Forgive me, as once again, I am a grown woman reading a book about Greek mythological characters, written for tweens and the like.

But frankly, I don’t give a shite.

I will tell you wholeheartedly that I loved the first book and the same goes for this second book, maybe even more so.

Rick Riordan has managed once again (and basically throughout the whole Percy Jackson series) to successfully modernize Greek mythology with easily recognisable Western influences, build an uncomplicated second look into multi faceted characters and maintain a perspective on families, that is neither condoning of the lifestyles lived by each demi-god or against, and that is unusual to the genre.

I know it seems very American-centric of the author to move Greek mythology with the western world we know as America but seriously (and believe me, I love my country, Australia), when you think about it, the world often moves to the beat that the USA is playing.

It’s been very slow for the books to reach a fanbase as large as something of Harry Potter or Twilight but there are fans out here, especially on Deviant Art. (I actually found out about these books from reading Stephenie Meyer’s blog.)

Loving this pic from Mist Fox:

My next fave from Sky 03062:

(1st row Left To right)Percy, Annabeth, Thalia, Grover, Nico, Selena, Charles Beckendorf, Travis and Connor Stoll, Clarisse.
(2nd row Left to right) Chiron, Tyson, Luke, Mrs.O'Leary (Hellhound)
(3rd row left to right) Hyperion, Morpheus, Prometheius, Ethan Nakamura, Hades, Zeus, Poseidon.
(4th row left to right) Atlas, Hephaestus, Hestia, Ares, Hermes, Athena, Apollo, Artemis

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Anyway, in this next chapter of Percy’s life, we are treated to a little brother, sibling embarrassment (I know so much about this one, it’s not funny), a case of mistaken bride-dentity with Grover and a Cyclops, the Golden Fleece, Zeus’ offspring reincarnation and a confrontation with the dangerous Luke, last seen as The Lightning Thief, failing to create a war among the gods.

Percy goes through the same emotions a lot of us did when being compared with our irritating little crap of a brother or sister.

Tyson, Illustrated Depiction

It’s annoyance because they’ll need that extra caring for, it’s embarrassment because he or she doesn’t look like you or remotely like anyone you know and it’s exasperation because they are too young to understand that they are the reason you are teased and that you, yourself are too young to realise that it’s not their fault.

Oh Percy, I know how you feel. There were times I felt like my baby sister was a big inconvenience and hugely annoying when she wanted to dress like me. Of course, now that I look back on my behaviour, I feel more embarrassed that I couldn’t see it wasn’t her fault and that I was just being a brat.

In The Sea of Monsters, Percy finds that his homeless friend from school is actually a Cyclops and his baby brother, born of his dad, Poseidon and a sea nymph. Tyson has lived all of his life on the streets and became known to Percy via a school community outreach program. Percy’s never had a sibling so it feels strange that his new brother- a giant scaredy cat, by most description, is the one to be saving his life, and more than once.

I won’t spoil the book for you too much but I will say this. I like Percy less in this book and open my mind to the other characters being more likeable, such as Annabeth and Grover.

Hittin' Up The Lotus Casino in The Lightning Thief

I hope the film for this book doesn’t take too long to hit cinemas because I suffered a kind of withdrawal after I had finished each book and it took ages for me to find them around our area. I even went as far as to look up all the related Gods and Godesses mentioned in the series to see how everyone got along, etc. And it was just perfect timing that MOH should happen to be playing God Of War 1, 2 and 3 throughout me reading the series so we could actually learn from each other who was who.

Kratos Is A Bad Azz

Now I own all 5 books, the Demigod files, have the Blu Ray on pre-order and am making a case to justify buying the Ultimate Guide.

This is basically my Harry Potter phase. Which means I’m 13 again.