Book Identity
The Titan's Curse is a 2007 fantasy-adventure novel based on Greek mythology written by Rick Riordan. It is the third novel in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series and the sequel to The Sea of Monsters. It charts the adventures of the fourteen-year-old demigod Percy Jackson as he and his friends go on a dangerous quest to rescue his friend Annabeth and the Greek goddess Artemis, who have both been kidnapped.
Synopsis
During an assignment to rescue Nico and Bianca di Angelo, Annabeth Chase and Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, go missing. Percy and his friends must look for Artemis before the winter solstice meeting of the Olympian council, when the goddess's influence could change an important vote on the war with the Titans. Thalia, Zoë Nightshade, Bianca di Angelo, and Grover join Percy on this dangerous quest. They also are searching for a rare monster that Artemis was trying to hunt down when she went missing; it is so strong that it can obliterate Olympus. Percy is called by a hippocampus (mythological sea-horse) to rescue a marine cow-like creature called the Ophiotaurus, whom Percy names Bessie, not knowing it is male.
With help from Apollo, they reach Cloudcroft, a small town in New Mexico. Grover senses the presence of Pan, the Greek god of nature, and a wild gift from him, the giant Erymanthian Boar, comes to carry them further on to San Francisco. It takes them to the junkyard of the gods, and Percy meets Ares and talks to Aphrodite, at which point it is hinted that Annabeth and Percy will most likely have a romantic future. Eventually, the group enters the junkyard, where Bianca tries to steal an action figure for her younger brother. She accidentally awakens a prototype of Talos, a giant man of bronze, and dies after successfully destroying it. While being attacked by skeletal warriors at the Hoover Dam, Percy meets Rachel Elizabeth Dare, a girl who can see through the Mist. She saves Percy by confusing the skeletons, allowing Percy and his friends to escape.
In San Francisco, they learn that Bessie the Ophiotaurus is the monster they seek, because sacrificing it and burning its entrails will give them power to destroy Olympus. They go to seek the help of Annabeth's father; he gives them a car. They travel to the Garden of Hesperides, where Zoë meets her sisters and is poisoned by the dragon Ladon. They continue to the Mountain of Despair on California's Mount Tamalpais, where Mount Othrys, the Titan capital, now resides. From the top of the mountain where Atlas held up the sky, they see Artemis taking on his burden. Annabeth is held captive by Luke, and has been handcuffed and gagged. Realizing that the prophecy made by the Oracle involves him, Percy takes the burden—the Titan's curse—from Artemis. In the ensuing fight, Atlas (the General of the Titans) kills his daughter Zoë by throwing her against rocks. Artemis tricks Atlas into taking his burden from Percy. Zoe dies and Artemis puts Zoë's body into the night sky, as a new constellation. During a battle between Thalia and Luke, Luke falls off a cliff and Percy assumes that Luke is dead. Later, Percy is told by Annabeth, and confirmed by Poseidon, that Luke has survived the fall, and Thalia joins the Hunt to become immortal and prevent the prophecy from being fulfilled.
With love,
