The Titan's Curse


The Titan's Curse is an American fantasy-adventure novel based on Greek mythology written by Rick Riordan. It was released on May 1, 2007, and is the third novel in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series and the sequel to The Sea of Monsters. It is about the adventures of the 14-year-old demigod Percy Jackson as he and his friends go on a dangerous quest to rescue his 14-year-old demigod friend Annabeth Chase and the Greek goddess Artemis, who have both been kidnapped.
The Titan's Curse was published by Miramax Books, an imprint of Hyperion Books for Children and thus Disney Publishing. It was released in the United States and the United Kingdom on May 1, 2007. The novel was also released in audiobook format, read by Jesse Bernstein.
Mostly well-received, The Titan's Curse was nominated for numerous awards, winning ones such as the No. 1 The New York Times children's series best seller and Book Sense Top thirty Summer Pick for 2010.

Plot

, Annabeth Chase, and Thalia Grace get a ride from Mrs. Jackson to Westover Hall, a boarding school in Bar Harbor, Maine, to escort two sibling half-bloods named Nico and Bianca di Angelo to Camp Half-Blood. They are attacked by a teacher named Dr. Thorn, who is actually a manticore. Though the goddess Artemis and her hunters arrive to help, Dr Thorn jumps off a cliff with Annabeth on his back. Artemis is troubled by the manticore's mention of a "Great Stirring" of monsters, and goes off alone to hunt an Olympus-destroying monster she believes to have finally returned from Tartarus. She sends the half-bloods and Hunters to Camp Half-Blood with her brother Apollo.
At camp, Percy and Blackjack save a sea monster that Percy nicknames Bessie, and Artemis's lieutenant Zoë Nightshade begins having mysterious dreams about Artemis in grave danger. Percy has dreams about Annabeth saving Luke from being crushed by the ceiling of a cave and holding it up for him. Both Zoë and Percy are unable to act until the Oracle somehow leaves the attic in the Big House and delivers Zoë a prophecy. She and Chiron organize a quest, and she decides to bring Thalia, Grover Underwood, Bianca, and another Hunter with her. Percy is forbidden from going because the Hunters refuse to travel with a male. He successfully sneaks away from camp on Blackjack, though he is almost stopped by Mr. D, who only agrees to let him go because there is a high chance Percy will be killed while on the quest.
When he arrives in Washington, D.C., Percy notices Dr. Thorn heading into the National Museum of Natural History and follows him using Annabeth's invisibility hat. Luke and a man called the General are there, and together they summon spartoi to hunt the official quest group, who are nearby in the National Air and Space Museum. Percy tries to warn the group, but they are attacked by the Nemean Lion before they can leave. They fight the lion and manage to kill it. The quest group and Percy flee, and, on the advice of Apollo, travel to Cloudcroft, New Mexico. In Cloudcroft, Grover senses the presence of Pan, who sends the Erymanthian Boar to help them escape the spartoi. The boar carries them as far as Gila Claw, Arizona and the "junkyard of the gods." After a brief encounter with Ares and Aphrodite, the group enters the junkyard, where Bianca tries to take a cursed statuette for Nico. Her theft awakens a prototype of Talos, and she gives her life to bring it down. The remaining quest members travel to Hoover Dam, and, after narrowly escaping the spartoi again, arrive in San Francisco on the backs of two bronze flying angels.
Once there, Percy seeks out Nereus and learns that the monster Artemis was hunting is Bessie, the monster he saved back at camp with Blackjack, who is an ophiotaurus. After a final encounter with Dr Thorn in which Percy pleads with Mr D to help him defeat the manticore, Grover heads back to Camp Half-Blood with Bessie. Zoë, Percy, and Thalia go to find Frederick Chase, Annabeth's father, in the hope that he will help them reach their final destination: Mount Tamalpais, the modern location of the Titans' fortress on Mount Othrys. With Professor Chase's car, they travel to the Garden of Hesperides. Zoë is wounded by the dragon Ladon while they pass through. At the place where Atlas once held up the sky, the group finds Artemis now doing his job. After seeing Annabeth tied up and held hostage by Luke and learning that "the General" is Zoë's father, the Titan Atlas, Percy takes the sky from Artemis so she can fight against the Titan. Artemis engages Atlas and is able to trap him under the sky again, but not before he seriously wounds Zoë by pushing her off of a cliff. Thalia battles Luke, and he falls from the cliff, apparently dead. With the help of Mr Chase, who arrives in a biplane he has fitted with machine guns that fire celestial bronze bullets, they escape and travel to a nearby airfield in Artemis' silver chariot. Zoë dies shortly after landing and Artemis makes a constellation in her honour. The rest of the group then head for Mount Olympus.
During the winter solstice meeting, the gods are finally convinced by Artemis to take action against the Titans. Thalia is also asked by Artemis to become an immortal Huntress, and she accepts, delaying the onset of the Great Prophecy. Percy is told by his father, Poseidon, that Luke is miraculously alive. Percy and Annabeth return to Camp Half-Blood worried about the future. Before he is able to relax, however, Percy is forced to explain Bianca's death to Nico. Nico immediately blames Percy, as Percy promised to keep her safe. When a group of spartoi arrive to attack Percy, Nico banishes them to the underworld, revealing himself as a son of Hades. Nico runs away from camp and Percy tells the truth of Nico's parentage to Annabeth and Grover. They promise to hide this fact from everyone else, especially the Titan's army, because this means that there are again two possible heroes for the Great Prophecy.

