Customer Reviews

The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1)

5 star:		(626)
4 star:		(160)
3 star:		(62)
2 star:		(21)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

I held off buying THE LIGHTNING THIEF for a couple years. The market seems glutted with YA fantasy at the moment, and I read quite a bit of it with my 9-year-old. We've discovered several good series, but THE LIGHTNING THIEF seemed too long to hold his attention when it first came out.

This year we noticed it in the book fair at school, then saw that it was an Accelerated Reader book. So I picked it up and read a couple chapters to try it out. I was 50 pages into it when I realized I needed to be reading this to my son.

I did read it to him. We FLEW through the book (375 pages!) in 6 days because he kept pestering me to read it to him. We finished it up in a 5-hour marathon yesterday, hanging onto every page as Percy and his friends tried to save the world and put things to rights in their own lives.

THE LIGHTNING THIEF is a great book for adults and kids. I've already recommended it to a couple of adult friends who experienced the same kind of can't-put-it-down pull that I did.

Percy Jackson, the hero of the book, comes across as every kid you'd ever meet or ever would. He's no brainiac (he has dyslexia and ADHD) but he has friends who are. But he is courageous and clever, stubborn and loyal. He is the best he can be, and he's getting even better.

Riordan works in many of the Greek myths in the novel. There was a time when knowing Greek mythology was a pre-requisite for having a "classical" education. Many morals and philosophies are presented in the tales.

From the very beginning of the novel, we find out Percy is different when he ends up fighting a harpy in the museum while on a school trip. He's been kicked out of 6 schools in 6 years, lives with his mom and step-dad, Smelly Gabe, an evil guy who deliberately makes Percy's life hard.

Then, when he's on a well-deserved vacation with his mom, he finds out he's a Half-Blood, the son of one of the Greek gods. But his mom doesn't know who his dad was and that's just one of the mysteries Percy ends up solving.

The cool part of the book is peeling away all the mysteries of Percy's life and who really took Zeus's magic thunderbolt. Along the way he gains powers that set my son's head to spinning with hope and delight. Percy's a superhero without the costume, and there are plenty of villains in his world.

Riordan is a teacher who obviously loves kids as well as the subject matter. The Greek gods were a cantankerous lot, and Riordan delivers them well. Not only does he give his readers the stories, but he also brings the gods on stage and gives them personalities.

The series is supposed to run for 5 books. I think it will go on longer. I hope so. I've already ordered books 2 and 3, and my son and I are looking forward to them. The books take a while to read outloud to younger readers, but the effort is well rewarded. The story is rich and deep, and will keep your child's attention. In addition, you'd be surprised how much you can talk about even when you're not reading. And your child may just want to wander around the internet learning more interesting facts about Greek mythology.

THE LIGHTNING THIEF is well worth reading and is probably in most public and school libraries.

There's always the "what to read while waiting for the next HP" question for some of us, but...now don't get upset folks - I like Harry Potter as much as you do - "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" has a modern, hip, even urban style that people weary of Harry's earnest heroism may actually PREFER.

Plus, people with an interest in legends and myths will bug their eyes out with excitement, because the premise of "Percy Jackson" is that there are a handful of kids who are in fact the children of Greek gods and goddesses, who had come down to dally with modern Americans. These kids, called "half-bloods" in the book, grow up not knowing their origins, alienated by their disjointed lives and absent parents. (A nice conceit of the book is that many half-bloods have dyslexia, but only because their minds are wired for ancient Greek, and ADHD, but only because their minds are wired for hunting, a notion that should give a lot of comfort to real kids with these real problems.) But there are forces of darkness - monsters - whose aim it is to destroy such kids. They are only protected at a special camp - "Camp Half-Blood." Percy, who turns out to be a son of Poseidon, lands at this camp, but must eventually leave it and risk the monsters, to fulfill a Quest.

