The Battle of the Labyrinth: Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 4

MY RATING SYSTEM5 stars--WOW4 stars--would read again3 stars--was good, won't read again2 stars--read it, but didn't enjoy it1 star--didn't finish, it was so awfulDo I need to read books before this one: yesCliffhanger: noSUMMARYOrientation for freshmen is in June. Mom's boyfriend, Mr Blofis, got Percy into his school. There Percy bumps into Rachel, the mortal who sees through Mist. Rachel sees the cheerleaders, who are really empousas, tells Percy to run. In the band room, he tells her the truth about Olympus, and she's relieved because of everything she's seen. 2 cheerleaders set the school on fire and Mr Blofis thinks it was Percy. Annabeth is angry because she and Percy were going to go to a movie before going to camp, and she saw him with Rachel.At camp, Percy goes to archery, sees the biggest hellhound ever. The new sword teacher, Quintus, introduces Mrs O'Leary. Quintus is helping while Mr D is away.The Council of Cloven Elders give Grover 1 more week to find Pan. Grover's got a girlfriend, a dryad, Juniper. Tyson's at camp, too. Percy tells him Nico is the son of Hades; Tyson knows that means the Titans could use him for the prophecy.Percy receives an Iris message that shows Nico burning his game cards. Someone tells Nico he can exchange a soul for a soul to bring Bianca back.Grover and Percy talk about the Labyrinth. Clarisse found Chris Rodriguez, who'd joined the Titans, mumbling about string; he's going mad from the monsters and traps there. They think Luke is going to use the Labyrinth to attack the camp. Annabeth says the Labyrinth may be where Pan is hiding. Grover, “Satyrs hate going underground. No searcher would ever try going in that place. No flowers. No sunshine. No coffee shops!” “But,” Annabeth said, “the Labyrinth can lead you almost anywhere. It reads your thoughts. It was designed to fool you, to trick you and kill you; but if you can make the Labyrinth work for you—” “It could lead you to the wild god.”Playing a camp battle, Percy and Annabeth find the entrance to the Labyrinth. That night, Percy dreams of Daedalus.EVALUATIONI love this series for making Greek myths accessible by making them current, showing humans fight the same battles no matter who or when or where.Relationships the theme of this book: Peer, romantic, family, faith. I like that Percy, Annabeth, and Rachel have some relationship issues, and, because it's all from Percy's point of view, it's not full of angst and multiple reviews of the dialog.The absolute best part is the criticism of current education policies.RECOMMENDATIONEveryone following Percy's journey. This is good stuff.FAVORITE QUOTES[offering Coke and Happy Meals to the dead] Ghost, “In my day, we used animal blood. It’s perfectly good enough. They can’t taste the difference.” Nico, “I will treat them with respect.” Ghost, “At least let me keep the toy.”[running through Alcatraz] The last thing I saw was Tyson picking up a Dippin’ Dots stand and throwing it at Kampê. Ice cream and poison exploded everywhere, all the little snakes in Kampê’s hair dotted with tutti-frutti. [little later] She was plastered in ice cream and T-shirts. One of the bear heads on her waist was now wearing a pair of crooked plastic Alcatraz sunglasses.Hephaestus: “It isn’t easy being a brilliant inventor. Always alone. Always misunderstood. Easy to turn bitter, make horrible mistakes. People are more difficult to work with than machines. Daedalus started well enough. He helped the Princess Ariadne and Theseus because he felt sorry for them. He tried to do a good deed. And everything in his life went bad because of it. Was that fair?” The god shrugged. “I don’t know if Daedalus will help you, lad, but don’t judge someone until you’ve stood at his forge and worked with his hammer, eh?”“I can’t get him to clean his room, but he’ll clean a hundred tons of horse manure out of some monster’s stables?”Sphinx, “Welcome, lucky contestants! Get ready to play…ANSWER THAT RIDDLE!” Canned applause. “Fabulous prizes! Pass the test, and you get to advance! Fail, and I get to eat you! Who will be our contestant?” Annabeth, “Ask your riddle.” “20 riddles, actually!” “What? But back in the old days—” “Oh, we’ve raised our standards! To pass, you must show proficiency in all 20. Isn’t that great?” Applause. “What…is the capital of Bulgaria?” “Sofia, but—” “Correct!” Applause. “Please be sure to mark your answer clearly on your test sheet with a number 2 pencil. Make sure you bubble each answer clearly and stay inside the circle. If you have to erase, erase completely or the machine will not be able to read your answers. Now, next question—” [Q&A] “Hold up! It’s just a bunch of dumb, random facts. Riddles are supposed to make you think.” “Think? How am I supposed to test whether you can think? That’s ridiculous!”POSSIBLE TRIGGERSSex: kissLanguage: 0 F words, 1 Lord's name in vain, 0 S wordsViolence: fights with myths, deaths

Good and easy reading. Hard to put down. Recommend the whole series. Good for young and old. Flows very easily.

