The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1)

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #1)

4.14 of 5 stars 4.14 · rating details · 414,584 ratings · 23,543 reviews

Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school...again. And that's the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he's angered a few of them. Zeus's master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime s...more

Paperback, 400 pages

Published January 5th 2010 by Hyperion Books for CH (first published January 1st 2005)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

Greek Mythology

1st out of 164 books — 102 voters

YA Mythology Challenge

34th out of 224 books — 216 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Nov 25, 2012 Cara rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: reluctant readers

Recommended to Cara by: Gerson

Shelves: 2010, books-made-into-movies, fantasy, male-protagonist, series, recommended-to-me, books-i-own

Really is there something I could say that hasn't been said? Doubtful, but in utterly stupid human style I will write a review anyway attempting to tell people how cool this book is.

This is plainly an awesome idea. I had always wondered what happened to the kids of half gods/goddess and humans. Here's the story to quench your curiosity. Percy Jackson has been dumped around from border school to border school. He has never been quite like anybody else, but as the end of sixth grade approaches h...more

114 likes · like · see review

Aug 07, 2008 Destinee Sutton rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Destinee by: The children of SPL

Shelves: middle-grade, fantasy, harry-potter-alternative, guy-reads

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. When I was about halfway through this book, I started making a list of its similarities to Harry Potter. Here is a sampling from that list:

1. There are three young heroes: a brainy girl (Annabeth/Hermione), a funny screw-up type (Grover/Ron), and a somewhat troubled but very brave lead (Harry/Percy).

2. People freak when the Harry/Percy character says the name of a powerful character.

3. The main bad guy (Kronos/Voldemort) is seeking to return to his former power, but most people are totally in d...more

210 likes · like · see review

Nov 15, 2011 Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everybody!!! (but especially people who like Greek mythology)

Shelves: 5-star-books, favorites, addicting-as-crack, mythology, young-adult, childrens, romance-done-correctly, fantasy, superpowers, i-have-met-the-author, middle-grade

Hmm my old review for this kind of sucked. I feel like I've rewritten this review like twenty times, but oh well.

I guess I just can't do this book justice. Percy Jackson & the Olympians is one of my favorite series, despite the fact that I think it's probably aimed more toward 12-year-old boys, and ... well, I'm a 19-year-old girl. But I can't help it. I fell in love with these books when I was around 12 and I never outgrew them (which is something I can't say for most books I liked when I...more

97 likes · like · see review

Jul 18, 2011 K.D. Oliveros rated it 2 of 5 stars

Recommended to K.D. by: Joyzi

Shelves: ya, series

I knew almost nothing about Greek and Roman mythologies prior to reading this book. So, while reading the first two chapters and when I had difficulty following what's going on, particularly who were those characters, I picked up and started reading Edith Hamilton’s Mythology. After finishing the first chapter of that book, I resumed my reading and then I could follow.

The reason for my ignorance was that my teachers in elementary, high school and college did not bother teaching about those gods...more

36 likes · like · see review

Aug 11, 2012 Ceridwen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Ceridwen by: the boy

Shelves: america-and-environs, daddy-drinks-because-you-cry, fantasy, pulp, middle-grade, reviewed

I read this solely because my nine-year-old boy pestered me to read it for about a month. I've said this before in reviews for middle grade novels, but I'm not sure my reviewing them makes any sense. Am I reviewing for other parents? Then yes, this is fine, and you don't have to worry about inappropriate fare for the kiddie set, unless you are so hardline religious that the concept of a cosmos littered with Greek gods upsets your worldview. (And, as a pretty serious materialist, I bridled at tim...more I read this solely because my nine-year-old boy pestered me to read it for about a month. I've said this before in reviews for middle grade novels, but I'm not sure my reviewing them makes any sense. Am I reviewing for other parents? Then yes, this is fine, and you don't have to worry about inappropriate fare for the kiddie set, unless you are so hardline religious that the concept of a cosmos littered with Greek gods upsets your worldview. (And, as a pretty serious materialist, I bridled at times about hokum explanations for the Way the World Works – at one point, Percy says baldly that it's not the tilt of the Earth on its axis that creates the seasons, but Demeter and her grief for Persephone's loss six months of the year. But wait, I thought, how do you explain the fact that the hemispheres have flipped seasons? She's sad and happy at the same time? But whatever – fiction is fiction, and I don't really need to get into a big thing about it.) Am I reviewing for the kiddies? Nope. My son already wrote a review under his secret account, and pretty much summed this up for the kiddie set. High five stars; this rules; etc. So, I guess I'm just talking about stuff that a parent might think having read her son's most favoritist books.

