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

When I put a poll on Twitter if I should review the mythology retellings of Rick Riordan due to their upcoming adaptation, I was not expecting to have a positive result, but the poll put up had a 2/3 vote in favor of the reviews so here I am.  First, a little background: I read Percy Jackson and the Olympians near the time that The Last Olympian was released, continued with The Kane Chronicles and the first two novels in The Heroes of Olympus.  The books I read I remember generally liking, but eventually entered a phase where I felt they were aimed at an audience too young for me so I stopped.  This series of reviews will be looking at the series with a critical eye, and will hopefully be positive.  The series may be young adult, however, I believe that even children’s media can be scrutinized as an adult, so I will be looking at these various series through that lens.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians began in 2005 with the publication of The Lightning Thief from bedtime stories that author Rick Riordan told to his son, who requested new myths made after they ran out of Greek myths to tell one another.  It was tested through a group of middle schoolers and eventually published as the first installment of what would become a pentalogy.  Using middle schoolers as a trial run for a novel was perhaps a stroke of genius as The Lightning Thief as a novel does many things right to begin a series and tell a fun cross-country adventure steeped in Greek mythology.  The structure of the novel is formulaic, with our trio of heroes travelling towards their primary goal while being interrupted by several monsters that they must defeat in a variety of ways.  The book follows both the heroes journey and the structure of mythology in this way, assisting in making it feel like a modern day myth.  The premise is simple: the Greek gods are real, living in the United States, and someone has stolen the thunderbolt of Zeus to start a war between Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades during the summer and it is up to a trio of young heroes, Percy Jackson (son of Poseidon), Annabeth Chase (daughter of Athena), and Grover Underwood (satyr) to locate the bolt before World War III begins.

Following the Hero’s Journey format, the call to adventure is the kidnapping of Percy’s mother by Hades, who had been keeping the fact that he is a demigod a secret for his own safety.  The first three chapters of the book are dedicated to introducing a status quo for Percy where the mythology he is unaware of exists under his own nose.  Percy has ADHD and dyslexia (traits which Riordan uses as indicators of one’s demigod status) and seems to have trouble staying at one school at a time.  The book opens with a scenario where Percy’s Pre-Algebra teacher transforms into a Fury in front of his eyes and attempts to kill him.  Riordan makes a key decision here to have Percy realize that something is going on underneath the surface of the world before the explanations come in after Percy’s mother is kidnapped.  The book is in first person from Percy’s perspective, allowing the audience to get into his head and once the quest is given the reader can see how he grows.  His journey in this book is one of self-acceptance: he goes on the quest to save his mother, not the world, and has to come to terms with the fact that he is going to be a hero.  He is reluctant, but not overbearingly so, and by the end of the book while he has come to terms with being a demigod and the son of a god, but not a hero.  There is a single conversation with his father, Poseidon, which really shows this: Poseidon doesn’t yet love him, but claims him as his own son.  He has water based powers, but they are fairly unrefined (though a bit over powered).  It provides a good stopping point for his own development, especially as Riordan puts Percy through a lot and while the book doesn’t quite end on a cliffhanger, it does have a twist villain reveal which is executed masterfully.  Riordan includes a prophecy outlining how the quest Percy undertakes will go and does an excellent job of hiding double meanings into it, like most good prophecies.

While Percy is the main character, Grover and Annabeth both get equal development as they interact with the world throughout the novel.  Riordan could have left the two as blank slates to show how good Percy is, but they aren’t.  They are fully fledged characters in their own right, with their own goals and aspirations.  Grover is introduced as Percy’s only friend at school, and revealed to be a satyr sent to watch over him by Camp Half-Blood, as a second chance.  He failed five years previous to bring a half-blood to the camp and has left Grover incredibly nervous.  He lacks the self-confidence which is his discovery on the quest.  Annabeth is set up as a friendly rival to Percy, due to Greek mythology’s tendency to put Athena and Poseidon at odds with one another.  She also has a bad relationship with her father, who according to her resents her, though Riordan heavily implies that this may just be Annabeth’s interpretation of events.  She learns to overcome her own biases towards Percy and becomes a fierce ally and friend.  The trilogy of heroes works incredibly well off one another and makes for a trio of protagonists the reader will look forward to continuing with through the series.

The supporting characters are perhaps where The Lightning Thief falls a little flat.  The characters taken from mythology fair the best, but the same cannot be said about the human side characters.  Riordan paints almost all of them as incredibly one note, which is fine for those who are in few scenes including Percy’s step-father Gabe (an abusive alcoholic whose fate is brilliant) and Percy’s mother Sally (who we really see through Percy and Poseidon’s eyes), but the human characters at camp are either one note, or less.  Luke, son of Hermes, is perhaps the best served, but Clarrise, daughter of Ares, is just a one-note bully.  The rest of the characters don’t even get names, just vague references.  This doesn’t hurt the novel much, but it is something that must be rectified for the rest of the series.  The gods are brilliantly portrayed by Riordan, who only includes five to really introduce.  Zeus gets the least page-time, but with Poseidon, the most presence as their brewing war against one another is building in the background of the novel.  Ares is suitably warlike and arrogant, yet also a buffoon as many wars are.  Dionysus as the head of Camp Half-Blood with the immortal centaur Chiron acting as activities director makes a good dynamic.  It is explained that this is his punishment and while he is portrayed by Riordan as deep down good, he is still the god of alcohol.  Hades is the real standout here: Riordan avoids the cliché of making him analogous of the Christian devil.  Yes he is intimidating and the only god that has felt like a god according to Percy, but he is not portrayed as evil.

The Lightning Thief is a novel that is a joy for children and adults alike as Rick Riordan introduces readers to what will be a fascinating world.  This review was kept mostly spoiler free to entice those to pick it up as there are several encounters from Medusa to the Minotaur which really help give the book its own flair.  It doesn’t ever feel like a simple retread of Greek mythology, but provides enough context to the various myths for new readers.  There is room for improvements, especially with the supporting characters, but it feels like this is the beginning of a wild ride.  8/10.