Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth - Rick Riordan

Published by Puffin Books/Penguin Group: London, England, 2013 (2008).
Book 4 in the 'Percy Jackson' series. Preceded by 'Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse.' Followed by 'Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian.'

I finally found a cheap copy of this book to add to my school library shelf, and - home sick for a few days - picked it up and raced through it. As book 4 in a series of 5, it is obvious that things are building towards the epic conclusion. Kronos (like the Voldemort of this series) is taking form and will soon be free to wreak havoc on the world, Percy's nemesis Luke continues to be a hindrance, and - at the end of the book - Percy turns 15. Considering that there is a prophecy that most characters believe refers to Percy, saying that when he turn 16 terrible things will occur, this is also significant.

In this particular entry, Percy and his friends must journey into the Labyrinth of Greek mythology, searching for the inventor Daedalus who they believe to be living in it's centre. Annabeth, who now harbours a growing crush on Percy, is the one leading this particular quest, and as a result Percy (and therefore us as the audience) are a little uncertain as to the entire prophecy she has been given. We only know that Annabeth is very nervous that the quest will fail, and seems to fear that someone will die.

Returning characters include Percy's half-brother Tyson, the satyr Grover, and two minor characters - Rachel Dare and Nico di Angelo - who featured in the last entry. All of these have some plot development, and in the case of Rachel and Nico, continue to be set up in ways that could lead to spin-offs in the future (I believe at least Nico has his own series?).

As always, Riordan is quite clever in his application of Greek mythology, and even manages to have a few twists in this entry that I didn't see coming. The Percy Jackson series continues to be aimed squarely at older children or early teens, but is none-the-less quite enjoyable overall.

Completed 15 October 2024.



(Percy Jackson Series)

Previous Book ~ Next Book

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Various Picture Books

Image
As I said in my review of Peter Rabbit's Storytime Collection , I am wanting to find a way to acknowledge the books I read to Ezekiel without adding individual picture books to my reading list - I feel that would dilute it a bit much. So in this post, I've decided to look at a group of picture books all together. I've picked five picture books that I like (with a notable and noteworthy exception), and also asked Elise for five picture books she is  enjoying reading to Ezekiel. It's interesting (and helpful for this list) that our lists haven't overlapped at all this time around. So, here are ten picture books (plus one bonus 'book') that Ezekiel has been exposed to in the first 7ish months of his life: Karl's List Bunnies on the Bus - Philip Ardagh and (illustrator) Ben Mantle. Published by Walker Books Ltd: London, 2020 (2019). This is one of my favourites among our current picture books. A group of bunnies hijack a bus and hurtle through the town on th
Read more

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Image
Published by Allen & Unwin: Crows Nest, NSW, Australia, 2008. Book snobs, block your ears. *whispers* I think the movie was better. Okay, book snobs, you can unblock your ears now. *waves to get the attention of book snobs* To be honest, a huge reason why I read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society at this moment in time was that I thought it would be funny to have two books with ridiculously long titles appear back-to-back in my list. For anyone who thought that there were super-deep reasons why I picked the books that I did, I hope this helps you see the error of your ways. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (which I am refusing to shorten for the rest of this review) still tells the same story as that in the movie adaptation (also called  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society ), but does so in a less gripping (though still interesting) manner. This is for a few reasons: firstly,  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society book is e
Read more

Words of Radiance - Brandon Sanderson

Image
Published by Tom Doherty Associates Books/TOR Fantasy: New York, 2014. Book 2 in 'The Stormlight Archives' series. Preceded by ' The Way of Kings .' Followed by (spin-off) ' Edgedancer ' and (main series) ' Oathbringer. ' Well, I finally read the second Stormlight book, this one even longer than the last  at a whopping 1080 pages, and once again found myself enjoying Sanderson's world immensely. The plot does take longer than strictly necessary in places - particularly in the storyline following Shallan Davar as she journeys towards the Shattered Plains - but overall is still a page-turner. By the middle of Words of Radiance our three main characters (Kaladin, Shallan and Adolin) are finally in the same location, something that was never achieved in the first book. In keeping them apart for so long, Sanderson is able to give his readers a real understanding of what makes each character tick, and this becomes quite interesting as when these character
Read more