The Battle of the Labyrinth

Infobox Book |
name = The Battle of the Labyrinth


author = Rick Riordan
country = USA
language = English
series = Percy Jackson and the Olympians (Book 4)
genre = Fantasy novel
publisher = Hyperion Books for Children
release_date = U.S.A. May 6, 2008 U.K. July 3, 2008
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
preceded_by = The Titan's Curse

The Sea of Monsters

The Lightning Thief

"The Battle of the Labyrinth" is the 4th book in the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan. It was released on May 6, 2008 in the US and Canada. This book is recommended for children aged 10 and up. [ [http://rickriordan.com/children.htm Rick Riordan - Percy Jackson ] ]

Plot

Percy Jackson has been invited to Goode High School by Paul Blofis, his mom's new boyfriend. While at the freshmen orientation Percy has a run in with Rachel Elizabeth Dare, the mysterious mortal he met the previous winter at the Hoover Dam who can see through the Mist, and two demonic cheerleaders, the "empousai" (empuses). He's able to defeat one of the empousai, Tammi, but the other, Kelli, explodes into flames upon defeat, instead of disintegrating like the other monsters and geting Percy in trouble yet again. With Rachel's help, he's able to get out of the school, escape the cops and find Annabeth, a fellow demigod who is also daughter of Athena the goddess of wisdom. They were supposed to have a "date", but with the sudden interruption of the empousai and Rachel, their afternoon together is canceled and they head for Camp Half-Blood, which is a refuge for demigods.

On their arrival, Percy discovers Dionysus' absence and he attends Grover Underwood's hearing with the Council of Cloven Elders, who feel that they should revoke his searcher's license since he has found no evidence of Pan after six months of claiming to hear him. In attendance, is also Grover's girlfriend, Juniper, a dryad. They give him one week to find proof of Pan's existence. Percy also meets the new swordsman trainer, Quintus, an adult half-blood and his gigantic hellhound pet, Mrs. O'Leary. Percy tells Chiron about how Kelli disappered in flames. Chrion explains to Percy how the more powerful monsters can escape instead of disintegrating.

As Luke's forces are gathering and plan to invade Camp Half-Blood, the demigods begin preparations. While playing a deadly game with giant scorpions, Percy and Annabeth discover an entrance into the dangerous Labyrinth. They soon conclude that Luke will try to invade camp through the Labyrinth. Clarisse's mission from last winter is discovered to had been scouting around one of the entrances in Phoenix, Arizona, where she finds a fellow half-blood, Chris Rodriguez, who'd joined the ranks of the Titans and was driven insane when Luke sent individual troops into the Labyrinth. Clarisse harbors some deep romantic feelings for him.

Annabeth is chosen to the lead the quest to find the workshop of Daedalus, inventor of the Labyrinth and holder of Ariadne's string, and consult the Oracle. She's vague about the last line of the prophecy and breaks the rules by allowing three questers, Percy, Tyson, and Grover to come with her instead of two. Percy receives a mysterious Iris message that shows Nico talking to a ghost adviser, who turns out to be King Minos, and raising the dead by using Mcdonalds cheeseburgers, and coke to get answers to find a way to trade a soul for a soul. Before descending into the Labyrinth, Quintus gives Percy a dog whistle, that when blown, will summon Mrs. O'Leary to him whenever he is trouble. Percy remembers Luke's gift which was suppose to drag him into Tartarus and says he is not going to use the whistle because Juniper told Percy she saw Quintus snooping out the Labyrinth entrance.

Once in the Labyrinth, they immediately get lost and don't know which way to turn. They meet Janus, the two-faced god of choices, and Hera, Queen of Heaven and the goddess of marriage. Hera guides them and tells them to seek out Hephaestus, who might have kept track of Daedalus over the ages. They continue their journey through the maze and come out into Alcatraz, where they discover various prisons used to hold Cyclopes and the Hekatonkheires (or Hundred-Handed Ones), who were allies to the Olympians during the first war, along with their jailer, Kampê. Tyson meets his hero, the Hundred-Handed One, Briares, and sets him free to discover that he lost his will and confidence for battle. They face Kampê and barely escape. Tyson almost dies against Kampe but Percy hits her with his shield Tyson made him and it was lost for good. Later in the story Kampe is killed.

