Reading the fourth book of Percy Jackson, the Battle of the Labyrinth, you can't help but marvel at how the author tie the old Greek myths and stories into his book seamlessly. In addition to more appearance by the gods, this time with Hera and Hephaestus, the legend of Daedalus and the Labyrinth to the myth of Calypso and the god of the Wild Pan all tie into the plot nicely. This series really makes people want to read all about Greek mythology all over again!

Comparison with the Harry Potter series is once again, unavoidable. Not only because Harry Potter is the gold standard, but there are certainly many similarities between the series. Just like the second to the last book in the Harry Potter series, this book also spent time and beef up the romance element! There are three girls for Percy - Annabeth, Rachel and Calypso. Even Grover got Juniper! Not to mention we found out tough girl Clarisse has her heart for traitor turn crazy and now back to normal Chris. Love is in the air and i think it's appropriate given the characters are now 15 and they need to have that emotional connections before the inevitable battle in the final book. The rise of the main villain is another good example of how similar the two series are. There is also a battle at the end of this book, it is big, but we know it will be nothing compare to the final book. Just like in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the battle in the end is nothing compare to the battle in the final book. Even though I see all these similarities, but it is not an imitation like how Eragon is pretty much a copy of Star Wars but move it in the fantasy dragon land. That is a complete similarity of the plots, the similarity between Percy Jackson and Harry Potter is more in terms of the structure of the series and the writing style.

This book once again, make the series even more epic with the scope of the Labyrinth, the ever impressive monsters and the final battle. I know the chances are slim, but I really hope they get to make it into a movie. But one can only hope, since so far none of any young adult fantasy books turned films make it past the first movie. None of them made a ton of money. Even Narnia might not be able to adapt the entire series given the eroding responses. The only exception is Harry Potter. (not counting Twilight, since that's more of in the genre of teen romance territory) ( )

I love Percy Jackson! The marvelous twists he causes are magnificint. ( )

The fourth book in the series, the battle is growing closer. Percy must find his way through the mythic Labyrinth to stop Luke and the Titans from getting to the Half-Blood Camp.

This book is excellent- there is a part of it that is particularly satisfying to a Texas fourth grade teacher! ( )

Sucked me right in from the first page...love the characters, the writing - just everything! ( )

What impressed me most about this book was the pacing. There's all the action and adventure we've come to expect in this series, but it was plotted out with clear moments of down time that never lessened the urgency of the main plot, something some of the earlier books didn't quite manage.

I like that Percy is slowly growing up in this series, along with everyone else. I worried about Nico becoming two dimensional, but although he's still a bit of a cypher, he's developing nicely. I actually really enjoyed the portrayal of a lot of adults in this book too - Daedulus and Chiron in particular. Hera was a bit flat, and I think the only person who cares about Luke any more is Annabeth, but we shall see.

I'm quite looking forward to reading the next book. ( )