It's fine. I liked it, but it's not worthy of either glowing praise or vicious attacks. I thought a lot about Harry Potter as I read. There's a lot of concordances – the main character who is the fulfillment of prophesies, with a Dursley-like step-father, and a male and female side-kick. I think I liked Percy a little better than Potter – he's more of a screw-up, and he had shades of middle grade Holden Caulfield, what with all of the schools he'd been kicked out of. The world itself if much less interesting than Potter's, less synthesized and seductive, but it does have the advantage of being pretty literal about Greek mythology, so it has a didactic purpose if you're into that sort of thing as a parent. The boy and his dork friends play Greek gods all the time mostly because of this series, and he's always sending me to the wikis to answer niggling questions – the one tonight: who was it who cursed Echo? I still haven't looked that up.

Percy is the son of an absent father (more on parental absenteeism later) who, because of a variety of character traits – ADHD, dyslexia, general cussedness – has been shuttled from school to school for most of his short 12 years. Trouble finds him, and the story starts with his warning that if you find this sort of paranormal trouble sexy, if you think it's TEH AWESOME that he's beset by monsters and stuff, then you're in the wrong story. Which is funny, because of course that's why you (you being the kiddies) is reading this sort of thing. But the DANGER DANGER warning is a convention of fantastic fiction, and this book does a really excellent job of walking you through the conventions. As an adult reader, I eye-rolled a fair amount over the fore-shadowing by two-by-four that went on. The myth would be relayed in a straightforward infodump, and then they would find themselves in a similar situation, and then it would take them a paaaainfully long time to sort it out. But you have to learn to read somewhere, and that somewhere is here, with the signposts lit up with neon and spinning sparklers.

I don't think this is a spoiler – even though we “learn” this nearly a third of the way in, two-by-fours at the ready – but Percy (view spoiler) He's gotten himself to a summer camp for the by-blows of Greek gods. This read a little weird to me, just because all of these (view spoiler) are just hanging out, in their ~~Houses~~ Lodges, a bunch of half-siblings united by parental abandonment. Which, can we talk about this for a minute? I find this all over children's fiction, for all ages, from the kiddie stuff on up to young adult. Children in fiction have at most one parent, and often fewer. Death, depression, abuse, divorce, illness, whatever the reason, kids don't have parents in fiction. I'm way to lazy to google statistics, so I'm just going to guess this is pretty common for kids. However, my own son isn't dealing with split household or a single-or-no-parent household, so why is this attractive to him? Is it just because it's a way of dealing with the serious fear for most children of parental loss – the pall of the new concept of death – the danger of mortality in all its forms? Or is it just that it's nice to imagine the dad who never once gave a solitary visible crap about his kid(s) was ridiculously powerful and had a super good reason for how bad a dad he was?

I've talked about this before, so I shouldn't get into wheel-spinning or repetition. I thought Percy dealt with this whole crisis of masculinity/parenting/whatever pretty well, as far as that goes. I'm ignoring most of the stuff that happened with the step-dad, because that hurt me a little, but I liked how Percy – spoiler a little – chose to return and live with his mother in the real world, even though you know he'll have to return to fantastic in later outings. I think one of the very serious failures of Harry Potter as a whole is that is that it takes the whole Jung/Campbell hero quest – the one where the hero goes into the otherworld, learns some valuable lessons about life and the world and everything, and then returns to real life with that knowledge – is that Harry never returns to real life. Sure, he goes to the Dursley's every summer under magical duress, but real life is muggle boring, and the magical world obviously better. I find that...disquieting, in the end. It's not that I want to be a dream-crusher, but it might be cooler to learn how to live in the real world through the fantastic, instead of making that escape permanent for ever and ever amen. The demigod summer camp in Percy's world is understood to be both safe and static – as Percy says, real world is where the monsters are – and that he chooses the real monsters over the fantastic illusory safety is really something.

And just because I suspect I have a fight on my hands ragging on Potter a little, I'll just say I see how it's all so bad and so serious in the Potterverse at the very end there, how everyone is going to die and have their souls sucked through their noses and everything, but, c'mon. This isn't real danger. This isn't the danger presented by the Dursleys, whose racism, classism, cruelty and all around sh!tty parenting is a much greater danger for vulnerable kids in this world we inhabit. Harry ages out of the foster system with a whole bunch of magical friends to protect him, but he's in the serious minority. That he never comes back...well, he never comes back. Percy does. As I said before, I think the Potterverse is more interesting, just as a world, more thought out and, well, cooler. But I kinda get why Percy is more interesting to the boy, at the moment, even though semi-objectively, the Potter stories are better novels. I know how to read a novel at my advanced age, but my boy doesn't, and this gives him a lesson in the form. That's great. I'm glad Percy is teaching him the ropes.

