Author: Rick Riordan
Publisher: Disney Hyperion Books
Year: 2005
Genre: Mythology (I think this is it's own "fantasy" genre)
Age: JUV 10+
Page Count: 252
Audio Publisher & Year: Penguin Random House/ 2005
Audio Reader: Jesse Bernstein
Audio Length: 10 hours & 2 minutes
Rating:
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This is book #1 in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series. Some spoilers may be present in this review.
I originally read these books back in high school when they were first coming out. I never did read book #5 though. It came out around the time I graduated & I'm sure there just wasn't enough time. But since I own them all I decided to reread the first four & finally finish number 5! I'm hoping I can do that before the end of the year. Then I can read some of the other books that he has come out with since this first series debut. After reading this book I also watched the movie. I had seen the movie before back when it came out. I never really realized just how different it really is from the book. I'll talk more about that at the end of this review. I think it's amazing that a series I read as a kid is still popular today more than 10 years later, & the author is still continuing with these books. Rick Riordan has several new series including one about a young Apollo & series he started about Viking gods. Maybe I'll make it my goal to read some of these series next year. I have so many books I want to read that I own & are at my library it's a little overwhelming. My plan is to get a lot of them down next year. New decade, new reading goal! It might take me until the next decade to read everything I want & that's if I don't buy anything new...too late! We'll see what happens.
Here is a little synopsis for you about this story to refresh our memories. In this first installment we meet young Percy Jackson who is a demigod. That means he is half mortal & half god. His father is the god Poseidon, god of the sea & brother of Zeus. Percy has a pretty normal life until things start to change. A war is brewing between the gods because someone has stolen his master lightning bolt. They think it was Percy but it turns out it was actually one of Percy's new fiends from Camp Half Blood. Percy, Annabeth (daughter of Athena), & Grover (Percy's protector) travel all over the US to get to the Underworld. Percy thinks Hades has the bolt. Along the way they battle furies, meet Medusa, avoid getting killed by the Chimera, & run into Ares, the god of war. Finally the survive the Underworld & make it to Mount Olympus. It seems like a happy ending but it is just the start of another problem.
If I remember correctly the big problem that starts brewing in this book & I'm assuming concludes in the last book is Kronos. He is the king of the titans & was defeated by Zeus. He was cut up into little pieces & thrown in Tartarus. Percy & his friends encounter him in Tartarus when they are in the Underworld but he isn't fully back yet, he isn't strong enough. Kronos is using his power to control Ares & Luke to make them start the war between the gods. Percy has helped that not come to pass yet but he needs to be ready for a fight. I think I might need a little review on Greek history & the gods because I had to do some googling while I was reading this book. Back when I read them in high school we were learning about Greek history at one point but it's been a while for me..obviously!
I'm excited to continue the series. Rereading it has reminded me why I really liked it in the first place. It has a lot of action but also with the history thrown in along side some humor it's a great series, I remember being excited about it as a kid & now I'm once again excited as an adult. Not many books aside from Harry Potter can do that I think.
I listened to this book on audio & read it as well on ebook. I've had the ebooks since they came out & I was very excited to hear the reader. It's the same reader as the Mr. Lemoncello's Library series by Chris Grabenstein, which I loved! The audiobooks were not previously available on audio through my library. Since I cancelled my audible account I was very happy to see them! I'm hoping they are all on there & his other series as well, I have to look around a little bit more to see though.
Let's talk a little bit about the movie. I remember seeing the movie when it first came out in 2010. All the books had come out at that point & I think they were taking advantage of that by making the movie. When the movie first starts it is following the general outline of the book. But after a while it takes a turn into something different. There are little differences that you will notice right away like Percy is older in the movie & he lives at home. There hasn't been any prior incidents in his life that would seem out of place until the first appearance of Mrs. Dodds, the fury. The movie is set up to where Percy, Annabeth, & Grover are using a map to look for Persephone's pearls. This will lead them to the Underworld. I think the set up makes sense in the movie because you don't get all the backstory that is present in the book. The real shift in the movie where it starts veering drastically from the book is after the kill Medusa & go to Nashville. I think they might have to fight a Hydra at some point in one of the other books but I can't remember for sure. From there the story kinda goes off on it's own. It seems like by the end the movie was set up to possibly be a standalone. I have also seen the second movie but I don't remember it that much. By that point our main cast was too old to continue & they had deviated too far from the original plot so I think that's why they never made any more movies. I'm planning on watching the second movie again just to see what it's like because I can't remember. This series would be perfect for a TV series, maybe that will happen in the future. Overall it's not a bad movie if you don't compare it too much to the book.
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