Revisiting The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

I didn't get burnt out after writing one post! Welcome back to the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series! If you haven't read my post on the first book, I encourage you to go check it out!

Title: The Sea of Monsters
Series: Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Author: Rick Riordan
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Publication Date: April 1, 2006
Pages: 279
Genre: Fantasy, YA
My Rating:4/5
Goodreads Rating: 4.24/5

A brief summary

We once again find ourselves following Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, as he finishes up 7th grade. Miraculously without getting expelled again. He is excited to return to Camp Half-blood for the summer, but that excitement quickly fades as his mother reveals he won't be going. Chiron has said it's too dangerous for him, and his mother won't tell him why.

Filled with disappointment and concern, Percy heads to school with his new friend Tyson, who is "six-foot-three and built like the Abominable Snowman (pg. 9)." He is a homeless kid that that the school has taken on as a community project, but everyone bullies him for being different. Tyson is also super emotional, so Percy defends him from the school bullies, making Percy a target as well. And when a bunch of new kids (actually monsters in disguise) show up for the end of the year dodgeball game in P.E., he becomes the target of fiery metal dodgeballs that blow holes in the school. Luckily with the help of Tyson who can block the dodgeballs like they're nothing, and Annabeth who has apparently been following Percy around all day with her magic invisibility hat, they escape the school authorities and police that have come to investigate the carnage.

Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson load into a magical taxi run by The Gray Sisters, three old women who share one eye and one tooth. While it is a frightening car ride with the sisters arguing who should get the eye, the three arrive at Camp Half-blood relatively unharmed. However, when they see the monsters that are being fended off by the newly enacted border patrol, past the bounds where monsters should be able to go, Percy realizes that things at Camp Half-blood are much worse than he thought.

A way too in-depth summary and review

The monsters are mechanical bulls made in Hephaestus's forges, and leading the border patrol is Clarisse, daughter of Ares, who is desperately trying to keep her team alive. Percy and Annabeth jump into the fight, but it's not enough. Annabeth gives her permission for Tyson to cross the border of the camp and take on the bulls, saving everyone in the process. But instead of appreciation, Clarisse gives snark before helping her wounded back to the infirmary.

With at last a few seconds to breathe, Annabeth directs Percy to look at Tyson and see past the mist (the magical barrier that keeps humans ignorant of the impossible things around them). When Percy looks at Tyson, he sees one single eye in the middle of his head—he's a cyclops. They have no time to unpack all of that, as Clarisse needs help moving the injured.

But how did the monsters get past the border? The camp is protected by a tree, a tree in which six years ago, Thalia, daughter of Zeus, turned into when she sacrificed herself for her friends. Her father took pity on her and turned her sacrifice into something to forever be immortalized. However, when Percy finally looks upon the tree, the tree's green needles have started turning yellow and falling off.

To make matters worse, Chiron has been blamed for failing to keep the tree safe and is being replaced by a man named Tantalus. Having spent the last couple thousand years in the Fields of Punishment, he has now been hired as the new activities director of the camp, with his first order being reinstating the chariot races that have previously maimed and killed campers. He also refuses to acknowledge that anything is wrong with the camp and orders the border patrol to cease their activities.

Does this stop Percy and Annabeth from trying to save the camp? Of course not.

Percy gets a brother... sorry, half-brother

Did you know cyclops are the children of Poseidon and ocean spirits? Percy didn't.

At the same dinner Tantalus makes his appearance and introduction, Poseidon claims Tyson as his own in front of the whole camp. What is usually an honorable moment, turns humiliating as the campers laugh at Percy.

What asshole kids, damn. Tyson literally saved the camp from mechanical bulls, put some respect on his name.

However, Percy doesn't take the news well. Whenever someone teases him about his new brother, he always makes sure to clarify that Tyson is his half-brother, while simultaneously defending Tyson against anyone who makes fun of him.

One of my favorite things from the first book was how Rick Riordan handled the complex family relationships: from Percy's mom, to Gabe (Percy's now "mysteriously disappeared" abusive stepdad), to Poseidon. The Tyson brother situation is another complex relationship I think he handles excellently. You can feel the contradictory feelings in Percy's heart: he wants to protect Tyson and doesn't think anything is wrong with him, but he also wants to fit in with his peers. And he's angry at his dad for making him deal with this situation and sleeping with a woman other than his mom, even if they could never be together.

It's hard to make a protagonist simultaneously sympathetic and kinda a jerk to his nothing but loving brother, but Riordan keeps the reader from turning against Percy. After all, Percy is just a 13 year old kid.

Why is no one punishing these kids??: an addendum

Percy and Tyson work together for the chariot race which has one rule: no killing. The punishment? No s'mores at the campfire.

In my post about the first book in the series, I mention that the punishment for maiming during capture the flag was no desert. After the audience of the chariot race are attack by mechanical birds, Annabeth, Percy, and Tyson are unfairly punished by being put on kitchen duty (which involves washing dishes with lava).

Has nobody ever taken issue with the punishment for violence including death is NO DESERT?? There has to be a better punishment, right?? It feels like at that point they're almost encouraging the campers to kill each other. Percy gets kicked out of schools for incidents of violence, why aren't we kicking out the half-bloods that are literally trying to kill their own. Who is the arbiter of these rules and can CPS (or HBPS?) be called on them?

