Revisiting The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan

Welcome back! I said in my last post that it seems like not a lot of people remember this book, and I understand why. But what I think is great about this addition to the series is how Riordan is starting to turn the series down a darker path. There's so many fantastic character growth moments and wonderful new characters that I can't wait to share with you! So let's get into it!

If you haven't read my review of the second book, you can find it here:

And if you know nothing about the series at all, I recommend you start at the first book:

Title: The Titan's Curse
Series: Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Author: Rick Riordan
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Publication Date: May 5, 2007
Pages: 312
Genre: Fantasy, YA
My Rating: 4.5/5
Goodreads Rating: 4.37/5

A brief summary

In the middle of a snowy night, Percy, Annabeth, and the newly revived Thalia arrive at a boarding school in the middle of a forest to assist Grover in safely transporting some young half-bloods he found. The problem is, a manticore disguised as teacher named Dr. Thorn is trying to get his own literal and metaphorical claws into the kids. As the kids are led into the forest by Dr. Thorn, Percy, Annabeth, Thalia, and Grover try to fight him before he can recruit them for the titan Kronos's army, but they are no match for the manticore. Luckily in the knick of time, young women no older than the age of fourteen burst out of the woods dressed in silver and armed with bows: the hunters of Artemis, accompanied by Artemis herself in the form of a thirteen year old girl. They shoot at the manticore, but the manticore disappears with Annabeth in tow.

The new half-bloods, siblings Bianca and Nico, are very confused about the whole situation. Once everything is explained, Nico thinks it's super cool, Bianca on the other hand is concerned, and when Artemis offers Bianca the chance to be a hunter, she takes it without hesitation. Thalia, who for some reason seems to hate the hunters, is upset by this development, and especially upset about the presence of Zoë Nightshade, Artemis's lieutenant.

Artemis, a fervent supporter of action against Kronos, claims she must go alone to hunt a beast who has been freed and leaves the command of the hunters to Zoë. Begrudgingly for both Thalia and Zoë and with the help of the sun god Apollo, the kids and the hunters head for camp where the hunters will remain until Artemis returns.

At the camp, very few half-bloods are present as most go home to their families during the school year, but even then, the numbers of half-bloods at camp has been dwindling as Kronos's army grows stronger. And as Percy settles into camp, he has a dream of Annabeth being tricked by Luke into holding the crushing weight of the sky.

A way too in-depth summary and review

To be honest, there’s not much to say about the first 1/3 of the book other than the opening. Things at camp are tense for the hunters, the campers and the hunters play a “friendly” game of capture the flag (the hunters win), and Zoë receives a prophecy from the oracle so she can go rescue Artemis. Unfortunately for Percy, the hunters will not allow a boy to come on the quest, so the quest party consists of Zoë, Bianca, another unimportant hunter, Thalia, and Grover (who is technically not a boy). 

However, I don’t mind that not a lot happens during this section of the book. It’s the calm before the storm, it allows the story time to breathe especially when so much action occurs in the latter half of the book. It also allows us to explore the very tense dynamics of these characters. My favorite of these dynamics being Percy and Thalia.

What do you think would happen if you put the two most powerful half-bloods in the world in the same room? A lot of destruction could occur with a small argument. And while Percy and Thalia are co-captaining the capture the flag game, that’s what starts to happen. Thalia electrocutes Percy and sends him flying, Percy summons all the water from the creek to throw at Thalia; your typical fight between two teenagers. Luckily for them and the camp, they are unexpectedly interrupted.

What I love about the dynamic for these two is the slight regression in Percy's character development as he starts to have feelings of inadequacy when comparing himself to Thalia. Percy has spent the last two books growing his skills, and even if it's not explicitly stated, he feels special about being a son of one of the big three gods. Not to mention since the last book he's been emotionally preparing for the possibility of being the first child of a big three god since World War II to reach the age of sixteen and protect or destroy the era of the gods. And here comes Thalia, older and wiser than him, to basically show the rest of the campers that Percy doesn't have the same skills; that he's not as important because she will reach the age of sixteen first (in fact, she'll reach the age of sixteen in about a week).

It's such an interesting aspect of the book that is brought in with the addition of Thalia's character, however, Riordan subverts the expectation at the end of the book as we'll see.

Here comes The General

Right before the quest party leaves, Percy catches Nico eavesdropping on a conversation between Zoë and Bianca. Nico makes Percy promise to protect his sister, because even he can tell Percy can't help but follow them. And follow them he does, chasing their van on horseback, well, pegasus-back, until they arrive at Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C., still unaware of Percy's lurking.

