Let me open by saying...Rick Riordan, I'm sorry for what I'm about to say. I'm an unpublished writer and I know the best I can hope for is that at some point some will like what I write, and some will well, rip it.I've not been "real complimentary' of these books up to this point, I gave each 3 stars...said they were what I'd call, "not bad". I dropped this one to 2 stars...it's getting to "bad".First, I must say apologetically that the writing isn't all that great. I know these have sold millions and we have the first movie in what I know a lot of people hope will be a series. I can't account for people's taste, I mean look at Gilligan's Island. Reading these books I must say that somewhere there's probably a toddler with a parent reading them to him/her who is thinking something like, "Percy is just now getting that? I figured it out 5 chapters ago". Percy Jackson is without a doubt as dense as a locust fence post. The kid is written so thick I'm surprised he can get his shoes on. I'd never have trusted this kid with a butter knife, much less a magic sword (of course luckily it won't hurt "mortals" only "immortals' as it's made of celestial bronze. This must be an odd kind of bronze as I know all bronze I've come in contact with is pretty much as solid as any other metal.). Aside from the usual problem of Percy being so frustratingly (your going to see that word or it's root "frustrate" a few times in this review) thick this book manages to go to new heights in it's efforts to drive readers into banging their heads into walls. Without giving a spoiler, there is another regular character in the books who has been sort of the "counter-point" to Percy's inability to understand the most elementary event. Her character has been fairly well established. SO, to set up the action in this book the author has her do something so frustratingly (yes, there's the word) stupid and against character that I knew things weren't going to go well. Yes, I got what was supposed to be the reason in/for the act...but she'd never have acted so stupidly, not the girl we met in the first 2 books.There are other problems here that were smaller in the first two books but apparently like wounds left untended have festered and are now overpowering the rest of the story. His playing fast and loose with history and myth are getting beyond my tolerance. He managed to turn Artemis the hunter into a sort of female Peter Pan and her huntresses into a girls club of "lost girls" instead of "lost boys" stuck at that age where little boys go "yuck girls" and little girls go "yuck boys". I could almost hear them singing...." I won't grow up, I won't grow up...I don't want to go to school, I don't want to go to school...." Need I say any more, maybe the story's take on Hercules? Maybe more of the incorrect slant given to the Greek Pantheon? If ignorance was contagious or misinformation was infectious this book would be banned by the CDC. I've been treating these books as YA books. They are so frustratingly simplistic I think I need to think of them more as juvenile level reads and go from there. I got them from the library and the next 2 are laying here (the second through the 5th came in together). Were I buying these I'd probably have stopped earlier, this one would bring me even closer to it. Were my kids still small and had they gotten into these I'd definitely go over anything they were picking up from them book by book. On the positive side (I need to say something positive) the books do manage to show the pettiness and selfishness that was so prevalent in the character of the deities and heroes of Greek myth. It fails in filling that out, but it is there. I live in hope that the next book won't frustrate me as badly as this one has. "Where there's life there's hope" as the old saying goes...and I keep hoping. I'll drop this volume to 2 stars and hope the next is better.
I have yet to be disappointed in this series. A real rarity in a fantasy series in general.The story starts out with Percy, Annabeth, and Thalia trying to help Grover to sneak out two half-bloods from a private military style school. Things get immediately messy and they stumble upon yet another problem, or more like a crisis. In the process of a battle Annabeth is stolen away. Something called The General is out again wrecking havoc and as you can already tell Luke has a hand in all this. This time around though you see Luke for what he really is, a kid trying to play with the big boys. We get to see the goddess Artemis and her huntresses. Quite an intriguing bunch, eternal life if you don't fall in love? Kind of harsh, but I guess the price you pay matches your reward. The second in command of the huntresses, Zoe, would have to be my favorite new character. She's prickly but you learn throughout the book why she is the way she is. Bianca and Nico are the new half-bloods and will prove to play important roles in how the plot moves along.It never fails to impress me how the author can intricately put everything into these books. I never feel bored and I love the view he takes on different mythology stories. After reading this book I'll never look at Hercules the same. One of my biggest enjoyments is seeing different American landmarks mentioned in the story, and seeing their odd connection to the Greek myths. You can tell the books are going to take a bit of a darker turn. It makes sense since they all are getting older and the inevitable prophecy is looming over.Always funny, fast-paced, and having hidden fountains of mysteries. I am SO ready for more!
Do You like book The Titan's Curse (2007)?
This morning, while waiting with Celyn at her hospital appointment I told her I was going to write a review of the book I finished reading to her the night before and asked her if it deserved 5*. She said it did. So 5* it is.I picked this book up from Celyn's pile when we went off on her school trip (a week in the wilds) and being in a hurry I managed to get book 3 of the series rather than book 2 (we read book 1 last year). So we've jumped over The Sea of Monsters - but I don't think the reading experience suffered for it.The short version is: if you enjoyed The Lightning Thief then you'll enjoy this one too. The book is written in the same vein as the first, mining the Greek myths for monsters and plot, and mixing in an American road trip along with Percy's irreverent observations.We don't get much of Annabeth in the book as she's a prisoner for a lot if it. We get lots of Thalia (Zeus' daughter), a fair dose of Grover (a Pan-hunting satyr), and a lot of Zoe Nightshade (one of Artemis' hunting posse). A lot of the book is spent travelling by varied means from one side of the States to the other, a journey punctuated by encounters with monsters. We're set up for a big boss-battle on the Mountain of Despair and that's a fun battle with everything from gods and titans to dragons and bi-planes. All in all an action-packed book to which Celyn was happy to return at every opportunity. And if some of the Greek myths stick with her ... all to the good!
—Mark Lawrence
El cuarto te va a encantar! En unos días empezaré el 5° *_*
—Juliana Zapata
I give this book a 4.5 stars.A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!Just WONDERFUL.LOVE IT!❤️
—Ahmad
