This is the third book in the series Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan, and the first one I haven’t seen a movie about the book first. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Jesse Bernstein. It was first published in 2007 by Puffin Books.
The plot follows the where the second book left off, with Percy meeting Artemis and her huntresses. We get to know both them and Talia when Annabeth and Artemis go missing and Percy have to find them. Which start like in the other books with Percy getting dreams and then the quest starts. They choose which to do the quest and sends them off, this time just like in the second book, Percy is left behind because he is a boy and the huntresses do not like boys, and just like in the second book he follows them. Encountering monsters, and escaping traps to get to rescue his friends, while having a nasty prophecy looming over his head.
It has become predictable by know, but since it is for children and most children don’t mind reading a book with similar structures, hence the mass of books with Nancy Drew. But I should mention it by know that if you have read the first and second book then you know what will happen in this book. The characters also start to blend together, especially the girls.
I’m having a hard time separating them based on personality, Talia is for example described as a punk girl but acts just like Annabeth and Clarisse. A bad ass fighter, who acts bratty and confident. They all insult Percy, Annabeth and Clarisse are differentiated by Clarisse being dumb and Annabeth being smart but not much else. I guess Annabeth have a bit more background, such as a family and her wanting to be an architect, but not that much.
Frankly, I find that most character are rather flat overall, with only a few being expanded upon, and by that, I mean very little is expanded. They are not very deep, which I had someone tell me that children book characters don’t need to be but I disagree. Younger people aren’t dumb enough not to notice the lack of character. I think that is one of the things that hold back this book from being just as good as the Harry Potter series.
Now, I’m still impressed by the worldbuilding and the use of Greek mythology. This book introduced Artemis, Apollo, Athena and some other gods and Titans which makes the story even richer. The gods act just as they often did in mythology, which is like overgrown children with god powers and the book is slowly starting to ask the question why gods should rule. Why not someone else? All in all, it makes for an interesting read and if you are going to have the story go for the Odyssey vibe, where they face monsters in each chapters then Greek mythology is a good match.
Now, because of the lack of creativity which has led to predictability, along with the flat characters, I am starting to see the faults more prominent. I did not care too much in the first two books when the characters were flat, but now I starting to see a problem with it.
It’s the third book and all I know about characters like Annabeth and Grover is the same as they told me in the first book. Nothing has really changed. Percy is developed enough, but I feel that he is a bit… too perfect. He fights good, is cunning, brave, creative, is gentle and kind hearted. Protects his friends, which by the way is apparently his flaw.
All other has flaws like arrogance, stupidity, vanity and lack of self-confident and Percy has that he is too loyal to his friends… Apparently the author didn’t want to give Percy a decent flaw. What do I know? Maybe he actually does something with that flaw but for now the author seems to be saying that Percy’s flaw is that he is a decent human being.
Overall, I would rate the third book a 6 out of 10. I would have ranked it lower if it wasn’t because of the interesting mythology the author uses. Both the gods and the use of the Titans are well written, and I also factor in that I am not the target audience for this book so I go easy on it. Though the flaws such as the lack of development of the characters and the now too large of a cast of character, that none of them have been properly developed, but I still think that it has the potential to be better and there was some really heartbreaking moments in the book that did at least tug at my heartstrings.
With Kind Regards
Senefer.
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