The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
The basics
Title: The Sea of Monsters
Author: Rick Riordan
Series: Percy Jackson and the Olympians #2
- The Lightning Thief (June 2005) - The Sea of Monsters (April 2006) - The Titan's Curse (May 2007) - The Battle of the Labyrinth (March 2008) - The Last Olympian (May 2009) Spin-off series: Heroes of Olympus
Add it: Goodreads
Goodreads Summary:
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.
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In short
Busy times for Percy Jackson. A year after his first summer camp experiences he returns to Camp Half-Blood only to find that his friend Grover, who went on a quest to find the long-lost nature god Pan, has been taken captive by the Cyclops Polyphemus, and that the Camp is about to be attacked by the Titan’s army, unless they find the Golden Fleece to protect it again.
Prophecy
What happened in The Sea of Monsters?
- Over the year, Percy has made a new friend in Tyson, a homeless kid who later turns out to be a cyclops, and therefore, his half-brother. (Since Poseidon is the father of all Cyclops… oh well.) After being attacked by Laestrygonian giants, Percy, Annabeth and Tyson escape to Camp Half-Blood.
- But Percy gets to Camp Half-Blood, he sees Thalia’s tree has been poisoned. Now, if you’re completely lost: Thalia was Zeus’ daughter, who wasn’t supposed to live and nearly died and then got turned into a tree that magically protects the camp. Sounds like fun, right? Anyway, the tree is poisoned so now monsters can enter the camp whenever they want to.
- Percy also starts having dreams about his friend Grover, who went on a quest to look for Pan, and finds out that Grover is in fact taken captive by the Cyclops Polyphemus, and wants to save him.
- The only thing that can possibly save the camp is the Golden Fleece, which just happens to be ‘property’ of Polyphemos. The camp sends Clarisse on a quest to save the camp, and Percy is not happy. But then he meets…
- Hermes, who shows up on the beach in the middle of the night, tells Percy that we has to invade Luke’s cruiseship of monsters, gives him a few handy gifts, and sends him, Tyson and Annabeth off on a quest of their own.
- They meet Luke and find out that he’s planning to reform the evil Titan lord Kronos. No good. Thank goodness they escape just in time, only to…
- Cross paths with Hydra, an evil monsters with more heads than good for it. They also meet up with Clarisse – which, though it was by accident, turns out to be a good thing when she slays Hydra.
- All of them sail into the Sea of Monsters, which is now the Bermudez Triangle, on Clarisse’s ship of bones sent by her father, Ares. But when they have to choose between Skylla and Charybis, the ship explodes in the fight.
- Percy and Annabeth end up on Circe’s island, but though Percy gets turned into a guiny pig for a while, get away without any real harm done. And when they come across the Sirens, Percy saves Annabeth from them.
- At Polyphemos’ island, they catch up with Tyson and Clarisse, defeat Polyphemos and save both Grover and the Golden Fleece. They send Clarisse ahead with the Fleece, but…
- Get imprisoned, yet again, by Luke on his cruise ship. They find out that Luke was the one who poisoned Thalia’s tree, and nearly lose the fight with him, until Chiron and some other centaurs show up to save them.
How did it end?
The Fleece works its magic and the camp is magically protected again. However, the Fleece works a little too well, and instead of Thalia’s tree, they find Thalia lying on the ground, fully healed by the power of the Fleece. Phew.
Any weird terminology?
Olympians: The ruling Greek gods.
Titans: Parents of the Olympians, who were defeated by the Olympians in the Titan war. They have been rotting in the Tartarus (the darkest place of the Underworld) since, and in this book it is revealed that their leader, Kronos, wants revenge.
Camp Half-Blood: The secret summer camp / training facility where demigods go to train for fighting monsters.
Centaur: Half human, half horse. Example: Chiron.
Demigod (or hero): Half human, half Greek god.
Satyr: Half human, half goat. Example: Grover.
Iris message: A message communicated via rainbows between gods or demigods.
The Mist: A magical “cloud” that keeps humans from seeing what’s really there. For example, when humans would come near Camp Half-Blood, they would see nothing.
Greek Gods:
- Zeus: king of the gods, god of the sky and thunder (brother of Poseidon and Hades, husband of Hera)
- Poseidon: god of the sea and earthquakes (brother of Zeus and Hades, Percy’s father)
- Hades: god of the Underworld (brother of Zeus and Poseidon)
- Hera: queen of the gods, goddess of marriage and family (wife of Zeus)
- Ares: god of war
- Athena: goddess of war strategy and wisdom (Annabeth’s mother)
- Aphrodite: goddess of love (wife of Hephaestus)
- Dionysus: god of wine, Camp Half-Blood leader
- Demeter: goddess of agriculture and nature
- Apollo: god of light, music, poetry, prophecy and the sun (twin of Artemis)
- Artemis: goddess of hunt, animals and the moon (twin of Apollo)
- Hephaestus: god of blacksmiths (husband of Aphrodite)
- Hermes: god of thieves, messenger of the gods (Luke’s father)
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