On June 28, 2005, Rick Riordan shocked the world with his release of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, a fantasy novel which is set in the US and tells the tale of demigod Percy Jackson. Eyes have once again been placed on the series with the new season of the series of the same name The main conflict of the book revolves around the god Zeus believing that Percy has stolen his master bolt, the god’s weapon of choice. Percy must clear his name by heading to the Underworld, where Percy believes the real culprit lies. The underlying conflict involves Percy himself and his connection to the sea god, Poseidon, who is secretly his father.
The story begins with Percy, his mother, and his satyr friend named Grover being attacked by a minotaur. Percy is forced to kill the creature, gaining its horn but Percy’s mother supposedly dies by its hands. Percy then passes out, where he wakes up in a place named Camp Half-Blood where he meets his old teacher. This teacher is actually Chiron, a famous centaur who serves as Percy’s mentor. He leads the young boy around the camp and, after meeting the camp director, the god Dionysus, Chiron sends Percy to the Hermes cabin. The reason for this is because each god has their own cabin, and every new member of the camp is sent to the Hermes cabin.
After getting to know Luke, the camp counselor of the cabin of travelers, a camp wide Capture the Flag event begins. During the battle for the flag, Percy becomes almost super powered, defeating several of his attackers. This is where the boy learns that he is secretly a son of Poseidon, which Chiron told him was extremely dangerous as he gives off a scent which monsters can track. Percy also reveals that he is a son of Poseidon by healing his wounds by standing in the stream.
Soon after Percy understood the severity of his situation, Chiron gave him a quest to go to the Underworld to find Hades. With the help of Annabeth, a daughter of Athena, the god of wisdom, Grover and Percy would soon set out across the US to confront Hades.
The bus they were traveling on almost instantly is attacked by the Furies. The bus is then destroyed, leaving the three without transportation. They then walked to their next stop, the Garden Gnome Emporium, where they are attacked by Medusa. The fight results in Medusa being decapitated and the group continuing onwards. The three later decide to camp out in a forest, where Grover reveals that he’s after a searcher’s license to try and find a god named Pan. After this revelation, Percy and the group finds a newspaper in a train that says that he is a fugitive and wanted across America. They then arrive in St. Louis, where they are attacked by Echidna, the mother of monsters, and Chimera, an abomination made of several different animals. After Percy fights them, the group heads to Denver by train.
In Denver, they meet Ares. Ares sends them on a quest to collect his shield from a trapped waterpark. After retrieving the shield, Ares gifts them a method of transport and a backpack of supplies. They then arrive in Vegas, where the group gets trapped in a casino that causes them to want to stay there forever. The group escapes the casino then takes a taxi to Los Angeles, where Percy receives magical pearls that could get his friends out of danger from someone named Nereid. At last, the group then arrives at the Underworld to confront Hades. After passing by Cerberus, they finally meet Hades, who has Percy’s mother. It turns out that he doesn’t actually have Zeus’ lightning bolt, but Percy has his Helm of Darkness, and he wants it. Hades then attempts to make a deal with Percy for his mother, but Percy declines and escapes the Underworld.
At the surface, Percy has a revelation, realizing that the backpack that Ares gave them was actually Zeus’ master bolt the whole time. Percy then confronts Ares and fights him, resulting in Percy’s victory. Back at Camp Half-Blood, Luke reveals that he is aligned with Kronos, the king of the titans, whose goal is to destroy Earth. Grover then receives his searcher’s license and sets out to find Pan. Annabeth also leaves to go back to her father and live a more normal life. Percy also heads to Olympus to meet with his father and give Zeus his lightning bolt. Percy then arrives back home with his mother. With that, the story ends relatively happily ever after.
The main problem is that the story consists of too much action in my opinion. Another issue is Luke betraying Percy. With the climax over, it doesn’t have very much impact and just feels forced. The third issue is the writing, which can be boring at times. This is likely because, at the time Rick Riordan wrote this novel, being a new author, he wasn’t very experienced.
Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, doesn’t excel at anything in particular, keeping steady quality throughout. Because of this fact, the book, for me at least, is very average, though the reveal that the backpack is actually the lightning bolt is a high point. For readers looking to get into a fantasy series or those interested in Greek mythology, absolutely, though, veteran fantasy readers may not find it very appealing. Overall, I would rate it 4/5 shields.