Even on the basis of this short description you can see there are a lot of superficial similarities to the Potter books - an orphan, with supernatural powers, who has two friends (one brainy girl and one geeky sidekick), several envious rival students. He goes to a special school and learns he is highly skilled at the school's favorite sport (in this case chariot racing). He is personally charged with a quest that, should he fail, will result in the ruin of the world.

Author Rick Riordan almost seems to be teasing the audience with these similarities - but he's having fun with it, and his style and humor are refreshing, humorous, and quite different from Rowling's. (He gets to the point MUCH faster - the action starts on page 1 and never stops!) My 12-year-old son, to be honest, prefers this, and identifies with it more readily. It's a clever enough read for adults to enjoy. Highly, highly recommended.

When I started I expected a pretty good book, and that's what I got.

Negatives:
-The Harry Potter resemblance is evident. It's not as bad as I'd heard, but the influence is clearly there.
-Percy's 'colloquial' narration is sometimes over the top. It just sounds like he's trying way too hard to sound casual.
-For the middle 50% of the book, the plot moves in a pretty episodic way(one monster encounter and then another). It's not necessarily bad, but it does interrupt the central storyline.
-Lots of unrealistically and unstylishly simplified stuff, most especially with some very fortunate coincidences when the characters need them, and some adults who just act like idiots. The worst part is that most of these little plotting slipups are covered up with lame jokes. The main plot is setup uber dramatic. The subplots mostly involve one or two silly escapes, not quite meshing well with the main one.

Positives:
-Good pacing, decent characterization, interesting ideas, and a good overall balance to the novel. It starts and ends on similar notes, resolving the most important issues.
-Easy reading. It's never ponderous.
-Exciting reading. Despite the Harry Potter discipleship, this book has a lot of good things purely of its own. It's engaging from the very start.

Overall:
Worth reading, and good enough to be read again. A solid 3.5 stars.

OK, so I am an 11 year old girl going on twelve. I don't sound like much of a "major" book reader. I hardly read at all! But, this book caught my eye. Once I opened this up to the first page, I was automatically sucked in! Myths, monsters, elegant gods & goddesses! I absolutly love this book. Readers can relate to the personality of Percy Jackson, or just feel their heart pumping when a monster attacks Percy, or even embrace their inner half blood self! I love this book and highly recommend it. Thanks for reading my review!

Percy Jackson has always been different from other kids. He's dyslexic and suffers from ADHD, and is always getting into trouble. He's been expelled several times, and the only thing that holds his interest is Greek mythology.

We soon learn that Percy has close ties with Mount Olympus, and when monsters from mythology start popping up looking for his blood, he ends up at a very special school for kids like himself, where he starts to put things together to find out who he really is.

Before he knows it, he's off on a quest with his two friends, Grover and Annabeth, to recover a powerful lightning bolt, property of Zeus, which has been stolen, supposedly by Percy himself. Zeus, Poseidon and Hades are having a little disagreement about the theft of the said lightning bolt, and unless Percy can retrieve it and return it in time, the resulting fallout will have earth-shattering consequences.

This great (albeit relatively unknown) first book of the series is an easy read, and is sure to encourage young readers to improve their knowledge of Greek mythology, especially the stories of the Minotaur, Medusa and the gods Poseidon, Ares, Zeus, Hades, Kronos, Athena and so on. Highly recommended for young readers in search of an original and imaginative adventure series.


Amanda Richards

Better late than never - am so glad to finally have read this book - from page 1, it is a delightful book - you enjoy seeing the words on the page and enjoy what the story has to say - the plot is great - A young man Percy (Perseus) Jackson, a troubled 12 year old learns that he is the son of an Olympic god! He, for his safety, sent to a summer camp for demi-gods, as they (half-mortal/half god) are called - You know the Greek gods and goddesses, celibacy is not their strong point (with some exceptions - Artemis??) Percy finds friends and finds the identity of his father, and is sent on a quest to avoid a war between the gods. We meet many characters we all know from our mythology books, and like Nightlife of the Gods, Thorne Smith's awesome book, we see more 'human' traits in these gods, making us like them and not trust others.
It is one of the most fun books I have read in a while, and for me to read 125 pages in one sitting is the greatest compliment I can give.

