Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters by: Rick Riordan

Sequels are generally difficult to pull off.  A first book establishes so much that often the sequel has to continue the momentum of a series with less things to do.  The characters and setting are already established and the sequel has to deepen them.  The Sea of Monsters is a sequel that tackles this to incredibly mixed results.  Rick Riordan continues Percy Jackson and the Olympians by taking the format of The Lightning Thief, but instead of mixing mythological creatures and ideas, The Sea of Monsters essentially draws from one source, The Odyssey for its story.  There are short sections that are taken from other myths, specifically Heracles and Jason, the story itself is a modern retelling of The Odyssey.  While this does make The Sea of Monsters a decent introduction to the epic poem, even though it lacks the themes engrained in The Odyssey, for readers already familiar with the poem the encounters with monsters, and many of the ways they are defeated by our heroes.  Although Riordan’s novel is derivative, this does not mean that The Sea of Monsters is by any means a bad book.  The writing style is still easy to read and it is clear that Riordan has stepped up his game when it comes to writing action, adding more descriptions to the action and some more tactics as the characters have aged a year.

 

The Sea of Monsters takes place a year after The Lightning Thief and as such deals with a now thirteen-year-old Percy going on a quest, not to save his own life or the life of his mother, but Camp Half-Blood.  The tree guarding the camp, the only remains of a half-blood daughter of Zeus, has been poisoned by Luke on the orders of Kronos; Chiron has been used as a scapegoat; and a spirit from Tartarus has been brought on as a replacement.  Grover Underwood has gone missing on his own quest to find Pan in the Sea of Monsters, and the only thing that might save the camp happens to be what drew him off course, the Golden Fleece.  Riordan uses Grover’s kidnapping by Polyphemus, the Cyclops from The Odyssey to serve as Percy’s motivation to go on the quest.  Riordan keeps the reader in suspense as Grover sends dreams to Percy through an empathy link, as he attempts to take advantage of the Cyclops’ stupidity to stay alive.  It helps create a real uncertainty if Percy can actually get to the Fleece and to motivate him to leave camp, an action which normally would get him expelled.  He is not given the quest to find the Fleece, that goes to Clarisse, the brutish daughter of Ares from The Lightning Thief.

 

Clarisse as a character shows one improvement that Riordan makes over The Lightning Thief and that is creating side characters with more depth and a better idea of Camp Half-Blood as a location.  The sequences at the camp are the highlight of the novel: it never feels like there is immediate danger, but that the danger is looming over the horizon and as Percy doesn’t have to climatize to the camp, the status quo is established.  Yes that status quo is different then what could be considered normal for the camp, but it is close enough to feel like this is a place where Percy has roots.  Riordan also provides some campers with their own names and a character trait or two in line with their godly parent which is a step in the right direction.  It isn’t perfect by any means, but it at least establishes a base of things.  Clarisse as a character is given more depth than the stock bully archetype she served in The Lightning Thief.  She is sent on the quest to find the Fleece, goes alone, and crosses paths with Percy at several points through the novel.  There’s a subtle effort by Riordan to show the reader that Clarisse is going through her own struggles and self-confidence issues through her quest.  She’s trying to prove that she is just as capable as Percy to herself, to her father, and to the rest of the camp.  Riordan goes to great lengths to show that Clarisse is having her own adventure and journey throughout The Sea of Monsters, that the reader isn’t privileged to because the book is from Percy’s perspective.

 

Following Percy to the Sea of Monsters is also interesting as Grover is out of action and replaced by Tyson.  Tyson is where the mixed bag really comes out in The Sea of Monsters.  He is introduced as a friend of Percy’s at his school who helps save him from cannibal giants who burn down the gymnasium, and like Grover is a mythological creature.  Tyson is a Cyclops and is revealed to be a son of Poseidon, being claimed about a quarter of the way through the book.  Riordan decides that Percy’s next course of action is to become ashamed of this and essentially acts horrible to someone who he already treated as a brother.  Riordan even includes a (albeit well done) fake out death with Tyson to make Percy really come to terms with having a brother.  This doesn’t really feel like the Percy that was presented to us in The Lightning Thief and honestly makes a lot of The Sea of Monsters difficult to get through.  To add insult to injury, Riordan includes an arc about getting over prejudice for Annabeth, as a Cyclops is the reason she, Luke, Grover, and Thalia were delayed on their way to camp.  Annabeth’s prejudice is presented in a grey light: many Cyclops do kill heroes, but she is presented as firmly in the wrong when it comes to judging Tyson.  It also brings her and Percy closer together throughout the novel, firmly establishing their friendship and future romance.  Tyson as a character is fine, not amazing.  He’s used a bit as a plot device, but overall there’s a charm to him.

 

Much of The Sea of Monsters is devoted to setting up the rest of the series’ conflict.  While The Lightning Thief presented Kronos and Luke as the main villains, and hinted at a prophecy that concerns Percy reaching the age of sixteen.  It is this book where Luke actually shows his hand at creating an army of demigods and a plan to bring Kronos back, something so dangerous his own father Hermes intervenes in the hopes at getting Percy to save him.  There's also a final cliffhanger reveal that adds complications into this unseen prophecy.  This makes me hopeful for the future of the series as while The Sea of Monsters was an enjoyable read, it was plagued by problems that brought it down.  6/10.