Mark Lawrence's Reviews > The Lightning Thief

I've read all (I think) of this series to my daughter, Celyn, but somehow this one escaped being reviewed until now.

I half-watched the film a year or two before we read this. Actually it was Rick reading (and being kind enough to review) my own trilogy that steered me toward picking up these books for Celyn (she's very disabled and can't read books for herself).

Anyway, it was a very good read. Celyn enjoyed the action and humour, and I enjoyed seeing the Greek legends I loved reading about as a kid given a new lease of life, offered up to the most recent generation.

It starts off with that irresistible device beloved of fantasy books that you (vicariously the hero) were meant for more than this regular old world and that all those odd things you don't understand about everyday life ... really are odd and full of special meaning. In fact ... your dad's a god, and not just any old god but Poseidon himself. And that means you're part god yourself! Hoorah!

So Percy gets inducted into hero school, makes friends with good monsters, fights and kills bad ones, and dives into adventure.

The hero school (Camp Halfblood) has demi-gods descended from all the Greek mythos, which makes for fun conflicts. Meanwhile in the wider world there are rumblings that the titans (from whom the gods wrested control of the world at the dawn of time) are about to stage a comeback. Zeus has lost his lightning bolt and the thief must be found before the gods fall to blows and Olympus topples.

The genius is in the mix of modern day America with all its kitsch, landmarks, cities etc with mythical Greece. It shouldn't really work, but does. And to cap it all, your kid is getting a classical education on the sly!


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