Revisiting The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

Welcome back! This book used to be my favorite out of the series, so I'm excited to get into it!

If you haven't read my last post:

And if you haven't read any of my posts on this series, you might want to start here:

Title: The Battle of the Labryinth
Series: Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Author: Rick Riordan
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Publication Date: March 6, 2008
Pages: 361
Genre: Fantasy, YA
My Rating: 4.75/5
Goodreads Rating: 4.42

A brief summary

The day before Percy leaves for Camp Half-blood, he is required to attend orientation for his first year of high school. However, it does not go smoothly. Starting with seeing a familiar face introduced to him at Hoover Dam: Rachel Elizabeth Dare, and ending with the band hall of the school being in flames, Percy can only hope as he runs from the wreckage that he did not ruin his reputation with Paul Blofis, a teacher at the high school and the boyfriend of Percy's mom. To make matters worse, Percy and Annabeth were supposed to have a "date" after the orientation that is quickly ruined when Annabeth sees the state Percy is in and the girl that is with him.

Racing back to Camp Half-blood and leaving Rachel behind, Percy is introduced to the new swordplay instructor, Quintus and his pet hellhound Mrs. O'Leary, who is filling in while Dionysus is away on business. They have a short conversation before Chiron leads Percy to Grover's own personal judgement day. The Council of Cloven Elders, the supposed leaders of the satyrs, have determined that Grover is out of time on his search for the missing god of wild things, Pan. Chiron makes the council see reason and gives Grover one more week; one more week for Grover to realize his dream of bringing Pan back to the world.

Percy returns to his cabin to find his cyclops brother Tyson waiting for him. Tyson received a vacation from his work in the underwater forges meaning he gets to hang out with Percy all summer (and help with whatever quest they inevitably go on). And while during a game of hunting monsters in the woods, Percy and Annabeth find an entrance to Daedalus's Labyrinth: a vast, interconnected, and ever-growing system of tunnels and chambers underneath the country, meaning that inevitable quest might be closer than they realize.

A way too in-depth summary and review

I know it's early in the post to be making a personal interjection, but aren't any of the other campers jealous of all the quests Percy and Annabeth have gone on? In the first book it's said Annabeth has been one of the longest campers at Camp Half-blood due to how many half-bloods die, but even then if I was at a camp for multiple years training so that one day I may receive the honor of a quest, I would be pretty peeved that these two get to go on quests all of the time. To be fair, we do see that jealously from Clarisse in the second book, but it doesn't seem like an issue in any of the other books.

Anyway, throughout this all, Percy is receiving iris messages in the dead of night, iris messages that show Nico. First, we see the son of Hades in the Underworld talking to a ghost about finding a soul to trade for his sister's, the late Bianca, which Percy believes means Nico will come after him in revenge. And then we see Nico, accompanied by the same ghost, dig a whole and throw in food and drinks, summoning other ghosts to get a second opinion. Percy is understandably concerned for both his and Nico's life, and realizes that Nico escaped the woods by falling into the Labyrinth.

A council of all the camp counselors (heads of the individual cabins) meets to discuss the Labyrinth and the possibility of Kronos invading the camp through it. It is decided that a quest must occur to find Daedalus before Luke does and convince him to help the camp thwart Kronos and Luke's plans. As the most knowledgeable about the Labyrinth, it is decided that Annabeth will lead the quest and invites Percy, Tyson, and Grover (who believes Pan must be underground) to accompany her. At the end of the meeting, Quintus gives Percy a special dog whistle that can call Mrs. O'Leary at any time if he needs help. Percy is understandably hesitant about this gift seeing as it came from a random man that just showed up at camp and he has a history of receiving bad gifts after the Luke-flying-shoes-trying-to-pull-him-into-Tartarus incident in the first book, but takes it anyway.

And now for another character analysis:

I'm a Clarisse apologist: part II

Thank you for returning. There wasn't much Clarisse action in the third book, but she is basically the only side character in these books that has any character arc whatsoever. And Percy still strongly dislikes her. I know it's a slightly different situation but when Percy saw Gabe lift his hand at his mom, he tried to kill him on the spot. When Percy saw Ares raise his hand to Clarisse, he was barely able to muster up any sympathy for her. That's a bit of a double standard, don't you think?

