Books

Book 31: Artemis Fowl – Eoin Colfer

Although I’ve read this before I’m still counting it as a book I’ve read this year. I should probably only count it as a half, because it is a young adult novel and I should be challenging myself, but that would be completely undermining some of the brilliant Young Adult fiction that is currently out there. Although a lot of times the novels are formulaic and sometimes tedious in their making sure the reader understands the plot lines and characters, I just have to remind myself they’re written for a younger audience.

Now I always debate with myself on whether I should count books I re-read for this blog. I think I’ve settled on the criteria that as long as I have not previously reviewed them here I’m going to count them. There are some books I re-read pretty frequently (At Swim Two Boys, the Inheritance Cycle, The Harry Potter books, etc.) so this will allow me to ‘review’ them, but only count them once in my various yearly goals.

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Books

Book 25: The Last Olympian – Rick Riordan

In this final installment of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, the battle truly rages for New York, for Mount Olympus, and for the world. Titans are now fully reforming and the demigods/Heroes/half-bloods must fight to save everything. It is incredibly difficult as the gods of Olympus are facing attacks on multiple fronts from the Titans Oceanus and Typhon.

The book starts out with a covert attack on Luke and Kronos’ supposed command ship Princess Andromeda. This ends with Percy marooned on Calypso’s magical island Ogygia in order to recuperate. When he returns to camp, all hell breaks loose as they are facing a spy, an increasing number of opponents, and greater losses of life. Nico, son of Hades, made a suggestion to Percy of taking on Achilles curse, dipped in the River Styx and becoming invincible, to which Percy finally agrees.

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Books

Book 24: The Battle of the Labyrinth – Rick Riordan

In the fourth Percy Jackson and the Olympians book we encounter what is perhaps one of the most well known stories of Greek mythology, the Labyrinth. In an interesting twist, as if the entire series wasn’t interesting enough, we find that the Labyrinth still exists and has taken on a life of its own. The creator Deaedalus is ‘alive’ and as long as he lives the Labyrinth has continued to morph and expand.

Luke, the half-blood traitor, has discovered that there is an entrance directly from the Labyrinth into Camp Half-Blood and plans on using the entrance to bypass the magical boundaries and destroy the camp from the inside. This plan succeeds, as in it gets the enemy into the camp, but it does not destroy the camp. Camp receives enough warning and sends Annabeth, Percy, Grover and Tyson on a quest, the first lead by Annabeth to find the creator Daedalus and convince him to help them defeat the forces. Meanwhile, Grover has been told he has seven days to find Pan and if he does not his searcher’s license will be revoked, thanks to his encounter with the essence of the Wild in New Mexico.

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Books

Book 23: The Titan’s Curse – Rick Riordan

In book three of the Percy Jackson and the Olypmians series, everything starts out as quickly as in the other novels. Grover has been following up on a couple of potential half-bloods at a military academy and needs Percy and Thalia’s help. He also brings along Thalia, the daughter of Zeus, who sacrificed herself to make sure Luke and Annabeth could get to camp, but was rescued from the tree by the Golden Fleece.

The two half-bloods are Nico and Bianca di Angelo. Little is known about them and as the story progresses Riordan drops little hints that they have some how fallen out of time for a long period of time, such as asking Bianca who the president before last was and she says Roosevelt. They are able to get Bianca and Nico from the school, but Bianca is offered to join the Huntresses of Artemis and accepts the position abandoning her brother to Camp Half-Blood. In the process however Annabeth disappears and is ultimately held hostage by the Titan Atlas. She takes the weight of the sky on her shoulders to supposedly save Luke, but this doesn’t work. The goddess Artemis is later tricked into taking the sky from Artemis.

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Books

Book 22: The Sea of Monsters – Rick Riordan

This is the second novel in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and was just as exciting and as quick a read as the first book. With the beginning of this book the reader finds Grover on his search to find the legendary Pan, god of the wild, and Percy trying to survive yet another school year in the mortal world. Giants attack Percy and he discovers that his friend over this past year is a cyclops named Tyson, whom we later find out is his half brother when Poseidon claims him similar to the way he claimed Percy.

As they make their way to camp, they find out how much things have changed and how dangerous the world has become for half-bloods. Luke, a son of Hermes, has poisoned the sacred pine tree and the camp’s protections are slowly fading. Meanwhile, a full grown, incredibly dangerous cyclops holds Grover captive, and also has in his possession the legendary Golden Fleece. We discover that Grover bound himself to Percy so that if he dies so does Percy creating a greater sense of urgency.

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