They soon come across the demonic dude ranch called the Triple G Ranch and meet Geryon and Eurytion, who is an elder son of Ares. Staying there also is Nico the son of Hades. Geryon was paid to let the questers go through, but not Nico. Percy makes a deal that if he cleaned the stables of Diomedes like Hercules did, then Geryon would let his friends go. He succeeds by using the power of the ocean inside him, but Geryon tells him that he didn't make the deal binding by swearing on the River Styx. Percy and Geryon battle. Percy learns that Geroyon has three hearts and can not defeat him with a sword. He gets a bow and prays to Artemis and Apollo to help him shoot. He succeds and hits all 3 hearts. He sets Eurytion free of his command by killing Geryon. For his thanks, he gives them a silver disk necklace that'll help locate the god through the Labyrinth. Afterward, Nico summons Bianca's spirit, who lets him know that Percy wasn't to blame for her death. Nico decides to remain behind at the ranch, while the others continue.

As they continue their quest to find Hephaestus, they come across the Sphinx, who upsets Annabeth by not having more challenging riddles, instead of just fact questions. They escape the grasp of the Sphinx and discover Hephaestus in one of his forges fixing a Toyota Corolla. He tells them that he'll help them find Daedalus if they found out whose been using his forge at Mount St. Helens. They agree, but split up along the way when Grover gets a scent of Pan. Tyson decides to go with him, leaving Percy and Annabeth to head to the forge. They discover telekhines (sea demons) there, making a weapon for Kronos. Percy tells Annabeth to escape while she can and she kisses him then departs to report back to Hephaestus.

The telekhines discover Percy and injure him by throwing lava on him. Percy summons all his powers to get rid of the lava and the telekhines, and ends up causing Mount St. Helens to erupt and almost awaken Typhon. He is then sent while unconscious to Calypso's island by Hera. Hephaestus arrives and tells him what he wants to know about Daedalus and what he'll need to guide him through the Labyrinth: Rachel Elizabeth Dare. Calypso offers him to stay, and she tells him her curse; 'the gods send her a hero that she can't help but fall inlove with'. Percy later states that the curse worked both ways. He leaves Calypso's island and heads for camp. Stating that he would be thinking about her for the rest of his life. At camp he learns that everyone thought he was dead. He and Annabeth go looking for Rachel and find her in Manhattan.

Together, they descend into the Labyrinth again, this time with Rachel as their guide, whose eyes are harder to fool since she can see directly through the Mist. They find an underground arena with Luke's troops in it, being used to entertain a giant son of Poseidon and Gaea, Antaeus. Percy duels against a dracaena, who he easily defeats, and then fights a half-blood named Ethan Nakamura, who he spares in the battle. He then challenges Antaeus to battle and successfully kills him. The monsters begin to overwhelm them and he calls Mrs. O'Leary by use of the dog whistle to help them out. They escape and finally find their way to Daedalus' workshop to discover Daedalus is actually Quintus. Daedalus had built five bodies for himself over the millennium, by casting his soul into the humanoid automatons. Monsters attack again in his workshop, led by Kelli who has taken Nico captive. He had left the Labyrinth, but he was advised by Minos to return because Minos said Percy and Annabeth would be in danger. It was a trick , because Minos wanted revenge on Daedalus for his treachery and giving the daughters of a rival king the tools to kill him. He reveals that once Nico got the soul, he would use it for himself, and not on Bianca. Percy, Annabeth, Nico and Rachel are able to escape on bronze wings and fly out of Daedalus's workshop, leaving him to battle the monsters with Mrs. O'Leary.

Rachel convinces a chauffeur to drive them into the city due to her wealthy status and she spots another entrance to the Labyrinth in a museum. Once in the Labyrinth, they come across a tunnel that leads to Mount Tamalpais and the palace of Kronos. Percy can't help but check it out and discovers the telekhines from Hephaestus' forge have reforged the weapon for the Lord of Time Kronos, his scythe or sickle. Percy opens the coffin to discover Luke, who looks dead. Ethan, son of Nemesis (a minor goddess), enters with the telekhines and pledges his allegiance to Kronos. That was the last soul Kronos needed to complete his transformating body, and he is resurrected in the form of Luke's body. Percy and his friends barely escape, and Nico uses his powers to cause the ceiling of the palace to cave in.

They continue on their journey back to New York and begin to sense something ancient and powerful in another tunnel. They find Tyson and Grover, and discover the lost god Pan in a crystal cavern. He wants Grover to tell the world he has died, since his kingdom has faded and that his spirit shall live inside all of them. He leaves Percy, Annabeth, and Rachel cryptic messages about their futures. Pan then dies and the crystal cavern vanishes along with its wonders. They then return to camp, where Luke's forces have begun the invasion. They're able to beat them back, with the help of Grover, who creates panic among the enemy forces, but have a few casualties, including Lee Fletcher, a son of Apollo, and Castor, one of Dionysus's twin sons. After the battle, Daedalus, by order of himself, dies to destroy the Labyrinth.