(less)

51 likes · like · see review

Jan 18, 2013 Namratha Kumar rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: childrens-fantasy, books-i-love-gollum-style, ya-lit, urban-fantasy, mythology, mystery, adventure

HALF-BOY, HALF-GOD, ALL HERO!!....the Tagline says it all. Percy Jackson is your quintessential pre-teen, dyslexic and suffering from ADHD. Getting into unexplainable scraps and shuffled from school to school, he pretty much accepts the fact that he’s destined to be......well, one big Loser.

Little does he know that he’s a ‘Half-Blood’, an off spring of a powerful Greek God and a mortal woman. And there is a special place for him, “Camp Half-Blood” which houses and protects other such demigods, n...more

29 likes · like · see review

Apr 23, 2010 Valerie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Valerie by: Gerson

Shelves: male-protagonist, fantasy, books-i-own

I wanted to read this before I watched the movie and since I usually don't watch the new movies right away it wasn't a problem to wait for it to come from the library and read it through. I heard most people don't like the movie if they've already read the book, but I try to read the book first if I can.

Quick overview:Percy the main character of this story. He has been in and out of trouble all his 12 years of life, and he can't understand why. He finds out the truth and then is sent out on a q...more

15 likes · like · see review

Sep 03, 2009 Mark rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: middle-grade, fantasy

My sister recommended this series and I was pretty interested in it once I heard a basic summary of the plot. I must say, I was thoroughly disappointed.

The concept in itself is very creative. Son of a Greek god in modern times. He is dyslexic because he is meant to read ancient greek. That's clever. The translation of Greek gods to 21st, some were pretty well done, except for a few details here and there (a greek god would sick robot spiders against his enemies? Really?) The concept had promise....more

202 likes · like · see review

Nov 07, 2012 Jonathan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-challenge, personal-favourites, want, favourite-series, fantasy, children-s-literature, popularity-contest, fantasy-sci-fi-challenge, re-read, books-with-films

Okay I've deleted the place-marker review ladies and gentlemen: here for your entertainment is my new and improved review. Now with added humor - well I think so anyway.

Many people may look at my rating (before reading my review I presume) and question why I gave this five stars. 'Why would he give Percy Jackson five and deny literary masterpieces five stars. Why give this the same score as Lord of the Rings for instance? Well all I can say is that this is where the deceptive element of differen...more
Okay I've deleted the place-marker review ladies and gentlemen: here for your entertainment is my new and improved review. Now with added humor - well I think so anyway.

Many people may look at my rating (before reading my review I presume) and question why I gave this five stars. 'Why would he give Percy Jackson five and deny literary masterpieces five stars. Why give this the same score as Lord of the Rings for instance? Well all I can say is that this is where the deceptive element of differences between books and five star rating systems enters into everything. When you rate anything and the rating system is limited in scope the ability to truly compare books on rating decreases. As I've said before I therefore tend to give stars based on entertainment, technicality and then throw elements of my rating out the window depending on the genre. However that is my 'boring' explanation, please read on for my more interesting explanation of why I like this book so much.

I've heard there's a phrase that's been circulating the written world of late. Something to do with the inner-goddess. You could say my inner-child liked this book so much or even better my inner-demigod. The fun of being eighteen is that you can still choose between the world of adolescence and adults. That way when I want to be flippant, sarcastic and immature in various ways I can consider myself a child and when I want to drive or watch action films I'm definitely an adult. So when I want to read a book like this that's aimed at children it's not too hard to read it from the point of view of a younger child (say a 12 year old).

I do however think that there are elements about this book and the series that adults in general would like. Even if they aren't in touch with that inner-demigod so much. But to take a more serious note I think that anyone would recognise the creativity in these books and find them at least 'alright' even if they don't like them as I do. The story of one boy discovering he has supernatural abilities due to his parentage when broken down may not sound unique and original (I mean Star Wars and many fantasy books have done that story before). However the uniqueness of this book comes from the way it tells the story: the incorporation of myth into a 'real world' style America; the telling of how Percy discovers his parentage; the narration by Percy himself; the new additions to the old myths; and the characters of this story.

I'd recommend anyone who is still young at heart, has children or is still around the YA target age to give this a go. I think that anyone else interested in mythology may find it interesting also (even if there may be a few flaws in the myths - it felt like it at times but I was not sure). The main flaw (and yes there is a flaw as any book written by a human must have) of this book is in the simplicity of the telling, it is not for all intents and purposes a deep, intellectual novel. It is however highly creative, imaginative, inspiring and general wholesome fun. So unless you're beyond any of those positive aspects then at least give the book a chance and read it.(less)

21 likes · like · see review

Mar 11, 2012 Mike (the Paladin) rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ya-fantasy

This was a pretty good book...but it should have been a very good book. I want to go slow here, I know this is a much enjoyed novel and it's very popular right now. I also want to take criticizing a writer's work seriously, I mean it's easy to be a critic, so the criticism I give here is "subjective", it's from my point of view and it's my impression. I do plan to pick up the next book. I did find parts of the book very entertaining. I realize it's a YA book and not geared to adults... now for t...more This was a pretty good book...but it should have been a very good book. I want to go slow here, I know this is a much enjoyed novel and it's very popular right now. I also want to take criticizing a writer's work seriously, I mean it's easy to be a critic, so the criticism I give here is "subjective", it's from my point of view and it's my impression. I do plan to pick up the next book. I did find parts of the book very entertaining. I realize it's a YA book and not geared to adults... now for the but; but, I think the author may underestimate the thinking ability of his audience.

