Demigods and Monsters by Rick Riordan Read Free Book Online

Cedric’s (not to mention the “ghosts” of his parents, and the location in a graveyard).
    At this stage in The Lightning Thief , Percy has become more fully himself and is now seeing even more clearly. He has rebelled against the restrictions and the limiting labels that have been placed upon him, and he is ready to assume more responsibility for his own actions in the world.
    But that doesn’t mean everyone is happy with him.
    After all, he’s done what the gods could not: resolved a dangerous conflict by seeing through trickery, deceit, and false disguises. He has, in other words, rocked the boat.

Rite of Passage
    So what we have here, in Riordan’s The Lightning Thief , is the journey of a rebel, a journey toward consciousness and awareness, a journey of someone who dares to become himself and fulfill his destiny.
    But, as we saw earlier, this process of acquiring consciousness, of seeing clearly, is dangerous, since it is a challenge to the established order and the powers that be. Yet everyone goes through it. And in doing so, they commit the oldest “crime” there is: trying to be an individual.

    Perhaps this is the oldest of battles: the battle between the generations, reflected in the first Greek myths that tell how the Olympians threw down the older gods, the Titans, then warred with humanity, their “children,” trying to keep them in darkness—a darkness that the greatest rebel of them all, Prometheus, liberated them from by stealing fire from Mount Olympus and giving it to humankind (for which he was barbarically punished by Zeus).
    Just like the gods, parents—often with the best intentions—instinctively try to keep their children from growing up, because increasing awareness is always a challenge to them; a slap in the face, a rejection.
    But all children grow up. Because all children are rebels, like Percy Jackson.
    They are born with the seed of rebellion in them, as Booker makes clear when he notes that the young heroes and heroines of the Rags to Riches plotline are very different at the end of the story from how they began:
    What has happened to them is that they have at last revealed or developed what was potentially in them all the time. They have matured. They have grown up. They have fully realised everything that was in them to become. In the best and highest sense, they have become themselves.

    Australian author Paul Collins is best known for his fantasy and science fiction series: the Jelindel Chronicles, the Quentaris Chronicles (which he co-edits with Michael Pryor), and the Earthborn Wars, and the World of Grrym trilogy (with Danny Willis). He is Publishing Director of Ford Street Publishing. He can be found on the Web at www.paulcollins.com.au , www.quentaris.com , and www.fordstreetpublishing.com .

Would You Want to Be One of Artemis’s Hunters?
    Carolyn MacCullough

    I f given the option of eternal youth, my guess is that nine out of ten women would take it. After all, Oil of Olay, Revlon, and Lancôme, among others, have spent millions of dollars in ad campaigns trying to convince us that we can purchase it in just one small bottle. As a society, we practically fetishize youth, craving that unlined skin and endless exuberance and effervescent energy that just seems to ooze from the pores of the very young. Most women strive to preserve
youth in even the smallest of ways, no matter how many times we steel ourselves to the idea of aging gracefully.
    So what if someone made you an offer you thought you couldn’t refuse? An offer that seemed too good to be true (as most offers like this are)? What if Artemis herself, Greek goddess extraordinaire (also known as Diana if you happen to be Roman), mistress of the hunt, goddess of the moon, defender of all things wild and free, came down from the pearly heights of Mount Olympus and made you a proposition?
    First of all, only females may apply (sorry, guys!). So ladies, the offer on the