The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #1) by Rick Riordan
Release: March 1st 2006
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Source: Amazon
Lightning Thief Synopsis:
Percy Jackson is a good kid, but he can’t seem to focus on his schoolwork or control his temper. And lately, being away at boarding school is only getting worse – Percy could have sworn his pre-algebra teacher turned into a monster and tried to kill him. When Percy’s mom finds out, she knows it’s time that he knew the truth about where he came from, and that he go to the one place he’ll be safe.
She sends Percy to Camp Half Blood, a summer camp for demigods (on Long Island), where he learns that the father he never knew is Poseidon, God of the Sea. Soon a mystery unfolds and together with his friends—one a satyr and the other the demigod daughter of Athena – Percy sets out on a quest across the United States to reach the gates of the Underworld (located in a recording studio in Hollywood) and prevent a catastrophic war between the gods.
Review:
Watch my video review of The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan!
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efnB3NC8UuA[/embedyt]
What can I say? I loved reading this book and it was it was an amazing start to the series. There is never a dull moment in the book! From the first chapter, we immediately get sucked into the adventure where Percy fights his monster teacher. Each and every chapter had something exciting happening in Percy’s life, like his encounter with the Oracle, his experience in camp Half Blood, meeting Medusa, escaping Echidna from the Gateway Arch, and my personal favorite, when he goes to the Underworld to meet Hades. The author knows just how to keep you hooked and I found myself glued to the pages.
Coming to the characters, I also love the friendship between Percy, Annabeth and Grover. I think the three of them make an amazing team and really root for each other. Grover, in fact is my favorite character in this book! He loves food and he is hilarious, what’s not to like? The world building is simply amazing with so many details to Greek Mythology. I love how the author has describes the history of the characters in a funny and imaginative manner. In general, I loved Riordan’s simplistic style of writing, and the way he focused on action, adventure and history.
My only minor gripe about this story was it felt very overwhelming at times. I love how fast paced it is, but sometimes it felt like too much was happening. At times I felt like I just could not catch up to what was going on. Also, I was cringing a bit when the characters say that the western world is the greatest in the world, and the American force is greatest of all. I don’t want to get into a political debate here, but I didn’t think it was necessary to explicitly emphasize that on a children’s book, as it might corrupt the ideologies of younger readers.
Overall, the Lightning Thief is the perfect start to the series and sets up the groundwork for the remaining books, and I would give it a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars.
