School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-9-At the outset of this fast-paced tale by Rick Riordan (Hyperion/Miramax, 2005), 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 to Hades can be found at DOA Recording Studio, somewhere in LA. With his new friends, a disguised satyr, and the half-blood daughter of Athena, Percy sets out across the country to rectify a feud between Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon. Along the way they must cope with the Furies, Medusa, motorcycle thug Aires, and various other immortals. Although some of Jesse Bernstein's accents fail (the monster from Georgia, for instance, has no Southern trace in her voice), he does a fine job of keeping the main characters' tones and accents distinguishable. He convincingly portrays Percy, voicing just the right amount of prepubescent confusion, ironic wit, and the ebbing and waning of concern for himself and those around him. Mythology fans will love this take and kids who haven't been inculcated with the Classical canon will learn aspects of it here while having no trouble following a rollicking good-and modern-adventure.-Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Guardian Review
Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan 384pp, Puffin, pounds 12.99 Perseus is alive and kicking and living in Manhattan. He goes by the name of Percy Jackson, he's 12 years old and has been shunted from one special school to another. He suffers from attention- deficit disorder and severe dyslexia. Does this sound like the stuff of Greek legend? Rick Riordan's book Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief unleashes the extraordinary lurking beyond the mundane. Percy prefaces his tale with a warning to all "half-bloods" like him who might be reading the book: "Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways." The story begins with Percy believing that he has an over- vivid imagination. Surely this is why he sees his maths teacher turn into a beast with claws, bat wings and fangs, and then attack him. A pen thrown to him by his Latin teacher turns into a sword, and he swipes the thing into nothingness. Then he goes home for summer vacation and heads to Long Island with his mum. When his best friend from school, Grover, shows up with shaggy hindquarters and hooves, urging them to flee from a man with a bull's head who manages to evaporate his mother, Percy can no longer sustain the illusion that he is even remotely normal. He and Grover take sanctuary in a summer camp at Half Blood Hill. This is a training ground for those who are half mortal and half god, for a half-blood has one divine parent. The identity of Percy's absent father is soon revealed to be Poseidon, brother of Zeus and Hades. A war is brewing between these three brothers. Someone has stolen Zeus's thunderbolt and he is blaming Poseidon, who in turn suspects Hades of the crime. If Percy can succeed in crossing the US to the entrance to the Underworld and retrieve the missing thunderbolt to return to Zeus before the summer solstice in just over a week's time, then a major breakout of hostilities encompassing the entire globe will be averted. Accompanied by his satyr friend, Grover, and Annabeth, a half- blood daughter of Athene, goddess of wisdom, Percy fights and journeys his way across modern America, where the challenges include his mythological namesake's original quarry, the gorgon Medusa, with her petrifying gaze and hair of snakes. He makes an enemy of the war god Ares, a leather-bound biker with shades and fire in his eyes, and discovers that a more ancient and darker force, defeated by Zeus before the onset of the Golden Age, is stirring up trouble and attempting to make an appalling return to dominance. This is a fast-paced, entertaining read with lots of imaginative moments and a quirky take on classical Greek mythology. Even if you don't know what a fury or a chimera is, you get the idea when you meet them. Riordan gleefully interprets ancient myth in the modern idiom and this makes for great fun for the reader, even if there are glaring inconsistencies. The original Perseus, for example, was not the son of Poseidon but of Zeus. It is also hard not to be reminded of the Harry Potter books. There is an ever-present whiff of a formula being applied and of marketing at play throughout the genuinely lively storytelling. Also there are grand statements about the second world war really being an epic battle between Poseidon and Zeus and a reference to Hades' resemblance to "pictures I'd seen of Adolf Hitler, or Napoleon, or the terrorist leaders who direct suicide bombers". These weighty contemporary and historical references sit uneasily in what is in effect a light-hearted jape. There is an intended irony in the joke that the entrance to the Underworld is in a Los Angeles recording studio. The unintended irony is that this racy adventure story really does give Greek mythology the Hollywood treatment. Diane Samuels is Pearson Creative Research Fellow at the British Library, researching magic. To order Percy Jackson and the Olympians for pounds 11.99 with free UK p&p call Guardian book service on 0870 836 0875 or go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop Caption: article-percy.1 He and Grover take sanctuary in a summer camp at Half Blood Hill. This is a training ground for those who are half mortal and half god, for a half-blood has one divine parent. The identity of Percy's absent father is soon revealed to be Poseidon, brother of Zeus and Hades. A war is brewing between these three brothers. Someone has stolen Zeus's thunderbolt and he is blaming Poseidon, who in turn suspects Hades of the crime. If [Percy Jackson] can succeed in crossing the US to the entrance to the Underworld and retrieve the missing thunderbolt to return to Zeus before the summer solstice in just over a week's time, then a major breakout of hostilities encompassing the entire globe will be averted. - Diane Samuels.