Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

The Tea:

The Lightning Thief is the first installment of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series. It’s a middle-grade series based on Greek mythology and that part of the story I love. Greek mythology has always interested me. But do I have some tea with this series.

First, about the book:

Percy Jackson is a demi-god who doesn’t know it for the first twelve years of his life. His mother is a regular human and his father is the Greek God, Poseidon. Because his father is one of the big three, he is a target for monsters of mythology and eventually it comes out that he is the half Greek God. The big refers to the God’s Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. At first Percy doesn't know who his Greek God parent is, but after some shenanigans ensue and Zeus’s lightning bolt goes missing and Percy is looking like a prime suspect he has to go out on a quest to clear his name. He also is introduced to Camp Half-Blood where the children of the Gods can go and be safe from monsters and hang out with each other. There Percy discovers his friend was Grover was a satyr all along and also befriends a daughter of Athena, Annabeth.

Let’s just jump right into what did not work for me. Children heroes. This is a middle-grade series but I just don't buy it no matter the excuse the book gives. The way Riordan I think tries to explain why the kids are the heroes is by saying the God’s cannot interfere without starting a war on Mount Olympus. But there are many other adults around that are not Gods up on Mount Olympus and it’s not an explanation that works for me. Many people love this series and I can understand why but I don't currently feel that love. Percy as a protagonist irritates me. He has anger issues, is quite impulsive, and I often kind of want to slap some sense into him. And many of those moments of anger and impulsivity can be attributed to him being twelve but there again is the problem of having a child protagonist.

I also don't care for the extremely linear storytelling. That also is something quite common in middle-grade novels but it gets repetitive and predictable. The formula here is something like, get attacked, get new information, go to next detitanation for clue or answer, then repeat.  It was obvious who the traitor was in Camp Half-Blood and the future villain set up wasn't subtle. These are very subjective things and I know it’s quite common in middle-grade and this is why I don’t read the genre as much. Not that I don’t enjoy middle-grade novels, it’s just easier for them to make my book brain hurt.

Now some things I did enjoy. The mythology first and foremost. Riordan puts a lot of thought and detail into the mythology of his books. Where the characters fall flat the lore picks it up. I love the way it’s explained how the mythological is kept hidden or explained away to the regular humans, how character’s like centaurs and satyrs hide their real bodies, and the way the weapons of Olympus work in the world. For example, a weapon of Olympus will not harm a human but will harm a demi-god, god, or other mythological being. It was also interesting how Riordan moves Mount Olympus based on powers of the Western Civilization since ancient Greece. Currently, Mount Olympus resides in New York and feels like it exists there but also doesn't. As if it’s existing in two planes of existence. It’s fun, I like it. While our protagonist rather irks me, his satyr friend was an enjoyable character. He was more comic relief in the first book I suppose but I still loved him. I also rather enjoyed the antagonists, even if they were predictable. I also thought it was a neat thing to have the demi-god kids be dyslexic when reading English but have no problems with ancient Greek. It gives them a unique connection to their Greek God side but also poses a challenge for them on the human side of things.

Overall, it’s not my favorite series or my favorite of middle-grade series but I don't totally dislike it and maybe as I read on I’ll enjoy it more.

6/10 Biscuits

And That’s The Tea