69 pages 2 hours read

Rick Riordan

The Battle of the Labyrinth

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2008

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Literary Devices

Genre

Genre is a way to categorize different kinds of literature. Different genres have traits or literary conventions that set them apart from others. The Battle of the Labyrinth’s genre is fantasy adventure. This means that the plot of the book is fast-paced and full of action, and that the book’s world has fantastical elements that don’t exist in real life. Specifically, Riordan incorporates components of Greek mythology into the modern world to create a magical setting for Percy and his friends. In the Percy Jackson and the Olympians universe, all the locations from Greek myth—like Mount Olympus, Mount Othrys, the Labyrinth, and Ogygia—exist in US, because the US is a central power of the Western world. Riordan peoples his world with characters from ancient Greek stories, giving them a modern twist to show how they’ve adapted to the passage of time.

Setting

Settings describe where and when a story takes place. Settings can also influence how characters act within their environments. Specific places and time periods determine beliefs, era-specific ideals, and culture. The Battle of the Labyrinth takes place both in America and in modernized mythological settings. As a half-god and half-human, Percy has the special ability to travel within both settings.