Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan (Penguin Books) PB RRP $19.99 ISBN 9780241672037

Reviewed by Nikki M Heath

What can you expect when you belatedly discover that your mysterious absentee father is less dropkick and more Greek god? Adventure, danger, and chaos, if Percy Jackson is any indication.

The Lightning Thief is where the Percy Jackson universe started, the first in the five-book Olympians series featuring 12-year-old Percy. After Percy discovers that his father is Poseidon and survives being chased by a couple of monsters, he enters ‘Camp Half-blood’, a summer camp for children of the Olympians. Upon receiving an ominous-sounding prophecy, Percy and his new friends set off on a quest armed with little more than audacity, friendship, sarcasm, and some borrowed magic.

This mid-naughties book is now a classic, recently re-released as a companion to the television adaptation (although the series is an improvement on the earlier movie adaptations, the book, of course, is better). A fantasy set against the background of a familiar modern world, featuring a boy as the central character with a girl and a boy as sidekicks, the framework is familiar. But The Lightning Thief has complexity, richness, and depth of character of its own.

Rick Riordan has a talent for speaking to his audience in a pitch-perfect tone, with an irresistible balance of the life-threatening and the silly. Riordan is a master of opening lines, and chapter titles include ‘I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-algebra Teacher’ and ‘We Get Advice from a Poodle’. Percy is imperfect and awkward and eminently relatable, while also being able to pull off impressive stunts.

While Percy and his friends age as the series progresses, the reading level and appropriate audience age remain relatively stable, meaning it is suitable for binge-reading by even relatively young readers. Many fans of the Percy Jackson universe become experts on Greek mythology, as they seek out the full stories behind the myths and characters mentioned in the books.

Percy Jackson is a rip-roaring read for middle primary to adult and has the added advantages of being a multiple-series gateway and a classics primer. It is an essential in the middle-grade fantasy genre, alongside a certain bespectacled orphan wizard. If you haven’t read it, do yourself a favour - and read the books before you watch the show.