As I said, a pretty good book, my first negative impression however showed up early on, and to discus it I will have to use at least a minor spoiler...so, my rating on the book is 3 stars, I intend to follow up with the next book. I enjoyed it mostly...did not hate or love it. Beyond this point there are a couple of spoilers so stop here if you haven't read the book and don't want to see the spoilers.

(view spoiler)

So, bottom line? Same as above. While I have some problems with the book, I neither hate nor love it and I plan to follow up the series and see how it goes. I recommend that if you have kids who will be reading the series you read along and be able to...guide. 3 stars. (less)

15 likes · like · see review

Nov 22, 2010 karen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: and-so-this-is-grad-school

this is a perfect book for young teenagers. if you were trying to devise a formula for writing a perfect book for this age group, you could not have done much better than this.

1) mysterious parentage. kids are totally self-absorbed. some never grow out of it, of course, but in younger people, it is more excusable - their internal life makes up the majority of their experience, they are used to being the center of attention and they spend a lot of time thinking about themselves and fantasizing. s...more this is a perfect book for young teenagers. if you were trying to devise a formula for writing a perfect book for this age group, you could not have done much better than this.

1) mysterious parentage. kids are totally self-absorbed. some never grow out of it, of course, but in younger people, it is more excusable - their internal life makes up the majority of their experience, they are used to being the center of attention and they spend a lot of time thinking about themselves and fantasizing. so having romantic, mysterious origins is the best thing ever - "maybe i am the son/daughter of a god/goddess/russian count, etc..." i still wonder about that, even though it is clear where i came from.

2) this book has excellent gender equality, so it appeals to both younger girls and boys. goddesses are just as cool as gods, and their children are equally badass. this is rarely the case in teen adventure lit. (see naruto)

3) this makes history class relevant.(or wherever it is that kids learn about those wacky greeks) personifying the gods and goddesses makes them more recognizable and immediate for kids; bringing old litterature aliiiive and all that. and they will definitely learn not to mix up chiron and charon.

4) but it is also wonderfully subversive. it is all about polytheism and it makes the point that what we consider mythology today used to be a very real belief system for tons of people. any bright kid is going to make the logical leap to thinking about contemporary religion and how one day, it may well fall under mythology for students of the future, and how any current religious disagreements will be just like poseidon and athena's quarrels. because of this, i am surprised that this series has not been more frequently challenged/banned. oh, i know why, because the people most likely to challenge shit are not themselves capable of making that logical leap; they operate solely on knee-jerk see-a-bad-word reactions.

but this book is great - it has fantastic pacing, the characters are incredibly appealing, i like the premise, and i really really like that it is five books only. i will definitely read the rest of these puppies when i get around to it. (less)

65 likes · like · see review

Nov 23, 2009 Tyas rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

Being a lover of Greek mythology, I approached Percy Jackson with interest. Will this series satisfy, or will it mess every thing I know there is about the Olympians and such and such?

Well, if you're not American, some things at the beginning may make your guts churn in protest. Wow, wow, whoa. The Greek gods are now in the USA because it's the centre of Western civilization now? It seems a bit silly I laughed, but my laughter stopped dead when I thought that, Well, if I were the author and I wa...more Being a lover of Greek mythology, I approached Percy Jackson with interest. Will this series satisfy, or will it mess every thing I know there is about the Olympians and such and such?

Well, if you're not American, some things at the beginning may make your guts churn in protest. Wow, wow, whoa. The Greek gods are now in the USA because it's the centre of Western civilization now? It seems a bit silly I laughed, but my laughter stopped dead when I thought that, Well, if I were the author and I wanted to make the Greek gods to live in Indonesia right now, I would find a way to justify my story. And anyway, later a character will state that the Western civilization is deteriorating the world, so no more discussion on that from me for now. I need to read the other books to see whether Riordan really has something to say about this 'Western civilization' thing or it's just a way to explain the settings.

And you may protest of why the death of character may sound video-gamic. Blasting into dusts and disappearing? Perhaps you hope for corpses lying all around? But there's an explanation sufficient enough for all that, so again, hold your horses.

