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TITLE: The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book IV)
AUTHOR: Rick Riordan
PAGES: 361
Percy Jackson is nervous enough about his freshman orientation without having to deal with demonic cheerleaders and zombies eating Happy Meals. The summer is over, but his troubles certainly aren’t. There’s still the impending war with a Titan lord, the pressing issue of keeping his only safe haven as safe as possible, and the fact that there is actually a monstrously huge labyrinth that he will have to somehow navigate. It is the same labyrinth of legend, devised by the master inventor Daedalus to contain the ferocious minotaur. At the heart of this labyrinth is the enemy himself, gaining strength with every step Percy takes toward him. Every turn brings danger or revelation, and the stakes rise higher and higher as the inevitability of the coming war looms on the horizon. Time is running out.
While this was the installment I liked the least, I’m not saying it isn’t worth reading. For me, the pacing was not nearly as smooth as the previous books, seeming disjointed at times. The quest through the Labyrinth seems endlessly long, tension between allies is difficult to ignore, and there is the overwhelming impatience for the final battle that readers no doubt must contend with. Like the second book in the series, I call this an in-between part of the story. Percy has to get through it to finally reach the other side. I was quite impressed, as I usually am, with Riordan’s incorporation of Greek mythology into Percy’s adventures; he stays true to many things, and even finds small details I would never have expected to be included, such as the fact that a mortal girl led Theseus (the original Labyrinth quester) through the maze designed by Daedalus. A mortal girl indeed leads Percy through the Labyrinth, which added a dimension of adolescent woe to the tale as it becomes clear that Percy will have to deal with young love as well as saving the universe. I guess in a way it’s also a choice between the part of him that is mortal and the part of him that is not. I think that all the huge mess of the Labyrinth kind of cluttered up the focus on these conflicts within Percy, which was a downer for me. But, there is only one book left…
RATING: 3.5/5
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About Paola
Paola is a teacher, blogger, and book devourer currently living in Las Vegas, NV. She has an unhealthy obsession with popcorn, office supplies, and Target.
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