The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #2) by Rick Riordan
Release: April 1st 2006
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Source: Amazon
Sea of Monsters Synopsis:
The heroic son of Poseidon makes an action-packed comeback in the second must-read installment of Rick Riordan’s amazing young readers series. Starring Percy Jackson, a “half blood” whose mother is human and whose father is the God of the Sea, Riordan’s series combines cliffhanger adventure and Greek mythology lessons that results in true page-turners that get better with each installment.
In this episode, The Sea of Monsters, Percy sets out to retrieve the Golden Fleece before his summer camp is destroyed, surpassing the first book’s drama and setting the stage for more thrills to come.
Review:
Watch my video review of The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan!
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHTQqEb6CLQ[/embedyt]
Again, this is a wonderful and exciting novel to the Percy Jackson series. It is light-hearted, fun, adventurous, suspenseful and contains a lot of twists and turns. As the characters and the situations have already been introduced in book 1, the author directly jumps into the story-line. In my review of The Lightning Thief, I mentioned that there was too much happening, one after the other. But in The Sea of Monsters, I feel that Riordan has balanced the action and adventure along with the character development perfectly.
Another reason why I loved this book was because of Tyson! He is a wonderful addition to the cast and I love his relation with Percy. I loved how he is so childlike and positive, and his love for the Hippocampi, I hope he stays for the rest of the series. Moreover, I also loved the part where Percy and the gang meet C.C. and she turns him into a guinea pig. I also liked how the team has to work with Clarisse even though she is very annoying. Honestly, I liked Clarisse in this book as I thought she had more layers to her than what she just portrays. Grover is hilarious even when he is in trouble, and I was laughing loudly when he tried to hide from the cyclops by wearing a wedding veil.
The only thing I felt this book was lacking was in its villain. Sure, we get to know more about Kronos and the long term plan of the Titans, but the bad guy in this book is the Cyclops Polyphemus, and he seemed more silly and scary. The book felt light-hearted at times, and it was hard to take the team seriously when they are battling him. Even Tantalus seems more comical than creepy, as he tries to reach for food that slips away from him. Due to this, I felt like Sea of Monsters was more of a filler book to the series.
However, the book is completely entertaining and a great continuation to the series. The story ends with a cliffhanger where you just want to pick up the next book and continue reading. There is also more groundwork laid between Percy and Kronos, and I can’t wait to read how that follows. The author has beautifully blended humor with adventure with strong characters and that is what makes the series so entertaining.
Overall, I would give the sea of monsters a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars.