The Council of Cloven Elders decide that Grover should be exiled and that the search for Pan should continue, but Dionysus returns and outvotes them. Percy hears the last line of Annabeth's prophecy and is upset to hear that she would "Lose a love to worse than death", wasn't about him as she had thought, but Luke. Percy wants to tell Annabeth that he doesn't want to be so distant from her, but finds that he can't. Annabeth decides to stay at camp a while and Percy heads home to celebrate his fifteenth birthday with his mom, Paul Blofis, and Tyson. He gets a surprise visitor in the form of Poseidon, who gives him a sand dollar as a birthday gift. He also gives him a warning that ancient forces are stirring, the great monster Typhon is stirring from his imprisonment under Mount St. Helens due to the Titans' rising and Percy's outburst. Poseidon then tells Percy that he is his favorite son. Also, Paul tells Percy that he wants to propose to his mom. Percy plants a moonlace flower on his fire escape that he'd kept from Calypso's island and finds Nico there. Nico tells Percy that he has some news and a way to beat Luke, but gets distracted when he sees the blue birthday cake. Percy invites him in for cake, ice cream and a long conversation. THE END.

Main characters

Percy Jackson: Son of Poseidon Sea god.

Annabeth Chase: Daughter of Athena.

Grover Underwood: Satyr. One of Percy's best friends. His life's ambition is to find the lost God of the Wild, Pan. COFFEE

Tyson: Percy's Cyclopes half-brother. Claimed by Poseidon as his child. He had been working for his father in the Palace of Poseidon under the oceans, in the Cyclopes Forge.

Clarisse: Clarisse's scouting mission involved her to enter the Labyrinth near her mother's house in Phoenix, Arizona. There she finds a fellow half-blood, Chris Rodriguez, who was driven to insanity in the Labyrinth by the ghost of King Minos. She takes him back to Camp Half-Blood and tries to nurse him back to health with nectar and ambrosia. She is found crying, showing this daughter of Ares is in fact capable of love. Dionysus is able to reverse the insanity saying, "He knows about madness." The two are later seen together, happy and holding hands at the camp fire, singing.

Rachel Elizabeth Dare: A mortal who can clearly see through the Mist. Her father is a wealthy businessman who buys the undeveloped land of the wild and builds developments upon them. She hates her father for doing so and was embarrased to meet Pan, God of the Wild. Percy had previously met her at the Hoover Dam in The Titan's Curse.

Nico di Angelo: Son of Hades. Upset that his sister Bianca died, he is slightly psychotic, and attempts to trade Daedalus's soul for that of Bianca. He has a sword made of Stygian Iron.

Luke Castellan : Son of Hermes. His body becomes possessed by the spirit of Kronos

Kronos: The youngest son of Oronos and Gaea. Kronos overthrew his father with the help of his mother. He married his sister Rhea, and created the Greek gods. He swallowed his children as they were born to prevent his father's fate from becoming his own. Rhea hid her son Zeus, and when he was old enough Zeus freed the Cyclopes, who fashioned the Master Bolt. With this and his father's weapon Zeus cut Kronos into millions of pieces and banished him to Tartarus. Since then, Kronos has been planning his escape and the downfall of the Olympians.

King Minos: Ancient king of Crete, stepfather of the Minotaur and commissioner of the Labyrinth.

Geryon: A being with three torsos, having three hearts, two arms, four armpits. Owner of Triple G Ranch in Texas.

Eurytion: The son of Ares, he is in the employ of Geryon. Percy describes him as "looking as if Father Time had completely jacked out and gone redneck". He wears a T-shirt that says "Don't Mess With Texas".

Daedalus/Quintus: The great inventor of the Labyrinth and son of Athena, who makes five automatons to cheat death, and becomes the new swordsman at Camp Half-Blood under the name Quintus. He has a murderer's mark on his neck branded by Athena as he killed his nephew Perdix. He owns a Hellhound named "Mrs. O'Leary".

Juniper: A dryad, Grover's girlfriend. Named because she lives in a Juniper bush.

Dionysus: The god of wine and director at Camp half-blood, until being recalled by Zeus to check on the Minor Gods.

See also

* Greek gods
* Mount Olympus
* Greek mythology
* Kronos
* The Lightning Thief
* The Sea of Monsters
* The Titan's Curse
* Rick Riordan
* Percy Jackson
* Percy Jackson and the Olympians

References

External links

* http://www.nassaulibrary.org/SyoTeensBlog/BattleOfTheLabyrinth - Picture of the front cover of the book
* http://www.rickriordan.com/children.htm - Review of the book and the series
* http://youtube.com/watch?v=NBgL-5qm_4Q - Battle of the Labyrinth YouTube Preview