Michael Reads Percy Jackson: The Last Olympian – Ch 12

A rest, a recovery, and a whole buncha answers! Or, at least, some answers. More than we had before! Also, Zeus is a dick. (Maybe that’s why they murdered him.) In other words, it’s the twelfth chapter of Michael Reads Percy Jackson: The Last Olympian…

Rachel Makes A Bad Deal

This chapter can be divided into two parts: Percy awake and Percy asleep.

Percy Awake

Well, first of all, Annabeth is going to be okay. I hadn’t expected she’d be out of the woods quite so quickly. Okay, so she’s still got a fever and such, but she did move into the recovery phase once she got some Apollonian healing. And hey, she did get some extra points for saving Percy’s life, right?

What’s more, we (i.e. Percy and I) learn why Hermes is blaming Annabeth for Luke falling to Kronos: She didn’t run away with Luke last year before he gave himself over to the Titan. Annabeth seems to agree with Hermes. I suppose the blame of a god is a powerful thing, so I can’t fault her too much for being mad at herself about it even though she shouldn’t. I mean, I’m sorry Hermes, but you’re a dick for thinking Annabeth could’ve done something there. And Luke’s a dick for getting mad at Annabeth for not wanting to go with him after he had, oh gee, betrayed her and Camp Halfblood and tried to KILL a bunch of people.

Though I’ve skipped over something: Riordan drops a welcome reminder of a camp spy in Percy’s conversation with Silena. It even made me paranoid: When Percy told Annabeth about his weak spot a few paragraphs later, I started to wonder if Annabeth just might somehow be the spy. That really makes no sense–at least not that I can figure out at the moment–so it probably isn’t the case. But, like I said, getting paranoid. 😀

It’s good to see Grover again. Just don’t let that guy near Ikea when he’s stressed.

Percy Asleep

Percy gets two dreams tonight, one of which includes a vision of its own! It’s like Inception, ‘cept different. The dream of Nico, with a vision of what happened to his mother, was especially enlightening. It was Hades who cursed the Oracle to wither away to her current state (seriously, dude, she’s just the messenger!) because he couldn’t deal with the Great Prophecy. DickPoints™ to Hades! Okay, so he might’ve been a little mad because Zeus just blew up a mortal he loved, but still. (Also, DickPoints™ to Zeus!) My question here: Now that Nico knows about his mother–and now that Hades knows he knows–will that make Hades even less likely to help him, or more? I figure it’s either going to be an anger-enhancer or a parent/child relationship enhancer, but I have no idea which. Maybe I’m leaning toward the latter.

Actually, another question: Hades does rule the land of the dead. Even if he can’t bring Maria back to life, can’t he still talk to her?

On a related topic, can I say that I enjoy this sentence for its sheer juxtaposition of the cosmic and the mundane? 😀

She kissed the lord of the dead and rose from the sofa.

Meanwhile, in a second vision featuring some Ancient Greek sand-writing, Rachel’s traded going to finishing school in order to get back to New York with some urgent message for Percy. But what is it?!

Speaking of urgent questions, which Titan wants to talk to Percy under a flag of truce?! And WHY?! And how many question marks and exclamation points can I use in one paragraph?!?!?!

Hm. Five of each, it looks like.