The Battle of the Labyrinth is a
2008The year 2008 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*January 1 - In the 2008 New Year Honours, Hanif Kureishi , Jenny Uglow , Peter Vansittart and Debjani Chatterjee are all rewarded for "services to literature".*June 15 - Gore Vidal, asked in a New York Times...
fantasyFantasy literature is fantasy in written form. Historically speaking, literature has composed the majority of fantasy works. Since the 1950s however, a growing segment of the fantasy genre has taken the form of films, television programs, graphic novels, video games, music, painting, and other...
-
adventure novelThe adventure novel is a genre of novels that has adventure, an exciting undertaking involving risk and physical danger, as its main theme.-History:...
based on
Greek mythologyGreek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
; it is the fourth novel in the
Percy Jackson & the OlympiansPercy Jackson & the Olympians is a pentalogy of adventure and fantasy fiction books authored by Rick Riordan. The series consists of five books, as well as spin-off titles such as The Demigod Files and Demigods and Monsters. Set in the United States, the books are predominantly based on Greek...
series by
Rick RiordanRichard Russell "Rick" Riordan, Jr. is an American author best known for writing the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series. He also wrote the Tres Navarre mystery series for adults and helped to edit Demigods and Monsters, a collection of essays on the topic of his Percy Jackson series...
. Fictional
demigodThe term "demigod" , meaning "half-god", is commonly used to describe mythological figures whose one parent was a god and whose other parent was human; as such, demigods are human-god hybrids...
Percy Jackson, who is fifteen years old by the end of the book, tries to stop Luke Castellan and his army from invading Camp Half-Blood through
DaedalusIn Greek mythology, Daedalus was a skillful craftsman and artisan.-Family:...
's
labyrinthIn Greek mythology, the Labyrinth was an elaborate structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos...
by trying to find Daedalus and convince him not to give Luke Ariadne's string, which would help Luke through the Labyrinth. It was released on May 6, 2008 in the US and
CanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. It was received positively overall, with the novel being a #1
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
children's series best-seller and a #1 chapter book best-seller.
Plot summary
After being attacked by
empousaiEmpusa is a demigoddess of Greek mythology. In later incarnations she appeared as a species of monsters commanded by Hecate ....
cheerleaders at his new school, Percy returns to Camp Half-Blood and learns about the
LabyrinthIn Greek mythology, the Labyrinth was an elaborate structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos...
; part of the palace of
King MinosIn Greek mythology, Minos was a king of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa. Every year he made King Aegeus pick seven men and seven women to go to Daedalus' creation, the labyrinth, to be eaten by The Minotaur. After his death, Minos became a judge of the dead in Hades. The Minoan civilization of Crete...
in
CreteCrete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
that was designed by
DaedalusIn Greek mythology, Daedalus was a skillful craftsman and artisan.-Family:...
. He also meets the camp's new sword master, Quintus. During a battle drill with giant scorpions at the camp, Annabeth and Percy accidentally find an entrance into the Labyrinth. Percy soon learns that Luke had used this entrance before and will try and lead his army through the Labyrinth straight into the heart of Camp Half-Blood.
Using the Labyrinth, Percy, Annabeth, Grover and Tyson must find Daedalus so that Luke cannot get
Ariadne's stringAriadne , in Greek mythology, was the daughter of King Minos of Crete, and his queen Pasiphaë, daughter of Helios, the Sun-titan. She aided Theseus in overcoming the Minotaur and was the bride of the god Dionysus.-Minos and Theseus:...
, which would guide him through the labyrinth. Percy and his friends encounter
KampeIn Greek mythology, Campe or Kampê is the name of a chthonic female monster .-Mythology:Campe was a dragon with a woman's head and torso and a scorpion-like tail. Nonnus, in Dionysiaca gives the most elaborated description of her...
, a half woman, half-dragon monster, and free her prisoner, Briares the
HekatonkheiresThe Hecatonchires, or Hekatonkheires , were figures in an archaic stage of Greek mythology, three giants of incredible strength and ferocity that surpassed that of all Titans whom they helped overthrow. Their name derives from the Greek and , "each of them having a hundred hands and fifty heads"...
(Hundred-Handed One), who is Tyson's idol, but disappoints him by being too scared to help them. After an encounter with the goddess
HeraHera was the wife and one of three sisters of Zeus in the Olympian pantheon of Greek mythology and religion. Her chief function was as the goddess of women and marriage. Her counterpart in the religion of ancient Rome was Juno. The cow and the peacock were sacred to her...
and a battle on the farm of
GeryonIn Greek mythology, Geryon , son of Chrysaor and Callirrhoe and grandson of Medusa, was a fearsome giant who dwelt on the island Erytheia of the mythic Hesperides in the far west of the Mediterranean. A more literal-minded later generation of Greeks associated the region with Tartessos in southern...