This book was obviously inspired by HP - instead of being about a boy With a Past who can do odd things, turns out to be a wizard and goes to wizarding school, it's about a boy With a Past who can do odd things, turns out to be a demigod and goes to demigod camp.
The parallels run right through the book - he has two friends; a bossy know-it-all girl and a whacky boy with low self-esteem, he has a bunch of eccentric but loveable teachers (including one who doesn't like him much), and he gets to be famous because of something he can't remember (the identity of his father). And there's a group of kids at the camp who are naturally mean (the children of Ares, God of War, as opposed to the Slytherins). Instead of platform 93/4, we have Floor 600 of the Empire State Building (a floor which supposedly doesn't exist). The world of the gods is right next to the world of the mortals, but the mortals don't notice. And so on and so forth.

BUT - and this is a significant but - it's still fun to read anyway. There are plenty of original elements to make up for the borrowed stuff, and the book has a light, fun tone which makes it a good-natured and enjoyable read. At one point there is an obviously deliberate nod to JKRowling - the hero comes across someone reading a book 'with a wizard on the cover', which appears to be thoroughly engrossing. So go ahead and read this book. It's fun, some of the jokes are laugh-out-loud funny, and the pacing is nicely brisk.
This book is an example of the fact that ideas which aren't 100% original can still be fun. When I reviewed Eragon, I didn't complain much about the stolen elements (ie the entire book). Instead, I focused on the fact that it wasn't fun to read. Percy Jackson, by contrast, isn't strikingly original but is still compulsively enjoyable reading. So I'm praising it. Younger people and the non-analytically-minded will especially enjoy it. Dive right in!

If you know anything about Greek mythology, you'll know that their gods had a tendency to produce demigod kids by the dozen. So it's not too hard to guess what "The Lightning Thief" is about -- a boy who discovers that he's the offspring of a god, and the other demi-god kids that he gets to know at a very, very special camp. While the introduction is a bit rocky, Rick Riordan spins a clever fast-moving adventure that mines ancient mythology and gives it a modern spin.

Percy Jackson has always been a troublemaker, but he's shocked when some truly strange things begin to happen in his life -- and especially when a minotaur appears and attacks his car. When he comes to, he learns that he's at a special training camp called Camp Half-Blood intended for demi-god children, and that his best friend Grover is actually a satyr bodyguard. Though Percy is understandably resistant to the idea, he soon makes friends in the sharp Annabeth and the bitter Luke (and enemies with the kids from Cabin Ares).

Oh yes, and he finds that he's the son of the god Poseidon... which is a problem since the "Big Three" gods have sworn an oath not to father any more kids, due to a rather ominous prophecy.

The problem is that Zeus and Poseidon are also having a feud at the moment, due to the loss of Zeus's master lightning bolt -- and Zeus believes that Percy is the culprit. And if things aren't patched up by the summer solstice, the forces of sky and sea will go to war. To save civilization -- and someone dear to him -- Percy must venture into the world of the dead...

"The Lightning Thief" is all a little Harry Potter in concept -- ordinary kid discovers he has magical powers, and is taught in a specialized school/camp with other kids like him. Rick Riordan spends the first half of the book exploring the nature of Camp Half-blood and the various demi-god kids, as well as dropping hints about Percy's parentage. Although, given the number of times he makes water misbehave, you would think someone would have guessed.

Fortunately the plot picks up about halfway through, when the whole matter of the bolt and thieving gods comes into play. Riordan has a snappy fast-moving style, and he peppers the story with plenty of plot twists and monstrous action. And he has quite a sharp-edged sense of humor -- the snarkiness is a bit annoying in the first chapter, but after that he produces some fun dialogue ("Spontaneous combustion is a form of harm." "Nonsense. Boy wouldn't feel a thing").