In my opinion, although I have read only one Percy Jackson book and er, some-I-forgot-how-many books of Artemis Fowl, I already begin to think that this series is more interesting than Fowl. I can't stop thinking about this because of the frequent comparisons between the two. (Well, we can't always have Harry Potter as a standard.) Percy Jackson is fast-paced, and because we see the world through Percy's eyes, the narration feels fluid and lively. That, and because Percy itself is an interesting character: dyslexic, suffering from ADHD, cynical, inevitably funny. (Yes, there's an explanation also for the godlings' dyslexia and ADHD.)

Another thing I like from the book is how the godlings - well, at least Percy and Annabeth at the moment - try to shake free of the inherited hate between their parents. Just because their father and mother are not in good terms, it doesn't mean that their children may not become good friends.

If there's anything that may ruin your fun in reading, it's how predictable some things turn out. But all in all, I recommend this book for lovers of fantasy and mythology. And now I have high expectations toward the next books.(less)

15 likes · like · see review

Apr 07, 2013 StoryTellerShannon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: my-very-best-reads, fantasy-scifi, young-adult-fiction, owned, books-reviewed, action

If you like Harry Potter, you will probably like this book, too. Come to think of it, if you do not like HP, you may still like this book. Recommended reading ages are grades 5-9 but if you're younger and like to read this book may very well be fine . . . and, this book is actually written well enough for adults to enjoy as well.

Tale focuses on a 12 year old boy named Percy who isn't getting along with just about everyone in school and soon discovers part of his problems are related to the fact...more

11 likes · like · see review

Aug 17, 2011 jzhunagev rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Fans of Mythology Re-tellings

Recommended to jzhunagev by: Ace Jose, The Filipino Group

Shelves: adventure, award-winning-best-seller, fantasy, fiction-contemporary, from-book-to-film, young-adult, 2011-reads, childrens-or-middle-grade-books, comedy

A Lightning Read
(A Book Review of Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief)

The Lightning Thief is the first book in The Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan for young, middle grade readers. I first heard of the book during the time when the movie based on it was released, however, I wasn’t too keen to read it then learning to approach with caution everything that comes surrounded with media hype. Watching its awful film adaptation further made me steer clear from the book’s path — th...more

14 likes · like · see review

Feb 17, 2010 Roos rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, fantasiana

PERCY…PERCY…ADUHAI

Buku Pertama Petualangan Percy Jackson ini memang ADUHAI, kenapa aduhai? Karena pas bagian itu aku terdiam, berpikir: ini maksudnya apa yah? Setelah sadar tertawa terbahak-bahak….hahahaha. Gak nyangka akan ada kata ADUHAI disini. Jadi ingat sesi curhat di Radal ada seorang Kero menceritakan mengenai seorang staff Korea yang katanya MENAWAN…hahahaha. Duh jadi penasaran dalam English versionnya bilang apa ya, anak kecil yang umurnya tidak nambah-nambah di salah satu Hotel menyesa...more

8 likes · like · see review

Oct 25, 2008 Kathryn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Kathryn by: Annie & Tyler

Shelves: childrens-picture-books, fantasy-sci-fi

I enjoyed this book, though it took me rather too long to read it so I suppose I wasn't completely enamored. Still, I thought it a very clever and interesting premise--and it was fun to brush up on my mythology! I'm not sure why some people think it's Harry-Potter-esque; it's definitely more mythology-based than "magic" and even though there's a camp/summer school for the half-bloods, it's about Percy's QUEST more than anything else. So, kudos for not trying to be HP. I didn't love the writing s...more

16 likes · like · see review

Dec 24, 2011 Ela rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: my-favorites, favourite-heroes, movie-tie-in, fangirling-over

I'm slightly ashamed to say that I watched the movie before I read the book. But I'm even more ashamed that I watched the movie only to experience the hotness that is Logan Lerman.

But, come on! Someone tell me that this , is not hot:

Really. What did I tell you? (I do imagine that you probably won't read the rest of the review anf just stare at this gif instead, but that's no reason not to like my review! :D)

But, I really have to thank Logan. I really do. Because without his unfreakingbelieveabl...more

75 likes · like · see review

Oct 30, 2010 Scribble Orca rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: kids who like light, fast fantasy

Shelves: fantasy, fun, kids-under-12, teens-above-12

I read the e-version and it had some glaring typo and grammar mistakes....but that isn't enough to put me off a book if it's fast paced and contains a balanced mix of realism and fantasy, and a refreshing lack of vampires, zombies and other blood-thirsty examples of the nether world.

Rick Riordan certainly scores with weaving Greek mythology into the present-day US, and as a means of introducing Greek gods to reluctant students, this is as good a means as any.

What I didn't like was the ADHD aspec...more I read the e-version and it had some glaring typo and grammar mistakes....but that isn't enough to put me off a book if it's fast paced and contains a balanced mix of realism and fantasy, and a refreshing lack of vampires, zombies and other blood-thirsty examples of the nether world.

