I n the beginning of the third installment in the Percy Jackson series, Percy and he friends Thalia and Annabeth go to help bring newly found demi-gods to Camp Half Blood, only to end up in full battle with a monster. Annabeth is captured and Percy spends the rest of the book trying to save her.

In this book, Percy is forced to team up with the Hunters (the Goddess Artemis Maidens that hunt with her, who hate men), Thalia and his friend Grover to save both Annabeth and the Goddess Artemis before the winter solstice.

I think this book is easily my favorite in the series so far. It sheds light on heroes of the old myths. Riordan weaves stories so the reader realizes that all hero myths might not be what they seem.

Percy discovers more children of the big three (Zeus, Poseidon, Hades) that are the children of Hades. He finds out more about the past of the Gods and the Hunters. He spends most of the book distrusted by the hunters, which he works to overcome. The other members of the quest are searching for Artemis, but that is only Percy's secondary goal. He wants to save Annabeth, which gets Aphrodite involved, and with the Love Goddess, you never know...

Good book. Great follow up to the second, which I feel is the weakest one so far. I am not sure how I am going to get my hands on the 4th book, but I am certainly going to try.