While the quest party walks into the museum, Percy notices their being trailed by Thorn, the manticore from the beginning of the book, but instead of following them inside he takes a different entrance that is closed for a private event. Using Annabeth's baseball cap on invisibility (which fell off her head during the opening fight of the book), Percy follows Thorn and is shocked to see Luke, a giant man commanding the space, and tons of monsters who seem to be gathered for a demonstration. Percy is horrified to see that the demonstration includes raising zombie soldiers from the dead, born to track and kill the bearer of the first scent they smell. The monsters have a scrap of fabric belonging to the quest party, but Percy (still invisible) snatches it from the air in front of everybody before they can smell it. However, the zombies still get a good whiff of Percy before he runs off to warn his friends.

After warning his friends and fighting the Nemean Lion, the gang heads out of the city on a cargo train. Apollo, in disguise as an old homeless man, enchants the train to move super fast until it reaches its destination in a random town in New Mexico the next afternoon.

A cursed reminder

In New Mexico, the zombies show up to attack Percy and the gang, but they escape by hopping a Erymanthian Boar to Arizona, right outside a junkyard: the junkyard of the gods. The group decide to rest before traversing through, but receive an unexpected visitor in a limousine. Ares steps out, saying that a lady in the car wants to talk to Percy, that lady being Aphrodite.

I haven't talked much about the romantic chemistry between Annabeth and Percy, and in my defense she was only in like 30 pages of this book so far. There really isn't much to say at this point: Percy and Annabeth had a moment of emotional vulnerability during the siren scene of the last book and now Percy misses Annabeth a whole lot during this book. However, it seems that Aphrodite, who has a flair for dramatics, has taken a liking to their pairing. She convinces Percy that the main reason he followed the quest party was to find Annabeth, which is true but Percy never fully realized that saving Annabeth was the main reason for his rebelliousness.

After talking to Aphrodite, Ares reminds Percy of the curse he put on him after their fight in the first book. Whenever he needed his sword most, it would fail him. And with that, Ares and Aphrodite leave the kids to their adventuring.

The junkyard of the gods is filled with, well, junk, and the group can't take anything from the yard lest incurring the wrath of Hephaestus. There are some cool things they pick up and play with as they walk, but it's not until they reach the exit that a giant mechanical monster comes to life and tries to kills them. The group quickly realize that someone had taken something, that someone being Bianca. She had found a figurine for her brother Nico, the last figuring needed to complete his collection. She tries to return it, but the machine won't let up. Percy points out a hatch on the bottom of it's foot and tries to make a run for it, but Bianca stops him and runs for it herself, claiming that it was her who made the mistake and she must be the one to pay for the consequences. Once Bianca is inside the machine, the group watches as the monster collapses and crumbles to pieces. They search tirelessly for Bianca, but she is no where to be found. Percy is left grief-stricken and wondering how he will ever tell Nico what happened to his sister.

When the group finally decides to leave the junkyard, they make their way to Hoover Dam. The group goes to get some snacks, but Percy decides to take a different route and is confronted by the zombie soldiers. He's about to be cornered when he accidentally stabs a mortal girl. Luckily for the girl, the sword is made of celestial bronze which only works on monsters. She tells him her name is Rachel Elizabeth Dare and helps him hide from the zombies. Percy thanks her but keeps running until he catches up to his friends. Actually cornered by the zombies, Thalia attempts to pray to her father once again (even though it has never worked before) and he answers by bringing to life the golden angel statues of the dam, who pick the group up and flies them to San Francisco.

Percy beats up an elderly man

Once in San Francisco, Percy beats up an old man. Not just any old man, this old man can answer any one question.

And that's all I'm saying about that.

Look, if I included every little thing in these posts then you'd be here all night reading these and I'd be here for days writing them. Just know that there's a cow mermaid who can destroy the world and Grover leaves to escort it to Olympus where it is put into a specially made aquarium. I just thought "Percy beats up an elderly man" would be a funny heading.

After destroying Thorn for a final time with the help of Dionysus, Percy, Zoë, Grover, and Thalia go to find Annabeth's dad who lives in San Francisco and he's a giant NERD. He's wearing giant goggles and has replicas of planes in his office, and at points seems more interested in his research than saving Annabeth, but ultimately, he lets them use his car to go up the mountain where Annabeth and Artemis are being held captive.

At this point, my high school English teacher would probably be upset at me for the amount of times I go, "this happened, then this happened, but wait! Then this thing happened," But this has kinda been a theme of Riordan's writing that I've talked about before. I certainly think that with every book it gets better. In the first book some of the monster encounters felt like a waste of time. I think it's helped by Riordan not doing the typical series thing of each book being longer than the last. The first book was 377 pages, but the second book was 279 and this one is 312. It helps cut out the slack, but in certain moments it can feel the opposite. Bianca's death for example felt unceremonious and it's the first major death we see in the book. I'm curious to see how this balances out when we get to the final book.

Another tense family reunion

So at this point it might be important to note that Zoë is thousands of years old. Not only that, but her father is The General. And who is The General? Atlas: the titan who was punished for his transgressions by being forced to hold the sky.