, the group are reunited with Nico di Angelo, son of Hades, who blames Percy for the death of his sister Bianca, but is convinced to put it behind him by the ghost of his sister. Next, by order of the Greek god Hephaestus, Percy travels to Mt. St. Helens. There he finds telekhines, also known as "sea demons". He is discovered by the telkhines, who attack him. Once Percy found Annabeth and they have a short argument during which Percy tells Annabeth to flee. Percy gets a kiss from Annabeth and she disappears. In an attempt to escape the telekhines, Percy causes Mt. St. Helens to erupt, pushing him out of the volcano, draining his energy in the process.
When he awakens after the eruption of Mount Saint Helens, he finds himself in the mythical island inhabited by
CalypsoCalypso was a nymph in Greek mythology, who lived on the island of Ogygia, where she detained Odysseus for a number of years. She is generally said to be the daughter of the Titan Atlas....
. After being treated for burns by Calypso and returning to the mortal world, Percy gets the help he needs from a mortal girl named Rachel Elizabeth Dare, who is able to see through the Mist, the magical veil that makes mortals see things differently than demigods. Grover finally finds Pan, but the god of the wild is dying and wants Grover to tell the other satyrs that they must save the natural world themselves. His spirit passes into all present, the satyr in particular, when he dies. They finally discover that Quintus, the mysterious new sword instructor at Camp Half-Blood, is actually Daedalus, who has attained extended life by putting his life-force, his
animus, into a robot body—and that
KronosIn Greek mythology, Cronus or Kronos was the leader and the youngest of the first generation of Titans, divine descendants of Gaia, the earth, and Uranus, the sky...
has gained enough strength by Luke. He also possess Luke, using his body as a starter form. Kronos finds out that Nico di Angelo is a son of Hades and that he could be the child of the great prophecy, which states that a child of "Big Three" (Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades) would decide the fate of the gods. Luke has already reached Daedalus and attained Ariadne's string; using the magical instrument, he sends out Kronos's army to take Camp Half-Blood via the Labyrinth. While fighting a losing battle, the entire camp is either injured or killed, and Daedalus and Briares come out of the Labyrinth to help fight the battle and destroy Kampe. Grover rescues Camp Half-Blood by causing a Panic, to scare away the enemy. After the battle, Daedalus sacrifices himself to close the Labyrinth, which is tied to his life. The camp say good bye to the dead, Nico leaves the camp, Grover doesn't go to exile, and Percy leaves for his 15th birthday and Nico comes by to give him a proposal for his upcoming battle with Kronos.
Major characters
- Percy Jackson is a 15 year old son of Poseidon. He is the series' narrator and protagonist. He joins Annabeth in her quest to go into the labyrinth to find Daedalus's workshop.
- Annabeth Chase is 15 years old, one of Percy's closest friends, and daughter of goddess Athena. She gets the quest to navigate the Labyrinth. Her feelings for Percy start to show but she is confused because of her lingering feelings towards Luke.
- Rachel Elizabeth Dare is a mortal who can see through the Mist. Her father is a wealthy businessman who buys the undeveloped land of the wild and builds developments upon it. Percy had previously met her at the Hoover Dam
Hoover Dam, once known as Boulder Dam, is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the US states of Arizona and Nevada. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President...
in The Titan's CurseThe Titan's Curse is a 2007 fantasy-adventure novel based on Greek mythology written by Rick Riordan. It is the third novel in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series and the sequel to The Sea of Monsters...
, where she helped him get away from the undead warriors.
- Nico di Angelo is an 11 year old son of Hades
Hades , Hadēs, originally , Haidēs or , Aidēs , meaning "the unseen") was the ancient Greek god of the underworld. The genitive , Haidou, was an elision to denote locality: "[the house/dominion] of Hades". Eventually, the nominative came to designate the abode of the dead.In Greek mythology, Hades...
. Upset that his sister Bianca died, he is slightly psychoticPsychosis means abnormal condition of the mind, and is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving a "loss of contact with reality"...
, and attempts to trade DaedalusIn Greek mythology, Daedalus was a skillful craftsman and artisan.-Family:...
' soul for that of Bianca. He has a sword made of Stygian Iron.
- Luke Castellan was a son of Hermes
Hermes is the great messenger of the gods in Greek mythology and a guide to the Underworld. Hermes was born on Mount Kyllini in Arcadia. An Olympian god, he is also the patron of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of the cunning of thieves, of orators and...
and traitor to the Olympians. His body becomes possessed by the spirit of KronosIn Greek mythology, Cronus or Kronos was the leader and the youngest of the first generation of Titans, divine descendants of Gaia, the earth, and Uranus, the sky...
. He is the series' main antagonistAn antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...
.
- Grover Underwood is a satyr
In Greek mythology, satyrs are a troop of male companions of Pan and Dionysus — "satyresses" were a late invention of poets — that roamed the woods and mountains. In myths they are often associated with pipe-playing....
and Percy's best friend. His life's ambition is to find Pan, the lost god of the Wild. Grover, Tyson, Percy, Annabeth, Nico and Rachel find Pan inside Carlsbad Caverns along with some extinct animals. He gave them words of wisdom, and then died. When he died, his essence entered all of the characters' mouths, meaning a piece of the wild remained in their hearts. He gave Grover the famous battle cry, panic, which Grover used to scare off the intruders in Camp Half-Blood. The word panic is named after Pan because in the Titan war he let out a horrible cry that drove all the monsters back to where they came from.
