TITLE: The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the
Olympians #2)
AUTHOR: Rick Riordan
PUBLISHER: Disney Hyperion Books
PUBLICATION
DATE: April 1, 2006
GENRE: Fantasy, Greek Mythology, Adventure,
Young-adult
PAGES: 279
ISBN: 0-7868-5686-6
Sea of Monsters is the second installment of
the Percy Jackson and the Olympian series. This sequel of The Lightning Thief
features another round of adventure for the 13 year-old Percy, as together with
his friends, they sailed to the sea of monsters where they will encounter
countless villains that will do their best to defeat them. This multi-awarded
book presents fantasy and adventure based on the Greek mythology setting,
catching the attention of not only adventure-lover readers but also to ordinary
teen-ager readers as this novel touches relatable adolescent problems. The purpose
of this book review is to opinionatedly assess the merits and demerits of the novel.
The novel starts with Percy, preparing for his
return to Camp Half-blood. He had recurring nightmare of his lost satyr friend.
He, Annabeth and his new friend, Tyson went together to the camp, only to find
it infiltrated with monster. Percy is then faced with two dilemmas, finding his
friend and acquiring the Golden Fleece that will protect them from monster
attacks. They journeyed to the sea of monsters where they encountered many
obstacles in their adventure, especially Percy’s nemesis, Luke. The book ends
with a major cliff-hanger that will surely make anyone wait for its sequel.
Rick Riordan started developing the character of
Percy Jackson when his son, who studies Greek mythology, requested him to
create a bedtime story that combines the old characters of Greek myths with new
ones thus he created Percy which he thinks, is a good idea for his new novel. The
character of Percy is inspired from the struggles of his son in school because
both of them are diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia. He clarified though that his
son is not the same with Percy as the character’s personality is based from his
past middle-school students.
The novel strongly emphasizes relationship where
Percy is always confronted with problems regarding his relationship with his mother,
his father, his freak half-brother, his enemy which is Luke, Clarisse, and his unstable
relationship with Annabeth. Many instances in the novel are dedicated with
Percy trying his best to improve his relationship to his mother and father and
also accepting the fact that he has a monster half-brother. His rocky
relationship with Annabeth is also tested as they agreed to cooperate in their
task to return their lost friend and to get the golden fleece. The novel excelled in its way of making his
life realistic as he faces the problems that teen-agers faces today. Even if
Percy is a demi-god, he still feels insecurity and he also shows some bratty
attitude from time to time. A teen-ager’s stubbornness was also represented in
the novel when Percy forced to take on a journey even if it was Clarrise who is
told to take the journey.
Sea of Monsters has a lot of strengths,
especially in its character development. The novel also has a good plot
structure where there is no dragging part in the story and the climax and
resolution is well-paced. Some of the scenes are very predictable but the
author included twists in the story. The twists are quite unexpected, particularly
the ending where a major twist happened, changing the course of the story.
These plot twists made the readers look forward as to what will happen in the
next book.
In addition, the novel had also presented Greek
mythology in an excellent way. Every Greek characters are introduced well and
the story stayed consistent with the myth except for some minimal variations
that are made in order to give way with story’s plot. Reading this novel will
surely increase one’s knowledge with Greek mythology.
The novel’s weakness is its too fast pacing
where most of the adventure scenes cannot be really properly visualized.
Description of the scenes are not vivid enough and it was obvious that the
author wanted to end the fighting scenes quickly. The failure of making this
scenes vivid leads to dissatisfaction as it is clear that the plotline is good however,
it cannot be fully enjoyed. Since the novel is also part of a series, it is
difficult to read this novel as a stand-alone as the author expects the readers
to read the first book first. The old characters were not introduced again and one
will surely have a hard time in comprehending the story if the one did not read
the first book. It is disappointing but can be excused as a marketing strategy.
To sum it all up, the merits of the novel
outweigh its demerits. The novel is a satisfying and the weaknesses are minimal
and can be easily ignored, if one will focus on its good side, it is certain
that this novel will be one of the favourites. The novel is interesting
especially to teens since they can find themselves in this book figuratively. The
plotline, themes and writing style are commendable. This novel is recommended
to adventure-lovers, mythology fans, teen-agers and even adults. This novel is
a worthy read.
