The Lightning Thief

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, 377 pages

My desire to read this book came from two sources. The first was my brother had read this book series and had enjoyed it enough to actually acquire copies of the books. Since he reads a lot but does not tend to buy books I knew this series was something special. My second motivation comes from the fact that they are making this series into movies. So far they have only made the first two books, but as far as know they intend to continue.

The series is basically a half-blood, half god and half human, named Percy is trying to save the world from destruction. In this novel the source of that destruction is a coming war between Zeus and Poseidon, Percy’s father. Percy’s quest takes him through Camp Half-Blood, which is the training site for all half-blooded creatures and people, the Underworld and Mount Olympus.

Through all this we meet a couple different gods and it’s strange to see them presented in a modern setting. An example is Ares the god of war is presented as a beefy biker instead of his armored, sword wielding look of old. The differences in perspectives make the gods seem almost comical at times. Percy also has a sarcastic trend that brings humor to a semi-serious book.

While I found it to be nothing special in terms of writing, it was enjoyable to read. I will likely read the rest of the series if nothing else for Percy’s sarcasm and to see how the rest of the gods are modernized