A review by rinku
Im Bann des Zyklopen by Rick Riordan

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

The Sea of Monsters was for me a bit less enjoyable than the previous novel of the Percy Jackson series, mainly because it had quite a lot story elements I wasn’t too fond of. Like I’ve mentioned before, I probably would’ve loved this series if I read it as child but I have the feeling that I’m a bit too old now. 

There are two main conflicts this time at Camp Half Blood: Someone poisoned Thalia’s tree, leading to the slow decline of the protection for the demigods. To stop this, Clarisse (lol) is send on a mission to find the Golden Fleece but Percy, his newly found half-brother Tyson, and Annabeth try to find it as well, mainly because Grover is gone and his disappearance is connected to the Fleece. Honestly, this whole plot around
the cyclops mistaking Grover for a female cyclops and wanting to marry him
was just a bit weird and too silly for me. Then, there are other story elements I rarely ever like, like cyclops and giants or a story mainly taking place on the sea. 

At least, the pace was again quite fast, even though it was annoying that our main characters fall in one trap after another. What I also didn’t like about the ending was that
characters don’t really die (edit: this changes soon lmao) but are only apparently dead and even then, Percy barely has an emotional reaction. This time, this was the case with Tyson and later Thalia
. Other things I noticed about the story this time were that some plot points really reminded me of HP, like the wild taxi drive at the beginning, or the general plot point that the antagonists try to resurrect the big villain. It also annoyed me that some of the conflicts in the novel were caused my miscommunication because characters are so often interrupted when having important conversations. What I in contrast really enjoyed was the way this novel talks about social issues, like homelessness in reference to Tyson’s character. 

Like I’ve said in my review of The Lighting Thief, the characters are definitely carrying the series for me. Percy has a great character development; at the beginning, he’s so terribly mean to Tyson which made me so mad, but later, he realizes his mistakes and even
helps Clarisse
, showing how much he’s grown as a person. Talking about Tyson, he had a bit of a Forrest Gump vibe to him which I didn’t like so much since it reminded me of the cliché depiction of people with disabilities. Furthermore, Luke is quite the cliché villain. 

All in all, The Sea of Monsters extends the world of Percy Jackson and further develops its characters, but the rest in this novel was sadly not enough for me to give more than three stars. 
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