Percy runs away

You may have noticed that a major character of the first book has been missing so far. At the end of the last book, Grover, Percy's satyr friend, received his license to go looking for the lost god Pan, lord of the satyrs. A quest in which no satyr has ever returned. Well, Percy has been having dreams about Grover, dreams where he has actually been communicating with him via satyr magic. Grover has been kidnapped by a giant cyclops named Polyphemus after Grover was attracted to the magic of his island, magic produced by the legendary Golden Fleece. But now Grover is stuck in a cave, forced to make a wedding dress and pretend to be in love with the might-as-well-be-blind cyclops (who thinks he's a lady cyclops) until he can escape, be rescued, or eaten for dinner by Polyphemus.

Seeing the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone (the two birds being saving his friend and the camp with the Golden Fleece), Percy and Annabeth ask for Tantalus to give them a quest. With the pressure of the entire camp, Tantalus grants a quest, but to the winner of the chariot race, Clarisse.

Upset by his inability to help his friends, Percy sneaks out to sit by the ocean only to be joined by the God of thieves and travelers, Hermes. Hermes supplies Percy with everything he needs to make an escape, as well as summons Annabeth and Tyson to join him. He only has one request: that he tries to talk sense into Luke, Hermes's son and the most likely perpetrator of the poisoning of the tree, who tried to kill Percy last book and has pledged himself to Kronos who intends to rise from the pits of Tartarus and destroy the era of the gods and western civilization.

Percy is understandably hesitant at this deal, but Hermes points to a cruise ship moving fast across the ocean—Percy's way out of camp. With a thermos containing winds from the four corners of earth, duffel bags full of supplies, and magical multivitamins, Percy, Tyson, and Annabeth set out to save the camp and Grover along the way.

A tense family reunion

Well, who would've thought that the cruise ship Hermes had sent them to would be the current residence of Luke? Not just Luke though, the ship is filled with monsters who have pledged themselves to Kronos. Even more worrisome is the golden sarcophagus in the stateroom. It's not explicitly stated that Kronos (cut into a million pieces) is in the sarcophagus, from what I understand as more people join Kronos's cause, more of his body is recovered and repaired. Luke admits to poisoning Thalia's tree, but it's implied he was going to go back and fix it after he used Annabeth and Percy to find the Golden Fleece.

Luckily, Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson escape from the boat and take off far away. But is it really that lucky? This is one of the issues I have with Luke as a villain: he's a conduit of the most evil being in the world, but literally none of his plans have worked. Giving Percy cursed shoes, trying to kill Percy with the scorpion, and now trying to feed them to a dragon. Percy has escaped all of these and it doesn't feel like it's due to Percy's merit or strength, it more so seems that Luke just does not think his plans through or oversees them enough for them to work. You'd think he'd want to make sure Percy was dead after he survived the scorpion incident, but no, he lets them be lead off by monsters only for them to escape death again.

Once on land again, they are attacked by a hydra, only to be saved by a different cousin: Clarisse from her ship of undead confederates. She is not thrilled to see them, but nevertheless, she lets the board her ship as they sail for the Sea of Monsters.

I'm a Clarisse apologist

A lot of this book sets up Clarisse for a redemption arc from her actions of the first book, which I think is fantastic. All of last book and the beginning of this first book, we're set up to think Clarisse is just a hotheaded mean girl who wants all of the glory for herself. And yes, that is true, but we're lacking context.

Even if Clarisse is rude to campers, we see her working the border patrol, helping her wounded, and she is fiercely loyal to Camp Half-blood, even with the lack of fanfare she receives for her actions. Finally, after showing her loyalty to the group she is granted a quest to save her home, only for Annabeth and Percy to sneak out and try to do it for her. None of her siblings even wanted to go with her, but she is trying her best to see that her quest is successful.

Even her dad is against her. Ares has aligned himself with Kronos, but all he wants from Clarisse is for her to show that Ares and his children are strong. He doesn't care for her wellbeing or the safety of others, he just wants what is best for himself while using his children in the process.

Clarisse probably needs some therapy (as does everyone at Camp Half-blood), but I do believe her intentions are good and her actions are just misplaced.

A better use of plot points, but still not great

Like I stated in my post about The Lightning Thief, I'm not a fan of Rick Riordan just shoving in things that happen to the characters without any real development. However, I think this book handles these moments a LOT better, helped by the fact that this book is about 100 pages shorter, it allows for a lot of the moments to come organically rather than feeling like they're shoved in.

The first major event happens with Clarisse as the gang approaches the entrance to the Sea of Monsters. It's guarded by two monsters: one that will try to sink the ship and another that will pick people off the deck and eat them. Naturally, Clarisse's confederate era steamboat cannot handle the force of the monsters and explodes. Clarisse is separated from the group, Annabeth manages to haul an unconscious Percy to a rowboat, but no where to be seen is Tyson. Percy is left reeling at the possible death of his brother and once again floating through the ocean without a ship.

