This is easily the most satisfying installment so far of the Percy Jackson franchise. Riordan still runs his tale at full throttle, giving neither characters nor readers barely a moment to pause, reflect, and assess, but more dimensions to the characters and the stakes are brought forward. This book is more about costs and casualties, subtly alluding to Percy's (and Annabeth's) increasing adolescent maturity.

Two new characters take the story in richer directions and one, ten-year-old* Nico, is apparently set to play a greater role in the overall saga; he cuts a cool figure among the other half-bloods and the contrasts are fun. The Olympians are met but for Hestia, and these updated forms work nicely; Apollo's brazen showmanship and lousy haiku are not a real stretch. Dionysus finally gets to play a role in classic character towards the end and Riordan shows why a god of Madness is not one to trifle with, even allowing "Mr. D" to drop the take-away line about power being difficult to resist. Nice.

"The Titan's Curse" is an uptick across the board, but it really is time to address the soon-to-be-15 year old Percy & Annabeth's physical and maturational growth; they still act and talk like they did at 12.

[* - There seems to have been a time-freeze involved along the way, so Nico was _born_ some 80 years previously. More to follow on that, I guess.] ( )

Alright, this is where this series gets really good. When I read this series for the first time a couple years ago, the third installment of was actually my favorite. Now, I would probably place it in 2nd place, just behind Book 4, but we'll see how I feel after re-reading the last two books.

This book, in a lot of ways, is similar to "The Lightning Thief". The majority of the novel is a an adventure through the United States of America, facing monsters left and right, and culminating in an epic final battle with the enemy, followed shortly by a meeting with the gods on Olympus. However, I would say that this book is slightly stronger than book 1 in that aspect. While I found some of the events of "The Lightning Thief" more interesting than the events that took place in this book, "The Titan's Curse" is miles better than "The Lightning Thief" in one major aspect: scale. This time around, the stakes are higher, the jokes are fewer, the battles are more grand and exciting, and the plot twists and revelations are more unbelievable. It just feels like a more solid version of Book 1.

Again, I like the fact that the comedy is somewhat subdued here. It makes everything feel more serious. I love it when children's stories become more mature with each entry. While the jokes are fewer here, they are by no means weaker. Some sections had me laughing my ass off. The section where Atlas tried to grow creatures out of the soil in the museum had me on the floor, man.

This book shows, once again, that this franchise is at its best with the adventures. Sure, the epic lore and the plot twists are really exciting, but the most memorable parts of these books for me have always been the adventures through the United States. I just cannot explain how entertaining it is to read about Percy and his friends traveling far and wide, encountering various unexpected obstacles, and coming up with creative ways of overcoming them before moving to the next major stage of their adventure. It reminds me of Lord of the Rings. I always have a timeline in my head of every event that occurs in those books as the characters travel further and further in their journey across the lands. The same thing applies here. It is an extremely enthralling story-telling method. ( )

Between Artemis, Zoe, Bianca, Thalia, and Annabeth, girls and goddesses dominated Titan’s Curse. It was refreshing, too, to see Percy at the end of Cupid’s bow (or in Aphrodite’s limo lol) rather than in the middle of everything as Annabeth was. (I wish we'd had a chap or two in her POV--she really went and held up the universe for several straight days.)

But damn that ending was brutal. Teared up on the bus home. Think this is my favorite of the series so far. ( )

Magic

THE TITAN'S CURSE is the third book in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and the first book I have not previously read. Unfortunately, I had two issues with my reading experience that made it my least favorite of the first three books.

My first issue is with Jesse Bernstein's narration. For some reason, he chooses to change the voices of certain characters after two books in the series. As if that were not jarring enough, he stumbles in his narration of Percy's voice. He doesn't use enough sarcasm - something Percy already has in spades, made worse by being a fourteen-year-old. The change is subtle, but it makes Percy whinier and less enjoyable a character.

My other issue with THE TITAN'S CURSE is that the entire story feels repetitive. The first book is, in essence, a rescue mission with a deadline, and so is THE TITAN'S CURSE. The danger, locations, and rescuees might be different, but that's about it. A mysterious person is still sending danger to stop Percy and his friends. Percy still becomes the de facto quest leader. The two books are twins, and it makes for a boring read. In fact, I fell asleep while listening during one point, missed about 30 minutes of narration, and had no problems understanding the story despite the missing gap.

THE TITAN'S CURSE was indeed written for children, and formulaic stories are helpful learning tools for the target demographic. I had higher expectations for the series, hoping the narrative would mature as Percy ages. Maybe if Mr. Bernstein had not stumbled so much during his performance, my opinion would be different. I still plan to finish the series, but I now know to temper my expectations. ( )