical borders that protect Camp Half-Blood have been poisoned, and the only safe haven for young demigods is under threat. But when a game of dodgeball turns into a death match against an ugly gang of cannibal giants, things get… well, ugly. Not a single monster has set foot in his New York school. Nobody called me ‘Perseus’ except those who knew my true identity. The way he said my name sent a chill down my back. Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan