Battle Of The Labyrinth: Went Up And Beyond Expectations To Quite Possibly Make It The Best In The Series

The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

Over all rating: Went up and beyond expectations to quite possibly make this the best in the series.

Okay this one is a book I bought a long time ago. It is called The Battle of the Labyrinth. It is indeed the fourth book in the Percy Jackson series. And this time I actually did pay full price for a book instead of finding it at a yard sale or bargain bins. I was totally hooked on this series. That is until I paid ten bucks to see the movie adaptation at the theatre that ultimately butchered the series, leaving a real bad after taste of hat toward Hollywood. So I took a break before reading this one.

The book is part of the Percy Jackson and The Olympians series. It is focused Percy who is a kid who finds that he is the son of Poseidon so he can manipulate and control water. Yes, the Greek god. The idea f the series is to mix Greek mythology into modern day. (Kind of like Harry potter did magic) Who is part of a prophecy (no surprise there) to either save or destroy the world during an upcoming war between Kronos and the gods. And the books play out in typically fun, action adventure with a very American point of view. The first book was pretty much a road trip killing monsters and a journey to Hades. But Have to say the two sequels never lived up to it. Sea of Monsters was a retelling of the Oddyssee and the Titan’s Curse…………………… well I’m going to be honest here. I can’t even remember what the third one was really about, other than it was okay but not very exciting.

Now in the fourth one, I might have to forgive Riodan a little bit. The story centers on the labyrinth that was built by Daedalus. It is a great maze that is ever growing and ever changing under the ground of the US. Like who has sided with the Titans is leading a army through the maze bit will need to find Daedelus at the heart of it first to know the way to Camp Half Blood to kill the demi gods. Annabeth and Percy stumble across the doorway to the maze and realize that Luke can invade form with the camp’s magical security. They decide to go on a quest to find Deadulas before Luke does with Grover and Tyson. Also Grover is about to lose his searchers license to find the great wild god Pan , so in hope s to find the god he searches underground or else he will face exile. Then Nice, who is the son of Hades, is also roaming the maze. He is neither on the Gods or titan’s side but on his own. He wants revenge on perky for not being able to save his sister, and Percy believes that he may be out toured him to exchange his soul for his sister’s So overall a lot is going on in this one, but it all works out in the end.

So the good? Well the chemistry. In the first one we had Annabeth, Grover and Percy and they were a good mix. I loved all the characters. In part two we didn’t have Grover and in part three we didn’t have Annabeth. To hall all three together again was great. In this one you get to see that the characters are growing up. In part three, it was hinted at and then thrown out the window. Percy and Annabeth are actually kind o liking each other. There’s Annabeth’s jealously when she sees Percy with another girl. There’s scene where Percy appears to flirt with her. They are becoming close and they are a real cut couple. (That is if you throw out the fact Annabeth is the daughter of the niece of Percy’s dad. But you have to throw all that out of your head when it come to Greek mythology or else you be reminded of the awful Oedipus tale you had to learn about in Drama.) The story is layered. It went much farther than let’s kill some more monsters on a road trip. There’s an epic battle at the end. (Since battles in title it can’t be a spoiler) It’s unpredictable from battling in an arena to escaping a prison, to even a huge twist toward the end that even make the most heartless reader feel sorry for the bad guy. Hell, the even manage to slid a little sci-fi in there I was amazed.

The bad? Ummmm………..well my favorite color is blue and the author made the cover red Seriously, I can’t say anything bad about this book. I love every moment of it.

Over all I love the original. But after a really bad movie adaptation and two mediocre sequels, I didn’t expect this to be all that great. It went up and beyond expectations. I think I like this one more than the Lightening Thief. I went from “Yeah. Percy Jackson is fun series” to “I freak’n LOVE this series!” after this read. It reminded me of why I started reading these. It’s a perfect book.

4 smoothies out of four

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