Wednesday 20 March 2013

The Sea of Monsters


Title : The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and The Olympians #2)
Writer : Rick Riordan
Number of Page : 198
Ebook Publisher : Disney Book Group

The heroic son of Poseidon makes an action-packed comeback in the second must-read installment of Rick Riordan's amazing young readers series. Starring Percy Jackson, a "half blood" whose mother is human and whose father is the God of the Sea, Riordan's series combines cliffhanger adventure and Greek mythology lessons that results in true page-turners that get better with each installment. In this episode, The Sea of Monsters, Percy sets out to retrieve the Golden Fleece before his summer camp is destroyed, surpassing the first book's drama and setting the stage for more thrills to come.

In my opinion:
It is getting interesting. I met new characters in this book and all of them are lovable.

The tree surrounding Half-Blood Camp was poisoned. It disrupted the balance in the camp and monsters started to come inside attacking the campers. Dionysus blamed Chiron for it and fired the centaur. As a substitute, Dionysus hired Tantalus to organize activities in the camp. Unfortunately, Tantalus didn't like Percy.

The quest was now to find Golden Fleece. It was a magical item which could cure anything. It was lost a long time ago and nobody knew its location. All Percy knew about Golden Fleece was the film "Jason and The Argonauts" (well, same as me haha... It's an old movie and used to be one of my favorite movie when I was a kid). But, Grover visited him in the dream. In the journey finding the God of the Wild "Pan", Grover encountered a monster and also a treasure. Percy believed that Golden Fleece was the treasure.

However, Tantalus didn't want to give permission for Percy to take the quest. He even gave the quest to Clarisse, Percy's rival from Ares House. Luckily, the God of Thief "Hermes" helped Percy to get away from camp. Hermes wanted Percy to bring Luke back since the god still believed that Luke could still be redeemed. Poor Hermes. I like this god since I like anything related to thief. And also, Hermes had this special phone which could talk. It is actually two snakes, female and male, and I just think it's awesome and creative. Funny snakes, lol.

Well, the truth was it was Luke who poisoned the tree.

So, it was Percy versus Clarisse. Who would succeed bringing the Golden Fleece back?

My favorite character in this book is Tyson. I think he was the most likable monster character I've ever read. Tyson was a Cyclops, child of god and nature spirit. Not a random god, actually. Most of them are the children of Poseidon and that made Tyson Percy's stepbrother. At first, Percy felt ashamed having a monster as brother. But as the story goes, he grew affection for his baby brother. And who don't love Tyson? His life was so sad, growing up in the card boxes on the street without anyone caring for him. He was very loyal to Percy, too. Awww!!!

Luke just chuckled. "The gods are so using you, Percy. Do you have any idea what's in store for you if you reach your sixteenth birthday? Has Chiron even told you the prophecy?"
I wanted to get in Luke's face and tell him off, but as usual, he knew just how to throw me off balance.
Sixteenth birthday?
I mean, I knew Chiron had received a prophecy from the Oracle many years ago. I knew part of it was about me. But, if I reached my sixteenth birthday? I didn't like the sound of that.
"I know what I need to know," I managed. "Like, who my enemies are."
"Then you're a fool."
Tyson smashed the nearest dining chair to splinters. "Percy is not a fool!" (my lol moment)

"I wanted to say, well ..." I tried to figure out how to apologize for getting embarrassed about him before the quest, for telling everyone he wasn't my real brother. It wasn't easy to find the words.
"I know what you will tell me," Tyson said, looking ashamed. "Poseidon did care for me after all."
"Uh, well—"
"He sent you to help me. Just what I asked for."
I blinked. "You asked Poseidon for ... me?"
"For a friend," Tyson said, twisting his shirt in his hands. "Young Cyclopes grow up alone on the streets, learn to make things out of scraps. Learn to survive."
"But that's so cruel!"
He shook his head earnestly. "Makes us appreciate blessings, not be greedy and mean and fat like Polyphemus. But I got scared. Monsters chased me so much, clawed me sometimes—"
"The scars on your back?"
A tear welled in his eye. "Sphinx on Seventy-second Street. Big bully. I prayed to Daddy for help. Soon the peo-ple at Meriwether found me. Met you. Biggest blessing ever. Sorry I said Poseidon was mean. He sent me a brother." (so touching T.T)

If you like fast pacing adventures, this book is definitely for you.

4/5   

2 comments:

  1. wah udah baca buku kedua aja. aku baru selesai buku pertama

    ReplyDelete
  2. ayooo semangat, mas... lanjutkan!

    ReplyDelete