For the record, I still think Biaca’s alive somewhere…
And now we get a bit of a bittersweet breather in the 18th chapter for Michael Reads Percy Jackson: The Titan’s Curse, known to us mortals as…
A Friend Says Good-bye
This is a short chapter, so let’s get right to it. It doesn’t waste any time in getting to Zoe’s fate as she perishes from the poison and Atlas’s blow. Riordan uses a legitimate mythology tool for getting around Artemis’s divine powers with regard to Zoe’s death: If the fates decree it so, it can’t be stopped. I mean, they ARE the Fates, after all. And though it was sad to see Zoe go—I often found her annoying, but I’m with Percy: she didn’t deserve to die—her passing was at least peaceful and positive, as she left this world with the admiration of her goddess.
Plus she gets to hang out in the stars, which makes me a tad envious as a light-pollution addled city-dweller. (Did you catch the recent meteor shower? I could barely see a thing here in Seattle.)
The good-bye with Annabeth’s father wasn’t nearly so sad. There was obviously some parental longing on Dr. Chase’s part, and clearly some unresolved issues between the two of them. Yet coming after Zoe’s death, it was really more of a footnote. But that’s okay, I think. I did feel a bit bad for the guy, walking away. But I also understood why Annabeth had to go. Nice job on the bullet-making, Dr. Chase…
And then Annabeth drops the bomb on us (i.e., me and Percy, and anyone else reading this for the first time who didn’t like Luke):
“You didn’t believe I was dead?”
“Never.” She hesitated. “Neither is Luke, you know. I mean… he isn’t dead.”
I stared at her. I didn’t know if she was cracking under the stress or what. “Annabeth, that fall was pretty bad. There’s no way—”
“He isn’t dead,” she insisted. “I know it. The same way you knew about me.”
Well, shoot. I figured it was within the realm of possibility, that we might see him again in the Underworld or in some sort of Titanic undead state, but still alive? How can that be? Nobody survives a plummet!
Stupid resilient bad-guy lackies. 😀
So now Percy, Thalia, and Annabeth have flown back to Mt. Olympus just as the Winter Solstice begins, and here’s the situation as I can remember it so far: Mr. Moo, the potentially god-destroying sea-cow, is still alive and in Grover’s hands. Artemis is going to try to wake the Olympians up to the Titan threat. My questions now: How’s that going to go? Will there still be some doubters among the Olympians that they need to do something? And are some gods going to suggest they kill Percy and Thalia just to be sure they can’t fulfill the prophecy the wrong way?
First, for you light-pollution addled city-dwellers, NASA live streamed the meteor shower. You should check it out the next time there’s an astrological event you want to see.
Second, the whole disbelief surrounding the Luke’s not dead thing… really? If Agent Coulson can be brought back from the dead, you should never under estimate the lengths people/gods/titans will go through to save/revive/reanimate someone they are counting on in their grand master plan. Especially when world domination is involved.
Yeah, but watching a meteor shower on TV is like looking at pictures of food. 🙂
And I was suspicious that he’d be back. (I even said so last chapter.) I just didn’t figure he’d never died in the first place. Plus I like to be over-dramatic in my disbelief. More fun that way. 😉
I get that… it is really easy to confuse all dead with only mostly dead.