The gang sneaks around a dragon that's protecting the garden of Zoë's sisters, but as Zoë is distracting it she is bit. Still, she catches up to the group and at the top of the mountain sees Artemis being crushed under the weight of the sky. But before they can free Artemis, Atlas reveals himself with Luke and a chained Annabeth at his side. Thalia runs at Luke and Zoë starts shooting arrows, so Percy makes the brilliant decision to charge at Atlas. Of course within seconds he is on the ground. He tries to raise his sword again but his arm can barely move. Percy suddenly has the horrifying realization that this is the time when he most needs his sword, and this is the time Ares curse comes to haunt him. Percy turns to Artemis and says he will hold the sky. Artemis tries to tell him that he'll be crushed, but Percy takes the sky from her and tries to hold on.

Amazingly for someone who has been holding the sky for like a week, Artemis is able to fight Atlas barely impeded. At one point she looks like she is about to fail, but Zoë steps in the way and gets flung into rocks by her father. Artemis takes her opening and flings him towards Percy. One again, Atlas is forced into his prison. Thalia throws Luke off the side of the mountain, and hip hip hooray the day is saved. Except for the fact that a bunch of monsters are now racing up the mountain to confront them. The bloodied warriors watch as the army races towards them, and just when they think that all is lost, Annabeth's dad comes flying down in a re-built World War I fighter plane loaded with bullets made of celestial bronze. Escorted by Annabeth's dad, the party escapes on Artemis's silver chariot and leaves the mountain far behind.

An even tenser family reunion

Upon landing, the group realizes Zoë's dragon bite was worse than she let on, and being flung by Atlas into rocks only made her condition worse. Annabeth asks Artemis if she can do anything and she does attempt to, but after thousands of years, Zoë' is ready to move on. As she passes, Artemis takes her soul from her body and throws it into the stars creating a new constellation: the Huntress.

Percy, Thalia, and Annabeth leave behind the hunters to reach Mount Olympus for their winter solstice meeting and arrive just on time. They plead for the gods to take action against Kronos and in response they argue if they should kill Percy and Thalia for being too powerful. Ultimately, they decide not to kill the half-bloods and do decide to take action against Kronos. But as the meeting comes to a close, Artemis makes Thalia an offer: to become a hunter, to leave behind her friends, and to not turn sixteen (which she will turn tomorrow), and without hesitation she agrees. She turns to Percy and apologizes because once again the fate of Olympus, which is seemingly heavier than the sky, rests on Percy's shoulders.

After the meeting, a party on Olympus occurs where Athena says she does not approve of Percy's friendship with her daughter and Poseidon reiterates that he is proud of Percy but warns him that Luke did not die in that fall. Left with much to think about, Percy and Annabeth share a dance before heading back to Camp Half-blood.

And I know I've already included two quotes in this section, but as a fervent Percy and Annabeth shipper I had to include this one:

Another one bites the dust

Before we continue, let's once again take a look at the prophecy:

"Five shall go west to the goddess in chains,"

Percy, Thalia, Grover, Zoë, and Bianca went west to find Artemis.

"One shall be lost in the land without rain,"

R.I.P. Bianca who died in the junkyard in the desert.

"The bane of Olympus shows the trail,"

That's the cow mermaid I mentioned briefly.

"Campers and Hunters combined prevail,"

Self-explanatory.

"The Titan's curse must one withstand,"

Percy had to hold the sky, the curse of Atlas. Though Annabeth, Artemis, and Luke all do this at points in the book.

"And one shall perish by a parent's hand."

Zoë Nightshade's final stand against her father, Atlas, lead to her death.

After reporting back to Chiron, Percy faces possibly his greatest challenge yet: telling Nico about Bianca's untimely(?) death. Nico, the ten year old, is understandably distraught over the news and blames Percy. Percy had promised Nico that he would keep his sister safe, and he failed. As Percy is trying to console Nico the zombie soldiers appear once again but are stopped when Nico seemingly opens a crack in the earth and they fall through. Percy watches Nico, understanding that this could only mean one thing, but Nico runs into the woods and disappears without a trace. Percy tells Annabeth what happened and they come to the same conclusion: Nico is a child of Hades.

Conclusion

And that's the book! I love how this book sets a darker tone for what is to come. We get to see some complex emotions from Percy regarding his role in the prophecy, some development in Percy and Annabeth's budding romance, and our first non-monster deaths. I'm not sure why this book is often forgotten, but I recommend reading it yourself for all of the stuff I didn't put in here.

I love a good ending and it would've messed up my flow to put it in the body of this post, but I think it's important to put some context here. Nico and Bianca spent some time in the Lotus Hotel from the first book. As in, they spent like 100 years there, meaning that Hades did not break the oath he made with his brothers as Nico and Bianca were born before World War II. Honestly at this point, Hades doesn't seem like too bad of a guy.

I also must confess something: I've already read the fourth book. I couldn't help myself. So hopefully I can get my write-up on that out very soon! Thank you for reading!