Search - The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Bk 2)

I am liking this series more and more. The first book was good but nothing fantastic. I thought this book was a lot better. It wasn't as repetitive as the first in the series and that made it more enjoyable. The Greek Mythology references are fun and I will be reading the third book soon.

I have to say that I enjoyed this book more than the first one, and that's not something I can usually say about sequels/ subsequent books in a series. I felt that the first one, The Lightening Thief, was just OK (though of course a necessary read to follow the rest of the series). This one, I feel, was much more interesting, and left me eagerly waiting for the other books off my wishlist! One thing that I have to say about Percy compared to other characters in similar genres is that Percy is flawed and isn't trying to be a hero. He doesn't exude that "perfect" aura that other characters in similar genres seem to do. He's basically a kid thrown into these wild situations and he doesn't pretend like he knows what he's doing...he's just hoping to survive. I like the fact that he's a flawed hero, it makes him more realistic.

Anyway, this particular book finds Percy at the end of a rather quiet school year, but of course the start of summer brings him the start of a new adventure! This time he isn't the one who is sent on the quest by Camp Half-Blood (someone else is picked for that), but rather one of the gods sends him instead as a personal favor. Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson have to rescue Grover from a rather bizarre situation and find the Golden Fleece to save Camp Half-Blood. The ending certainly plants some important plot seeds for the next book! For some strange reason, Tyson (newly introduced in this book) is now my favorite character. Go figure! :-P

This is the second in one of my favorite children's fantasy series ever--the best in the last few years, along with the Peter and the Starcatchers books. This is just as good as the first, with lots more about cyclopses. Very faithful to traditional Greek mythology, and a great choice for kids AND adults who like Harry Potter. Definitely read the Lightning Thief first.

Since the moment I finished the first Percy Jackson book, I wanted to make time to read the follow up. I adore Percy as a character and wanted to see what other kinds of adventures he was going to get into. What makes it all the more amusing to me is that he doesn’t even want this stuff! It just finds him by default because of who he is.

We start this book about a year after the beginning of the previous one, as far as I can tell anyway. It’s almost summer again, and unfortunately for Percy, it’s been requested that he not come back to camp this year, with no real explanation as to why. However, Percy soon finds himself in an all new adventure to not only save his friends, but the camp he’s come to love.

To read the rest of my review, please visit my blog.

Although I see some similarities to Harry Potter (school/camp for kids with powers, evil force being slowly brought back to power), this series contains sufficient original material to keep me entertained. I really like how it introduces Greek mythology to young adults.

After seeing the movie based on book #1, this is the first of the books that I've read. There are some major differences and I prefer the awkwardness of the book characters to the overly cool Hollywoodness of the movie versions. (For the record, Percy is only 13 in this book, a year after the first book took place. The movie version features a 16- or 17-year old who is, of course, quite easy on the eyes.)

Great book. The kids love it!