This is the second installment of the book series Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan. First published in 2006 by Hyperion Books and is a YA Fantasy. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Jesse Bernstien, and older copy but still good enough to listen to.
Now, the book is a direct sequel from the first book and follows Percy Jackson the following summer when he returns to the camp with a new adventure in front of him, and a new half brother at his heels. His cyclops brother comes as a surprise and instill even more rage into Percy at his father who has ignored him ever since they met. Grover is gone and a new dream sent Percy on a quest to save him and the tree that protects the camp, which has been poisoned. Just one little problem, they are going to the sea of Monsters and he is not the one who is suppose to go but Clarisse, the daughter of Ares, and in many ways Percy’s rival.
In the background we have Luke and Chronos but otherwise this book follows a similar structure as the first book. They go on a quest and stumble upon monster after monster who has set traps for them. They have to fight and/or outsmart them as they go towards their goal.
Some old characters are back, such as Percy, Annabeth, Clarisse, Grover and so on with some new characters such as Tyson and Hermes thrown into the mix. I liked the new characters, though I don’t know if Tyson was meant to be depicted as a mentally handicapped boy but the narrated did his outmost to depict him as such. I also liked Hermes, an actual wise and kind god, and I do hope he shows up again.
The book is filled with action, and is fairly fast paced. The author is utterly incapable of letting a moment rest and the character feels. For example, when Percy grieves it is latterly just for two sentences then he is back on the road. What? A person he cared for is dead and he just went, I regret it, now where is that fleece?
I still adore the lore though and the author is clearly interested in Greek mythology, and the books are very much structured like Odyssey showing that the author most likely is a fan of Greek epics. But much like those, the emotional weight is not as heavily weighted in as the heroic moments.
I also noticed that there were some strange mistakes by the author making me wonder if he hasn’t edited this book. Such as, Percy saying that he recognized Annabeth’s father because he has seen a picture of him but he saw him and his family at the end of the first book when Annabeth said that they would try spending time again.
There was also a lot of unnecessary action sequences such as the chariot race after the final battle. Why was it there? I constantly thought throughout that scene, why isn’t the book ending? Because they shouted that Tyson helped them, couldn’t they have done that without a chariot race? That entire sequence could easily been taken out.
The story itself was fine, just more of the same as the first one. If you liked the first one and wanted more you got your wish. If you wanted something more or just different, then you are out of luck. Overall, this wasn’t able to catch my attention, I have gone through it and I will never do so again. Though I am not interested in action adventures. I want more emotion or just more lore. Something else, this didn’t give it to me.
I can’t say it was something bad though, just more of the same, which I wasn’t that interested in to begin with so I can only rate it a 6 out of 10. I wanted to rate it lower, would probably put it at a 4 or 5 if I just went for a personal rating but I prefer to give it a neutral one, or at least as neutral as I can put it. I can fully understand why some people would like this one but I’m in the wrong age, it focuses on the wrong things to keep me invested, and it felt unnecessary long. Which is weird, since it isn’t that long. But that is my feelings of this book.
With Kind Regards
Senefer.
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