Percy Jackson And The Lightning Thief - Rick Riordan

Summary from Amazon:

Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood. I never asked to be the son of a Greek God. I was just a normal kid, going to school, playing basketball, skateboarding. The usual. Until I accidentally vaporized my maths teacher. That's when things started really going wrong. Now I spend my time fighting with swords, battling monsters with my friends, and generally trying to stay alive.

This is the one where Zeus, God of the Sky, thinks I've stolen his lightning bolt - and making Zeus angry is a very bad idea.

Can Percy find the lightning bolt before a fully-fledged war of the Gods erupts?

~~~

I knew about this series mostly because Becky @ The Bookette kept raving about it and you know how I am with series, I need to have all of them close to me so that I can read them back to back, so I didn't want to get started without having a solid weekend in front of me. Then Friday happened. I wanted a book to read and didn't know what to choose. I have a good 200 books unread on my shelves, all of different genres, length and even language, but out of all of these, I picked up The Lightning Thief and I couldn't stop reading until I picked up and finished The Sea Of Monsters. Now I was all desolate because I only had those two home but then a shiny idea appeared to me: "Kindle!!". So I've just bought the rest of the series and pre-ordered The Son Of Neptune :) (thankfully, my Mom and my banker don't go on the blog often so I'm safe saying this here)

This series is quite simply brilliant. Like *really* brilliant. There is some fast-paced action, some awesome characters and one spunky hero! The book is also very clever and intertwines Greek myths. Now, I'm a nerd as much as the next person, but I don't appreciate the condescending tone of some books with historical or mythical background as if you're a kid and the writer is teaching you. This book is not like this at all, it ROCKS!! You learn a lot without losing interest in the story or without the action losing pace.

Percy is a sweet character and kudos to Rick Riordan for making dyslexia and ADHD not look like a handicap or something laughable. The problem with literature is that it often forgets to add realism to its character (you know, they are all healthy and bright and handsome etc.) when in reality, more often than not, everyone has their own little quirks. And not only Percy, but various characters in the book are presented, as humans, in a way and as their "birth-form" in another. It is definitely an uplifting book on that front and there is so much kindness emanating from the characters (well, not Hades of course) that you can't help feeling full of love when reading.

I love the Percy-Poseidon relation and I can't wait to read more about their powers. As a Mediterranean, the sea fascinates me and this book truly shows the latent (and sometimes not so latent) power of the sea. Poseidon is a fantastic character and definitely my favourite of the Big Three :)

I *adore* Annabeth. She is a kick-ass heroine and shines with the characteristics of her mother Athena. That's one thing I love in this book: female characters hold their own so it is truly fantastic for both boys and girls to read. I really love all the other characters so I won't be making a list here, but they all have depth in them and, when you think about it, the characterisation is fantastic when considering all the mythology that the author has put in this. All the characters make sense with their mythical persona and in the modern story. It is mind-boggling how spot on some of them are!

The book is told in Percy's point of view and I really love that kid. His voice is perfect and really brings you in the best adventures ever. I won't tell you the story but the journey from Percy-mere-clumsy-human at the beginning to son of Poseidon is wonderful. There are some really good themes in the book which are fantastic for kids to read: there is courage, friendship, loyalty and trust, but there is also the idea that no matter how small and insignificant you are, and no matter the fact that you might probably fail, the journey is always worth taking.

So you might not have noticed from this review (hee hee), but I just became a *HUGE FAN* of this series. Definitely a book for the brain, for the heart and a little bit for the soul as well, you'll see. Everything is fantastic and I can't wait to read more.

A zillion thank you to the fabulous Becky for being awesome :)

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan | 2005 | Puffin | Bought from WH Smith.