- Tyson is Percy's cyclops
A cyclops , in Greek mythology and later Roman mythology, was a member of a primordial race of giants, each with a single eye in the middle of his forehead...
half-brother. He now works for his father in Poseidon's palace, under the oceans, in the Cyclopes' forge. Tyson enjoys forging, and nicknaming mythical creatures they come across. He joins Percy and his friends in the labyrinth.
- Daedalus/Quintus
In Greek mythology, Daedalus was a skillful craftsman and artisan.-Family:...
was the creator of the LabyrinthIn Greek mythology, the Labyrinth was an elaborate structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos...
and son of AthenaIn Greek mythology, Athena, Athenê, or Athene , also referred to as Pallas Athena/Athene , is the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, warfare, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, justice, and skill. Minerva, Athena's Roman incarnation, embodies similar attributes. Athena is...
, who makes five automatons in order to cheat death. He becomes the new swordsman at Camp Half-Blood under the name Quintus, but during the intrusion of Camp Half-Blood, he is stabbed, but instead of blood coming out of the wound, oil does. He has a murderer's mark on his neck, branded by Athena, because he killed his nephew, PerdixPerdix was a nephew and student of Daedalus as well as the grandson of Athena in Greek mythology....
. He owns a hellhoundA hellhound is a supernatural dog, found in folklore. A wide variety of ominous or hellish supernatural dogs occur in mythologies around the world, similar to the ubiquitous dragon...
named Mrs. O'Leary. After his death, he builds toll-ways and other buildings to control traffic in the UnderworldThe Underworld is a region which is thought to be under the surface of the earth in some religions and in mythologies. It could be a place where the souls of the recently departed go, and in some traditions it is identified with Hell or the realm of death...
and, according to Nico, is very happy with this job. Before he dies, he gives Annabeth a laptop containing all of the works he never had time to complete, as well as many of his ideas and theories.
Critical reception
The Battle of the Labyrinth received generally positive reviews.
Publishers WeeklyPublishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
praised Riordan by saying, "One of Riordan's strengths is the wry interplay between the real and the surreal", and adding that "The wit, rousing swordplay and breakneck pace will once again keep kids hooked."
Children's Literature said, "Riordan creates a masterful weaving of Greek mythology and traditional fantasy in this latest book in "The Olympians" series. Fans will enjoy the latest adventures of their favorite characters, and those picking the book up for the first time will have no trouble falling into this magical world." The website
Kidsreads.comKidsReads.com is a website, designed for children aged 6-12, containing information about children's books and authors, and some related games. The website was founded in 1996 by Carol Fitsgerald. As of 2009, Kidsreads.com had a following of over 350,000 readers each month. Its mascot is a...
praised the book, saying "the story arc has remained unified and compelling."
School Library JournalThe School Library Journal is a monthly magazine with articles and reviews for school librarians, media specialists, and public librarians who work with young people. Articles cover a wide variety of topics, with a focus on technology and multimedia. Reviews are included for preschool to 4th grade,...
wrote that "[l]ike many series, the "Percy Jackson" books are beginning to show the strain of familiarity and repetition", before adding "However, the overarching story line remains compelling, and the cliff-hanger ending will leave readers breathless in anticipation of the fifth and final volume."
Kirkus adjudged the book to be the best in the series and said, "The often-philosophical tale zips along with snappy dialogue, humor and thrilling action, culminating in a climactic battle between gods and Titans.”
The Los Angeles Times gave a positive review, calling it "a glorious, no-holds-barred adventure with great plot twists, a melding of ancient and bionic technology and a cliffhanger ending that will have fans eagerly awaiting the fifth and final showdown between gods and monsters next year." It was first runner-up in the 2010
Indian Paintbrush Book AwardThe Indian Paintbrush Book Award is an award given annually to books nominated and voted on by children in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades in Wyoming. The award was first given in 1986...
.
Audiobook
The Battle of the Labyrinth was adapted in a 10 hour 32 minutes audiobook read by actor Jesse Bernstein. It was published by Listening Library. The release date for the audiobook was May 13, 2008.
AudioFile Magazine was generally positive about the audiobook. They commended Bernstein, saying that he was "just as skillful at wringing humor from the witty dialogue and from the contrasts between the modern and ancient worlds."
Sequel
The Last Olympian, the final book in the series, was released May 5, 2009.
Percy and his friends defend Olympus once more, against Kronos and his forces. Percy rallies the demigods and many of his allies take part in the war, including The Hunters of Artemis and the Party Ponies. Rachel becomes the new Oracle and spouts another Great Prophecy, while Percy and Annabeth start going out.
See also
- Greek gods
- Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
- Mount Olympus
Mount Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece, located on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, about 100 kilometres away from Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city. Mount Olympus has 52 peaks. The highest peak Mytikas, meaning "nose", rises to 2,917 metres...
External links