Title : Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Author : Rick Riordan
Year published : 2005
Page : 416 pages
ISBN : 978-0-7868-5629-9
**swipe for the book cover
Percy Jackson & Olympians is a popular book series written by Rick Riordan, a famous novelist from Texas, United States. Percy Jackson & Olympians are basically novels that tell about Percy Jackson and his friends who went through some adventures and quests based on greek mythology. Percy Jackson & the Olympians series consists of five books. There are the Lightning Thief, Sea of Monsters, Titan's Curse, the Battle of Labyrinth, and the last one titled the Last Olympian. These first two books have been adapted to movies called Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters.
The story started with Percy Jackson, a twelve-year-old boy from Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York. He went for a field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with his teacher and schoolmates. Percy thought the trip would be okay because Mr. Bruner, his kind-of favorite teacher, led the expedition. But the reality was this is where all of the trouble had begun. Mrs. Doddy, his math teacher, started it all. She attacked Percy by turning into a monster and forced Percy to give back something that he stole. Mr. Brunner and Grover, Percy's friend, tried to keep Percy safe. Mr. Brunner told Grover to bring Percy to the camp.
With many fights with monsters in front of the Camp entrance, Percy succeeded in coming through the camp. The place is called A Half-blood Camp. At first, Percy was confused about what kind of camp is. Grover, his disabled friend, introduced him to the Half-blood Camp. The Half-blood Camp is a camp for DemiGods. Demi-Gods are the Olympian Gods' children from God's marriages with mortals. Percy was absolutely confused since he didn't know who his father was. Percy also found out that Grover was not an ordinary human, but he was a satyr. A natural spirit from Greek mythology that has goat legs and a human body. After recovery from his wounds, which he got from a monster, he met Annabeth, a daughter of Athena, a God of War. Not long after that, Capture the Flag Game was held in the Blood-half Camp. Percy joined the Game although he wasn't ready yet to have a battle, and in the Game, Percy Jackson was finally claimed by his father, Poseidon, a God of the Sea. But it was not the end. Percy Jackson, Annabeth, and Grover must be in danger of fulfilling their quests to return Zeus' lightning bolt that someone has stolen.
The book itself had a fantastic plot. It explains the settings so well and keeps the details of the situation. Though it had few flashbacks, the story wasn't hard to understand. Rick also made a mind-blowing plot-twist at the end of the story. The book describes the Olympians and their background and looks full of research from Greek mythology adaptation. The original cast also fitted so perfectly with the original story of greek mythology. Rick also built the original cast characters to resemble the Olympians as their descendants. The character developments were outstanding. Percy, the son of Sea God, could heal his wounds in the water, and he couldn't get wet if he wanted to. Annabeth, a daughter of Athena, a Goddess of wisdom, wise, liked all the things about architecture and could plan her strategy well. Luke, a son of Hermes, can steal anything. Don't forget to mention Clarisse, a bully girl that Percy met, a daughter from Ares, a God of War. Percy Jackson himself was diagnosed with dyslexia. Percy's conditions make sense because his brain is connected not to English but ancient greek words and language. Some of the DemiGods are also diagnosed with ADHD because of the inner spirit of those who like to challenge themselves with adrenaline. Many battles happened in this book. The conflict was very heated when Percy knew who the stealer of the lightning bolt was.
The settings of the place are also mesmerizing. Rick brought the Readers to three worlds. A world where the mortal lives, the world where the dead people receive their punishments or as known as the Underworld, and the last one is the Olympics, where the God and Goddess Olympians live. Half-blood Camp, The Underworld, the Olympic, and other places were located in the United States so the readers could easily imagine the blending from the mortal world with a different world. Unfortunately, in the story, mortals couldn't see anything from the otherworld because there was a mist who blind their eyes from monsters, creatures, swords, and many strange things that happened in the demi-God world.
At the beginning of the journey, the prophecy that has been given to him proves the truth of who is on his side and who is the enemy. This made the readers think that our friends sometimes could betray us no matter the situation to get the advantages. Occasionally, we have too much faith in people without knowing what their intentions are. On the other hand, friends like Annabeth and Grover who stay on the side from the start and walk together through bad things are more important to be kept. Percy also told us to have some bravery, loyalty, spirit, and curiosity. Believe in God and His power, protect the parent who has grown you up, although they have to sacrifice her/his life for your safety. This fantasy book told us so many life lessons implicitly. Besides the thrill of the story-plot, knowledge about Greek mythology, we could get the moral value and bring that to daily life.
Personally, I would rate this book 4.5 out of 5 stars. For future readers, be ready to bring yourself to a fantasy world with so many mesmerizing things that the author has brought to you. You will also learn so much knowledge that you have never thought of before. Not only the fantasy, mythology, and comedy aspects, this book also told me about life. Friendship, family, enemies, revenge, trust issues, personality, faith, and the most important are possibilities in everything we want to believe.
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