THE BATTLE OF THE LABYRINTH is the fourth book of Rick Riordan's projected five-book opus, PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS. The series began with THE LIGHTNING THIEF and has constantly picked up steam as it's progressed. I've been reading the series to my son, and we're looking at the fifth and final book coming out next year with a mixture of anticipation and dread.We want the next book. We want to know how everything turns out for Percy, Grover, Annabeth, and the rest, but we don't want the adventure to end. Riordan's imagination and zest for action is matched only by his wit and humor. We've become fans and end up talking about the books and Greek mythology quite often.If you haven't read the series yet, you've missed out on a lot. And you'll probably want to stop reading this review now. Otherwise you're going to trip across some spoilers for the earlier three books. Riordan's books, Percy's adventures, are an organic tale, growing and adding to canon with each new volume. Things just don't stay the same in Percy's ever-changing world.Well, nothing stays the same except Percy's continuing bad luck with schools. At the beginning of this one, Percy's mom has a new boyfriend that gets Percy into a well-respected school that Percy normally wouldn't have a shot at with his past record of suspicious destruction. Sure enough, almost as soon as Percy sets foot on school grounds, he's attacked by demonic cheerleaders (the empousai, from Greek myth) and the school BURNS.I couldn't help laughing throughout the section as I read it. Friends of Percy are going to be blown away by the sequence even though they're expecting it. My son and I kept cracking each other up for days afterward. These books just keep on giving!The book turns more serious, to a degree, when Luke's plans to invade Camp Half-Blood are revealed. Luke, Percy's arch-enemy, is still trying to bring the Titan Kronos back to life so he can wreak vengeance against the Greek gods. Camp Half-Blood, because it houses and trains so many of the demi-gods - the children of the gods with mortal parents, is a prime target.As always, Riordan establishes the roots of his story in traditional Greek myth. This one deals with Daedalus, the famed inventor that created the Labyrinth that housed the Minotaur. According to Riordan's story, the Labyrinth has become - to a degree - a living thing that continues growing throughout the world and time. I loved the concept and my son was totally engrossed in the idea that the world was honeycombed with magical tunnels. This is the kind of thinking I've come to rely on the author for.There are other adventures that take place before Percy, Annabeth, and Grover find an opening to the Labyrinth and climb down inside it, but once they're in place the adventure kicks into high gear. They're chasing after Nico, the son of Hades, that no one else at the camp knows about. Percy feels guilty about the death of Nico's sister and doesn't want everyone weirding out about the younger boy. Percy still believes he has a chance to set things straight between him and Nico.Grover's situation has gotten more dire regarding his hunt for the god, Pan. With all the failures Grover has racked up, the satyr community is thinking about pulling Grover's searcher's license, which means he can't continue hunting for Pan. A lot of things are at stake in this one.Tyson, Percy's Cyclopean half-brother, stars in this one as well. I have to admit, Tyson is one of my favorite characters in the books. Tyson, with all his childish innocence, has won a special place in the hearts of my son and I. Every time Tyson's on stage we're just waiting to see what he's going to say or do. In this one, Tyson gets to meet Briares, one of the Hundred-Handed Ones, an ancient from Greek myth. Briares's reaction to his jailer is hilarious and I don't want to spoil it, but my son and I went around doing it for days, to the point my wife believed we'd taken leave of our senses. She hasn't quite gotten into the Olympian view yet.In addition to all the great imagery and dialogue, Riordan continues piling on the Greek mythology in this one. I love how he twists it and brings it into our world. And he dangles each cliffhanger and reveal of the plot with evident glee and precise precision. This next year of waiting is going to be a long one.

loved it so much, percy jackson is cool guy as well. i love how the plots are completed in every book

I actually read this when it came out and several times since. I lost this book when I moved several years ago. I recently got directed to a podcast called The Newest Olympian and they are talking about this book.

My daughter thoroughly enjoys this series, and the shipping was extremely fast and efficient.

Product arrived promptly and exactly as described, would buy from seller again.

I love the Percy Jackson series. It has made readers out of many reluctant readers.

BUENA CALIDAD. SATISFACTORIO.

Muy bueno me encantó

Ideale per ragazzi

Fiction Thriller Drole Detente Dieux et Demi Dieux x x x x x x x x x x x x

This book is amazing! I am a huge fan of Percy Jackson and the Olympian series and The Heroes of Olympus series. I absolutely love Rick Riordan's books and are looking forward to read more of his books. I had recommended these books to my siblings and friends and they loved it too.