Over the summer, Clarisse had found a half-blood named Chris walking around aimlessly outside muttering to himself. Chris was in the second book working for Luke, but he didn't do much else. Clarisse and Chris actually knew each other before he turned sides; before he wandered into the Labyrinth and gone crazy. Clarisse tried to help him. She brought him back to camp and stayed with him at all hours of the day, but with Dionysus (who specializes in madness) away on business, there was nothing she could do but try and keep him alive. And she does. She cares for him tenderly until real help can be there, which Percy sees. Percy does start to gain more sympathy for Clarisse after this incident, but still his opinion on Clarisse still feels charged.

And what did Clarisse do to deserve Percy's hatred? Bully him one time which he immediately got revenge for, and her dad hates Percy, which she can't really control. I guess she also tries to maim him, but again he quickly gets justice. Clarisse saved the camp and delayed the return of Kronos in book two, she is shown to be a child of abuse, she went into the Labyrinth and helped Annabeth with her research which inadvertently means that she helped keep Percy alive. I can't handle the Clarisse slander anymore, I won't stand for it! (But I will keep reading the books regardless).

A return to form

This has been a very commentary focused post so far with not a lot of plot, but I wanted to add one more thing before we continue. One of my favorite things about these longer series is when we have a "return to form." In Sea of Monsters Grover was missing and in Titan's Curse Annabeth was held hostage, so it's nice getting back to the foundation of the series and having these three characters together for a quest. However, I wish more was done with it. I think there could be some wonderful heart-to-heart moments where these kids can open up more to each other. They've known each other for years and we're given the cues that Annabeth is conflicted about Luke, that Percy is genuinely terrified of Kronos no matter how brave he is, that Grover is also terrified but of the failure of his mission. But none of them really talk about it much. I think it could add more depth to their relationships to actually bond verbally with each other.

Okay enough ranting, the OG gang (+Tyson) go into the labyrinth and end up at Alcatraz Island in San Francisco. Tyson helps free his hero, Briares, a hundred-handed one (a monster who's name is quite literal) that is being held hostage by Kampě, a dragon lady with snakes for legs who is the jail warden of the hundred-handed ones. The gang barely escapes with Briares in haul, but Briares is too traumatized and demoralized and runs away, disappointing Tyson in the process.

A friend (or foe?) reappears

Onto the next plot point, the gang lands at what the chapter title affectionately calls "the Demon Dude Ranch," a farm that has all manner of mythological animals. And who else is at the farm? Nico di Angelo. He is upset at seeing Percy, but the owner of the farm, Geryon, says that there will be no fighting among guests. In fact, there will be no fighting because after a little bit of hospitality, the gang including Nico are tied up to be sold to Kronos's army. However, Percy makes a deal with Geryon: he will clean the absolute wasteland that is the human-eating horse stable by sunset and Geryon will release his new prisoners.

With a little bit of help from a naiad, Percy collects a bunch of shells from the beach that explode with water when he throws them. Percy cleans all of the horse shit but goes a little overboard with it. You see, the water is not coming from the shells, the shells are acting like a catalyst for the water Percy can innately summon and he starts to get drunk on his own power. It's only when the horses beg him to stop due to being half-drowned that Percy finally releases his power and runs to the ranch before sun finally falls.

Believe it or not, Geryon is not a man of his word and Percy kills him pretty easily. The ranch hand gives the kids a gadget that will lead them to Hephaestus, and they're on their way. But before they leave, Nico and Percy make amends when he reveals he is not after Percy's soul, but the soul of Daedalus as it would be more powerful than Percy's according to the ghost that has been guiding him. Percy has the realization that the random iris messages he has been getting has been from Bianca, trying to protect her brother even from the afterlife, and asks Nico to try and summon her again now that he is present. When Bianca appears, she tells Nico that she's at peace and he must let go, finally allowing Nico to start the healing process of losing his sister.

As the group heads out to ask Hephaestus about the whereabouts of Daedalus, Nico decides that he will remain at the farm for the time being and try to work through all that he's discovered.