Characters

The Titan's Curse received relatively positive reviews, which often lauded the humor and action in the story. Children's Literature, which commended the book's fast pace and humor, wrote, "Readers will relate to good natured Percy, the protagonist." Kirkus Reviews awarded it a starred review with, "This third in the Olympians series makes the Greek myths come alive in a way no dreary classroom unit can ... will have readers wondering how literature can be this fun. This can stand alone, though newcomers to the series will race back to the first two volumes and eagerly await a fourth installment." School Library Journal praised the "adventurous" plot as well as the book's appeal: "Teachers will cheer for Percy Jackson and the Olympians as they inspire students to embrace Greek mythology and score the ultimate Herculean challenge: getting kids to read. All in all, a winner of Olympic proportions and a surefire read-aloud." Booklist's starred review approved of the novel's humor, action, and plotting: "The Percy Jackson & the Olympians series is built around a terrific idea—that the half-mortal offspring of Greek gods live among us, playing out struggles of mythic scale—and Riordan takes it from strength to strength with this exciting installment, adding even more depth to the characters and story arc while retaining its predecessors' nonstop laughs and action." Kidsreads raved, "Rick Riordan's Olympian adventures have gained great popularity thanks to their combination of humor, adventure and a winning hero... Readers who are familiar with ancient mythology will enjoy Riordan's tongue-in-cheek approach; those who aren't just might be tempted to go to the original sources to learn more."

Awards and nominations

The Titan's Curse received several literature-related awards, including: number one The New York Times children's series best seller and Book Sense Top Ten Summer Pick for 2007. It was also a Quill Award nominee.

Audiobook

An eight-hour-and-forty-eight-minute audiobook read by the actor Jesse Bernstein and published by Listening Library was released on April 24, 2007.
AudioFile Magazine lauded Bernstein's interpretation, writing, "Sounding alternately young, or old, or really scary, Jesse Bernstein... effectively voices the confusion and loss the team experiences."

Sequel

In The Battle of the Labyrinth, Annabeth and Percy find an entrance into the Labyrinth during a game of capture the flag. Percy soon learns that Luke had used the entrance and will lead his army through the Labyrinth straight in to the heart of camp. To get into the Labyrinth, Percy has to find the symbol of Daedalus, the Greek letter delta, on a passageway, touch it, and then enter the Labyrinth. Using the Labyrinth, Percy tries to find Daedalus so Luke cannot get Ariadne's string, thereby foiling Luke's invasion.