Today we are going back to the mystical world of Greek Mythology with The Battle of the Labyrinth, book four of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan. It opens on Percy attending orientation at his soon to be new school only to be chased and attacked by a group of Empousa. While trying to escape he runs into Rachel Dare, a young mortal that Percy had previously met when trying to accidentally slice her in half at Hoover Dam the previous winter and who just happens to be able to see through the mist. After escaping, and accidentally blowing up the band room, Percy joins Annabeth and heads to camp. He quickly discovers that there is a new sword instructor named Quintus, Luke is trying to find a way through the Labyrinth of Daedalus to attack camp, and perhaps most disturbing, Annabeth has been working with Clarisse to figure out a map of the labyrinth in order to stop him. At the same time Grover is given an ultimatum of two weeks to find Pan and Tyson shows up to spend the summer at camp. After accidentally finding an entrance to the labyrinth inside camp, Percy, Annabeth, Grover, and Tyson join forces to find Pan and prove they found him, find Daedalus and get him to help stop Luke’s attack, and find Nico to figure out what his role in all of this may be. In their attempt to do so they end up splitting up with Grover and Tyson going after Pan and Percy and Annabeth going after Daedalus. Their main problem though is finding a way to navigate the labyrinth, a problem that is solved when they discover that a mortal who can see through the mist can see the correct path. Enter one Rachel Dare, clear-sighted mortal.
One of things that I liked about this particular book in the series is that you can totally tell the characters are now teenagers. I say this because we are only now really starting to see the typical teen drama about romance. Unfortunately, we may be able to see it but poor Percy seems woefully oblivious. He genuinely seems to have no idea why Annabeth goes from fine to giving him the cold shoulder, struggles to connect this to the presence of Rachel Dare, and is even more confused about why Annabeth seems to hate Rachel. I actually found Percy’s confusion to be extremely entertaining to read. Tying into that, this book does a great job of continuing the humor that is a hallmark of the series. In fact, this book contains one of my favorite scenes, in terms of humor, out of the entire series. There is a scene in the latter part of the book, after Rachel joined them, where they are confronting Luke and Kronos. I have to admit I would not have thought this was effective but a blue plastic hairbrush straight to the eye actually is. Go Rachel! I know Rachel may not be one of the heroes but she really has her moments, just saying. Another interesting thing about this book is how it continues the theme of Percy unintentionally following in the footsteps of the ancient Greek heroes. In this case though there is a definite amalgamation as he repeats feats that were previously done by Hercules, Odysseus, Daedalus, and Theseus, all in one book. That is a bit of a wide range and a lot of ground to cover. As always, Percy and Annabeth are up to the task but they are really starting to rack up the heroic achievements, Percy especially. You can also tell that things are really starting to ramp up. Luke’s forces are larger and more active and Kronos is up and moving around, so to speak, as they work on gearing up for the main part of the war. It makes it feel like the final showdown will be epic. I am giving this book 4.5 out of 5 stars.
This was a great book that continued a great series and if you are a fan of the fantasy genre than I suggest you try it. Keep in mind this is the fourth book and you really probably should read the first three books before reading this one. This series is also predominantly aimed at teens and young adults but could also potentially be enjoyed by adults as well. If you happen to know a teen who is reading the series consider reading it with them. I would recommend being careful about letting younger readers read the series as there is a decent amount of violence present in the books. Let me know what you think of the books in the comments and keep an eye out for my review of the final book in the series.