“The Lightning Thief”, the first book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan is not an outstanding book, but it is the first book in an otherwise good series.I didn’t enjoy the way this book was written. First person and rude (very reminiscent of “Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Slinger) is a writing style that I don’t really enjoy, especially since frequently some things I like are referred to as being a great torture.
The story itself is flat. Some of the places visited are real, some are not; some are from mythology, and some places are just made up, but all of the places seem to lack history. The highlights came from mythological elements being presented, like when Percy learns that being the son of Poseidon means he can communicate with equine-ish animals, but these elements are not used frequently enough. In fact the greatest strength this book has is that it is a good idea, that the gods (and other things) from Greek Mythology are real and some of us are their children, but the idea just isn’t exploited enough in this book.
Probably my least favorite part of this book is that in the end a murder is committed and is written as though it should be funny. It is a tasteless ending that further diminishes the value of the story.
Sadly, I probably prefer the movie to the book (they are significantly different) and I’m not that fond of the movie. Still, it is worth reading “The Lightning Thief” so that you can read the rest of the series.
