Percy Jackson and the Olympians the Lightning Thief By Rick Riordan

This is the book series that I am reading these days. I started reading the Percy Jackson series because I recently watched the Disney series, and I was very interested in it.  I have read up to book four, so I will keep posting about the Percy Jackson series.

A half-blood is when a god or a goddess (in Greek mythology) marries a mortal and has children. All half-bloods are not safe in the world, so they have to go somewhere called Camp Half-Blood. In here, there is something called the Mist that separates the human world from the mythological world. So basically, even though there is a hellhound in the street, mortals will think it is just a dog. There is a reason why half bloods aren’t safe. In the world, there are things called monsters. They can blend in as humans so half bloods will notice them less. This is a major problem for half-bloods. From the age of 11 ~ 12, a half blood’s scent becomes stronger. The scent is a smell for monsters to track them down. When the half-bloods reaches that age, monsters mostly track them down and kills them before they get to camp. You might think that they can contact or call each other, but using the internet is like telling the monster the exact location of where you are. Basically, they cannot use phone if they don’t want to be killed. Another piece of information: There is something called a normal half blood and a forbidden kid. The three gods, Poseidon, Zeus, and Hades promised on the River of Styx that they would not have children. When they do have children that is a forbidden kid. (SPOILER ALERT: all of the gods did break the rule…) In the camp sometimes there is a quest, which is very dangerous. The chosen people to do the quest must go out of the camp and proceed on the quest. Before you proceed on the quest, there is something called the oracle, and you must get a prophecy.

This book is about a teenage boy who is 12 years old and finds out that he is a half-blood. He makes it safely into camp even though he loses his mom to a Minotaur. Percy makes a new friend Grover Underwood (who’s a satyr), and Annabeth Chase (another half-blood). He is very heartbroken when he finds out that his mom is dead. He finds out that he is a forbidden kid while playing capture the flag. (The chapter is really funny, I recommend you reading it!) He gets a quest to find Zeus’s missing bolt. If he doesn’t by the winter solstice, there will be a war between the gods because Zeus thinks Poseidon stole his bolt. He gets his prophecy which is “You shall go west, and face the god who has turned. You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned. You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend. And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end” Percy chooses Annabeth and Grover to accompany him on his quest. Percy also learns that he can save his mom by getting her soul from Hades, the god of death. This is the location he needs to go for his quest. The actual quest part is mostly all spoilers, sooo…

These are some of the important characters in the book. Percy, Annabeth, Grover, Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Luke, Ares, Sally, Chiron, Clarisse, and Charon. Percy is the main character; he is very impulsive, loyal to his friends and family, and very fair. Annabeth is intelligent, strategic, and has high self esteem. She is the daughter of Athena (goddess of wisdom and war). She has an invisible Yankees cap that her mother gifted her. Grover is anxious, cooperative (he even sings a song about it in the movie), and he is an environmentalist. Zeus is not the main character, but he is still important. He is very powerful, authoritative, and short-tempered. Poseidon is another one of those characters that are not main characters but are still very important. He is powerful and calm (at least calmer than Zeus); he is caring but very distant. Hades is the same as the other Big Three, even though he is a little more important than others. He is often misunderstood and isolated since he lives in the underworld, and resentful. Luke is important later on in the series; he acts like a friend for now. He is charming, deceptive, and manipulative. He later tricks Percy. Ares is more important than any of the other gods there are, and will be important for later books too. Ares is aggressive, prideful (he likes being challenged), and also manipulative.

These are the less important characters. Sally is Percy’s mother. Sally Jackson, she is married to Gabe Ugliano but later breaks up. She is very loving, protective (especially PERCY), and patient. Chiron is half a white stallion and half human. He is a centaur, and he pretends to be Percy’s schoolteacher, but he is actually the camp activity director. He is very calm. He is calm in every nervous situation, or at least tries to act calm. He is also very supportive and wise. He knows a lot of things since he is immortal and very old. Clarisse was a bully to Percy in the book. She is the daughter of Ares. Her personality is very competitive. She loves to win everything, especially when Percy is involved. She wants to show everyone that she is capable of doing things and show others that she is strong. She is strong and really loyal to her dad and her cabin. Charon is a character who leads dead spirits to the underworld. He is often mistaken for Chiron. He cares a lot about money and his appearance.

In the book, Hades’ land is much scarier, and him himself is scarier. In the Disney series, Hades is more lively, very smiley. In the book, they completed the mission. Not before the winter solstice. In the series, they pass the winter solstice. In the book, the trio never meet Hermes and never try to meet him. In the series, they looked for Hermes and actually met. In the book, it is clear how the prophecy is all correct. In the series, I had trouble understanding how this relates to the prophecy.

Basic Information: There are 22 chapters in this book. There are 354 pages for the actual story and there is a little more story at the end of the book for Percy Jackson book number 2, the Sea of Monsters. I really liked this book; it is my number #1 book series. Still, I’ve got to admit that book 1 is a lot longer than other books in the series. It took me 1 week to read it, but not 1 hour every day. It is mostly about 2 hours, or maybe (not likely), 1 hour. There is also an incredible amount of pages in each chapter. You should be expecting about 20 pages in each chapter. This book has pictures from the Disney series, but only books that have “includes photos from the Disney+ Series!” This is written on the bottom of the cover. These are the only type of Percy Jackson books that have pictures. There are no difficult words so I would say you could even read it in 3rd grade, but there are a lot of mythology names. The lexile level is 680L.