Alternate chapter title: Satyrs Needin’ A Smack
Big dogs, fat satyrs, and shadow-hopping! It must be time for the fifth chapter in Michael Reads Percy Jackson: The Last Olympian, aka…
I Drive My Dog Into a Tree
This chapter’s a quick one, but it does a good job of setting things up. After a quick reunion with Quintus’s Daedalus’s Percy’s pet hellhound Mrs. O’Leary, we’ve got a positively frustrating discussion with a satyr, and Percy commits to Nico’s mysterious plan. Or at least he commits to starting on it.
So Percy’s taking a journey to see Luke’s mother. I still don’t quite know what Nico’s plan entails, but clearly delving into Luke’s past for ways to defeat Luke|Kronos in the present is part of that. Just from the set-up, I’m already wondering just how awful Luke’s mother will wind up being. I’m anticipating her being, oh, not the best mom, let’s say. It’s all wrapped up in bits of subtle dread, and I love it.
I’m also getting a very “let’s learn about Voldemort’s past” vibe here, but in a good way. I wonder, is there some Harry Potter transference going on that’s upping my anticipatory dread by association, or is it all coming out of The Last Olympian? So far TLO has done a great job of creating an atmosphere of impending apocalyptic events, so I’d say Riordan gets most of the credit. But I’m sure the Voldemort-vibe isn’t hurting either. 🙂
I have very little to say about the bit with Juniper and the satyr Leneus, other than I feel bad for Jupiter being stuck in impotent uncertainty, and that every time I run into the satyr council in any way, shape, or form, I usually want to smack ’em silly. This encounter is no exception.
I like the concept of shadow travel. (I know it didn’t originate here, but that doesn’t prevent me from liking the concept.) Of course, I’m also watching Babylon 5 lately, so “shadow travel” has a few different meanings at this point…
I’m pretty sure the Shadows would be down with Kronos.
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