Rick Riordan certainly scores with weaving Greek mythology into the present-day US, and as a means of introducing Greek gods to reluctant students, this is as good a means as any.

What I didn't like was the ADHD aspect to Percy's personality - the symptoms described didn't seem to match personal experiences of the condition and there was a tick-box mentality towards cataloguing the known or possibly attributable characteristics of ADHD from which Percy suffers. The flip-side to that is that Percy's ADHD 'weaknesses' are turned into positives in Riordan's take on the making of a god, and given all the uncomfortable press ADHD receives, this has to be a plus for any kid who has been labelled ADHD/Asperge's Syndrome/Autism Spectrum.

For an average 12 year old suffering with ADHD, Percy comes across as being far more perceptive than is possible, able to vanquish his foes without any basis other than being hyperactive and therefore possessing super-fast reflexes. Annabeth seems much older and is set up from their first meeting as a love interest, regardless of her crush on the older, more accomplished Luke. Luke is nicely foreshadowed at the beginning of the book, but Mr D is a little tedious by the end. The description of the Furies is a nice twist, as is the modernisation of Olympus and the reasoning behind its present location.

It's an easy, fast read for the age group at which it's aimed, and despite being an HP copycat, Percy Jackson brings a slew of different characters and adventures to fill some of the breach left with the vanquishing of Voldy. It won't provide the same emotional intensity as HP, but it's a fun-filled way to catch up on some ancient Greek in an American setting.(less)

9 likes · like · see review

Aug 17, 2011 Joyzi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Fans of Harry Potter

Recommended to Joyzi by: Youtube

Shelves: children-s, e-book, fantasy, fiction, watched-it, books-to-movies, reviewed, book-series, author-american, mythology, humor, 100-books-tfg

I first watched the movie version of this book that I really enjoyed and so I became interested to read the book.

So I just want to say that I rate it four stars because the story is about Greek mythology in the modern world, which is good because I loved mythology ever since.

I love the characters in the story especially Percy Jackson who in the story have dyslexia and ADHD, so in the story at first, he was not very good at school and he viewed himself as a loser because of that.

It really tou...more

19 likes · like · see review

Aug 31, 2009 Rose rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, ya, greek

One of my favorite teens has been nagging me for _years_ to read this book, but, despite my long-standing fascinating with Greek mythology, I just couldn't be bothered. Then one Thursday afternoon at a library program, while I was sneaking looks at "The Last Olympian" (the fifth and final book in the Percy Jackson series), which she had on top of her stack of books (it just looked really _cool_), she finally ran upstairs to the teen section and came back to hand me "The Lightning Thief."

It's act...more

10 likes · like · see review

Jun 12, 2009 Becky rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, young-adult, 2009, mythology, reviewed

I loved this book. I really love mythology and ancient Greece and stories about heroes and gods and mythical beings. I loved A Midsummer Night's Dream for its links to mythology and fairies, etc. I love the Playstation game God of War because of the mythology. (Although loving mythology is not the only reason to play this series of games. If you haven't played it or GOW2, go rent them. Now. Shoo! Then report back to me on how destressed but addicted you are and how AWESOME the game is! I'll wait...more I loved this book. I really love mythology and ancient Greece and stories about heroes and gods and mythical beings. I loved A Midsummer Night's Dream for its links to mythology and fairies, etc. I love the Playstation game God of War because of the mythology. (Although loving mythology is not the only reason to play this series of games. If you haven't played it or GOW2, go rent them. Now. Shoo! Then report back to me on how destressed but addicted you are and how AWESOME the game is! I'll wait. There, wasn't that fun? Anyway, sorry... back to the review now.)

Anyway. I love mythology, although I wouldn't call myself a "scholar" or anything. I tend to lean toward the more entertaining aspects of the subject rather than the dry dates and facts and figures. Which is one of the major reasons I loved this book. Riordan took ancient mythology and modernized it and made it fun and cool. And even educational, in a "What?! Ares rides a Harley?? WICKED! I wanna know more about that dude!" kind of way.

It seems that everyone who has read this book says it's great, but then makes sure to say that it is for "younger readers". I don't get what this is supposed to mean. Yes, the target audience is probably 10-12 year olds, but so were the first couple Harry Potter books. That's the great thing about young adult books, they are fun for all ages. These books, and I'm going to claim this for the entire series, even though I have only just started it, have quite a lot of adult references. I mean, if you think about it, here you have an entire series of books with an illegitimate demigod bastard as a main character. This main character then finds himself in a camp solely in existence for other bastard children of the gods. And how did these kids come into being? Why, Mama goddess or papa god was bored and decided to have a little afternoon delight with a mortal, and then they run back off to Olympus, abandoning the mortal and the baby resulting from the one-night of unwrapped lovin'. (But I guess if you're a god, piddly little diseases like herpes don't worry you at all!) And if that's not an adult theme, I don't know what is.

