As I stated in a previous post I am working my way through the original Percy Jackson series having finished The Trials of Apollo. The Sea of Monsters is the second book in the iconic series and it chronicles the adventures of Percy’s second summer as a half-blood. It opens with Percy finding out that it may be dangerous to go back to camp which is promptly followed by him and his new friend, Tyson, getting into a flaming dodgeball match with some monsters at school. Naturally, Percy is not invited back for the next year but he also has to escape to camp with Tyson and Annabeth, who showed up in the middle of the dodgeball match. Upon arriving they discover that camp is not what they left or what they expected as Thalia’s tree is poisoned which weakens the barriers of the camp. This means that it is constantly being attacked by monsters trying to get in. Because of the nature of the poison being used Chiron is removed as camp director and replaced by Tantalus who doesn’t really care for the safety of the demigods. While all of this is going on Percy discovers that his friend Grover is being held hostage by a cyclops who plans to marry him having mistakenly thought he was a female cyclops. Being denied a joint quest to rescue Grover and steal the Golden Fleece, Percy sneaks out of camp with Annabeth and Tyson to do so anyway. They have to try not to piss off Clarisse, who was given the quest to steal the Golden Fleece, in the process. In the meantime, Percy discovers that Tyson is also a cyclops and a child of Poseidon, meaning that he is Percy’s brother, and that they will have to travel through the perilous sea of monsters to achieve their goal.
There are a lot of things that I notice now, rereading the series, that I don’t really think I noticed before. A big one is that Percy seems to be repeating the various achievements of the earlier Greek demigods but with a new spin on them. In the first book he has to travel in and out of the Underworld, much like Hercules or Orpheus had to do before. Now, in this book he has to travel through the sea of monsters, like both Odysseus and Jason, and steal the Golden Fleece, which had been the ultimate goal of Jason’s travels. Now I know the series is heavily based in Greek mythology but I hadn’t paid attention to some of the elements, such as the quest goals, and how they were also pulled from Greek mythology as well. That being said only the locations are the same as there is a definite difference in why Percy is going to these locations than the previous heroes. Percy traveled to the Underworld to confront Hades but also to get his mom back but is ultimately willing to leave his mom behind to do the right thing, something that many of the earlier heroes would not have been willing to do. Now, he has traversed the sea of monsters, in part to get the Golden Fleece but also in part to rescue his friend Grover. To Percy, the more important part is rescuing Grover but he also wants the Fleece, not for the glory but to rescue the camp and cure the poison in Thalia’ tree. I think this creates an important distinction between Percy and the earlier Greek demigods as Percy is not out for the glory but is only out to save his friends and prevent the end of everything. In my opinion this is an important quality to have in a hero. Mind you I also really love the humor that is present in this series as I greatly enjoyed the small things such as the monster donuts. I give this book four out of five stars.
This book is one of the few books that I think would appeal to a broad audience. I know that it is aimed at teens and young adults but it could just as easily be read by kids, depending on their age and maturity, and adults. It is one of those books that has elements that can appeal to most age ranges. That being said I don’t think very many adults would read it unless they are either fantasy fans or have kids who are reading it, which in my opinion is just sad as they are a great series of books. These books are probably modern urban fantasy with a heavy helping of Greek mythology so if you enjoy those kinds of things feel free to try them out. I sincerely think most people would enjoy them. Keep in mind they are primarily aimed at teens and have a heavy dose of humor and sarcasm though. Share your thoughts on the series in the comments as I am always curious what everyone else thinks of the series.