Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsnon stop action to end the series
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 7, 2011
Percy is taking Rachel for a drive when a pegasus lands on the car's hood and the war starts. Percy and Beckendorf set out to blow up the liner "Princess Andromeda" loaded with monsters, Luke, and the titan Kronos. But this action is expected and, although the ship is blown up, Beckendorf gives his life in the process. Serena, back at Camp Half Blood suffers from it and it is almost useless, Kronos is only slightly delayed, not seriously hurt as everyone hoped. But that is the author, he knows what he wants and we must take what he gives us. There is a huge reader audience who must also want it, reviews are great and sales are high. So on with the war. Here Riordan does not have old myths to fall back on, he must wage war on his own. And I don't think he knows how to do it. I never felt part of the fighting, I was always divorced from the action, as though I were a TV viewer, not a participant. What kind of fighting is it when one strikes, the other parries, all conflict seems to be one-on-one and sequential. Yes, all entrances to New York are attacked simultaneously but even this seems wrong to me. Read military strategy, some points are attacked strongly while others are only feinted at to split the defenses, the attacker knows which points are really under true attack and when, he hopes to split defensive effort and then come in at his selected targets with massed attack before defense can swing their forces back into action at these points. There is much more to it than that, Riordan ignores it all and lets Percy, a tyro in warfare, spread his forces to cover all points, then Kronos just throws his forces at them, no strategy. There are video games extant that should or could be used to create more realistic scenarios.
Magic is used but only offensively, countered by defensive magic, again no strategy. So we have to throw out all the fighting, it is meaningless and if we do so we have destroyed the book, what is left? War is hell, not a series of controlled actions. There is pain, death, confusion, terror, even panic, where does Riordan even mention it? More wounding than death occurs, there are sallies, traps, advances and retreats, and officers to give commands in real warfare , I could go on and on, all I can say is, there is fighting continually in the book, it seems to be operating under the marquess of Queensbury rules or at least a similar set. All the fighting in the book can be skipped, it is meaningless and when once we have done so, we are left with a few pages of loose ends to clean up. How can people read such trash?
