This week, I read The Battle of the Labyrinth, the fourth book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. I bought the book in April 2010, so I figured that it would be a good time to read it. :P And guess what? This book doesn’t count for my summer reading, although the first book in the series does. 
That’s just more support for my “Summer Reading isn’t useless, just extremely unorganized” theory.
I’d love to compare this book to the other books in the series, but I barely remember most of them. I read the second book, The Sea of Monsters, around three and a half years ago. I read the first book, The Lightning Thief, three years ago (Yay for reading things out of order!), and again last year. I read the third book, The Titan’s Curse, three years ago, too. So I could only accurately compare this book to The Lightning Thief.
The first book was more ‘coming-of-age’-y. Like, it related to things like growing up, suddenly having adult responsibilities, not fitting in, and so on. It sort of taught lessons to kids. This book, though, didn’t have lessons. It was just action, if that makes sense. That didn’t really affect the quality of the book. The only thing I noticed was that the ending didn’t have something for me to remember when I finished reading if that makes sense. Like Carrie sort of reminds people not to bully, as does Nineteen Minutes. But this book sort of just ends.
Grover and Tyson, Percy’s not-Half-Blood sidekicks, were annoying as always in this book. I don’t know why I couldn’t stand them. I never have liked either of them at all. They’re just so annoying for no reason in particular. There was a part in the book where Tyson and Grover got lost for a couple of chapters, which was nice. Highlight for spoilers.
Rachel Elizabeth Dare, a girl from one of the earlier books (I don’t know which one), has a bigger role in the story. She’s sort of a foil to Annabeth, because she’s sort of a ‘go with the flow’ person, while Annabeth is more organized.
This book gets really confusing if you don’t know Greek mythology that well. I vaguely remember the twelve Olympians’ roles, but there were still lots of parts of the book which were confusing.
This book wasn’t the best book in the series. There were lots of parts which just dragged on and on. However, if you want to finish this series, or if you’re interested in mythology, then I’d recommend it.
And I just looked up the series on Wikipedia. Apparently, they’re going to be filming the sequel. I don’t know why, really. The first movie was good as a standalone movie, but unfaithful to the book. It made the trio seventeen years old, which is really annoying, seeing as there was a prophecy in the book which stated “Once Percy (OR any other child of Poseidon, Zeus, or Hades) turns sixteen, he will either destroy the world or save it”. Also, Annabeth, who was blonde in the book, was played by a brunette actress, when they could’ve just as easily used Anna Sophia Robb or Dakota Fanning. Or they could’ve used a wig. Plus, two of the three actors for the trio are older than twenty. So by the time they’d finish the movies, one actor would be twentysomething, and the other two would be thirtysomething. And they’re supposed to be playing teenagers.
Plus, the movie didn’t get great reviews, because people were just calling it a Harry Potter knockoff. I haven’t seen or read Harry Potter, so I can’t comment on that.
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