Michael Reads Percy Jackson: The Battle of the Labyrinth

Maybe if they’d have followed the right wall instead?

Two gods, three faces, and a milkman. All this plus peanut butter sandwiches in Michael Reads Percy Jackson: The Battle of the Labyrinth, Chapter the Sixth…

We Meet the God with Two Faces

This was a fun introduction to the Labyrinth, and an engaging enough chapter. Riordan wastes no time in showing us just how twisted–double-meaning intended–the Labyrinth can be. Good example of showing not telling. They start out, wisely, with trying the old trick we always used in D&D when encountering a maze: Follow the left wall. Then Percy’s DM said no to that idea, by removing the left wall entirely!

“Left walls are mean.”

You said it, Tyson.

Now it’s been a little while since I made reference to Zeus Is Dead in these posts (or at least I feel like it has), so allow me this one:

We went fifty feet and the tunnel turned back to cement, with brass pipes running down the sides. The walls were spray-painted with graffiti. A neon tagger sign read MOZ RULZ.

I liked the touch of the graffiti, first of all. Nice detail. But it also made me think of a part in ZID where one of the protagonists is traveling down a tunnel into Hades…

As it turns out, “What Would Samuel L. Jackson Do?” is an excellent game to play with yourself in such situations.

It’s about this time, as they were wandering around picking passages at random, that I suddenly realized (or remembered) that they really don’t have a plan beyond “wander around until they find something.” But I shouldn’t throw stones, since they do at least have a prophecy on their side saying that something will happen, right? Plus the whole “wander around looking for clues” always worked for Scooby Doo.

“And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for these meddling halfbloods and their cyclops!” – Kronos, probably

And then we meet Janus, who seems like a confusing guy to be around, but he does spice things up a little more before Hera postpones him, so to speak. But we learn that Janus’s time WILL be coming. Ominous! Ominous!! Yet that’s okay, because Janus was once played by Sean Bean in Goldeneye. Well, sorta. And we all know what happens inevitably to Sean Bean.

“And what do we say to the god of death?” “Sean Bean is over there.”

Speaking of Hera, I especially enjoyed her visit. Then again, I love the gods themselves as characters, so whenever one of them stops by the narrative, I’m usually pretty happy. She’s also a breath of fresh air after the confusion of the Labyrinth, which goes to show that I’m doing well identifying with the characters at the moment. The respite she gives was welcome to both them and to myself.

And then of course she leaves after a cryptic comment about Percy knowing the answer of navigating the Labyrinth already.

“Well,” Grover sighed, “she said Percy knows the answer. That’s something.”
They all looked at me.
“But I don’t,” I said. “I don’t know what she was talking about.”
Annabeth sighed. “All right. Then we’ll just keep going.”

Well geez, folks, way to really wrestle with the problem.

I haven’t picked out a favorite quote in a while, mostly because none of them particularly jumped out at me (or because, more often, I just plain forgot.) But I’ve got one today, because this one made me laugh out loud, in the middle of a café: