Confused as to why I'm reviewing this older book? Don't wonder! CLICK THE LINK OF VAGUE DETAILS
Didn't read the first two books in the series? THAT'S OKAY! I reviewed them as well!
Book #1: THE LIGHTNING THIEF
Book #2: THE SEA OF MONSTERS
UNST UNST, the party is getting started with an amazon summary, "When the goddess Artemis goes missing, she is believed to have been kidnapped. And now it’s up to Percy and his friends to find out what happened. Who is powerful enough to kidnap a goddess? They must find Artemis before the winter solstice, when her influence on the Olympian Council could swing an important vote on the war with the titans. Not only that, but first Percy will have to solve the mystery of a rare monster that Artemis was hunting when she disappeared—a monster rumored to be so powerful it could destroy Olympus forever." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE
On a side note, I'm glad I'm rereading this series since I have forgotten some interesting details about the books. MOVING ON.
Also, the summaries continue to be crap. Not surprised....
I'm going to get something out of the way right now; we now know that Percy's birthday is sometime in August; this book takes place in the winter of the same year that The Sea of Monsters took place, so he's fourteen at this point. I suppose I'm mostly bothered that in The Lightning Thief he was twelve, and in The Sea of Monsters he was thirteen, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of character growth going in the matters of actually growing UP. Like, he develops as a character because of the situations he faces with monsters, his friends, on quests, blah blah blah, but it seems like his character just goes completely into stasis when a book isn't happening. I suppose it's not entirely a bad thing so we can see the character growth, but I expect more when there's such big gaps in his life that we don't see.
...meh. I suppose I shouldn't whine TOO much as the books do take about two hours to three hours to read and I appreciate that a lot. There is such a good balance of detail and moving action but it also sets up for the later books and series so much more exquisitely than I thought so before.
LET'S DO THIS.
So this book begins with Percy's Mom escorting Annabeth, Thalia, and Percy to a school in Maine where they're supposed to meet up with Grover about some potential demi-god recruits. They get to the school to crash a high school dance, and funny enough Percy and Annabeth dance together. But by chapter 2, Percy is already trying to square off with the monster that's after the recruits.
The demi-gods they're trying to recruit are a brother and sister; Bianca and Nico. Also, Nico seems to be obsessed with some card game/statue game that is based on Greek mythology. Er, about that. It seems important, plays a minor role at weird points, and I don't want to talk about it.
Also in chapter 2, we find that Percy, Thalia, Nico, Bianca, and Grover are rescued by the Hunters. The Hunters are a band of maidens that have forsworn males and pledged to be on the hunt with the goddess Artemis. The battle winds down with Annabeth being spirited away by the monster.
I'm going to glaze over some stuff for the sake of my attention span. Stuff happens, it's mildly important, but it's not for the overarching plot.
So Grover, Thalia, Percy, and the Hunters all make it back to camp half-blood where they fill Chiron in on what's going on and we find out why all the satyrs are fanned out in schools to get the half-bloods; they're trying to win them over to the good side before Luke can get them. The Hunters are all, "OMG BOYS, NOOOOO," kind of crap and Bianca decides to join them.
Percy rescues a creature that literally looks like a cross between a cow and a sea serpent which he nicknames 'Bessie'. Oh, and we have a two sentence back story of how he came to earn the gratitude of a Pegasus named Blackjack. That would have been unimportant but they randomly pop up. Enjoy.
So, Percy is all woeful in camp and worrying about Annabeth, and the Hunters are all woeful in camp worrying about Artemis (as her Hunters sense she's in danger, but she left them behind when she went chasing after something allegedly terrifying). Percy is all QUESTTTT and the Hunters are like LET US LEAVEEEE DAMN IT but Chiron is like CALM DOWN AND STAY. Then they play capture the flag where the campers (who are few as it's winter) face against the Hunters. Thalia and Percy get into it when they both feel that they been wrong and Thalia zaps Percy, who would have died if he hadn't been a son of Poseidon, and as he's about to retaliate by dumping a creek on her, the mummified oracle drunkenly wanders through the woods, spits out a prophecy at the Lieutenant of the Hunters (Zoe Nightshade) and slumps back into nothing.
This is about a third of the way through the book, so if you don't want spoilers, stop now. CUZ WE'RE HOPPING ON BOARD THE CRAZY TRAIN TO SPOILER LAND.
So the prophecy, and I'm quoting this directly from the book on page 89, "Five shall go west to the goddess in chains, One shall be lost in the land without rain, The bane of Olympus shows the trail, Campers and Hunters combined prevail, The Titan's curse must one withstand, And one shall perish by a parent's hand".
Basically everyone who has a name clambers to go on the quest except for Nico who is just weirdly content with letting everything happen around him. They get all growl-like at each other and it's eventually decided that Percy has to sit out, but three Hunters (including Bianca), Grover, and Thalia will go on the quest. Well, one Hunter gets all mysteriously sick and the group takes off anyways, leaving the sick Hunter behind. Percy is like NOOO BUT ANNABETH; IS THIS LOVE? WHATEVER, HERO TIME! and takes Blackjack out to follow the group.
When Percy was still wavering about whether or not to follow the group, there is a funny, horrible line from his mother. Page 105, "I'm telling you that...you're too old for me to tell you what to do. I'm telling you that I'll support you, even if what you decide to do is dangerous. I can't believe I'm saying this."
...um what? OKAY. PERCY IS FOURTEEN. FOURTEEN. WHAT. LADY, YOU CRAY CRAY. CRAYYYY CRAYYYY. I really liked Percy's Mom for her spunk and weird quirks and support until she went full blown, "WHATEVS, IT'S YO LIFE, DO WHAT YO WANT, YOLOOOOO". ...yeah, Percy's Mom lost all respect points. I hate/love that she says, "I can't believe I'm saying this," and that's basically her last statement on the matter.
So they go for a little ways, Percy stumbles across the bad guys and accidentally gets basically undefeatable enemies unleashed upon him and runs away towards his group of friends on the quest. Excellent. I know.
They traverse through the country side, come across some cool doo-dads, Percy gets a visit from Aphrodite and Ares, and then they stumble into Hephaestus scrap yard. They were warned not to take anything, but Bianca picks up a little statue for Nico's game since it's the only one he doesn't have, and they all get beat up by a giant statue thing that's made out of the junk. To kill it, Bianca goes inside of it, and ends up dying herself in the process. She's the one lost to land without rain.
I'm sorry, but I was given no valid reason to care about Bianca at all. She's just selfish with little quirks. Not enough to like to care. But Percy is all WAHHH, ...so where's Annabeth? and randomly feels guilty about her death.
There's a lot of...moot things that happen in this story. Again, I'm going to gloss over them and just hit some high points or else I'd be re-writing the book here.
So they wind up at the mountain where Atlas holds the sky up to find that's where Artemis is. They have a battle, the Hunter Zoe Nightshade (who is the Lieutenant hunter) is killed by her Father, they have an epic rescue attempt by Annabeth's father and almost everyone gets to go home happy.
Except Kronos and Luke are assembling a crap ton of monsters.
The big doom prophecy of when a child of the big three turns sixteen still hasn't been spelled out for us, it's only been alluded to.
But at least Olympus has started to gear up for the impending war instead of just cautiously watching it and trying to ignore it.
Also, Grover is convinced that Pan contacted him at the end of the book.
I'm done here.
Happy reading!
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