The Sea of Monsters

The Sea of Monsters carries forward unanswered questions from the first installment in the Percy Jackson series, The Lightning Thief. Specifically, it addresses the prophesy surrounding Percy, the mystery of the god Pan, and Thalia’s history. In The Lightning Thief, Riordan introduces Thalia as the tree overlooking Camp Half Blood, explaining Zeus transformed a dying Thalia so she could continue to protect the camp. Over the course of The Lightning Thief and The Sea of Monsters, Annabeth and Luke reveal information about Thalia, including the details of her “death.” When Thalia emerges from the tree at the end of The Sea of Monsters, she hasn’t aged in the five years since she was transformed, making her 15.

The Sea of Monsters also clarifies the prophesy introduced in The Lightning Thief. The prophesy states a demigod child of the big three will make a decision that saves or destroys the gods. Up until the end of The Sea of Monsters, Chiron, Annabeth, and others assumed the prophesy was about Percy because he was the only living child of the big three. With Thalia alive once again and older than Percy, the details of the prophesy remain unchanged, but there is now a question as to which demigod will survive long enough to fulfill it.

At the end of The Lightning Thief, Grover sets out to find the god Pan, a quest no satyr has ever returned from. In the Sea of Monsters, Riordan reveals why this is and, in doing so, links Grover to the main threat of the book. The Golden Fleece radiates the same aura as Pan, and with the god missing, satyrs have journeyed to the Fleece, where Polyphemus ate them. By removing the Fleece from Polyphemus’s island, satyrs once again stand a chance of surviving the quest for Pan.