Review: The Sea of Monsters

Title: The Sea of Monsters
Author: Rick Riordan
Pages: 279
Rating: 4/5

After a summer spent trying to prevent a catastrophic war among the Greek gods, Percy Jackson is finding his seventh-grade school year unnervingly quiet. His biggest problem is dealing with his new friend, Tyson, a six-foot-three, mentally challenged homeless kid who follows Percy everywhere, making it hard for Percy to have any normal friends. But things don't stay quiet for long.

Percy soon discovers there is trouble at Camp Half-Blood: the magical borders that protect Half-Blood Hill have been poisoned by a mysterious enemy, and the only safe haven for demigods is on the verge of being overrun by mythological monsters. To save the camp, Percy needs the help of his best friend, Grover, who has been taken prisoner on an island somewhere in the Sea of Monsters, the dangerous waters Greek heroes have sailed for millennia. Only today, the Sea of Monsters goes by a new name: The Bermuda Triangle.

Together with his friends, Percy must retrieve the Golden Fleece from the Island of the Cyclopes or Camp Half-Blood will be destroyed. But first, Percy will learn a stunning new secret about his family, one that makes him question whether being claimed as Poseidon's son is an honor or simply a cruel joke (goodreads.com).

I'm really enjoying this series by Rick Riordan, and I am so glad that I started them when I did. As each book ends, I have a mix of emotions - excited for the adventure had, and sadness that I'm one book closer to the end.

The Sea of Monsters starts off with a bang, and the adventure never really stops. Camp Half Blood has been poisoned, and it is again up to Percy to save his friends and the other demigods. However, during this adventure, Grover is in severe danger and Percy takes the chance of losing his best friend. Also, we find out that Percy has a half brother, a cyclops named Tyson, who is a pretty handy guy to have around. I really liked his character and hope to see him back in the remaining books in the series.

I didn't rate The Sea of Monsters quite as high as I did The Lightning Thief because I felt that the end of this book drug a bit. It seemed to me to take forever until we got to that jaw dropping, OMG you have to be kidding moment I was waiting for. However, that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed the first one. I still enjoyed hanging out with Percy and his friends and tagging along on their adventures. I think this sluggishness found at the end of the book might just be the curse of the second book. I've read quite a few series, where I've felt the second book lacked the little extra bit of oomph that the first book had.

All in all, I'm quite please with this series and look forward to reading the next book. I'm curious to see where Riordan takes the new twist he provided on the last few pages of Sea of Monsters. I have a feeling its going to create quite a story!!

Review: The Lightning Thief

Title: The Lightning Thief
Author: Rick Riordan
Pages: 375
Rating: 5/5

Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school...again. And that's the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he's angered a few of them. Zeus's master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.

Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus's stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves (Cover Blurb).

I had never heard of this book until I saw an advertisement for the movie when I went to go see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Right away I knew it was a movie I wanted to see; however, I definitely wanted to read the book first. I had seen the Harry Potter movies first without reading the books, and missed out on so much and I didn't want that to happen again. I am so glad I decided to give this book a shot. I really enjoyed it, and cannot wait to read the next four books.

Percy Jackson is kind of a lost soul. He's always in trouble, moving from one boarding school to the next, and doesn't have many friends. He's about ready to be kicked out of Yancy Academy, where he has befriended both the Latin teacher, and his new best friend Grover. However, on a school field trip, Percy is attacked by a monster of sorts, and his entire life changes.

The Lightning Thief provides one adventure after another, with lots of action that keeps the story moving forward at a rapid pace. Once I started, I had a really hard time putting this down and found myself sneaking in a few pages here and there when no one was looking at work. If it wasn't for the Olympics distracting me and taking away from my reading time at night, I probably would have finished this book in close to one sitting.

I have seen a lot of comparisons between the Percy Jackson books and the Harry Potter series, but I feel that these books each have their own feel. Yes, their are some similarities. Both boys go to a special school, have parents with different types of "powers" and have two good friends - the smart girl, and the geeky side kick. But I feel that it is there that the similarities stop. Riordan's style is much different from that of Rowling, with more action sequences that come much faster and never seem to stop. Not only that, the amount of Greek mythology that surfaces in this story is amazing, and Riordan really did his homework.

I am so glad that I decided to give this book a shot, and will definitely be continuing on with the series. I hope to see the movie here in the next few weeks and look forward to letting you know what I think of it. Until then, here is the trailer: