Trapped in the Maze

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

The Battle of the Labyrinth was a huge disappointment to me. It did not get good until halfway through. The first half of the book was action-packed like the first three books of the series, but the action was, for lack of a better term, dumb. At the start of the series, Percy Jackson was twelve. Throughout The Battle of the Labyrinth, he was fourteen. The book was written as if there was no mental development or personal growth during those two years. Percy behaves as if he had learned nothing. He constantly makes the same mistakes and is still surprised that things are mystical or immortal or just plain not normal. He is the son of Poseidon; his persistent surprise and disbelief are unrealistic to me. A little of it is fine, but this book was filled with way too much.

I knew it would be hard for this book to please me as much as The Titan's Curse did. Three of my four favorite characters from that book do not appear in The Battle of the Labyrinth. That fact combined with the thoughts I had while reading this book helped me to realize by problem with Rick Riordan's writing: he writes battles well and relationships well and teenage girls very well, but he is pretty crappy at writing from the mind of a teenage boy. The best parts of this book were the times when Percy interacted with girls, specifically Annabeth, Rachel, and Calypso. Everything else was rushed and, to a certain extent, nonsensical.

After reading The Battle of the Labyrinth, I feel as though hours of my life were wasted on the search for Pan. The resolution was not bad, but the execution of it was. It was rushed. A scene that could have been developed and brought forth great drama was quick and, ultimately, disappointing. It, like much of this book, was a letdown. The climax ended too quickly, too perfectly. Events that should have been filled with tension and drama instead came and went like the snap of a finger. It was very much like the climactic scene of the No Country for Old Men film--you waited for it and waited for it, but it never really happened. The only difference here was that The Battle of the Labyrinth gave it to me on four separate occasions.

It was a necessary book in the series, and the plot was not at all bad. Poor execution hurt it. Despite that, it is not difficult to get through. It still builds the reader's anticipation for the series finale, The Last Olympian.

C-