Skipping forward to Hephaestus's workshop, he says that he will help the kids if they can find out who has been using his forge in the center of Mount St. Helen's. The intruders somehow mysteriously disappear before he can catch them in the act. As they're about to reach the forge, Grover catches a smell of dirt and trees coming from a diverging tunnel and Percy makes the tough decision to split the party. Grover and Tyson will go down the tunnel that could possibly lead to Pan, and Percy and Annabeth will carry on to Hephaestus's forge. They say goodbye and go their separate ways, hoping that they will one day see each other again.

Percy falls in love

Upon reaching the forge, Percy and Annabeth discover who has been using it: telkhines (sea demons). Annabeth decides to go on her own with her invisibility cap to scope it out, but after a while of waiting Percy decides to go in after her. A bunch of stuff occurs that leaves Percy and Annabeth about to be surrounded by the telkhines, so Percy tells Annabeth to run along and tell Hephaestus what they found. Annabeth refuses at first, but seeing what must be done she kisses Percy and runs off. Using the advice from the naiad, Percy tries and calls the water to him causing Mt. St. Helen's to erupt as water floods in. Percy is ejected from the volcano and passes out mid-air.

So... about that kiss.

Personally, I think it's great. In the last post I wrote about the budding relationship between Percy and Annabeth and the kiss seems like a natural progression. However, I have heard arguments that the kiss is pretty unceremonious for a build up of 3.5 books. There's maybe two sentences about it and Percy and Annabeth never talk about it again (which I have an issue with). But the point of the kiss doesn't seem to be romantically charged. It's born out of romantic feelings, but the kiss is a good luck and goodbye. I personally think that makes it more beautiful. A kiss can say I love you, but in many different ways (it makes me think about the kiss in the last episode of Community).

Though, I will say as a Percy and Annabeth shipper, ignoring my analyst side, I wish we got to see a bit more of their romance throughout the books.

Percy wakes up on an island in the middle of no where, beaten and broken. How he got there is a mystery to him, but he is nursed to health by a beautiful girl named Calypso. Calypso was punished by the gods for simply being a daughter of Atlas and placed on this island forever in peace, but far enough away to not cause harm. Every once in a while as both a blessing and a curse, the gods send a hero to wash up on her shores; someone who can keep her company, but also someone who can't stay and she will inevitably fall in love with. Percy also starts to get feelings for her and considers staying on her little paradise, but after a visit from Hephaestus he is reminded he must return. Percy leaves Calypso dejected, once again facing her eternal exile alone.

Percy goes to his funeral

Percy returns to camp to find a funeral service for him taking place. Annabeth starts to give a eulogy but spots him in the back of the amphitheater. Turns out Percy's been gone for two weeks and they were all sure he was dead. But alas, there's no time for dealing with that trauma as they must return to the Labyrinth. You see, when Hephaestus visited Percy on Calypso's island, he also gives him the key to finding Daedalus: a human who can see through the mist.

It's at this point that I realized I have not explained what the mist is in the almost 15,000 words I've written about this series so far. The mist is a magical barrier that exists so that humans don't see what is actually happening. The mist actually stopped Percy from realizing Tyson was a cyclops in the beginning of book two. It can make a titan look like a tall man, it can cause mortals to not remember a single thing about something magically traumatic that happened, and it can be manipulated by gods and demi-gods to trick the human mind. There are some humans that can see through the mist, though. Percy's mom has been able to see through the mist her whole life, and Rachel Elizabeth Dare is able to as well. That was how she was able to tell that Percy tried to stab her and that zombie guards were chasing him in the last book.

Begrudgingly, Annabeth allows Rachel to join them on their trip back to the Labyrinth.

I rant for exactly 150 words too many

This is a general rant for a lot of books, but it's something that's seemingly becoming more common as the series goes on.

I HATE when authors include scene breaks at seemingly random times. I'm not talking about chapter breaks, I'm talking about the indentations in between section of chapters.

For example:

There is absolutely no need for the break and it's a big pet peeve of mine. I think this occurs when writers start to think about their books from too much of a cinematic viewpoint. It gives, "I can't believe [insert outrageous thing here]!" to remind the viewer what was happening before the commercial break. It feels like I'm supposed to wait through five commercials and click the skip button three times before I can continue with the books. If you're a writer, please stop this.

