This is the fourth installment into the series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the YA Fantasy following Percy Jackson, the son of Poseidon. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Jesse Bernstein. The audiobook I got had rather bad sound, constantly screeching in the background, so I got far too much headache from this book.
The plot is about Percy Jackson, who is sent down into the mythological Labyrinth to find Nico, Pan and stop Luke from invade Camp Half Blood. Along the way we meet the goddess Hera and other new characters such as Ethan, the son of Nemesis and an enemy rise.
The book followed the same structure as the other ones, Percy get a dream, someone is chosen to lead the quest, goes to the Oracle and get a prophecy. They go on, and meet monster after monster until the climax. All the book so far has introduced at least one god, this time it was Hera and Hephaestus.
We get more information and lore around the gods and just like the other books, I liked this part. I liked how the author depicted Hera, a two-faced witch really. Just like she was in the mythology. There are few gods in Greek mythology as cruel as Hera, who killed quite a few innocent mortals to get back at her husband.
This book was my favorite so far, it doesn’t feel too much action packed. Everything wasn’t solved with violence and epic battle. Such as Percy has to clean the stables with flesh-eating horses to save his friends. He has to use his mind to come up with a solution, instead of slashing it with a sword and I appreciate the variety.
And for the first time, the overall plot feels like it has finally gone forward. Some of the characters, such as Annabeth and Grover, is finally starting to develop and I look forward to see what they will become.
I appreciate it but the flaws from the previous books are still there, such as introducing a lot of new characters, most of them aren’t really developed and I have a hard time remembering them all. It is also still very predictable, now that I have read the previous books, I see it very clearly and frankly is bored by the set up. I don’t mind the neatly structure in the first book, but this is the fourth book.
I expect the author to shake up the quest structure a bit at least, but it still feels like an episode of the week kind of book. Something that was rather popular in the 90s but has become a bit of trope by now. It might just be that this book hasn’t aged well.
Overall, it was my favorite but that doesn’t say much since I wasn’t that fond of the previous books. I’m starting to run out of ideas to say about the books that isn’t just the same as before. The book follows a traditional structure that you can see in old fantasy games, books and such.
You get a quest, a prophecy and meet monster after monster before a large battle. Throw in some random deaths of people who are just introduced in that book and you have yourself a very traditional story.
I liked the introduction of Greek mythology since it will invoke interest in children for it, but as someone who likes mythology, I must say that I think the author just throw in some random names and monsters without caring too much of where they came from. I can for example still not see why Calypso was in this story. What did she add?
Not to mention the tropes that started to appear, such as every girl that seem to be interested in Percy. That one has not aged well.
All in all, I would give it a 8 out of 10 in rating. It is the same as the first one, I cannot give it a higher rating since it still has the predictability that was not there in the first book because it simply was the first book I have read. Now, it is the fourth one and I need something new. I did not get it, but the rest was fairly good and did entertain me though I most likely will not read this book again. I don’t think this book has aged well.
With Kind Regards
Senefer.
Read with Senefer 