But that's not to say I didn't like the book. I did. I loved it, I couldn't put it down. I wanted to know more about Percy and Grover (who I'm fairly certain is NOT gone for good) and Annabeth and Luke and Poseidon and everyone else. I can't wait to start the next book and see where we go. And if that makes me a 10 year old again, well, then so be it. Last one to finish the series is a rotten egg! ;)(less)

15 likes · like · see review

Oct 14, 2008 JG (The Introverted Reader) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to JG (The Introverted Reader) by: Emily

Shelves: childrens, fantasy, fiction, read_in_2008, mythology, reviewed, just_plain_fun, on_the_screen, 5_stars

Percy Jackson tries to be good, but circumstances just don't allow him to be. Trouble always seems to find him. Let's not talk about what happens to his math teacher his sixth grade year... At the end of sixth grade, Percy and his mom take off for a trip to the beach. Late in the night, it sounds like a hurricane blows up and they're running for their lives. Percy winds up at Half-Blood Hill, a summer camp for the children of...Greek gods? An evil plot is afoot and Percy needs to clear his name...more

7 likes · like · see review

Jun 15, 2008 Ann rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Fans of youth fantasy or mythology

Recommended to Ann by: Several people

Shelves: actionadventure, fantasy, young-adult, mythology

Several aspects of this book can be found, to a certain extent, in other stories. Percy learns that a world he thought was only from ancient mythological tales is indeed very much real and present, and that he is part of those "mythologies" now. He's got to learn about a new world and his place in it. He must face the fact that he's got to help save the world. And he gains a few friends to help him along the way.
That said, a good deal of the concepts are pretty standard for many tales, and are p...more

13 likes · like · see review

Mar 31, 2009 Lisa Vegan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: 8-12 year olds & all the way up to adults, especially for kids with dyslexia & ADHD

Shelves: fiction, gr-groups-buddies, orphaned-and-quasi-orphaned-kids, reviewed, childrens, novel, speculative-fiction, school-stories, young-adult

I really loved this book. I think it’s geared for 8-12 year olds but this is one of those books that the more you know about the world the more you like it. The premise is wonderful and very creative. The characters, especially the hero Percy, are very likeable. There’s so much humor, popping up at places where I least expected it and I absolutely enjoyed all of it.

The story was predictable and one of the main surprises/mysteries wasn’t one for me, but it didn’t really matter. In fact, it was fu...more

23 likes · like · see review

Oct 15, 2009 Jim rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, kids

3.5 rating for an adult, but 4 stars for mid teens down to 10 years old. The heroes are about 12, so it would really capture that age group's imagination, I think.

Set in modern day US, but the Greek Gods are alive & well. Percy & his friends are dyslexic, ADHD & generally don't fit into our world or school well. They find out why & embark on a quest. There are some twists & turns along the way, with clues, so an astute reader will have some foreknowledge, but it's a very well...more

13 likes · like · see review

Jan 26, 2008 Donalyn rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone

Recommended to Donalyn by: Kim Gardner- SKI librarian

Shelves: children-s-fantasy

This series has it all- cool, realistic characters, action sequences that thrill, references to modern culture (love the St. Louis Arch, and Las Vegas visits), and Greek mythology. I cannot recommend this series to enough readers. You're not cool if you do not know about Percy and Co.

Having met Rick Riordan twice- I can say that he is awesome, too.

Counting down to May when Book Four comes out...

18 likes · like · see review

Oct 03, 2011 Dante rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, imaginative-lit, prose, novel, young-adult, fantasy

Finished this last night. I think this is my first Young Adult fiction, and I'm thankful to the Filipinos Book Group here in GoodReads for selecting this book. This is the group's choice for the third quarter of this year.

I liked the story. It's entertaining.

The plot, basically (Spoiler alert!)

The main character is Percy Jackson. He's a twelve-year-old kid who lives with his mom and stepfather in New York. He has dyslexia and ADHD, and he transfers from one school to another because he often get...more

5 likes · like · see review

Sep 13, 2011 Lissa rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

A mostly interesting road trip across America and back as Percy is framed before anyone even realises he exists...

Yeah I suppose it was OK. It's not really my thing. I found it in our living room and was really drawn into the first few pages. But mostly I can't bring myself to admire people who build off someone else's mythology and take advantage of all that folk lore. Build your own mythology, damn it.

I suppose the idea was interesting enough, and I didn't find any major plot holes. I was OK w...more A mostly interesting road trip across America and back as Percy is framed before anyone even realises he exists...