Okay, rant over.

Something wicked this way comes

To give some additional context, throughout the book Percy has been having dreams of Daedalus. He sees his whole life story of being imprisoned by Minos for helping Theseus and Ariadne kill the minotaur in the labyrinth, to trying to escape his imprisonment with his son Icarus (which kills Icarus in the process), to essentially murdering his nephew Perdix. However, Perdix came up with a theory before his death on how to keep the human soul alive through transferring the consciousness to a mechanical body. Daedalus steals his research and runs from Minos's control. When Minos finally catches up with him, Daedalus kills him and retreats into his Labyrinth never to be heard from again.

Back in the Labyrinth with Rachel in tow, Rachel is able to see the exact route they need to take to find Daedalus's workshop. After a little run-in with Luke and his monsters, as well as a giant monster that Percy murders, the group makes it to Daedalus's lab with another half-blood they rescued from Kronos's army and with help from Mrs. O'Leary (the whistle was not a trick). Unfortunately for the gang, they are unable to convince the half-blood to turn to their side and he runs to rejoin the army.

Percy, Annabeth, and Rachel enter the workshop only to find Quintus, the swordplay instructor from the beginning of the book. The gang is confused to see him there and he explains the meaning of the name Quintus—it translated to five. As in, this is his fifth form he has assumed. Quintus is Daedalus.

Quintus/Daedalus reveals that the group is too late, he has already pledged his allegiance to Kronos's army. They promised him freedom from Minos, to reunite him with his son and nephew in the underworld and to throw Minos into Tartarus. Unfortunately, Minos has other plans as soldiers of Kronos's army push Nico into the workshop. That ghost that has been "guiding" him? That was Minos all along, guiding Nico to take Daedalus's soul so that he can be rebirthed once again. But Minos underestimated Nico and he casts him back to hell where he belongs.

The gang escapes the workshop on mechanical wings leaving Daedalus behind, but unlike Icarus, they do not fly too close to the sun and safely escape.

Back in the over-world, Percy, Annabeth, Nico, and Rachel try to find an entrance back into the Labyrinth again, and they do. Nico and Percy have a heart-to-heart about Nico not feeling like he fits in anywhere as the son of Hades. He feels like he only has ghosts as company but Percy reassures him he can have friends at camp, even though he doesn't completely believe it himself.

Suddenly the group unexpectedly finds the entrance to the mountain from the last book: the new temple of the titans. Percy takes Annabeth's cap of invisibility and enters the temple. Inside he sees Kronos's golden sarcophagus and Percy thinks to himself he can just end this right here, he can open it and kill whatever is inside. But when he does, Luke's body is in the sarcophagus. Percy is confused and hesitates, a critical mistake as telkhines enter the room before he can kill what is in the sarcophagus. He hides as the telkhines bring in the half-blood from earlier that Percy saved, ready to pledge his allegiance to Kronos—the last soul Kronos needs to rise. Percy tries to stop him, revealing his presences in the process, but he is powerless as the half-blood goes through with it and Luke rises from his slumber—his blue eyes replaced with gold. Percy tries to run, but Kronos being the titan of time slows him down. With the help of Rachel throwing her hairbrush at the unexpecting Kronos, Percy escapes the clutches of the titan utterly defeated in the presence of one so powerful.

Grover Underwood

Back in the Labyrinth for the millionth time, the gang tries to find their way back to camp when they find the trail of Gover and Tyson. They follow it and are reunited with their friends and introduced to the lost god Pan, withering away on a bed surrounded by animals.

I have not talked a lot about Grover in these posts, especially for him being such a critical character in these books. The truth is, when you dissect these books as I have been doing, you start to realize that Grover feels like he is in his own story. Other than in the first book when his goal was to keep Percy safe, his goals since then have felt far removed from the issues at hand. In the second book, Grover was trying to find Pan and didn't care about much else. In the third book he was along for the ride but mostly for his tracking abilities—he's not even in the climax of the book. Now in this book, he has been gone for the majority of it on his own quest. While I think Grover and Percy's relationship is nice, it feels like you can take Grover out of this whole book and nothing would change. In the next book (whoops, already started reading it), he's not even in the book until halfway through because he's working on his own thing. This scene in the book is a really nice moment for Grover, but it feels like the climax of a story we did not read.