And he does a good job with the concept of gods and monster surviving over the center of the western world, as well as spoking some fun at the gods' behavior. Example: Dionysius whining "Father loves to punish me. The first time, Prohibition. Ghastly!"

I found Percy rather annoying in the first couple chapters, but Riordan slowly evolves him from a rather bratty, rebellious kid to a reluctant budding hero. Annabeth is an excellent counterpart to Percy, smart and measured if rather haughty in attitude, while Grover is a likable little sidekick who is chewing his nails over the possibility of losing his job. And the supporting cast of gods and demigods is pretty well-drawn, especially the paternal Chiron and embittered Luke.

This special edition is a pretty solid piece of work -- it comes with a cobalt-colored slipcase, deckle pages, a bookmark, and a general high-quality reworking. And there's also colorful John Rocco artwork included in this edition: the three Fates, the entrance to Mt. Olympus, Percy confronting an armored warrior, and so on. It suits the book.

It's not brilliant, but "The Lightning Thief" is a solidly written fantasy/adventure yarn, which leaves the door open for more adventures from Perseus Jackson. Hopefully the movie will be up to its standards.

Despite the obvious Harry Potter resemblances, The Lightning Thief is a wonderful, original look at Greek mythology that is actually fun. I recently studied the entire Greek section of a mythology book, an endeavor that took about two hours, only to find I would have had to reread it if I had not first read this. So it has practical uses, too!

Some parts are obviously derived from the myths of Heracles (Hercules to Romans) and Perseus, Percy's namesake, but there are some truly inspired ideas such as the all-healing nectar that takes on a different flavor depending on who drinks it, the idea that Mount Olympus is now at the top of the Empire State Building, Crusty's Mattresses, Cerberus's ball, Riptide the pen that's a sword, and so many others. (I couldn't pronounce Poseidon for the longest time, though, I thought is was Pose-ee-id-on.)

Percy Jackson is, by his own definition, a troubled kid. But he's in no way prepared for the information that he's not just that -- he's a demigod, a hero, the son of not only one of the Olympian gods, but one of the Big Three forbidden to have any more children with mortals: Poseidon, Lord of the Sea, Hades, Lord of the Underworld, and Zeus, Lord of the Sky. (Three guesses what god drowning-immune Percy has as his father.)

So after a battle with the Minotaur that Heracles killed all those years ago in Greece (monsters always resurrect, you see), Percy is ushered to Camp Half-Blood, a summer camp for demigods. At first, everything seems great, but when it's discovered that Hades has stolen Zeus's lightning bolt to cause an Olympian war, and Percy is blamed for it -- well, of course he has to set off and put things right. And this includes nothing short of fighting a chimaera disguised as a chihuahua, diving from a skyscraper into the depths of the Hudson River, meeting up with the same dear old Medusa that his namesake defeated ages upon ages ago, traveling to the depths of the Underworld to meet Uncle Hades, and making the unpleasant discovery that maybe the identity of the lightning thief isn't so obvious as it seemed...

The highlight of the story is its humor. It really is funny, everything from the chapter titles (I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher; Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death; and I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom come to mind) to Percy's own dry internal monologue. He's just funny.

I'm waiting for The Sea of Monsters to come out in paperback, but since The Titan's Curse comes out shortly afterward I don't think I'll be able to wait for the third one in paperback...


PS. Sorry. Had to add this. If you read this book for no other reason, read it to see the frequency of the phrase, "I uncapped my sword." I mean, really...when are you ever going to get the chance again?


Rating: Very Good

I found this book while searching (hoping) for a new Rick Riordan Tres Navarre story. Why was he wasting time with young adult books when he should be telling us about Tres? When I looked closer and saw the plot was about modern demigods living among us, I had to give this book a chance. A great treat for adults who love mythology as well as for the target audience of young(er) adults. My sister (50) liked it as much as my niece (11). I couldn't wait for the second installment!