Yeah I suppose it was OK. It's not really my thing. I found it in our living room and was really drawn into the first few pages. But mostly I can't bring myself to admire people who build off someone else's mythology and take advantage of all that folk lore. Build your own mythology, damn it.

I suppose the idea was interesting enough, and I didn't find any major plot holes. I was OK with the monsters coming back after they're been killed so the modern-day heroes could complete quests their ancestors did. I was OK with the idea of the Greek gods relocating themselves to America because it's apparently the 'hub' of Western civilisation. I was OK with the gods being literal and actually giving a crap about rich white kids in America when they could have pulled a Christian God and gone all fucking up Rwanda and systematically murdering African babies. I was even OK with the idea of Ares being some big bad biker badass even though that's SO unoriginal. Bikers are lovely people.

Well, except for Percy trying to tell me that Persephone really DOES affect the seasons and when it's summertime she's above ground and when it's winter she's in the Underworld... yeah, I'd buy that, except that I'm not American and I know the world doesn't revolve around America and I know that when it's summertime in America, it's winter in Australia. So explain that, punk!

That's probably the biggest thing to piss me off and if it wasn't casually written in so close to the end, if it was closer to the beginning of the book, I would have thrown it at the wall.

I hated the movie the first time I saw it. Most predictable piece of crap I've ever seen. I hoped the book would be better. I wasn't really convinced, although I do really like how Riordan wrote in dyslexia and ADHD as having some kind of benefit to half-bloods. It's about time I found a good evolutionary excuse for those learning disabilities, even if it is totally fictional. It's about time someone addressed 'troubled' students in a book like this and made them feel not like complete losers for sucking at school work. It's not their fault. They're secretly the offspring of Greek gods.

I'd happily read this to my children, but I think I'm far too old and cynical to be included in the target audience.(less)

6 likes · like · see review

Feb 01, 2011 Malbadeen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: childrens-young-adult

The fact that I like this book at all defies logic. The fact that I kind of loved it is down right mystifying. I gave the Harry Potter books my best effort but couldn't get into them. I generally don't like Fantasy and I'm not a pre-pubescent boy, so why this one clicked, I'll never know.

My son had been wanting me to read it for months and I kept putting it off assuming it would be a chore and that I would politely tell him it was "good" regardless of what I thought. But once I finally did start...more

5 likes · like · see review

Jan 13, 2013 PurplyCookie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to PurplyCookie by: Stephen

Shelves: book-series, childrens-books, fantasy, mythic-fiction, 1st-in-a-series, mythology

At the outset of this fast-paced tale by Riordan it would seem that Percy Jackson is just another New York kid diagnosed with ADHD, who has good intentions, a nasty stepfather, and a long line of schools that have rejected him. The revelation of his status as half-blood offspring of one of the Greek gods is nicely packaged, and it's easy to believe that Mount Olympus, in modern times, has migrated to the 600th floor of the Empire State Building (the center of Western civilization) while the door...more

4 likes · like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Who's Ready for the Norse Mythology Series in 2015?	10	62	28 minutes ago
Harry Potter vs . Percy Jackson	92	230	1 hour, 35 min ago
Hunger Games Vs. Percy Jackson Series	47	113	2 hours, 18 min ago
Word game starting with Percy!	98	120	May 20, 2013 09:19am
Camp Half Blood: Stables	119	13	May 20, 2013 07:32am
YA Buddy Readers'...: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan ---> Start Date: May 22, 2013	2	5	May 19, 2013 05:31pm

combine
Other Editions (102)

More editions...

Genres

Fantasy

7,302 users

Young Adult

3,914 users

Fantasy > Mythology

1,650 users

Adventure

960 users

Childrens

620 users

Mythology > Greek Mythology

323 users

Fantasy > Urban Fantasy

305 users

Childrens > Middle Grade

295 users

Young Adult > Teen

266 users

Fantasy > Magic

251 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Rick Riordan

Born: June 5, 1964

Place of Birth: San Antonio, TX

Education: Attended Alamo Heights High School in San Antonio. Worked as an editor for the school newspaper and won third place in state for UIL feature writing. Also got in trouble for publishing an underground newspaper that made fun of the school, especially the losing football team. (The football team later egged my car). Began college at North T...more

More about Rick Riordan...

Books by Rick Riordan

The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #4)

The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #5)

The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #2)

The Titan's Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #3)

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About The Lightning Thief

222 trivia questions
141 quizzes

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from The Lightning Thief

“If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself.” — 3,074 people liked it

“Deadlines just aren't real to me until I'm staring one in the face.” — 2,465 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: The Lightning Thief
avg rating	preview: The Lightning Thief Goodreads rating: 4.14 (414584 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6676603-the-lightning-thief?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1360566089l/6676603.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6676603-the-lightning-thief?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan[/url]

The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #1)

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website