The second work of art is often the hardest to make. In literary circles, the phenomenon of the difficult sophomore effort has been called “the second novel syndrome,” and it can be so overwhelming that many people simply call it quits after the first book. With that in mind, it may not be all that surprising that the second “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” book, “The Sea of Monsters,” lands dead last in the comparison among the six novels in the series.
That’s not to say most readers think the book is bad, though. On the contrary, it has a very solid Goodreads rating of 4.21 stars out of 5. As such, Percy’s quest to save Camp Half-Blood by finding the Golden Fleece is a quality story in its own right — it just falls a little bit short of the other installments in the series.
Of course, the place of “The Sea of Monsters” on this list may also have something to do with its film adaptation. Released in 2010, “Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief” got a lukewarm reception from both critics and audiences, and 2013’s “Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters” didn’t do any better, effectively tanking the nascent movie franchise. Because of this, the movie version of “The Lightning Thief” is closely associated to the reason we never got a third “Percy Jackson” movie, which may potentially hurt the novel’s standing in the fans’ eyes, through no fault of the book itself.
