The Greek myths are getting hardcore now. I admit, I've been severely sucked in, now I have to find out hat happens. Too much, it turns out, at least in terms of book 4 in the series. The pace is a little hectic, actually a lot like Forrest Gump, running one minute and well...slow the next. If you can make it through those slow patches however I think you'll find it satisfying overall. A good question to start off with is why no one noticed the entrance to the famed labyrinth before now (then again why did no once pick up on Luke's sociopathic tendencies before he stole Zeus's Master Bolt in the first book is another good question). The concept of the labyrinth is a good one, it seems to give the plot a crux which Riordan sometimes seems to loose as he attempts to touch on every Greek myth out there but it does fall apart at times. His red herrings are exceptional, which personally masks the meandering, I love me a good red herring.
A number of things we've been waiting for finally happen in this book, Grover's achievement of his lifelong dream, Nico's peace with his sister's death, Percy and Annabeth macking it, teenagers flying without the use of narcotics of excessive speed, a good old fashioned catfight, and someone tearing apart the ugly cabins at Camp half-Blood. the whole book is like a drawn bowstring, you keep waiting for the shot, for the other shoe to drop but you don't really get quite that far yet.
In Harry Potter (call me an ass but clearly in terms of plot it is no longer even worth ignoring the parallels) the sixth book was about the preparation for and eventual occurrence of Dumbledore's death. In Percy's case however his battle at camp doesn't have those kind of catastrophic consequences, instead we see him learning to lean more on others, versus good old Harry's solitude solution to problems. I'm still drawn in enough to want to finish the series, though I'm fairly certain that The Last Olympian will just be several hundred pages of battle sequences, but it is undeniable that to see how Riordan plays it will be intriguing.
If I had to pick the most encouraging things that book 4 threw at us readers it came down to Calypso and Luke being possessed. The story of Calypso is of course an oldie but a goodie from Greek mythology but the angst the Percy undergoes as a result of it, the temptation to just take the very easy road is an interesting one. Percy grows up immeasurably in this book, and he is progressively becoming an extremely interesting character with more layers than an onion. That and hen he kisses the ladies he can make volcanos explode, don't even try to deny that you were impressed by that. Then there's Luke, handsome, once lovable Luke that we can't seem to get rid of, regardless how hard we try. Oh wait, I almost forgot...we finally did he is now just a husk being inhabited by the evil Titan lord Kronos. Possession is always cool, an even though you may feel a twinge of regret that this jaded, angry boy has been taken advantage of, face it him being possessed is still extremely cool, I dare say way cooler than the sixteen-year-old-Voldemort-hiding-in-a-diary plot any day.
