Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well for a Monday. After my two weeks off I'm back for a book review. Today I'm going to be taking a look at the first book in the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series, written by Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief. As usual there will be minor spoilers so I can talk about certain scenes without accidentally spoiling anything. With that out of the way let's get into it.
I vaguely remember reading this book sometime in 2006 or 2007, but being that I was 19 or 20 when I first read it, I didn't really get into it the way my sister did. In fact I don't even remember if I finished it that time around. Probably not, as I was coming out of high school or going into college when I read it so I wasn't sure what to make of it. I was the same way with the Harry Potter series as I was in high school when I read the first two books in that series, but I'll get into that more when I review that series. I don't remember whether I liked this book at the time, I just remember not liking it enough, or not being able to get into it enough, to want to continue reading the series. Especially since my sister didn't have the second book yet and, just like now, I was borrowing it from her.
The Lightning Thief is a pretty good book. It's a little slow in places, but overall an enjoyable read. I think I got into it more as an adult because I could focus on the book without being pulled in a million different directions because of schoolwork. And because I was able to focus on the book, I was able to try and figure out who stole Zeus's lightning bolt, and why. And yes, I figured out who the traitor at Camp Half-Blood is almost immediately after that character showed up pretty early on in the book. I mean, it wasn't super obvious right away but I've seen enough episodes of Castle, not to mention enough of the CW superhero shows, to know when someone who seems like a friend turns out to be an enemy. In fiction anyway, I still can't translate that ability into real life applications. But despite finding it easy to figure out who was behind the theft of Zeus's lightning bolt, once Chiron divulged certain pieces of information throughout the early parts of the book, I still found it a fun read. Especially when Percy, Annabeth, and Grover set out on their quest.
I think the fun of the book for me was seeing how the Greek pantheon mixed with the modern day. Ever since we learned about Greek Mythology in grade nine English I've held a certain fascination with Greek Mythology and Zeus, Hera, Aphrodite, Hades, and the rest. Thinking about it now, I'm pretty sure that came from my enjoyment of the 1997 Disney movie, Hercules more than anything, because I did watch that movie quite a bit when I was a kid. But that movie focused on a very specific piece of Greek Mythology, whereas grade nine English was more about the broad strokes. And of course who could forget Mr. Pritchard's telling of Homer's The Illiad. But I digress.
While Percy is a likeable character, as the protagonist of a novel should be, I actually like Annabeth the best with Grover coming in at a close second. The reason I like Annabeth so much is because she actually grows as a character throughout the book. Despite the fact that her mother is Athena, who has a rivalry with Percy's father, Poseidon, she stuck by Percy. I also like how she's more of a strategist than a good hand to hand fighter, though she's still very good at weapons combat.
The reason I like Grover, aside from his name of course, is because he's brave, but not stupidly so. He's also cautious, but still makes mistakes. He's also loyal and doesn't do anything that could make you think he's the traitor at the camp. It's not like a Tycho Celchu situation in the X-Wing series by Michael A. Stackpole, where there's enough evidence to prove that he's the traitor in Rogue Squadron. Same with Annabeth, though, again, due to her mother's rivalry with Poseidon, there was every reason for Annabeth to side with her mother and turn on Percy.
The one thing I don't like is the number of times the trio fall into traps set by various gods and their minions. Once or twice might've been enough, but it seemed like every other chapter they ended up falling into another trap. Which ended up being a bit tedious. Especially by the end. I mean they live in a world where the Greek pantheon exists, and they're on a quest. At the very least either Annabeth, who has known her heritage from a young age, or Grover, who is a Satyr, should've been on the lookout for things like traps. Especially since all three of them were on the lookout for monster attacks. But, most of these traps did reveal new information to the trio, so I guess they were important?
Overall The Lightning Thief is a great book. I definitely recommend it to those of you who are into Greek Mythology, and even to those of you who grew up with Harry Potter, but maybe missed this series the first time around. Percy Jackson was a little after my time so I didn't get into it when I first read this book in 2006 or 2007. I'm into it now though. So definitely go read it if you haven't done so before.
Alrighty that's it for me for today. I'll be back on Wednesday with this week's comic book review. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.
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