Pan said he was waiting for Grover, for a satyr like him to carry his message: Pan is dead. But it's not supposed to be a tragedy, it's supposed to start a movement to create and nurture your own wilderness. Pan is dead, but he lives on in all of us. Grover is disappointed his life goal of returning Pan to the world has now ended, but he is uplifted by his new goal: to spread the word of Pan across the world.

The Battle of the Labyrinth

Let's finish this thing off. The gang minus Rachel return to Camp Half-blood, ready to fight Kronos's army. The battle is short and they are aided by Briares (the hundred-handed one) and Daedalus who has seen the error of his ways. While the camp wins the battle, they faced a few casualties–one of which being one of Dionysus's sons. Daedalus gives Annabeth a laptop with all of his research and says that it is time for him to face his fate; it is time he faces Icarus and Perdix. With his death, the labyrinth is forever destroyed. Nico also parts ways, saying that he still has answers to find about who his mother is and who it was that put him and his sister in the Lotus Casino, as well as who took them out. He promises Percy to keep an eye on Kronos the best he can.

Grover faces the council once again and with the help of the grieving Dionysus, it is decided that he will not be exiled. The council doesn't believe Grover's story of Pan, but Grover still leaves to spread the message anyway.

Before Percy leaves camp for the summer, he confronts Annabeth about the prophecy she received. He believes Annabeth left something out and drags it out of her. So now we have yet another prophecy to analyze:

"You shall delve in the darkness of the eternal maze,"

Self-explanatory.

"The dead, the traitor, and the lost one raise."

There were a lot of dead people raised in this book thanks to Nico, but I think it was specifically referring to Bianca. As for the "traitor," they saved that half-blood just for him to pledge his allegiance to Kronos, and the "lost one" being Pan.

"You shall rise or fall by the ghost king's hand,"

The ghost king being Minos. I think they mean rise metaphorically, but the death of Minos did lead to the kids literally rising on mechanical wings.

"The child of Athena's final stand."

I forgot to mention this one, but Daedalus is a son of Athena.

"Destroy with a hero's final breath,"

Daedalus destroyed the labyrinth with his death.

"And lose a love to worse than death."

Annabeth loses Luke, someone she has known for years and cares for deeply, to Kronos. A fate worse than death.

The book concludes with Percy celebrating his fifteenth birthday at his mom's apartment with Paul Blofis and Tyson. Paul asks his permission to propose to Percy's mom, and Percy agrees to tell Paul all about the Greek world. Also showing up to the party is Poseidon, a shock to both Percy and Percy's mom. Tyson is happy to see him and Paul get's very confused when Tyson calls Poseidon "daddy," which Percy's mom quickly explains away. Poseidon speaks to Percy privately to learn about the rising of Kronos. He tells Percy that he is his favorite son (which is a HUGE fuck you to Tyson, every other cyclops that exists, and Poseidons legitimate wedlock son that we briefly meet in the next book), and gives Percy a sand dollar and tells him to spend it wisely.

Poseidon leaves and Percy steps onto the fire escape where he plants part of a flower that Calypso gave him from her island. But also on the fire escape is Nico who apparently has a dangerous plan on how to defeat Kronos, but before he explains, Percy invites Nico in for cake and time with his family.

Conclusion

Yeah, I stand by this being my favorite book so far. I'm so glad this book leans into the darker tone set in the last book and we get to see the rise of the genuinely terrifying Kronos. I've said it from the first book, but Riordan is pretty great at making villains. And I'm loving what he is doing with Nico's character (I might have to make a tier chart of characters at the end of this).

As for my project, unfortunately the fifth book is not included in Tiny Bookshop, making this the last book in the series that will count towards my goal. So it's three down, 346 to go.

I'm so excited to see how this series ends! I honestly don't remember most of what happens in the final book, so I'm curious to see how they defeat Kronos once and for all.

Let me know what you think! See you next time!