Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Titan's Curse Book Review

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titan’s Curse Book Review

AUTHOR: Rick Riordan

RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2007

SERIES: Percy Jackson & the Olympians (Book 3)

PAGES: Approx. 312 pages

RATING: 4/5 STARS

Things. Just. Got. Real.

And it got really dark, really fast.

Much like the Harry Potter series (expect comparisons from here on out; I know I am), the first two installments in the Percy Jackson novels were more kid-friendly when it came to the actual dangers of their adventures. There were monsters, threats of bodily harm and/or death, battles and tense moments, but Percy and his companions have always come out on the top, injured maybe but still alive. And there was plenty of humorous moments to balance out the darker elements of the stories.

Seeing as how Harry Potter and Percy Jackson are so similar in that respect, and I’ve been hearing nothing but comparisons between the two from other book fans, I should’ve known what to expect when I started The Titan’s Curse.

Truthfully, even if I had, I still would’ve been shocked because: Whoa, sh*t just got real.

*~*~*~*

Percy, his friend Annabeth, and the newly-revived Thalia (daughter of Zeus) have answered a distress call from satyr Grover about two powerful half-bloods at a military school, brother and sister Nico and Bianca di Angelo. What should’ve been a quick rescue operation turned into a battle when a monster almost successfully steals the two away…except Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt, and her Hunters (exclusively female) arrive and foil the monster’s plot. Injured, the monster escapes, unintentionally kidnapping Annabeth.

I thought that would be the worst thing to have happened. But as it turns out, losing Annabeth was just the tip of the iceberg.

Kronos, the evil lord Titan, is seeking a monster. A monster, as Percy is told, that can cause the destruction of Mount Olympus. With the winter solstice fast approaching, and the gods still uncertain whether to take action, Artemis sets out to find the creature while Percy, Thalia, Grover, the di Angelo siblings and the Hunters return to Camp Half-Blood.

And, as to be expected, they don’t stay there long.

Disturbing dreams concerning Annabeth and Artemis come, respectively, to Percy and Zoë Nightshade, Artemis’s lieutenant. The mummified Oracle leaves the attic for the first time and speaks a prophecy concerning a quest that will take the lives of two heroes. A man called the General is working alongside camper-turned-traitor Luke, seeking the monster known only as “the bane of Olympus” and trapping the goddess Artemis under his former burden.

One thing after another, things get more intense. Percy, Thalia, Zoë, Grover and Bianca (who has joined the Hunters) set out to San Francisco to find Artemis and Annabeth. Skeletal monsters are hunting them (or more specifically, Percy) across the country, completely immune to their weapons. And some unknown sea creature that Percy saved (and named Bessie) is somehow able to follow them through multiple bodies of water.

And might I repeat myself in saying this: what a twist ending!

With Thalia now alive and closer to being sixteen years old than Percy, of course there would be tension in that there’s another contender for the Big Prophecy – that a child of the Big Three would make a choice deciding the fate of Olympus. But this ending just made things more intense and certainly more complicated for Percy.

One of the greatest things I enjoyed about The Titan’s Curse is Zoë Nightshade. From the beginning she was a tough warrior with a great distaste for heroes and men (much like Mr. D), but revelations of her tragic past showed us that there are two sides to the stories we are told, and that even heroes can wrong others.

Something else that made The Titan’s Curse a great read was the growth to Percy’s character. In discovering the reason behind Zoë and Mr. D’s intense dislike for heroes, he’s shocked to discover that not all heroes are as good as they seem, a lesson that would serve well for the future, we hope. And while he is a bit emotional where Annabeth is concerned, his determination to save her, despite the Oracle foretelling someone’s death on the quest, makes us agree with goddess Athena when she speaks to Percy about his weakness and how Kronos intends to take advantage:

“Your fatal flaw is personal loyalty, Percy.”

Having an enemy know your weakness is never a good thing.

Rick Riordan has left us with a great revelation that will surely affect Percy and his friends as his sixteenth birthday approaches. No spoilers but, as Annabeth points out, Percy might not be the child of the prophecy after all.

The Titan’s Curse continues to introduce readers to the world of the Greeks gods and heroes of myth. Rick Riordan also continues to amaze with his ability to reinvent the Greek myths around his own story, and to reinvent the gods and goddesses so that they’re nothing like what we would expect.

There were moments that I felt the plot moved slowly, but overall The Titan’s Curse was impressive.

Readers, beware. Characters, especially heroes, have died. And more deaths will be coming in the next two books, I’m sure. Rick Riordan, much like J.K. Rowling, seems to have no problem about taking our favorite characters and having them killed in the most tragic instances.

As I said earlier: things just got real.