Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth – Rick Riordan
*Warning – may contain spoilers*
Author: Rick
Riordan
Publisher: Puffin
Books
First published: 2008
Cover: Paperback
Pages: 342
Blurb: Honestly, blowing up another school was
the last thing I wanted to do.
As the son of a Greek god, I’ve
had my share of near-death disaster – and now my arch enemy Luke wants to
invade our camp via an ancient labyrinth.
If he succeeds, thousands of
bloodthirsty monsters will attack. So it’s goodbye sunshine, hello darkness as
four of us descend into the terrifying underground and beyond…
History of my copy: The whole Percy Jackson series, and in fact all of
Riordan’s other books, have been sitting on my TBR list for a long time. I
slowly picked up the first three in the series, although they then spent an
even longer time sitting unread on my shelf at home. I finally got the Battle of the Labyrinth and the last
book of the series on AS results day last year.
I’ve actually been reading this book on and off for a few
months now. I got stuck in a rut where Riordan’s writing style, as iconic and different
to anything I’ve ever read before, started to bother me. As I’m now 18, it felt
a little too kiddy, and almost as if he couldn’t write any differently.
However, Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer (
review here) got me out of that
because, although still written similarly, you could tell it was narrated by an
older character, and I once more fell in love with the Percy-ness of the
Percy Jackson series.
Plot: In the fourth instalment of the
series, we see Percy, Annabeth, Tyson and Grover enter the Labyrinth, the
infamous Greek structure known for its story involving Ariadne and the
Minotaur. They’re searching for Daedalus and, with the help of mortal Rachel,
they discover he isn’t quite who they expected him to be. A story about a maze
also wouldn’t be complete without Grover finally achieving his goal; finding
Pan! I was so happy for him when that happened!
True
to the Labyrinth itself, this book is full of unexpected twists and turns and
shocking revelations, but you’ll have to find out all of them yourself! Oh, and
there’s a pretty awesome battle scene.
Setting: As you have probably guessed, a
whole lot of this book takes place in the Labyrinth, but it’s a lot more
interesting than that. As they navigate the maze, they come across numerous
surprising places. Anyone who has read any Riordan book will know that setting
isn’t perhaps his strongest point, especially in this series as Percy, rather
stereotypically for a fourteen-year-old boy, kind of focuses on just the weird
parts of the rooms he walks into. But there’s definitely enough for you to know
what’s going on and where!
Characters: One thing I love about books
that follow children/teens over a few years is how they grow and develop, and
how their views on people and topics change. Of course, adult’s also change
over books, I’m not denying that but as your teenage years are pretty important,
especially in terms of developing social skills, there’s just an intimacy and
love of watching them grow and change.
I
can’t talk about Percy, without talking about Annabeth. These two! These two
just make me miss all the guy best friends I have had and lost, because there’s
something so great about those friendships – you can say anything and not have
to worry about the consequences! However, their relationship takes a slightly
different turn in this book as they finally share a kiss! Plus, you can just
feel Annabeth’s jealousy of Rachel and Percy’s of Luke just oozing out of the
pages.
Tyson, my sweet, precious Cyclops!
(Yes, you heard that right!) I don’t really know why, but I just adore Tyson so
much. I think it may be because he reminds me of my own brother. And by that, I
don’t mean that my brother has one eye (although he’s certainly tall enough and
built like a cyclops). To me, Tyson always seemed a little simple and straight
to the point, which is why he reminds me of my brother. So I guess I just feel
like I can relate to Percy on that point.
Not a favourite character of
mine, but dear lord my heart broke a little for Clarisse in this book! And
Dionysus did something nice to her, what?! And he was sad about the death of
his son, man that really got to me too.
But, as for a characters I would
like to be even more developed: Nico and Luke! I assume they will be major
roles in the next book, and I know that Nico has just arrived to talk with
Percy at the end of this one, but I need to know all that back story now!
Actually, whilst I’m on the topic of the end of this book,
it was probably actually my favourite part. Poseidon meeting Paul; Paul finding
out that Tyson is Percy’s brother (and Sally’s quick explanation that he isn’t
her child); Poseidon just disappearing. Gah, I want more Percy, Poseidon, Paul
and Sally scenes please!
To read or not to
read: Read. Despite my review,
this book is actually my least favourite of the Percy Jackson series. It was good, and a must read to continue with
the series, but I often felt it just lacked something. However, the end of the
book was much better than the first, and it did pick up, but it just didn’t do
much for me. I am hoping the last book makes up for it!
