Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Titan's Curse

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Titan's Curse (book 3)
by Rick Riordan
Unabridged audiobook, read  by Jesse Bernstein

Book 3 of the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series breaks with the pattern set by the first two by starting just prior to Winter break instead of right before Summer break. Grover has sent a message to Camp Half-Blood that he needs help. Always eager for an adventure and to help his buddy out, Percy along with Thalia and Annabeth head to upstate Maine to find out how they can help the satyr.
They arrive at the military school where Grover is undercover, only to meet the monster-in-disguise right off the bat. In this case, the assistant Principal is really the manticore and explains that he was a Greek monster before he was banished the lands and the tales of the Middle East.
Annabeth is captured by the manticore, and Thalia, Grover and several of the Hunters (of Artemis) join together to quest for her, notably the leiutenant to Artemis, Zoe and one of the two kids that Grover had brought Percy to help him in the first place. Percy uses Annabeth's baseball cap of invisibility to tag along until he is discovered, when he openly joins the quest.
Artemis, Apollo and Athena help the kids on their journey across the US to San Francisco, which is set up as both the anti-Manhattan and the anti-Olympus. Some interesting things happen throughout this tale, like two of the main characters getting killed off (at least I won't spoil it by saying who), but one of them in such an indecisive way as to make me think that she may make a comeback. We also learn that Hades has two children, but that he didn't break the moratorium on the big three having kids because they have been stuck in the Lotus Eater's Hotel since prior to World War II when the ban on kids for Zeus, Poseiden and Hades went into effect.
The story ends with Annabeth deciding to move to San Francisco to give living with her dad and his family another chance.
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This book has the least resemblance to a Harry Potter book yet. This is neither good or bad, just an observation. It was nice, though, to see a different type of story evoked.
Let's see, which of the gods have helped Percy now? Poseiden, Hermes, Apollo, Artemis, Athena and Aphrodite. Ares kind of helped, kind of set Percy up, so I'm not going to count him in the "helpers" list. Who are the haters? Zeus, Ares, Hephaestus and Hades, and kind of Athena, but it's not really personal, so she shouldn't be on the list of "haters" I guess.
I know that Riordan is writing the Kane cycle now which is set among the Egyptian gods, but might the statements of the manticore be more than explanation? Might they be a hint of another story cycle to come sometime later?
Speaking of new series by Riordan, I also just learned that there is another series with the Greek gods, called the Lost Heroes or something which not only features some characters from the Percy Jackson series but also uses the Roman pantheon. How the hell does that work? Is there a Zeus and a Jupiter? Or do we discover that sometimes Percy's dad likes to slum it and go around playing Neptune?
Going into this book, I knew that the title had to refer to one of two titan's and predicted I would know within the first chapter and that it would not actually be revealed to the reader until much later in the book. As soon as we learn that Luke has aligned himself with the General of the titans, to help restore Chronos, we know that the villain is Atlas. The other option was Prometheus, who may not want the gods to be in power, but he wouldn't want to replace them with the titans.
There is a muggle, I mean a mortal in this book, that I know we are going to meet again, and if we don't, I will write an email to Riordan detailing my displeasure. The red-headed girl whom Percy meets at Hoover Dam can see through the mist. And then Riordan uses her full name in three other sections of the book when Percy is reflecting on the dam situation. If this is not foreshadowing, I am very disappointed, either at the failure to include her later, or at the editor's failure to allow her full name to be used so much in the book.