April 21, 2023
The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
The basics
Title: The Battle of the La
Author: Rick Riordan
Series: Percy Jackson and the Olympians #4
- 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:
Percy Jackson isn't expecting freshman orientation to be any fun. But when a mysterious mortal acquaintance appears at his potential new school, followed by demon cheerleaders, things quickly move from bad to worse. In this fourth installment of the blockbuster series, time is running out as war between the Olympians and the evil Titan lord Kronos draws near. Even the safe haven of Camp Half-Blood grows more vulnerable by the minute as Kronos's army prepares to invade its once impenetrable borders. To stop the invasion, Percy and his demigod friends must set out on a quest through the Labyrinth - a sprawling underground world with stunning surprises at every turn.
Read a full summary of The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan below. If you can’t remember what happened in The Battle of the Labyrinth and you need a refresher, then you’re in the right place.
What happened in The Battle of the Labyrinth?
- Percy is now in freshman year. He attends orientation and meets a girl called Rachel, who he actually met before at Hoover Dam. Rachel runs off, Percy follows, and Rachel tells him there’s something wrong with the cheerleaders.
- The cheerleaders arrive at the gym and they turn out to be Empousai. Tammi is killed by Percy and Kelli bursts into flames. The mortals arrive and Percy and Rachel have to escape. They bump into Annabeth outside.
- Annabeth and Percy head to camp.
- Annabeth goes to speak to Clarisse so Percy wanders over to the arena. He thinks he’s being attacked by a hellhound but it turns out she’s a pet, so he shouldn’t kill her.
- Chiron comes to get Percy and takes him to Grover. They enter a glade where they find Grover’s girlfriend crying.
- Grover is given a week to find Pan or have his license forfeited.
- Percy bumps into Tyson, who is cleaning up their cabin for them.
- That night, Percy sees some blue light glowing from the fountain. Percy realises it’s an Iris Message, and he gives it one drachma. He sees the outline of Nico in the mist.
- Percy watches as Nico speaks with a ghost and asks it to bring Bianca back to life. The ghost says it can do this for a soul.
- There’s a camp game in which Annabeth and Percy are attacked by giant scoprions. They manage to hide in a tunnel, which turns out to be the entrance to the Labyrinth.
- Annabeth tells Percy that this is related to Clarisse’s mission.
- Annabeth thinks Luke might plan to use the tunnel to invade camp.
- Annabeth, Percy, Tyson, and Grover head to find the creator of the maze, Daedalus. The maze proves to be problematic as it constantly shifts around and narrows its passages.
- The group find a god called Janus, who says he has a key that he can give Annabeth. Janus asks Annabeth to make a choice but Hera intervenes and delays the whole thing.
- Hera offers Annabeth a wish, so Annabeth wishes for a way to navigate the maze.
- The group end up inside Alcatraz and rescue Briares. They ask him to join the group but he doesn’t want to.
- Percy dreams of Daedalus and Icarus. It’s all very tragic.
- The group bump into Nico on Geryon’s ranch. Percy offers to clean the stables in exchange for his and his friends’ freedom. Percy cleans the stables and then comes back to find his friends captured. Percy forgot to make Ceryon swear on the River Styx.
- Percy shoots Geryon.
- The group summons Bianca’s ghost for Nico. Bianca reveals that she has been sending Percy the Iris Messages. Bianca tells Nico to forgive Percy and to let her go. She says that the children of Hades always hold grudges.
- Nico goes to stay with Eurytion.
- Eurytion helps the group find Hephaestus who is able to give them a spider automaton that will lead them through the maze.
- The group have to fight off a Sphinx using their brains. It goes as well as can be expected.
- They find Hephaestus, who needs them to find out who has been entering his forges on Mount St Helens.
- Grover senses Pan so he and Tyson go looking for him. Percy and Annabeth head to the forges and are attacked by telekhines. It’s not looking good for them so Annabeth kisses Percy. Percy gets knocked out.
- Percy wakes up on an island called Ogygia. He meets Calypso, who offers him to stay with her and become immortal.
- Hephaestus arrives and tells Percy that he caused an earthquake and woke up Typhon. Hephaestus gives Percy a clue about the Labyrinth.
- Percy decides to go back to his friends rather than stay with Calypso.
- Percy reunites with his friends and Chiron at camp.
- Percy and Annabeth go looking for Grover and Tyson.
- It turns out that Rachel is able to see the path, so she navigates the maze and starts leading them. Unfortunately Luke captures them all and they have to fight in an arena.
- Percy fights a half-blood called Ethan, refuses to kill him, and then fights Antaeus.
- Percy summons the hellhound to fight off Luke.
- They all arrive in Daedalus’ workshop, who has decided to help Luke.
- Minos arrives along with Nico. The group have to battle Minos and the other monsters, adn they escape to the mortal world.
- Percy finds Luke inside a sarcophagus, and figures out that he has fused with Kronos.
- Ethan pledges allegiance to Kronos, who awakens and goes after Percy. Kronos stops time. Rachel throws a hairbrush at Kronos, which hurts Luke, and Nico summons a wall to help the group escape.
- Percy thinks there’s no redeeming Luke but Annabeth disagrees. She thinks he’s just possessed and can be saved.
- The group come across Grover, who is unconscious. They wake him up, and they’re able to get to Pan’s resting place in New Mexico.
- Pan asks Grover to tell everyone that Pan is dead. Grover agrees, eventually, and Pan dissolves into mist and enters into the people in the group.
- The group heads back to camp and find everyone prepping for war.
- Kronos and his army break out of the Labyrinth. Grover fights the enemy forces off with panic from Pan, and the bad guys head back into the Labyrinth.
- Daedalus decides he must end his life in order to destroy the Labyrinth and save the camp. He gifts Annabeth a laptop before he goes.
- Nico apologises to Percy for being mean. Nico doesn’t want to stay in the camp and goes off by himself.
- Annabeth reveals the rest of her prophecy to Percy. Hera appears and gets insulted by the duo.
- Percy heads home to celebrate his birthday with his family. Poseidon shows up and tells Percy that he’s his favourite (rude, since Tyson is right there) and gives Percy a sand dollar.
- Nico shows up and says he knows how to beat Kronos.
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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