The next plot point is one I take issue with for lack of development. Annabeth and Percy wash up on an island that turns out to be a spa. The island is run by a woman named C.C. who says she helps people reach their full potential. Annabeth is taken for spa treatments and C.C. turns Percy into a guinea pig. You see, C.C. is short for Circe, a sorceress known for turning men into pigs. Annabeth rescues Percy with the magical multivitamins Hermes gave them and they escape on an old ship that somehow Percy can now magically command as son of Poseidon.

And that's it for the plot point. There's not a lot of character development. We see Annabeth best Circe, but it feels like a convoluted way for the characters to just get a boat. It almost feels like a waste of time, especially compared to the next scene. Which brings me to my next point:

Annabeth Chase

I love Annabeth. Especially for kids, it's fantastic seeing a well written female character. As the daughter of Athena, she is wise and always getting the group out of trouble, but she's also a warrior who can hold her own.

Annabeth ran away when she was seven years old. Her dad never wanted a kid as caring for one interfered with his work, and when he married Annabeths step-mom things at home got worse as her step-mom neglected Annabeth in favor of keeping her two sons safe. On the run, she met Luke, Grover, and Thalia who were all trying to make it to Camp Half-blood, but it was a dangerous trip as monsters were drawn to the daughter of Zeus. At seven years old she saved her friends from a cyclops and had to deal with the grief of losing one of the people who protected her. And now, Luke has tried to kill her and Grover is in danger. But does she falter? No, she stays wise and true to her goal.

After the Circe incident, Percy and Annabeth find themselves about to sail past the sirens: mythical creatures that lure sailors to their death by singing songs of their secret desires. It is said that if you can survive their song, you become wiser. While Percy shoves his ears full of candlewax, Annabeth requests that he ties her to the boat so she can hear their song. Basically she wants to take a hero's dose of mushrooms and face ego death.

Annabeth, with tears running down her face, writhes against the ropes. Percy is pained to see her like this and turns away. When he can't take it anymore and turns back, she has somehow cut herself free of the ropes and jumped overboard. Percy jumps after her, just barely being able to catch her before she makes it to land. He brings her back to the ship and while Annabeth is left shaken from the event, she came out wiser and with the realization of her fatal flaw: hubris. What seems to be Luke's fatal flaw as well. They both think that if the world was in their hands, they could remake it better than before.

Rescuing Grover from his wedding

Annabeth and Percy finally make it to the island of Polyphemus. They find the fleece right out in the open, but it is being protected by man eating sheep. On the other side of the island across a rope bridge over a gorge is non-man eating sheep and Polyphemus's cave, and who has already arrived? Clarisse. She is currently being held above a fire as Polyphemus tries to cook her for a wedding feast. Clarisse in anger reveals that Grover is in fact not a lady cyclops and is actually a satyr. After the deceit is revealed, Polyphemus decides his bride will be Clarisse and their wedding feast will be Grover.

Percy is able to sneak into the cave while Annabeth distracts Polyphemus, claiming she is "nobody" as the great Odysseus once did. As the kids run to the rope bridge to get the Golden Fleece, Polyphemus slips and falls into the gorge. They try to figure out how to get the Golden Fleece from the homicidal sheep when an old friend appears alive and well, Tyson. The sheep follow Tyson, presumably because he is a cyclops, as the kids grab the Golden Fleece and run to the ship.

With the help of some previously befriended hippocampi, the gang escapes and makes it to a beach in Miami where a familiar cruise ship is waiting for them. Percy gives all their money to Clarisse so she can get back to camp with the Golden Fleece, a development Luke did not expect. Percy tricks Luke into admitting to all of Camp Half-blood via Iris call (a magical FaceTime) that he was the one who poisoned the tree, allowing Chiron to be reinstated and Tantalus to be once again banished to the Fields of Punishment.

Percy, Annabeth, and Grover make it back to camp with the help of Chiron and the "party ponies," Chiron's centaur relatives. The Golden Fleece is placed on the tree, and all's well it ends well.

The child of God is resurrected

Some time after the Golden Fleece has been placed on the tree, the camp wakes up in a frenzy. Percy rushes to the tree to Annabeth crying and a girl collapsed on the ground. And as the campers watch shocked, the girl introduces herself as Thalia.

Since the first book, people had been hinting to Percy about a prophecy he might be involved in, and finally Annabeth reveals the truth during their journey. The prophecy stated that the first child of one of the big three gods to live to sixteen would either save or condemn the age of the Olympians. And Kronos has just orchestrated a chance to rewrite that prophecy in his favor.

Conclusion

While I think this was an amazing addition to the series, I have to admit the first book was a bit better in terms of story. In terms of character development, I think this books soars way past the first. Now that we know these characters, we get to see glimpses of who they might become, and it makes me so excited to read the third book!

We have a little bit of a hiccup though. The third and fifth book is actually not in Tiny Bookshop. It makes sense. Talking to some of my friends about the series nobody seems to remember what happens in the third book. I don't remember anything that happens in the third book other than the introduction of some new characters. But I'm gonna read it anyway. It would be a little weird to skip straight to the fourth book.

Thank you for reading! Let's see if this series continues to hold up!