The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

Title: The Sea of Monsters	Loved it	Graded
Author: Rick Riordan
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Elements: Greek mythology
Series: Book 2 of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series

When Thalia’s tree is mysteriously poisoned, the magical borders of Camp Half-Blood begin to fail. Now Percy and his friends have just days to find the only magic item powerful to save the camp before it is overrun by monsters. The catch: they must sail into the Sea of Monsters to find it.

Along the way, Percy must stage a daring rescue operation to save his old friend Grover, and he learns a terrible secret about his own family, which makes him question whether being the son of Poseidon is an honor or a curse.

In this wonderful sequel to THE LIGHTNING THIEF, Percy and co have to find the Golden Fleece to save Thalia's tree, which was poisoned by Luke the Traitor. Conveniently, Grover has been searching for Pan, and he's stuck at the Sea of Islands, which is where the Golden Fleece is located.

We get to know more about Annabeth, Luke and Thalia's past. Luke has become the general of Kronos' army, which is higher than I thought he'd be. Apparently he's important to Kronos, and with Annabeth's crush on Luke, you know someday she'll have to choose between Percy and Luke. We also get to know more about Poseidon's wandering ways, and Percy finds out that he has a half brother!

I keep thinking Annabeth as Percy's guide rather than an actual character, but she's really grown on me as more than just a love interest for Percy. The same goes for Chiron and the other characters. Mr D. is his usual annoying self, and his character was given more room to shine as Chiron was kicked out of Camp Half Blood after being suspected of poisoning Thalia's tree.

For all of Percy's musings, he's a good brother to Tyson, who's a Cyclops and not very smart. I like how there's non stop action and not a lot of introspection on Percy's part. As a narrator, Percy is reliable and his quips keep the tone lighthearted despite the urgency of the situation. Rick Riordan gives us fun tidbits about the modern world. My favourite has got to be about how franchises come about.

I had only one expectation before reading SEA OF MONSTERS and that was for the quality to surpass or at least be the same as THE LIGHTNING THIEF and while it didn't do that, it came very close. The ending promises of more conflict and characters to come and I'm looking forward to finding out more about Thalia as Annabeth's past collides with her present. Wonder how Percy's going to cope with a bit of rivalry?