Demigods and Monsters Read Online Free PDF

learned to be suspicious. Learned to be prepared for the fact that almost anything he encounters could be either a monster or a god. But the doorman in front of the Lotus is clearly human, clearly normal. Now that Percy knows how important it is to look for stuff like this, he’s able to spot it right off.
    Not only that, the doorman is a sympathetic human, and his sympathy strikes just the right note to encourage Percy to walk through the casino doors. This turns out to be about the worst mistake he could have made, and comes perilously close to derailing the entire quest.
    This is seriously sneaky stuff. Why? Because the Lotus turns the tables on Percy. His decision to enter the Hotel and Casino in the first place rests on the fact that he’s learning his lesson, learning not to trust his eyes. But who’s been teaching him this? The monsters, that’s who. With a little help from the people Percy actually trusts thrown in on the side.
    When you look at it this way, it doesn’t seem so far-fetched to suggest that all those retail monsters are actually doing Percy a favor.
You might even be able to claim that, in a roundabout sort of way, all those monsters are really on Percy’s side.
    Boy are they surprised.
    Still not convinced that monster retail is actually a positive thing? Let’s take a look at The Sea of Monsters, The Titan’s Curse, and The Battle of the Labyrinth for a moment. Those are Percy Jackson and the Olympians books two, three, and four. Not very many retail opportunities here, you say? (With the exception of Monster Donut in The Sea of Monsters , my second favorite monster retail opportunity of all time, in case you’re counting.)
    Aha! I reply. That’s just my point. By the time The Sea of Monsters, The Titan’s Curse, and The Battle of the Labyrinth roll around, Percy’s beginning to get the point. He’s learned the lesson all those shopping opportunities were trying to teach: Keep your eyes off the merchandise and on the quest-related prize.
    The fact that Percy’s learned to do this makes him much more dangerous, of course. Which is also why the fighting stakes get higher as the series goes along. The monsters have learned their lesson as well. No more trying to sidetrack the hero. Luring Percy off the track just isn’t going to cut it anymore. Just keep coming at him head-on until you take the sucker out.
    Fortunately, they haven’t managed this so far. But it seems clear they’re not going to give up. And who’s spearheading the efforts to get rid of our hero? Who is his gone-over-to-the-dark-side counterpart? That’s right. It’s Luke, the threat Percy almost didn’t recognize in time.
    This is quite a clever sleight of hand on the author’s part, if you stop to think about it. Because it puts the heart of an enemy—a monster, if you will—behind the face of a friend. This makes all Percy’s encounters with Luke (and Annabeth’s too, come to think of it) dangerous not just physically, but emotionally as well.
    When you fight a friend who’s turned into an enemy, you risk destruction not just of who you are in the present, but who you’ve
been in the past. Why? Because you have to battle both your adversary, and your own remorse for having been fooled in the first place, for not having known that he was a bad guy in time.
    It’s enough to make a hero nostalgic for the days of freaky garden statuary and killer waterbeds. Surely facing a monster that can turn you into stone is easier than staring into the face of someone you used to trust and then raising your sword. Because when you do that, there’s always the chance your own feelings can be turned into a weapon to be used against you.
    Let’s face it. Monsters who wear the faces of friends play serious hardball.
    In short, Percy Jackson continues to face pretty big odds. My personal guess is they’ll just keep getting bigger