Michael Reads Percy Jackson: The Battle of the Labyrinth – Ch 16

Rachel nabs a limo, Annabeth gets left behind again, and Percy’s smart enough to run away after he fulfills the title of this sixteenth chapter of Michael Reads Percy Jackson: The Battle of the Labyrinth, which is…

I Open a Coffin

Note: I apologize ahead of time if this post is a little snarky. I read this chapter after coming back from being disappointed by a movie that I was hoping to be really good, so I was in a crank.

After being smart enough not to repeat Icarus’s mistakes (and therefore landing before Daedalus’s wings disintegrate), Percy, Annabeth, Rachel and Nico head back into the Labyrinth. But first, they get there via a limo that Rachel somehow manages to talk her way into.

Rachel is evasive about just how she does this. I’m torn between some more high-concept reason, and the more down-to-earth possibility that it’s just that her parents are insanely wealthy and/or famous. They’re far too busy doing whatever it is they do to get that money, therefore ignoring her to the point of abandonment, and Rachel doesn’t want to risk Percy treating her any different if he finds out who her parents are. This would also fit in nicely with Percy’s own unusual parental situation. So that’s my official guess at this point.

After that, this felt like a pretty quick chapter. Nico and Percy have a small moment of reconciliation (or, at least, it’s a step in that direction), and Nico confesses he doesn’t feel like he can ever be accepted in the world of the living. Fortunately Percy counters that he can be accepted back at camp, but Nico doubts that. I’m not sure if this is a legitimate feeling that will last for Nico, or it’s just the usual early-teen angst magnified by losing Bianca, having a lousy previous six months, and, ya know, finding out he’s a son of Hades.

And then Percy goes and makes a stupid by going off on his own again, without Annabeth or anyone else’s help:

What I didn’t say: I was also worried about Annabeth. I didn’t trust what she would do if she saw Luke again. He had fooled her and manipulated her too many times before.

Geez, Percy, who’s the daughter of the goddess of wisdom here? And how many times have you done something less than wise? Stop marginalizing Annabeth, especially when you’re confronting overwhelming power that’s out of your league!

“Percy, don’t,” Rachel said. “Don’t go up there alone.”
“I’ll be quick,” I promised. “I won’t do anything stupid.”

Ha! (Well, one good thing I can say about Percy as a character: he’s not without character flaws, at least, right?) 😀

I remembered the last time Annabeth and I had parted ways, when she’d given me a kiss for luck in Mount St. Helens. This time, all I got was the hat.

That’s because you’re bein’ a dingus.

It reminded me of an oversized mausoleum, with walls fifty feet high. I had no idea how mortals could miss the fact that it was here.

Really? You have no idea how the mortals could miss it? Percy, have you been reading these books at all?

Okay, enough of my snark-sniping. Percy sneaks his way in and finds Kronos’s sarcophagus, opening it to find…Luke! And before you can say, “Luke, I am your great-grandfather,” Kronos is reborn inside Luke’s body, complete with the titan’s reforged scythe. And honestly, I have to say that I really liked the detail that Backbiter was a piece of Kronos’s scythe. That also made me wonder: did Luke get that in exchange for his joining Kronos’s side, or did he have it before then, and it corrupted him enough to send him to Kronos’s side?

I’m pleased to say that Percy found he could do pretty much zilch against the reborn titan at this point. Had he defeated him here, I would’ve been frustrated–I hate it when gods go down easy. (I’m looking at you, Supernatural. I like that show, but when they killed Zeus with a stick…grarhgh!) Now despite Percy’s earlier foolishness, he is at least wise enough to know when to run from Kronos, and Annabeth et al. are wise enough to go after him and save his bacon by throwing a hairbrush in a titan’s eye. (Nice shot, Rachel.)

Now Kronos is officially back, and at 78% of the way through the book, I have a feeling some bad stuff is about to go down.
I wonder, where are Daedalus and Minos now?