Book Review - The Titans Curse

Percy Jackson and The Titans Curse
Author: Rick Riordan
Series: Percy Jackson and the Olympians #3
Genres: Mythology, Urban Fantasy | Childrens
Release Date: 1st of July 2008
Publishers: Disney-Hyperion
No. Pages: 294
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
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It's not everyday you find yourself in combat with a half-lion, half human. But when you're the son of a Greek god, it happens. And now my friend Annabeth is missing, a goddess is in chains and only five half-blood heroes can join the quest to defeat the doomsday monster.

Oh and guess what? The Oracle has predicted that not all of us will survive..

The following review may contain spoilers concerning earlier books in the series.
If you have not read the previous installments, please proceed with caution.

My journey with the Percy Jackson series has been up and down over the course of the last two novels, The Lightning Thief was a little disappointing, while Sea of Monsters was fast-paced, brilliantly crafted and pretty close to perfect, but The Titans Curse falls somewhere in the middle of these other two novels, it wasn't quite disappointing, but I felt a little cheated at times, and at others, I felt like Riordan took the world and multiplied it by a million, but while my confliction is a little confusing, my feelings towards this novel are not.

The first minor issue I had with this novel was the lack of Annabeth. Now don't get me wrong, it was good to see how Percy and Grover interacted with other characters without Annabeth there, but it definitely felt to me that Riordan really wanted a two guys, one girl formation between the camp half-blood'ers and the other characters involved and in a way, this really frustrated me, not to mention I took an instant disliking towards Thalia, but that's a personal issue. The lack of Annabeth and the time taken to get anywhere in this novel both affected my instant enjoyment, and after taking a liking to the series during it's predecessor, to say I was a little lacking in enthusiasm doesn't cover it. But as with all of Riordan's work it would seem, it takes a little time to get going, but when it does, it's fantastic, it's just a shame that a warm-up is required before we really actually reach any interesting part of novel.

With the absence of Annabeth stewing in my mind throughout, I feel that could be why I didn't connect to or relate with Thalia until much later in the novel, and for a character who went from being a tree to human being again not long before this novel, I really had had no warning, no chance to build a connection with her and really, I had no positive feelings whatsoever for her, that is, until I continued to read. Her relationship with Percy and Grover, Grover particularly, was really worth reading about and I felt that this was covered beautifully; it was lovely to see her's and Grovers friendship continue were it had so clearly left off previously and to see her and Percy develop and understand one another on a more personal level than they had previously. I confess to after hearing the prophecy that I kind of wanted Thalia to be the one perished, but once I'd reached the last few chapters, I realised how wrong I was, and even though the character whom did perish was heartbreaking and so distressing, Thalia's choice was a good one, and I'm pleased she was given that opportunity. The other new character I felt quite conflicted on was Zoë but much like with Thalia, I came to appreciate her character much more as the novel went on and her interactions with the rest of the character was really something I enjoyed. Damn Riordan, that's all I can say to that.

Plot wise, The Titans Curse was a little, well, mediocre? It didn't wow me to say the least, but I guess it wasn't lacking any level of enjoyment for to have continued to read it, even when I was so ready to put it down for the night. I feel Riordan is a very lucky author to have this skill and talent of pulling readers back into the world so cleanly and easily that even when the plot isn't as gripping and enthralling, he still encourages the reader to stay and read on, and I think that is exactly what happened here. What I think I enjoy most about this series, and possibly the most out of the Starcrossed Trilogy also, is the wonderful links to Greek Mythology and how it always continues to wow me. Now don't get me wrong, it's the minimum I expect from a series focusing on mythology, but it's the amount of mythology and the wonderful features that Riordan includes that always blow me away and I don't think I've highlighted that before in a review. There's a lot of research or fangirling that goes into Greek Mythology themed novels and I think the research that Riordan must have done is just fantastic. I know enough about mythology to know that some of the features he includes, some of the minor, beautiful parts of the history and some of the damning, most forgotten moments in that history, are so important when creating future heroes and blood relatives, and it's this part of the novels, not the world, but the features of mythology, that I love the most and always increase my rating and review.

The Titans Curse was much of the same as the other novels concerning Percy, he saved the day, was thawted for being the prophecy child and still hasn't told Annabeth how he feels, I mean seriously guys, you're killing me here, just kiss already. While the plot wasn't mind-blowing, the features I love kept me entertained, and there's a definitely a feel of something words to come, something big and something amazing and because of that, I have very high expectations for the rest of this series. Lets hope Riordan can deliver, because if he can, I will most definitely be sprucing up on my knowledge of Roman and Egyptian Mythology and diving head first into his other series.